Sneaking Into Slovakia

Okay maybe the title is a BIT misleading... but I did technically venture into Slovakia.

Our group of friends decided to venture out and try a new city. We had been holed up in Budapest for months (I love Budapest but we really never left). So we decided to take a train to Esztergom.

First of all, it was super weird to be riding on a train! It had been so long since we had "traveled" that it felt like a whole new experience and we were buzzing with excitement.

When we arrived at the train station, we realized that it was a little walk into town. It was no big deal for us! We enjoyed walking and admiring the pretty buildings and unique color choices that people had chosen. It felt kind of like a beach town based on the color scheme.

We ventured up to the Basilica located in Esztergom and got our first look at Slovakia. Slovakia and Esztergom are separated only by a large bridge. So we ventured down to get a closer look at this bridge. A lot of the bridge was taped off and we decided that they probably did this to keep people from traveling from Hungary to Slovakia and vice versa (these are Covid times after all).

Still, we tested our luck. We strolled up to the bridge and walked directly past the police car stationed there. Then we took some pictures from the Hungarian side of the bridge (just in case something crazy happened) and then proceeded to stroll past the police woman who was ushering cars across. She definitely saw us but made no attempt to stop us. Before we knew it, we were halfway across the bridge and technically on Slovakian territory.

As we got closer and closer to Slovakia we noticed that their security was much more intense than the Hungarian side. They had several military men brandishing large guns. We decided that we had probably pushed our luck far enough and strolled back to the Hungarian side.

We rounded out the day by giving ourselves a walking tour of Esztergom. It seemed like a nice place to be. They had a really nice town square with hip looking restaurants and cafes.