Our next step was Zvolen (Zólyom), with its rectangular fort in sound and well-maintained condition. We drove through Banska Bystrica  Besztercebánya, an old miners' town, established by Germans, but the city was empowered to use this title by Hungarian king Béla the 4th in 1255. Both the surroundings and the city itself must have been beautiful, our kings liked it, but lately it grew to a half-modern and ugly industrial establishment. The next ancient city, Brezno (Breznóbánya) seemed to be more human, small, but nice. You soon arrive to the national park Slovensky Raj (Slovak Heaven or Paradise), which looks really exciting. 14186 hectares of hills, ravines, waterfalls, huts and singing birds. Dream. A few kilometres from there is the famous ice-cave (grotto) of Dobsina, a must for every lover of nature. Descending to south you find Roznava (Rozsnyó), a beautiful medieval city. Our next step on this tour was Krasna Horka (Krasznahorka, Beautiful Mountain) , the castle of which is subject of Hungarian novels and songs, one of the best heritages of Hungarian history. Not far from Roznava you should spend some time at Jablonov nad Turnou, a place "full of holes" (caves, certainly). Driving back to Hungary you may drop in to Rimavska Sobota (Rimaszombat), the centre of which still preserves its medieval character.

I cannot recall the exact route of our journey to Kosice (Kassa), the second biggest Slovakian city and an industrial centre, once important Hungarian centre of power and culture. Almost every monument, building, church in the downtown radiates the fame of our ancestors. Oh, yes, I remember now that it was the same excursion I am talking about above. It was accomplished in 1966 (!) by our newborn Trabant (alias Ulbricht's Jaguar). You cannot imagine how brave step it was to travel by a small car having two-stroke engine, on awfully bad roads, where the distance between patrol stations was of the order of 300 km. Anyway, in the area of Kosice we visited four more towns of the league of six "northern" towns of Hungary, headed by Kassa (Kosice): Eperjes (Presov), Bártfa (Bardejov), Lőcse (Levoca) and Késmárk (Kezmarok), one better than the other. All of them became cities in the 13th century, the old part of them look very medieval. I fall in love with Lőcse and still recall the central part of it (have a look at the face-page of the site!), it is just a real pearl. The site of Krompachy is also interesting, you may get acquainted with very old pictures of the city. On this journey or during one of our ski-tours we dropped in to Krompachy (Korompa) as well. The last two cities may be starting points if you intend to study the unique treasures of Slovakia, the wooden churches.

For most Hungarian skiers the learning-training land was Slovakia (because of travel restrictions to Western Europe and because it was close and cheap). Most of the mountains visited for the purpose are below 2000 m, but the High Tatras are above it. One would drive through nice places, rushing to these "skiers' paradises" occasionally stopping at them. I just present you with a list of such places: Zilina (Zsolna), Ruzomberok (Rózsahegy), Liptovsky Mikulas (Liptószentmiklós). Close to this route is situated one of the best forts I have seen in my life, the fort of Árva (Orava). Hungarian skiers often go to Slovakia just for "long weekend" skiing, usually to Donovaly or Chopok. I also used to stumble along at these badly equipped "paradises". The main battlefield (and bottle field) of skiers without much talent were the Tatras, certainly. I hope, my Slovak friends do not mind my frank description of those times end of 70s, beginning of 80s). A couple of times we stayed at a peasant house in Gerlachov, going out to Stary Smokovec (Ótátrafüred, once chic leisure heaven of the Hungarian aristocracy and of ugly fat rich people) and Strbske Pleso (Csorba tó). There was/is a cable-train in front of Grand Hotel of Stary Smokovec, where hundreds, if not thousands of skiers used to queue waiting sometimes for more than an hour, just to glide down a km or so, or to drag themselves a few hundred meters more up to the so called "wailing wall", an absolutely not treated black raised to the second power short slope (= wall). I tried it only once. Strbske Pleso was a better place to ski, if the operators of lifts had not been lazy to start them. We spent a week, including the New Year's Eve in the Europa (EUR?) Camp of Tatranska Lomnica (Tátralomnic), just at the bottom of the highest peak (Lomnicky Stit, 2632). We spent the midnight hours in the restaurant of the Camp, watching the Slovaks' happiness, caused by the division of Czechoslovakia and could not understand them. I still wonder what made them believe they were fortunate. The queue here used to be not less, than in Stary Smokovec, but the cabin used to stop 3-4 times during a single run, which got on my nerves. I hope it is better now. I recall also that we stayed in Poprad (Poprád) too for skiing in the Tatras and found the medieval centre of the city beautiful. Martin (Túrószentmárton), close to Zilina is a small place, but the slopes are good. It is one of the favourite skiing areas of Hungarians.

Finally just a word about Sturovo (Párkány), which became popular among us since the reconstruction of the bridge connecting Hungary and Slovakia at Esztergom after close to 60 years from the date it was blown up during WWII (!!). People go there for a walk and for having a (good and cheap) Slovak  lunch.