Levoca is supposed to have one of Slovakia’s best preserved old town fortifications. It certainly has a substantial wall surrounding the centre and the large square with very charming buildings makes for an interesting wander. Most interesting however I found was the ‘cage of shame’. It looked like a giant bird cage, but was in fact a place where ‘sinful women’ were locked up to consider their wrong doings!
Away now from the touristy mountain resorts, we began to see a little more of the typical Slovakian homes and families. As we walked out from the centre and down more residential streets the pavements gave way to gravel and grass and children rather than cars owned the streets. Many of the people looked of Romany descent and for the first time I felt I was obviously not in western Europe.
The next day we hitched a ride with Kim & James and went to visit Spissky Hrad (Spis Castle). Now this was a castle that looked like a castle, not the great palaces or mansions of Prague or Krakow. A ruin of course as seems to be obligatory, the current residents are a swarm (unknown collective noun) of gofer/squirrel/giant hamster type creatures who kept popping in and out of holes which spread across most of the site. The castle unfortunately had rather too many annoying school parties than we would have preferred, but the best part was the museum. While only small, you could touch almost everything on show, a really refreshing change from other places with shouting guards on every corner. The dungeon and torture chamber was not my favourite place, but if you like rib crushers and other horrendous implements that you can but imagine their past uses you’d be right at home.
Away now from the touristy mountain resorts, we began to see a little more of the typical Slovakian homes and families. As we walked out from the centre and down more residential streets the pavements gave way to gravel and grass and children rather than cars owned the streets. Many of the people looked of Romany descent and for the first time I felt I was obviously not in western Europe.
The next day we hitched a ride with Kim & James and went to visit Spissky Hrad (Spis Castle). Now this was a castle that looked like a castle, not the great palaces or mansions of Prague or Krakow. A ruin of course as seems to be obligatory, the current residents are a swarm (unknown collective noun) of gofer/squirrel/giant hamster type creatures who kept popping in and out of holes which spread across most of the site. The castle unfortunately had rather too many annoying school parties than we would have preferred, but the best part was the museum. While only small, you could touch almost everything on show, a really refreshing change from other places with shouting guards on every corner. The dungeon and torture chamber was not my favourite place, but if you like rib crushers and other horrendous implements that you can but imagine their past uses you’d be right at home.
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