Šariš Castle

We had a day off over the weekend so we looked up some fun things to do. Jen loves castles, and we found out that there are 3 in Prešov. After having lunch at Atrium, we decided to drive to Šariš castle and take some pictures. We didn’t really have good directions (since there are NO street names/signs out here), but amazingly we found it without getting lost once. I take that back…we found the parking lot without getting lost once! After we parked, we got out and started walking towards the castle. It was a pretty cold day, and we were dressed in jeans and sweaters (if you know me and Jen you know that we are usually in sweats, but on this particular day, we decided to get “dressed up”…terrible decision!) We just ended up freezing!

Anyways, moving on…we had walked about 5 minutes on a little path when I decided that I thought I knew a shortcut so I climbed up this little hill thinking that the castle was probably sitting on top of that hill…wrong. All that was there was a little covered wagon type thing. We took some pictures and then continued on our way.

We walked for probably 20 more minutes before we started wondering if there even was a castle and if we were walking in the right direction. There were a couple signs but they were all in Slovensky which means virtually nothing to us. So basically, we were freezing cold, walking through the woods, and all the while, not even sure where we were supposed to be going. We finally saw some people walking towards us so we decided to try to ask if we were on the right track. We know the Slovak word for castle is ‘hrad’ so we would just say the word and then point or look sort of confused…it seemed to work. Most people nodded or pointed in the direction of the castle. It was just great to have some confirmation that a castle existed.

We walked probably 20 more minutes and right when Jen had just about had enough we saw the castle! We walked through the entrance of the castle and immediately 3 goats started walking towards us. Jen and I looked at each other like “What in the world? Are these things safe?” Luckily there were some other people nearby, and I’m sure they could tell we were nervous so they just sort of smiled at us and nodded their heads.

The castle is mostly in ruins now. It was originally built in the 12th century and was later burnt down by the Polish king in the 17th century. We walked around and explored different parts of the castle. Then we saw that there was a way to get to the top of one of the tallest building so we climbed through a tiny hole and then up some stairs. The view at the top was worth it. We looked out over the city and the beautiful surroundings. It was especially beautiful because we could see the sunset. That’s when we realized that we had better get the heck out of there! The sun sets around 4:30 here, and it was about 4:05 when we were standing on top of the castle. Considering that it had taken us about 50 minutes to get to the castle, we knew that if we didn’t get moving we were gonna be stuck in the woods in the dark! Needless to say, we made good time getting back to our car! It wasn’t exactly the trip we had planned (we just thought we were going to drive right up to a castle, get out, and take some pictures)…it turned out to be much more of an adventure, and that’s what made it so fun!



If you want to see more pictures, just copy and paste the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174259&id=4709921&l=f4fbbaadbf

Until next time,
Jen and Tina

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." -Philippians 4:8