Halloween Night in Kosice

I'm in my hotel room, waiting for trick-or-treaters -- its dark already, wonder when they'll all be here???

Today was first day of class - 21 people in a small room. Most were also in same place last week for a week of training, so they are going on week 2. That's lots of training over two weeks!

Sunday afternoon I rode a taxi to the zoo, to an observation tower, and nearto the US Steel plant here. Weather is great, in mid-40's, and the fall colors are still out!

Sunday Morning in Kosice

Went to dinner at a steak restaurant last night, with a USS employee who will move here in January. He knows his way around the city, having been here several times before. Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday almost all stores are closed. I did find a Tesco store (like a small Walmart) open Sunday, so I bought the right converter for my electric plug on the PC. So, now my battery can charge. I didn't see anything else there that I needed.

About 250,000 live in Kosice, and US Steel is the only big company here. The steel plant was built many years ago, and bought by USS just a short time ago.

Saturday Evening at the Bristol Hotel

I made it to Kosice, Slovakia just fine, and am staying at the Bristol Hotel. I added their internet site and link, but cannot get the English version to work. I think there are going to be many things like that this week - where things dont work well in English. I am +6 hours from TRH time.

It's about 40 degrees and sunny here - it has a small, country village feel to it. I saw some stores as I walked around, but mostly things around the hotel looked closed.

I have internet access in my hotel room, so that much is easy. I think I'll go forage for food next

Saturday Morning in the Prague Airport

So far, so good. Made a tight connection in London, and now I'm in the Czech Airline lounge in the Prague airport. It may be a foreign country, but it looks like any other big airport to me! Another Czech airline flight in a hour to Kosice.

Departure Day

Leaving at 6pm today for Kosice, Slovakia, via London and Prague. And bags are packed for Kazakhstan, UAE and Saudi Arabia after that. Long trip!

Deborah and I went to see Cavalia last night - wow!! Whether you like horses or not, those guys were pretty impressive.

Home for a Couple of Weeks

I'm home now, other than a one-day trip to New York Friday Oct 21. Lots of embassy's to visit and visa's to get for the long trip after that:

Oct 28-Nov4 Kosice, Slovakia
Nov 5-Nov 11 Astana, Kazakhstan
Nov 12-Nov 14 Almaty, Kazakhstan
Nov 15-Nov 18 Dubai, UAE
Nov 19-Nov 30 Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dec 1-Dec 8 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

During the layovers, I get to spend time in the London, Istanbul, Prague and Vienna airports - lots of airline and hotel time coming up on that trip! And 4 new countries added to the places I've been.

Rover Weekend Results

It started raining Thursday night, and rained 6 inches by Saturday afternoon. So the Rover weekend was muddy!! In sticky, slick, red clay. And I did get stuck - as did almost everyone.



But getting stuck then "winched out" seemed to be what the weekend was all about. Everyone just drove in the mud until someone got stuck, then all the guys with the right equipment came by and spent the next 30 minutes pulling the poor, stuck Rover out of the mud. Then someone else got stuck, and they did it again. There were about 200 Rovers doing this. I'm still trying to figure out the logic to it all, but right now I think 4-wheeling is just a bunch of guys with expensive toys playing outside.

Rover Weekend - Oct 6-9

I'm taking the Land Rover and the Shelties to a three day road rally, where 300+ other Rovers will be driving up hills, thru mud, and over rocks. Other than sand at Assateague Island, the Rover has never been offroad, so this will be its first real chance to do what it is supposed to do. (I hope I don't get stuck!)