Europe Day Eight: Slovakia: Another Afternoon Hike Exploring The Streets of Kosice
After my six mile hike in the hills above the city of Kosice in Slovakia on Tuesday morning , I returned to my hotel, called my office back home and edited my photos. Around 2 p.m. I decided to explore some more of the city. I love roaming aimlessly in cities. As I often say on my travels, cities are like trees, all the same in some way, the branches and trunk, being the residential, business, commercial, art, and recreational districts, yet like every trees, so different in the way they grew. Each tree and city is unique. So it was time to see some more of Kosice. It was still sunny and hot with temperatures in the 80’s when I set out to find the Hornad River in the center of the city. Rivers in cities are usually a good place to visit. I left my hotel and walked toward the river on Rooseveltova Street. 
As on my hike the previous afternoon I came to the train and bus terminal.
This time walked to the right, 
past a modern McDonald’s (yes they have McDonalds in Slovakia, they are everywhere).
with the menu prominently displayed out front. I haven’t eaten in one in 30 years but for those of you who do you can compare price a euro is worth about 1.05 $ U.S dollars. 
I came to and walked along busy Palackeho street which appeared to be a major route in the city.
There was a lot of traffic anyway as I walked past used car lots and other commercial buildings. 
After about a mile walk I came to a bridge, and I knew I must have found the river, and 
which like most bridges
in large cities, had a lot of graffiti. (Kosice has a population of about 250,000 people, 12,000 are employed at the large U.S Steel factory near the city). 
So I saw the Hornad River, for the first time. It was a small river. Not very impressive. I had hoped there would be a river walk of some sort but there was only a small trail along the river, There were a lot of folks on the trail, riding bikes, walking and running. 
Not finding a lot to see at the river I decided to walk back to the Old Town to explore some more of the city. On the way I again passed a few fast food restaurants, businesses 
and old housing units,
I walked back through Mestsky Park and into the nearby neighborhood.
Here I found a Jewish synagogue 
the Polish counsels office and 
some old churches. 
Of course I had to explore some of the old apartment buildings. \
As I said, love roaming the streets of the cities I visit. 
I explored some of the back streets and not so nice apartment buildings.
I then walked back to the now familiar cobblestone streets of the Old Town 
and past the beautiful St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral.
I hadn’t noticed this bell on my previous hikes. 
I finished my two mile walk and now knew a little bit more about the city. I had now walked almost nine miles that day, and I was a getting tired. In my younger days I could have, and probably would have, walked another five miles.. But I am not young anymore. And , even though I had a large lunch I was hungry again. So it was late afternoon and I returned to my hotel, showered and headed back to the Old Town to find some food. I found a small pizza place in one of the courtyards and had their shrimp pasta . It was just okay. The waiter was nice and maybe the cook was just having a bad day. 
I now roamed the streets of Old Town, again, and enjoyed watching the local folks enjoy this warm June evening. My mind again wondered if my great grandparents would have ever walked these streets. After a visit to the Singing Fountain, and a delicious ice cream cone, I headed back to the hotel. I was soon asleep , looking forward to my next day, when I would try and find the villages, and maybe graves of some of my Slovakian ancestors. Here is a link to a gallery with more photos from my afternoon walk in Kosice. Europe Day Eight. Slovakia. Kosice afternoon walk June 7 2022. 
“Walkers are ‘practitioners of the city,’ for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go.”
―
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