It was a lovely August day, or so I thought, so I decided to take certain people to explore Komárno with me. I’d never been before and I’ve seen some lovely photos, so why not?
The plan was set – to see the main sites, like the Courtyard of Europe, the fortress and I even sprinkled in a gallery, just to have a variety.
Before the trip, I was restlessly checking the weather, trying to make sure the trip will be a success. But when we arrived, I found out the weather did me dirty. The weather wasn’t the best, to say the least, and it was only getting worse and worse.
I hoped that it would get better and that we could wait in some kind of restaurant in the meantime. However, the first one we saw (as the rain drops started attacking us) seemed to have only Hungarian-speaking personnel.
If you’re not familiar with Slovakia, this particular town I’m talking about is at the very south, bordering with Hungary, so naturally, there are many, many speakers. However, funnily enough, I can’t say anything but “bless you” and “the towel is not wet yet” (– don’t ask) and even that with a horrifying accent, which I did not dare to use. Not that I had to tell them about the towel anyway.
And so we decided to run in between the drops to find shelter and food with people we could understand. We did succeed in the end and just in time, because as soon as we entered the lovely Hungarian-Slovak fast food, it started pouring down.
After the meal, we made our way to the Courtyard of Europe (stopping at a church that was closed but the square in front of it looked as if it’d been inspired by Venn’s diagrams), which is a square where each building should represent the architecture from a different country in Europe. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Though, I tried to guess and I could not. Moreover, I didn’t see any labels or explanations, which was a pity. But there were cool statues of Hungarian and Habsburg monarchs, so I tried to make the trip as educative as possible… only to find out I don’t remember much from history classes. What a disappointment. So instead, what if we try to find all of the gates that lead to the square? (We failed that one too.)
And it started raining again. Luckily, there was a little roof where we could stay. But even the view was a bit… rainy, so we had to find something else to kill the time. I wanted to entertain them by telling funny stories and I suppose I looked desperate enough to make them somewhat laugh.
After that, we continued to the fortress. It was big. Let’s move on…
Then we turned around to go to the river (which actually creates a part of the border). However, as it was my lucky day, it started pouring again! The next two hours were spent in a bookshop. Which I’m not complaining about, they had really nice books and we found out that they have some quality children’s books as well! I may or may not have been considering buying one.
Learning from our mistakes, we decided to go to the gallery instead of the river. At least that’s inside in case of a rainfall. It is called Limes Gallery and it was actually quite cool, thank god, as it was inside of an old church with some remaining artwork on the walls. The gallery itself houses modern art. On the ground floor, there were many interesting statues made from wire (by Zsuzsa Lőrincz). But I preferred the first floor, where the paintings (by Ildikó Pálinkás) were colourful portraying trees and nature in different seasons. And even sky. And I do like trees, sky and bright colours. So at least one good point for Yours Truly.
Then we had one hour left before the train would leave. And we did go to the river. It was alright, there was one beautiful building nearby. But I’m convinced it would have been much prettier, had it been sunny.
But no, the rain caught us on our way to the train station. And if you’re wondering why we feared the rain so incredibly, well, it was because we had one umbrella for four people. 🙂 We, in fact, did soak. And the ac in the train was on. It was not pleasant. So hopefully, the next time I’m in Komárno, someone else, more capable, will take over the lead.
