The Fox of Zamkovshého Cottage

21 – 24 May 2018

I arrived at the train station in Košice on a rainy Monday night. When I got out of the train I was greeted by Baška, a 20 year-old girl, who offered to host me. She and her parents don’t exactly live in Košice, but in a small village that is around 45 minutes from the city. So we waited under her umbrella for the train that would take us to another village that is close to hers. Once we got there her parents picked us up by car. In the dark we drove to their place and during the trip it slowly stopped raining. When we were just about to enter their village, we suddenly had to stop for two roe deer that were standing on the road just in front of the car. After they stood still for a few seconds in the light of our headlights, they jumped away. This should give you a good indication of just how remote the village is. When we got to their place, we were greeted by a very energetic dog who was waiting for us outside. After I had put my bags in the place that would be my new room for the next couple of days, I got offered a cup of soup and some tea. The family has a lot of homemade products and self grown fruits. They also keep some chickens. Baška told be that they also used to have a pig. I was just jesting when I was saying “What happened, did you eat it?”, after which Baška simply replied “yes, we did”. Err. . . Alright, why not.

The next day it was my birthday! Baška told me the day before that it was probably going to rain today, but we ended up having great weather during the whole day. Maybe it was because of my positive attitude, since I was convinced that it wouldn’t rain on my birthday. This day we would go to Košice, so we went on the bus to get there. After a few stops the bus suddenly got invaded by a large number of gypsies. Baška told me that there is a gypsy camp nearby. She explained that Slovakia has a very large number of gypsy people living in the country. They often live in ruined buildings that make me think of the images I have seen from slums around the world. It’s not that they are treated badly though, quite the contrary; the government gives them money and they build high-rise buildings to accommodate them. But it’s the gypsies themselves who turn these buildings into ruins and it’s like they choose to live in such conditions. Meanwhile, the Slovakian people are fed up with this seemingly “charity giving” of the government, since they are the ones paying for it. I was told that Slovakian government is treating them well, especially during political campaigns. . . Get the point? So you might call that concerning.

Anyway, after we arrived in Košice, I got to meet Baška’s boyfriend Peter. Together they showed me around the city. Košice is rather small, and almost every noteworthy building is located along the main street, that goes right through the center. In the middle of this street you can find the Elizabeth Cathedral, that looks like it’s standing on some sort of green island because the street splits up, goes around the church and then comes back together. In fact, in the early days it actually was an island and the street used to be a river. But later they moved the river to the edge of town, because of the smell (people back then used it for sewerage). But when the city continued to expand, they once again decided to move the river, which is why nowadays you won’t find a river running through the center anymore. Who knows where the river will end up to be in a couple of years… After a brief visit to the cathedral we walked towards the Executioners Bastion, one of the best preserved parts of the old city. This bastion was once part of the city’s fortifications and this is where you can also find the house of the city’s executioner, hence the name of the bastion. We got a ticket for the museum that showed us the prisons and the executioner’s chambers. After this visit we went to see Košice’s gold treasure. A while ago some people had found an ornamented box that contained at least 2000 gold coins and some other golden trinkets. Nowadays all these gold coins are displayed in a heavily protected vault, protected by two thick steel doors that are closed both mechanically and electronically. The vault also has motion sensors. In the past there were some incidents where some rowdy kids bumped into one of the display cases and within no-time policemen armed with shotguns stood before them. I guess that was the last museum those kids dared to visit.

After we bought some delicious hamburgers at the park, Peter drove us to a lookout tower on a hill outside of the city. From there we had a great view over Košice and the whole area. In the distance a train slid through the hilly and green landscape like a snake. Once we got back on the ground, Baška and Peter surprised me with a small gift for my birthday. They had bought me a book about all the sights of Košice. It was really kind of them. They suggested I could flip through the pages to see if I saw anything interesting, so they could take me there. Eventually we ended up going to the zoo. This zoo might be the biggest one in Slovakia, but like Yoda said: “size matters not”. It is basically just a big park, with just some animal enclosures scattered about. We did have a good time though and we made some new animal friends. For some reason the ostrich didn’t seem to like me at all, since he or she (probably a she during her period) was hissing very aggressively at me all the time. When we got back home, Baška’s mother also had a surprise for me: she had made a birthday cake for me! I am so lucky to be hosted by such amazing people.

The next day the three of us went on a trip to the High Tatras, this is large mountain region in northern Slovakia. Peter managed to get a day off from work, so he was able to drive us there. Otherwise we would have needed to take a train there, but that would mean that we had to get up around 5 am. Now we could sleep a few hours more. It took us around two hours to get there. Baška told me (once again) that it would be raining in the mountains today. Unfortunately it’s not my birthday anymore, so it might actually start to rain. Our luck has to run out at some point, right? During the ride we drove through some villages and what I found really interesting, is that some villages have speakers in the streets that play music and also give certain announcements. I had never seen that before.

We arrived in Starý Smokovec, a touristy village at the feet of the Vysoké Tatry mountain range. In the village you can also find a small train that takes you to a higher point, from where a lot of hiking trails start. Unfortunately the train was out-of-order due to some technical problems, which meant that we had to climb up the hill before we start the actual hike. We almost started regretting that we went there, especially when half-way we were passed by a now working train. But once we got to the start of the trail, we were greeted by a lovely view on the mountain range. The tops of the mountains were hidden in the dark clouds that didn’t look exactly promising, but we still decided to start walking. The view was amazing! In the valley we saw a fast running stream with a wooden bridge. After we crossed the bridge we started climbing up the other mountain. Halfway we passed a large waterfall that was probably connected to the stream that we saw earlier. It was quite a climb and at some point we started to feel the first drops of rain. Luckily we were close to a wooden building named Zamkovsheho Cottage. Just before we got there it started to rain heavily, so we were there just in time. We went inside and Baška and Peter ordered some herbal tea, while I got myself a coffee. The cottage was really cosy and situated in the middle of the woods on the mountain. The interior was covered with wood and from the windows we could see it raining in the forest. Once we finished our drinks, it had already stopped raining. Better yet, the mountaintops that were first hidden in the clouds were now unveiled and showed a layer of snow. We started to walk back to the spot where we started. So we descended the mountain to get back into the valley. I was just walking, partially lost in thoughts and admiring the view in the meantime, when an animal just walked around the corner and walked straight past me. My first thought was that it was probably someone’s dog, but then I suddenly realized that it was actually a fox that just walked past me! After I realized that I expected the fox to run away, but instead it just stayed near us. It seemed to be just wandering around and taking an afternoon stroll through the mountains and it didn’t mind us at all. Peter and I grabbed our cameras and started taking a lot of pictures of the fox, who seemed to be posing for us. There was about only one or two meters between us and the fox! After no less than five minutes the fox continued his afternoon stroll and disappeared in the forest. I must say that I was really confused and amazed by this. Why didn’t the fox run away when he saw us? And why did he stay around for that long? I can’t imagine that the fox is that much used to hikers, that he expects you to feed him. Maybe he was just as confused as we were.

After the long hike, we finally got back to the car and we drove back home. Along the way we stopped at a shopping center in Poprad to get something to eat. That night we showed the photos of our encounter with the fox to Baška’s parents. It was rather funny since we went to the beautiful mountains and around 50% of our photos were those of a fox. But it is not something that will likely happen again. That night I packed my bags, since I would have to wake up very early in the morning to continue my trip to the next country: Ukraine! I have no doubt that this will be an interesting experience, and I am excited for what awaits me.