Slow-Walkia

Slovakia, one of Jen's homelands, is nice. I wish we could have stayed longer and gone to more regions, but the road called us on. Not that it has been all kebapches and sladoled this past week- far from it. The story begins back in dear old Sofia...
We left Blago with a tear in our collective eye to spend a weekend in Sofia waiting for our flight to Vienna (a budget friendly 60 bucks on Sky Europe). We knocked around Sofia for a couple of days, meeting up Saturday with Jen's old student from Montana, Elena, and her boyfriend, Julian. Elena is now a doctor (one of the world's nicest MDs) and we had a great time catching up and having lunch. Sunday was uneventful and we ended up at "Mr. Pizza" for salad and cheese pizza.
About 3 in the morning, I awoke with a distended and burning stomach. I tried to wish it away for the rest of the night, but by 6 (our taxi was coming at 7), I knew the jig was up. The next 5 hours was spent staggering from toilet to toilet, heaving up my shoe soles, the climax being a delightful session at 30,000 feet en route to Vienna. It finally subsided, but I was wrecked from lack of sleep, dehydration and general stomach trauma. The one hour bus trip to Bratislava was relaxing and our old friend Jaroslav picked us up at the bus station and delivered us to his in-laws' rentable flat in the suburbs. I slept for a few hours, but got sick again that night and was pretty useless.
Jen and I went to the old city (Stare Mesto) Tuesday morning and walked around (slowly). Jen dubbed it Slow-walkia - get it? The Stare Mesto is very impressive, IMO, and quite the tourist draw. There are several picturesque squares, nice architecture, a big castle looming above, and the Danube ruunning along the edge. Also, it has two McDonalds into which I dashed frequently with intestinal distress. Later that night, we met up with Jaro for beers and a reminiscing session while looking at photos from Jen's first triumphant 1998 engagement in Blagoevgrad. Saying goodbye to Jaro (who is now a rising film director in Bratislava), we got a good night's sleep for our train trip to the provinces.
We had decided we wanted to get out of the big city and see the "real" Slovakia. I had read nice things about Banska Bistrica in the Bradt guide, although it is not mentioned in our Lonely Planet. The 3 1/2 hour train trip was scenic and smooth. The town was a revelation. It was lovely. Its setting is beautiful with thickly wooded hills, low mountains, Austro-Hungarian architecture, lots of cafes and charming backstreets, and friendly, unaffected people. We got a room with an old couple who have a nice big house near the center (35 bucks)...an excellent deal. We spent a couple of days wandering around, snapping photos and just enjoying the relaxing vibe. We got to eat some delicious Slovak food as well, although my stomach was a constant enemy. Finally, in desperation, we went to the pharmacy and the lady gave me some French homeopathic pills that worked liked a charm on my burning gut. Yippee! One other thing about Banska Bistrica, they have a new, flashy shopping mall that is astounding. It is 10 times nicer than any mall in Albuquerque.
On our way to Budapest, we missed a train connection in Southern Slovakia and had to kill a couple of hours in a small town. We walked into the nearest restaurant and the nice people whipped up a fresh salad and killer omelette for us. We eventually caught our train for the Hungarian capital, Budapest.