Bus, Zoo, Goulash, Marley

We were going to give the Kosice Zoo a pass — visions of depressed post-Soviet lions danced in my head — but as a trip there offered an opportunity to get out into the hills above the city as well as forcing us to figure out the bus system, this became our morning outing.

The bus, like many things in Kosice, is very cheap: 25 cents for Oliver and 55 cents for me. The zoo was cheap too: less than 4 EUR for both of us. And we had the place completely to ourselves.

And while the place needed some love — perhaps the winter was unkind — it was pleasant enough and we were entertained by the antics of seals, apes, penguins, and a rather scary hawk.

The trip out there started with a negotiation at the local tobacco shop over bus tickets — more a translation exercise I suppose — followed by a winding road trip on Bus #29 out of the city and up into another weather system (chilly and a little snow).

Back in the city we had a late lunch at Ajvega, a vegetarian restaurant downtown. Oliver had very nice sheep cheese pirogis and I had spicy soy goulash and a talk bottle of dark Slovac beer.

After a little shopping we made our way to the Kino Úsmev for the 6 o’clock showing of Marley and Me (in English with Slovak subtitles). The ticket purchase was conducted entirely with hand gestures as none of the staff spoke English and indeed seemed perplexed that we should want to see the show at all.

The theatre was right out of 1950 with hard creaky wooden seats but the projection and sound were top flight.

To bed early tonight before we train west tomorrow for Vienna.