Caliban - Opinion and Righteous Anger

That's how I felt back in 1989, when I first visited Amsterdam, and that's how I feel again now after two days in the Czech capital, Prague (Praha). What an incredible city!

I'm typing this at the keyboard of a computer in our hotel's foyer. It's a Czech keyboard, but the characters produced by each key don't always match the Czech notion of what should come out of them. It's excruciating!

Anyway, we're a few days into our trip now. We spent one night each in the German cities of Leipzig and Dresden before crossing the border into Czechia. Once across, we spent two nights in Dĕčín, where absolutely no-one spoke any English. My pidgin German was a lifesaver, since our efforts in Czech are less than stunning.

On the second day in Dĕčin, we went for a 16 km hike in the forested hills surrounding the nearby town of Hřensko. Wiesje spent most of the day with me in our new baby-carrier, something that left me sore and aching by the end of the day.

For the last couple of days, we've been hanging out in Prague, a city about which I could endlessly wax lyrical, were it not for the fact that Sarah will be pining away for me upstairs, so I'd better just leave it at this. We have a few more days left in Prague before we head further into the Republic, so we're going to keep our fingers crossed that the weather remains dry and enjoy our time here to the fullest.

Needless to say, the whole family is enjoying this trip a great deal already.

After four days in Prague (Praha), we're moving on; to Kutná Hora, to be precise.

I'm very sad to be leaving Prague, I have to say. It's the only city I've ever been to that I like as much or more than Amsterdam. My mind is already wandering, imagining having a second home here. I thought I liked Paris a lot, but this place takes the biscuit. It's like Paris in many ways, but much more unassuming.

On the other hand, there's a sense of raging progress here, as the city forges ahead, making up for the time lost under communism. Prague is up-and-coming in some ways, has already decidedly arrived in others. It's vibrant and bold, yet subtle and bashful. All things to everyone, I challenge anyone to come here and be unaffected by the place. How could anyone want to leave, once they had sampled the confluence of historic streams that lend Prague its uniquely characterful blend of historic perspective and wild, youthful optimism?

The unrestrained nightlife; the beautiful girls; the endless exploration of a classical, unpretentious city, teeming with back alleys, home to irresistibly furnished cafés and eateries, tucked away, just out of sight. The city is rediscovering itself, assuming its rightful place as a premier European capital, one to be seriously reckoned with.

It makes one wish to be two decades younger, footloose and fancy free again. What a splendid place to experience a mid-life crisis.

Internet access is scarce here, so updates are few and far between. There are Internet cafés here and there, of course, but Eloïse keeps us from going to them. Travelling with a baby is quite hard work; infinitely doable, but hard work.

After spending time in the Central Bohemian town of Kutná Hora and then doing much hiking in East Bohemia, we drove down to Olomouc in North Moravia. This really is a fantastic town, and relatively undiscovered by foreign tourists. I would write at length about what makes the town so great, but I'm borrowing the receptionist's laptop in our hotel, so I have to keep this relatively brief.

Because Internet access is proving so infrequent for us, I'm keeping a diary of our travels on my own laptop and will publish it when we return.

Since I last wrote, we have overnighted in Kutná Hora, Jičín, Teplice nad Metují and Olomouc. Each of those was for two nights, except for Kutná Hora. We've been doing a lot of hiking, which has yielded spectacular scenery, but also been very tiring. That's the net result of dragging Eloïse 's carcass up and over hill after hill. It's been well worth it, though; the experience has been very rewarding.

Tomorrow, we head for Žilina, over the border in Slovakia. We expect the countryside to get wilder now, as we gradually head north-east to the mountain range of the High Tatras.

We're not saying goodbye to Czechia for long, however. In a few weeks, we'll be back here again towards the end of our trip to sample South Moravia, South Bohemia and West Bohemia.

We crossed the Slovakian border on Wednesday and spent a couple of nights in Žilina. Whilst there, we enjoyed/suffered our hardest day of hiking yet, in the Malá Fatra National Park: lots of elevation change, rough terrain and a fat baby on my back.

We're now in the town of Banská Bystrica, where we've extended our stay from one night to two, because it's such a pleasant town. We've now driven more than 2000 km on this trip.

Tomorrow, we'll start heading up towards the Tatra mountains.

The Slovak Paradise National Park, they call it; or to be more precise, the Národný park Slovenský raj. That's where we are now. We've made it as far as the town of Čingov for a two night stay and will be spending tomorrow hiking outdoors in the mountains.

It was a long drive today from the lovely town of Banská Bystrica, with a detour at the start of the day to Banská Štiavnica, a mediaeval mining town. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed by it. Although it's a UNESCO World Heritage site, it's in a state of decay and the repair work isn't keeping pace with the dilapidation.

Anyway, if I'm going to survive a full day's hiking tomorrow, I'm going to need my beauty sleep, so off I go to bed. Our hotel has an unadvertised, wide-open 802.11 network, so I thought I'd take advantage of it to post this.

After a seemingly unending sabbatical, Google have finally called in my number. Some time in early June, I ceased to be an employee.

My manager-to-be (if I were to return to work) had recently written and told me that it was make-your-mind-up time. I had been having a terrible time of it, mustering the strength of character to close the book on the last five years and say goodbye to this amazing company. There were so many other things I wanted to do with my life, but there's only one Google and it's doing incredible things, too. What we've seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg of what's to come in the years ahead. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

And so I vacillated endlessly, not wanting to return to the rigours of the working week, but also not wanting to sever my ties with Google. When I was forced into a corner, however, what I had actually known for quite a while became very plain, indeed; namely that it would be very hard to resume a position I had once held at the Googleplex in Mountain View, many thousands of kilometres away in Amsterdam.

My manager would be a long way away, my colleagues would be a long way away, and the focus of my projects would also be a long way away. To top it all, the atmosphere and ethos of all that I regard to be what Google actually is would also be far removed. No more Google cafés, massages, guest speakers, etc. In many ways, the Mountain View campus, the company's headquarters, is Google, as far as I'm concerned. That's where it all happens; that's where the projects are (for the most part) conceived and developed; that's where the top hackers beaver away into the small hours.

Yes, working from home in Amsterdam, I doubt that the Google experience would have felt very much like Google at all. I would have been marginalised, trying to accomplish by e-mail and telephone calls what a walk down the corridor and a few words in someone's ear used to achieve. That's what I tell myself, anyway.

It feels a bit like leaving school, in that end-of-an-era sense. Jobs come and go, but there's only one Google. Not only was it a unique place to work, but it has changed the future course of my life, rendering me (and my family) independent of and free from the shackles of wage slavery. As such, it wasn't just a job and I have come to feel very sentimental about it.

But now it's over and the time has come to make my peace with that fact, however much I wistfully and privately reminisce about my days in Mountain View. It's time to look to the future, not yearn for the past. Ha! Easier said than done.

By the way, Google Earth is now available for Linux.

We spent a good eight hours hiking through the Slovenský raj today. It was seriously hard going.

We began with a long climb to the Tomášovský Výhľad look-out point, with gorgeous views out across the wilderness.

From there, we hiked down to the gorge of the river Hornád. The gorge is so sheer in many parts, that no ground trail is possible. Instead, the park authorities have drilled into the side of the gorge and inserted small metal platforms, the size of steps, which are held by rods. One literally has to hug the wall of the gorge, hopping from platform to platform, whilst not paying much mind to the sheer drop just centimetres away from the edge of one's foot.

To make matters worse, the metalic grid surface of some of a few of the steps is worn out and giving way, and the rods of others are buckling under the strain of the hordes of visitors of summers past. At times, the rocky wall of the gorge juts out at chest or head level so far, that it overhangs the platform at that spot. This forces the intrepid hiker to clutch a chain running along the face of the gorge, and lean with all one's weight fully backwards, out over the gorge, whilst tucking one's feet under the overhang and ambling over the platform. In my case, that meant that Eloïse , strapped to my back in her baby-carrier, was completely suspended over the sheer drop to the river below; not an experience I want to repeat at any time in the future. I'm not afraid to admit that I was, at one point, quite frightened. I'm curious how many people take a tumble off these aging platforms in any given year.

Anyway, the hiking was such heavy going, that we had to veer off from the route we had planned to follow and take a shorter route back, although that meant negotiating a long, steep climb to the top of one of the hills. An hour later, we arrived at the top, Wiesje fast asleep in her carrier, but her mother and father drenched in their own sweat and gasping for water. We had used up all of our water and were very hungry by that point, but thankfully there was a place here where we could buys snacks and rehydrate at our leisure.

Once we were refreshed, it was another two hour walk back to where we had parked the car in Čingov.

I was left feeling like we had cheated ourselves by taking a shorter route back, but in truth, we would have been in trouble if we had gone the long way, as we had run out of water and it was an extremely hot day today. Not only that, but the route we did take ended up consuming eight hours of our day; we're just not very fast hikers and Eloïse slows us down yet further.

Tomorrow, we head for Starý Smokovec, where we'll spend three nights in the snow-topped High Tatras (or Vysoké Tatry, as they're known locally). That will be the high point of our trip, literally speaking, if not also figuratively.

On the way there, we'll pay a visit to the Dobšinská ice cave.

Here we are in Starý Smokovec, for the last of our three nights.

We made it here a couple of days ago, via the Dobšinská ice cave. That was an amazing experience, not least because the weather had turned and there were thunderstorms happening overhead as we entered the cave.

It was 25°C as we went inside, but within ten seconds the temperature had dropped to freezing point. The ice was 20 m thick in places inside. There were two power-cuts while we were inside the cave, deep underground, which plunged us into total darkness. We had to be led outside, up the steep staircase, by torch-wielding guides after the second.

The ice cave was fantastic, however. I've never experienced anything like it. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the neighbourhood of Eastern Slovakia.

That brought us to the High Tatras, a mountain range in an area that has been declared a national park. To say it's beautiful here is to fail to do justice to the area, and yet, so few tourists (even Western Europeans) have heard of it.

Our hotel, The Grand, is also quite luxurious, especially by Slovakian standards. Not only is the food very good, but Sarah and I both had massages yesterday and the whole family went into the swimming-pool this afternoon. Eloïse turns out to have no fear of water; she really enjoyed herself in the pool.

The massage last night reminded me of the wonderful massages I used to get at Google, just one of the many things I miss about the place. I'll be enjoying another of the hotel's massages this evening.

Yesterday, we took the funicular railway to Hrebienok, about 1280 m up (we're at 1010 m in Starý Smokovec). From there, we hiked several kilometres uphill, crossing a couple of lovely waterfalls, to Sliezsky dom, next to a huge waterfall (fed by melt-water, I think). The waterfall fed into a huge, ice-cold lake, by the side of which I found a rather large frog, one of the few notable wildlife sightings on this trip.

We found something to eat at the chata by the lake, then hiked all the way back down to ground level. Once again, it was a full day of hiking and we were very tired by the end of it. Our baby-carrier is now well and truly worn in, I would say. I estimate that I have carried Eloïse some 40 - 50 km in it since we set out on this trip. If only someone would carry my fat arse over the mountains.

This morning, we set off early to take the cable-car from Tatranská Lomnica to the winter ski area and lake known as Skalnaté pleso. After walking around the lake and taking photos of the snow-capped mountains, we took a second cable-car, which departed much less frequently and had to be booked a couple of hours in advance, to the summit of Lomnický štít, at 2634 m. It was very cold up there, so we had already changed into winter clothing. Indeed, our thick fleeces and winter coats were brought on this trip for just this one day, as we knew they would be needed.

At the summit, we were afforded wondrous views across the Tatras. Occasionally, the clouds would come rolling in and obscure everything, but after a few minutes, they would disperse again, allowing us fantastic views across the jagged landscape the snow-covered mountains.

Tomorrow, we'll leave the High Tatras National Park and head for the Pieniny National Park, situated snugly against the Polish border. There, weather permitting, we'll go rafting downstream. It remains to be seen how well this will work with Eloïse along for the ride, but she and we are game, so we'll soon find out!

Once we've finished rafting, we'll need to get a taxi back to the spot where we hit the water, eight kilometres upstream. From there, we'll drive on to Bardejov, where we'll spend the night.

I'll make this brief, as I'm in an Internet café in Košice in south-east Slovakia, about 50 km from the border with Hungary and 100 km from the one with Ukraine.

We're here for two nights, this being the second, after having overnighted in the delightful little town of Bardejov, at an absolutely fabulous pension.

The high point of Bardejov was, undoubtedly, the National Ukrainian Folk Choir, who were singing, playing music and dancing on a stage on the main square as we walked into town for the first time. The concert lasted for an hour, and the music and singing were absolutely stunning and made it very tempting to continue to drive eastwards.

Earlier that day, we had been rafting in the rain at Červený Kláštor in the Pieniny National Park. That was a lot of fun.

Here in Košice, Slovakia's next largest town after Bratislava, it's a very sticky 31°C; too hot to really contemplate doing much at all. The town is very nice, though, and there's an excellent ice-cream parlour on the main square (as, indeed, there was in Bardejov). They do know how to make good ice-cream (or zmrzlina, as it's known locally) in this country.

We'll probably spend tomorrow night in Rožňava, just this side of the Hungarian border, so that we can visit some more caves on Tuesday. Then, that afternoon, we'll drive down into Hungary, where we'll spend somewhere between five and seven days, including a visit to the capital, Budapest.

After that, we'll return to Slovakia and visit the capital of Bratislava, before heading to Vienna in Austria, and then back towards the Czech Republic, to take in towns in West and South Bohemia. In short, there's still lots to come on ths trip!

Hungary threatens to be even hotter than it is here. We can only hope that the weather takes a turn for the cooler.

With the caves that we want to visit in the vicinity of Rožňava being closed on Mondays, we had another day to kill in Košice. Because we'd already seen most of what Košice had to offer, however, we spent only a couple of hours there before driving out to the eastern borderlands, where we hoped to find some picturesque landscapes and wooden churches.

It's pretty rural out there, I have to say. The one wooden church that we tried to look at turned out to be made of stone. That's odd; exactly the same thing happened to us the other day, near Bardejov.

With the border just ten or so kilometres east of us, the proximity proved irresitible (to me, at least), so we pulled out our passports and headed up to the border crossing with Україна (or should I say Ukraine?).

That proved to be biting off rather a lot to chew. To put it mildly, a lot of bureaucracy was involved in crossing that border. It took quite some time, involved lots of paperwork, much confusion, some consternation, and more than our fair share of stop-start-reverse driving. It's not every day your name needs to transliterated, using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Ultimately, though, we made it across and headed for the nearby town of Ужгород (that's Užhorod in Slovak and Uzhhorod [transliterated from Ukrainian] or Uzhgorod [transliterated from Russian] in English).

The heat was sweltering today; about 34°C. It was already about 15:00 by the time we got across the border and we were afraid of getting stuck on the way back (not to mention the fact that we had no гривня (Hryvnia) on us for lunch), so we basically drove through the town and then headed straight back to the border, without so much as getting out of the car and setting foot on Ukrainian soil.

Back at the border crossing, we were right to have been concerned. A mammoth convoy of lorries and cars was queued up into the distance, their occupants walking around in the sun, as nothing was going anywhere.

With Eloïse getting fidgety in the back of the car, I decided to drive around the queueing traffic and squeeze my way alongside it to the front. This rather surprised the Ukrainian border guards in army fatigues, but it had the desired effect. We were told to drive to the front of the queue, where we were stamped out of Ukraine. Then, we were told to drive to the front of the next queue, to be processed back into Slovakia.

Once at Slovak border control, I got talking to a very nice border guard with very good English. It turned out he wasn't Slovakian at all, but German. He usually works at Munich Airport, but had been temporarily stationed here to keep an eye out for football hooligans trying to make their way to the World Cup via unlikely routes. Well, needless to say, he hadn't spotted any so far, and he commented that hooligans tend to fly, not drive to Germany via Ukraine, Slovakia and Czechia. I think it was all one big holiday to him.

He explained to me that the slowness of the border crossing has a couple of causes. Firstly, they don't yet distinguish between EU and non-EU residents, so everyone has to stand in the same queue.

Secondly, he told me that most of the Ukrainians coming across actually make the trip three times a day, carrying large numbers of cigarettes and a full tank of petrol (some 300 litres in a large vehicle). Once on the Slovakian side, they sell the cigarettes and petrol, syphoning it out of their tank. The queues we saw apparently remain long all through the night and, at their worst, can take eight to ten hours to process.

You can bet that I'm very glad I decided to be bold and drive around the commercial traffic. Otherwise, we might still be there now!

On the way back, we stopped off at the Tesco in Michalovce to stock up on supplies, then continued to our final destination of Rožňava, arriving there at about 18:15.

We'll visit one or two caves tomorrow, then spend a second night here, before heading into Hungary Wednesday morning. Mercifully, our hotel room is rather cooler than the outside temperature.

And so it came to pass that Eloïse obtained the first stamp in her passport, on a rather pointless jaunt into Ukraine. A futile exercise, to be sure (blame Papa), but an interesting experience, nonetheless. Moral of this story: don't lose sight of the fact that border crossings outside the EU are not necessarily one small step for those who would traverse them; especially land border crossings.

Thanks, by the way, to Nick and Onno for sending us their recommendations for Hungary.

We've now been on the road for a full month, have left some 3200 km behind us, done several loads of laundry en route, and made it as far as Eger in Hungary. This marks Eloïse 's tenth country in thirteen months, not including our silly excursion into Ukraine earlier this week. What a shame she won't remember any of this when she's older!

It's still crotch-squelchingly hot, at about 33°C, but the weather forecast brings hope for the coming days. The key word here is fagylalt, which was zmrzlina in Slovakia; better known to you, I suspect, as ice-cream. One has to fend off the heat somehow.

This is actually our second day here, having arrived at about 13:00 yesterday from Rožňava. We had lunch and spent the afternoon walking around town until the heat forced us inside.

Today, we ascended the 97 steps of the town's very slender minaret and then attended an organ concert at Eger's cathedral, the second largest in the country.

Tomorrow morning, we'll amble over to the Lyceum (we were too late today) to see the Diocesan Library and the Camera Obscura, before driving on to the capital, Budapest.

Even fewer people here seem to speak English than in Slovakia, which is saying something. After almost a month in Czechia and Slovakia, whose languages are quite similar, I'd grown quite accustomed to seeing certain words on menus and such, and using certain phrases. Suddenly, all of that knowledge has been rendered useless and we find ourselves staring at words that we can scarcely begin to utter. No matter, another few days and we'll have mastered this tongue-defying language!

I'd like to write at length about the Domica cave system we visited near Rožňava, and the Aggtelek, which is actually part of the same system, but just over the border on the Hungarian side, but I'm in the hotel foyer and the meter is running, as they say. Suffice it to say that the caves were utterly breathtaking and I'll write about them and many other things when we eventually return home.