Back in Slovakia

One of the things that always amazes me about travelling is that, like a bad penny I suppose, I always do return. I'll leave some place and imagine that there is no way in hell that I'll ever return there (and usually remorsefully), but somehow I manage to make it back - which gives me hope for future return trips to Kasgar, China and the Ajanta and Ellora caves in India. My only previous trip to Slovakia was in the summer of 2009, on the tail end of my seven week seven country world tour. I spent a day in Bratislava and a cuple days in Ruzemberok, where the good folks at the Catholic University there had asked me to give a keynote address at a conference. Sadly, all of my Slovakia shots were in the camera that was pilfered in Barcelona, so my only shots are loaners from my friends. It really pained me because I had the best time here, and, as I've noted on a previous post, I was never treated better by anyone at a conference ever. So, I'm really excited to revisit the Catholic University of Ruzemberok and see my great friends Janka and Katarina - and hopefully they won't hold me to my sworn agreement to spend my sabbatical in Ruzemberok (I say this mainly because my signed agreement is on a cocktail napkin and we are rather worse for wear at the time - and although I love Slovakia and the thought of spending more time with these amazing people is very appealing - I'm concerned about the legal precedent). I left Vienna yesterday at 8:25 a.m. and arrived in Bratislava at 9:25 a.m., switched trains and left the station at 9:57 a.m. and arrived into Ruzemberok at 1:42 p.m.. I mention the times simply because every one of them was to the minute - I can't remember the last time a plane left on time in the U.S. let alone a train (oh, that's right, we don't have a functioning public transportation system in the U.S.). Anyway, I hope to get some replacement pictures today - I snapped a couple yesterday of downtown Ruzemberok, but the weather was pretty dreadful. Sadly, my great shots of downtown Bratislava and the hinterlands of Slovakia are long gone, although, obviously, I will be back.