I Must Be Movin' On

       It took me all week to finally get used to waking up at 6 am, and now I'm heading east, back on my own.
       On Thursday I took a train to a tiny village called Mnichova Lehota in search of a hiking trail. I thought I had my bearings straight and would be able to find it no problem, but when I got to the village things were different. I crossed over the main highway and walked down it for a bit, back the the way I had come from, looking for the trailhead. I started to think maybe I had walked the wrong way, but was not in the mood to walk all the way back, so I started walking up a muddy gravel road just to see where it lead. It was sort of in the area that I thought the trail would be, so I had the slightest inkling of hope that it might lead me in the right direction. I walked a ways, passed fields and houses, and over some train tracks.  After walking for about 45 minutes, the road became more of a foot path. I started to think that maybe I had, in fact, found the correct path, but I still wasn't convinced. Further up, the path turned back into a very muddy road before it split into two very muddy roads. I took the one to the left and it led me to a paved road. I walked back to the other road and it lead me to a gravel service road under some power lines. I kept walking and, after crossing over another paved road, noticed a small foot pah that veered off to the left. I followed it and had a very nice hike up a hill through a maple and beech tree forest. After hiking up this path for about an hour, I came to another gravel service road. By then I had ascended to an eerily quiet and misty altitude. I followed this road to where it was intersected by another road and turned right. Basically, I followed this road up until I came to a very misty meadow. I'm not really sure where I was or if I had even found the path I was originally searching for. I walked back down to the village. I got back to the station too early so I decided to explore the village. The village was quiet. I ended up walking past a family of goats up an old logging road. There was nothing up there.
       When I got back to Banovce, I walked to Janka's parents' house and they fed me a massive amount of food.
       The next day I explored Banovce a bit. There's not much there, but I was able to take a nice long walk along the Bebravou river to another nearby village and back. After that I went to some more classes at the high school. I spent much of the afternoon trying put together a family tree in order to better understand how I'm related to Janka and her family. I'm still a bit confused. I know that Janka and I have a common great great aunt. On Saturday I went on a nice walk with Janka and Ebby. In the afternoon we went to Janka's parents' house to celebrate her father's birthday. Then we went to a really nice town in the hills and took a walk around a park for about an hour.
       Sunday was pretty laid back. I was able to play quite a bit of guitar. I took a bike ride around to some other villages and then, later in the afternoon, took a long walk to a dam and a small lake with Janka, her two daughters, and her parents.
       Today I got on a train to Poprad. I'm still on that train. It has free WiFi. It feels like I'm kicking off the last leg of my Euro trip, and I have high hopes.