slovakia

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Hiking and Urban Exploring at Devínska Kobyla, Bratislava – with Pirate Kitty!

Iris Veldwijk

During our stay in Bratislava, Jonas and I planned a day trip to Devínska Kobyla – the highest point of Bratislava. The peak is at 514 masl and there’s an abandoned missile base there. We planned to go hiking in the forest and see if we could enter the abandoned buildings by means of urban exploration. This happened on Friday, October 11th, 2019. To skip to the map and route of the hike, click here. Background After the kayak trip, Jonas and I traveled back to Bratislava because we loved it so much. We wanted to stay in the cityContinue reading

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Paddling the Morava River – A Day Trip from Bratislava

Iris Veldwijk

We finished our kayak trip down the Danube in Mohács. After that, we traveled back to Bratislava – our favorite city on the Danube – to work for one month. One day, we wanted to do a day trip with our kayak named Zucchini. We chose the tributary to the Danube named the Morava. Here’s the story of how we paddled part of the Morava River on Friday, October 4th (2019). Want to do it yourself? Here you can find the route details and the interactive map. Plotting and Planning a Kayak Trip around Bratislava The Idea The idea to paddle a stretchContinue reading

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Danube Kayak Trip Interactive Map

Iris Veldwijk

This is the fully-operative map of our Danube trip so far! You can use the left-side panel to summon or dismiss the information you’re looking for. I included information about the route, the distance, the obstacles in between, the places we’ve stayed at, which stretches require a permit, and which parts we (had to) skip on the Danube. Each paddle day has its own related blog post you can read. I’ll update this map the more we travel this majestic river with our inflatable canoe. Click in the upper right corner of the embedded map to open the map in GoogleContinue reading

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Day 41 Štúrovo Dunabogdány 3

Kayak Trip Day 41: Štúrovo to Dunabogdány

Iris Veldwijk

The events in this story happened on Wednesday the 21st of August, 2019. Jonas and I paddled Zucchini from Štúrovo in Slovakia to Dunabogdány in Hungary (Zucchini is our inflatable kayak). After Štúrovo (Slovakia) and Esztergom (Hungary), the Danube river makes a sharp turn southward. The river is now completely in Hungarian territory. This was a distance of 29.7 kilometers. Our Two-Night Stay in Štúrovo/Esztergom Our Booking apartment was next to the pedestrian zone of Štúrovo. Štúrovo is yet another spa town, like Kúpele Patince. As it was August and the height of summer, this meant that there were loads of families out andContinue reading

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Kayak Trip Day 40: Kúpele Patince to Štúrovo

Iris Veldwijk

The events in this story happened on Monday the 19th of August, 2019. We paddled from a Slovakian resort town called Kúpele Patince to Štúrovo, also in Slovakia. This stretch of the Danube river forms the border between Slovakia and Hungary. Across the bridge in Štúrovo is the (more famous) Hungarian town of Esztergom. This was a distance of about 33 kilometers. Our Stay in Kúpele Patince As you may know from my previous post, we didn’t stay in Kúpele Patince by choice. We wanted to stay in a town called Moča, but Booking canceled our reservation there. The ownerContinue reading

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Day 39 Komarno Kupele Patince 1

Kayak Trip Day 39: Komárno to Kúpele Patince

Iris Veldwijk

Narrated events in this story happened on Saturday the 17th of August, 2019. We intended to paddle Zucchini from Komárno to Moča on the Slovak Danube, but the accommodation in Moča fell through. Booking.com helped us find a replacement stay instead in a place called Kúpele Patince, which is a Slovak holiday village and the substantiation of a nightmare. Our Stay in Komárno Our three-night stay in Komárno was pleasant, but we didn’t explore as much as I’d hoped. One thing that consumed me during our stay was my desire to find a better spot to enter the Danube for the day we’dContinue reading

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Kayak Trip Day 38: Gönyű to Komárno

Iris Veldwijk

Events in this story happened on Wednesday the 14th of August, 2019. We paddled out of Gönyű on the Hungarian side of the Danube to Komárno on the Slovak side.  Three Nights in Gönyű Gönyű isn’t exactly the center of the universe. Its biggest claim to fame is that for years it had a right-angled trapezoidal football pitch. Until 2012, when they corrected the shape of the field and wiped out the one thing that might pique anyone’s curiosity. It’s a relatively small town with one supermarket, two and a half food businesses, and two hotels. Besides our own Business HotelContinue reading

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Day 37 - danube floodplains Gönyű kayak canoe Danube 9

Kayak Trip Day 37: Danube Floodplains to Gönyű

Iris Veldwijk

Events in this story took place on Sunday the 11th of August, 2019. We paddled from a Protected Landscape Area called the Danube Floodplains in Slovakia to Gönyű, our first town in Hungary. In the Danube Floodplains, we’d freecamped for the first time on this trip. The total distance we paddled to Gönyű was 26.6 kilometers. Waking Up at Our Freecamping Site My alarm rang at 5:00, a few minutes before dawn. Slowly, we awoke and wrangled ourselves out of our sleeping bags. The storm had stopped a few hours earlier and we finally reached a deep state of sleep. IContinue reading

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Day 36 freecamping inflatable kayak canoe boat Zucchini paddle freecamping Danube floodplains Slovakia Hungary

Kayak Trip Day 36: Čunovo to the Danube Floodplains – Freecamping

Iris Veldwijk

Evens occurred on Saturday the 10th of August, 2019. We paddled our buoyant Zucchini from the Čunovo Dam to somewhere in the Danube Floodplains protected landscape area in the Slovak-Hungarian border region. We paddled 36 kilometers that day. At night, we freecamped next to the river for the first time on this trip. Leaving Čunovo for the Danube Floodplains We only stayed one night in Čunovo. For the morning, we managed to arrange breakfast at 7:30. The guy who had cheffed up dinner so enthusiastically the night before were not so fond of our early breakfast time; we had to beg forContinue reading

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