What do you get for €11.00 ($13.75) per night?

It was time to move on yesterday, so we took the bus from Terchova to Dolny Kubin, a distance of only about 30 kms (18 miles). We didn't know for sure where we were going to end up staying last night, but we had some ideas.

It was €1.70 ($2.13) each for the bus ride. We had not been able to find a couchsurfing host in the area, however one girl had agreed to meet us at the bus station and show us around. Sure enough, Jana was there waiting with her boyfriend Lucas when we got off the bus!

We put our bags in the back of her car and went for a walk around town. Dolny Kubin is a larger town than I expected, with a population of around 20,000. It has a really pretty central plaza.

Central Dolny Kubin.

Jana is only 20 years old, but she is pretty much fluent in English, Spanish, and Slovak. Her Spanish is better than ours! She's a smart girl who went to a special languages school during her teen years, and will be going to university in Prague this fall. Her boyfriend Lucas also speaks some English so we could all understand each other.

So after showing us the basic sights, we figured we needed to find somewhere to stay. I had found a technical high school about 5 kms (3 miles) outside of town that has dorm rooms available for tourists during the summer. The advertised price was only €4.50 ($5.75) per person, per night. Jana knew where it was, and in fact it's only a km from where she lives.

So we went there to check it out. We found a janitor guy and asked him about it. He got on his cell phone and said that a lady would be coming in five minutes. Okay. She showed up, and there was all kinds of discussion back and forth and of course we didn't understand a word. She brought us up one floor and opened a room. They have arranged some of the rooms so that there is a double bed (two singles pushed together) on one side, and the other room is sort of a living space with a coffee table. There's a small kitchen and a refrigerator, and your own toilet and shower.

Our bedroom. We even have a balcony!

Our "living" room.

Our bathroom, with combination shower/sink!

The rooms are very dated...probably haven't changed much since the 1960's! But they're clean, and the bedding all seems new. So we got to talking about price, and she said it depends on how long you stay. We said we were okay for 3 nights, and she said it was €5.50 ($6.88) per person, per night. So it's a done deal.

We asked about wi-fi internet, and she led us up two floors where she gave us our own key to the office so we would get a better signal! 

The second floor has a group of teen girl volleyball players from Moscow who are here for a tournament of some kind. So they're a little noisy, but we slept fine last night anyhow.

We walked the one km to the nearest shop and bought some groceries. Strangely enough, this little shop in the middle of nowhere had a lot of specialty gluten free products. So we bought a few things for Ruth to try out. Made a kind of a noodle thing for supper and Ruth added some frozen veggies and sausage. The kitchen is not very well stocked, with only a hot plate and one saucepan! Oh, and there's a microwave too.

Ruth, cooking up dinner!

Not bad!

Our gourmet meal.

The view out our side of the building.

It was hot yesterday, temperature about 32C (89F). Supposed to be more of the same today, so it's not really hiking weather. Think we'll just go for a short walk this morning, and then Jana was telling us about an aqua park in town. Might be a good day to spend the afternoon by a swimming pool!