Easter in Košice, Slovakia

Daniel and I decided to take advantage of our extra long Easter break (6 days!) to go on a mini-vacation to Košice, Slovakia. We set off from Máriapócs yesterday morning and a little over two hours later we crossed the border into Slovakia. Forty minutes later and we had arrived in Košice.

Košice is currently the second largest city in Slovakia, but it was a Hungarian city until 1945 when it was taken over by the Russians. Košice then formed part of Czechoslovakia until 1993 when the country of Slovakia was formed. 

 

Daniel and I checked ourselves into our hotel, then set off with Iago to wander the city's many cobbled laneways and  pedestrian-friendly areas. To our surprise there seemed to be lots of other tourists around as well even though it was Easter Sunday. I think this may have had something to do with the fact that Košice will be co-hosting the 75th annual Ice Hockey World Championships from next weekend. From what I could tell, this is generating quite a lot of buzz around the city and there certainly seemed to be lots of preparations being made, as well as lots of police cars cruising around keeping an eye on things.

After checking out the city, we jumped back into the car and set off for the nearby town of Jasov where we took a tour of the Jasovská jaskyňa (Jasovská cave). While it wasn't the most spectacular cave I've ever seen, I did really enjoy searching the intricate formations for tiny sleeping bats. They just looked so darn cute hanging upside down and totally ignored our noisy tour group. 

After visiting the cave, we headed back to Košice, did some more exploring, then returned to our hotel to check out its Roman spa facilities. After a long day, I was really looking forward to soaking in a hot pool, but unfortunately things didn't work out exactly as planned. My suspicions were first raised by the sign at the pool's reception desk showing a speedo-clad body with a line through it. Deciding that it didn't mean what we thought it did, Daniel and I emerged from the changerooms wearing our bathers. Ignoring the strange looks we were getting from the staff, we proceeded to climb into the main swimming pool. But it was cold. What the hell? Where was the 38 degree water I'd been looking forward to? It was devastating.

Then Daniel and I spied another smaller pool in another part of the complex. Aha! Maybe this was the hot water I'd been craving. But no. Upon closer inspection we discovered that this pool was even worse than the first one as it contained near-freezing water. Was this some kind of sick joke? What kind of turturous hellhole was this?

By then, the only things left to try were the various sauna rooms, so we decided to use one to warm ourselves up before giving the main pool another go. This was fine for about five minutes, then our conversation was interrupted by a parade of naked bodies walking past the sauna's glass door. Suddenly we realised that the crossed out speedo sign had in fact been telling us what we thought it hadn't - bathers weren't permitted! It was very strange.

Anyway, we survived the spa experience and managed to enjoy the rest of our time in Košice. We made our way back to Hungary earlier this afternoon and went straight over to our colleague Ili's house for an Easter visit. In Hungary it is traditional for men to visit the houses of their friends and families at Eastertime, and to sprinkle any women in the house with perfume while reciting a poem asking for kisses. Unfortunately, Daniel's rendition of the poem didn't go exactly as planned and he wound up asking Ili to sprinkle him with rabbits instead!

- Amanda