TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Friday, July 28, 2006

2:38 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Last of the unraveling. woke up for my massage today, all smooth and unkinked now.

I had a spontaneous evening swim earlier this week in the most gorgeous outdoor pool on the hill at Kovacspatak, where Andrea and Robert have a summer house, and everyone used to go for student camp as teenagers. The water was unusually cool, with only four other people swimming, and the evening light changing over the moutains from oranges to pinks and dusky blue.
Hundreds of tiny spotted frogs jumped off the path as I walked back to the car, being eaten by ferocious mosquitos.

Checked out the first day of Dunafest, which used to be called the beer festival but changed due to a new sponsor, and is on for three days in the square opposite the basilica. Big line-up of well known Hungarian and Slovak bands, everything from blues to heavy metal and ska: I am particularly looking forward to Hollywood Rose, the guns nroses tribute and local boys California who I drank with at the pub over winter. Click on the link to bands on the left of the Dunafest website to hear some of their songs.

Last night was fun, danced to a great Jamaican Ska influenced Slovak band Polemic, who are on high rotation at the green pub jukebox, almost knocking Robbie Williams off the most played spot. Went back later with Kate for more pogo-ing with Ska Hecc, and enjoyed watching the kids go crazy with tango and waltzing mixed in as well.

Re-reading Cold Comfort Farm which brings out the comic aspects of rural life and is strangely apt here, and made a great haul of second hand books for the train trip, a mix of trashy romance and literaure, Ian McEwan Enduring the Love and the Lovely Bones being the hard stuff. More Freya North and Venus Envy for lighter moments. Interspersed with a fine selection of DVDs from Audrey, highlights so far Being Julia, with Annette Bening giving a magnificent performance as an actress of a certain age refusing to go gently into that goodnight, and the fairly average Maid in Manhattan and Two Weeks Notice both still entertaining. ahh Sandra.

Time for lunch at the Hotel today, then wander back to my room for a few hours reading before the concert tonight. Plenty of cultural diversity here, why not invest in the southest part of Slovakia!