gui
4/25/2008, rio de janeiro, Brazil
nice pics! congratulations!
craig
2/8/2008, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Having travelled to many places in eastern europe I can say Bratislava has got be the best. Even though there were a large group of same sex individuals we recieved a very friendly welcome where ever we visited. Speaking a little of the language is a great tip, even if it's only ordering 10 beers or saying please and thank you (a great british tradition)! on the other hand Riga and Budapest are the most tourist unfriendly places i've been. When I visited Budapest i was with my partner so i'd hate to think what they would make of a lads party!
Rachel
6/6/2007, Maroochydore, Australia
Hello Peter, I'm impressed with you wanting to inform people of the beauty of your country, people say some pretty weird things about Australia at times also. Anyway I will be sure to visit your home country when I head over to Germany at the end of 2008 for my second university exchange. Best wishes for the future.
Gemandyoz
6/1/2007, Townsville, Australia
Hi Peter Thanks for the message. Hope you are still happy in the UK. We will be there ourselves in six weeks can't wait!
Nicolle Gameiro
5/29/2007, Bangkok, Thailand
Hey peter just wanted to say thanks for the message. And don't worry I know there is much more than malls to see in thailand! I just love everything about this place :) but I have 6 months to go allll over the place starting at koh samet this weekend :) north thailand is definetely on my list of places to go! What was your favorite place when you visited??
Hendersons
5/29/2007, Zalau, Romania
Peter-
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the photos of Jordan. It is indeed a very beautiful country; it has so much more to offer than one might just assume at first. That is to say it has the dessert, but it also has mountains, beachs, and plenty of history. The people are welcoming and generous as well.
To present a balanced view, I need to tell you about (2) concerns when traveling to Jordan. One, public transportation access is difficult unless you speak Arabic. This is not say that it is not feasible, but takes some extra time and planning to know where buses go and at what times. Two, comparitively speaking, it is not a budget travel country. The Jordanian Dinar is a strong currency and prices can be expensive.
I highly recommend that you visit Jordan if you have the chance. It is one of those once in a life time journeys, that you will not regret.
Please let me know if you need any additional information. A great website for information is Ruth's Jordan Jubilee page.
James Lewis
5/19/2007, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Ahoj Peter,
well I've visited Bratislava and I thought it was brilliant. Dakujem pekne moj kamarat!
Matt Deegan
4/15/2007, Makati, Philippines
Hi Pako,
Just thought I'd stop buy and see how you're doing!?! Are you still in the UK or did you manage to make your way to Norway yet!?! I've been to Norway a few times touring in a band I work with, but the accommodation was all arranged by other people so I'm unable to help with that one.
I do know that Molde (north west) is a absolutely beautiful place as we played a jazz festival there a few years ago. It's definitely worth a visit if you manage to get to Norway. The sleepy town of Molde is surrounded by mountains and fjords, and the place gets completely packed when the jazz festival is on each summer. Oslo is an interesting place to look round and is extremely artistic although I don't think too much of the architecture. I do know the beer is expensive as that was my main purchase whilst there!
Hope you find your way,
Matt (Tjtunes)
diasman
11/10/2006, Lisbon, Portugal
Hello pakopeter,
thanks you for your message and also for the effort that you are doing to enlight the people around about the facts in your country. I have to say that i do not know much about it by experience - the only one i had was in 1995 crossing from Prague to Budapest by train and i have to say that it was not a very pleasant experience. But i am sure that in the last 10 years a lot has changed. hope that you can keep up with the good reports.
ps - do you know that if you macth the date of the picture with the date of the story the picture thumbnails will be displayed on the right side of the story?
diasman
Phil Stone
10/30/2006, Brno, Czech Republic
Ahoj Peter...I am originally from the UK but have spent the last 18 months living in Brno in the Czech Republic, so not too far from your homeland :). I visited Bratislava for 4 days at Easter this year and enjoyed my visit, while it's true that there are some run-down parts of the town within minutes walk of the center, Hlavne Namesti, with it's Easter markets and lit up at night was lovely, as was Michalska UL...
While very different from Brno, Bratislava seems to suffer one of the same problems - British stag-do's out for a cheap weekend of drinking, shouting and being rude and obnoxious. I can understand why the locals may react with hostility sometimes... however, I can speak a little Czech and this seemed to make a big difference - sitting in a cafe or restaurace full of rowdy Brits even just saying dobrý den (Hello) or děkuji (thank you) made the waitress much more friendly :). To anyone visiting Slovakia or the Czech Republic, even these few words can make a difference to how people react to you (there is a good Czech language site at locallingo.com, Czech and Slovak are similar enough that you should be understood in either country).
I have not yet had a chance to visit any more of Slovakia, although seeing your photos of other parts of the country is making me think about having another visit and going to the High Tatras and Slovenský Raj... maybe this winter :)
If you would like to see my photos of Bratislava, my traveljournals page is at traveljournals.com/philstone. I think the Slovak picture are around page 8...hopefully I have shown a good side of Bratislava!
Safe travelling... cau!
bolioboy
9/5/2006, wichita, United States
hey, just read your post on my guestbook, sorry if what i wrote about slovakia sounded bad, but there are several things you need to know.
1. after 6 months of travel, i was broke and very tired, i had no energy to go out and explore and i only had 4 days left in europe.
2. i actually had one of my best memories in slovakia, if you read the journal about the slovak pub, i had alot of fun, and was one of the few places in europe where i actually got to talk to and make friends with locals.(its also one of the first stories i tell friends about)
3. i agree about not just going to bratislava and judging a country based on one place, belive me when i say that my next trip after asia is to go back to eastern europe because i find it more interesting than western europe.
4. when i tell people about my trip, the first country i tell people about is italy, then germany, czech republic, then slovakia. after visiting 15 countries, and being the huge art and architecture lover that i am, its amazing that slovakia is number 4 on my list! and thats based on the slovak people i met there!
5. and finally, i really did stay in a crappy hostel, it was full of loud drunk naked british guys who i think are the coachroaches of europe and most other travelers seem to think the same.
6. And finally facts are facts, i am a kansan, i come from the midwest, and where i am from its about people and community, not status and possesions. now on the surface, as a capital city, bratislava was the dirtiest unkempt capital city i visited, and it was obvious the lack of money and economy that exsisted there. Like i said, compared to other capital cities, but, also compared to any other city i can think of that i visited, (except santorini in greece) the people were the best that i met. and as a kansan, that means more to me than anything else. (fyi, london england was the worst place i visited, and that is a beautiful wealthy city, and totally miserable.)
PakoPeter
9/4/2006, Brighton, United Kingdom
You really got me!
:O
The Nomads
9/3/2006, Brewood, United Kingdom
Thanks so much for your message. I have to say I love the way in which you jump to conclusions, you sell the Slovakian people so well, really changed the way we view them, now they are surly and rude. We are not from the USA,and some people have to travel on a budget, other countries seem to accomodate this well. We may have been harsh to Bratislava, but hey this is written for friends and family, if you don't like it tough.
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