Slovakia: Part 3 - Day 3: Botanical garden, Kofola drink

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 3.

31/7 Day 3: Went to train station to check train tickets for tomorrow's destination, Poprad. Took tram to Botanical garden. Had local soft drink, Kofola during lunch. Dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. 

Costs
(1) 2 tram ticket EUR1,20 (30 minutes duration) each - EUR2,40

(2) Entrance fee Botanical Garden EUR5

(3) 2 Mixed nuts packet and 3 radler from Billa - EUR10,28

Food
(1) Breakfast at Pekarova Zena cafe - Poppy seed and cherry strudel EUR2,60, cappucino EUR2,80
(2) Random ice-cream place - two scoop pistochio and pomegranate EUR3, waffle cone EUR0,30
(3) Lunch at Karczma Mlyn - Zurek soup EUR4,50, kofola 300ml EUR1,50
(4) Coffee at Melody cafe - iced cappucino EUR3,90

(5) Dinner at Holo (Vietnamese restaurant) - stir fried rice noodles with chicken EUR7,50. Cheapest beer here at EUR1,90 for 500ml.

The Story

31072026: First, espresso to wake us up from our Airbnb's host espresso machine. Then, we looked for a cafe to have breakfast. We went to the nearest cafe that was opened and had good reviews. Lots of sweet pastries for breakfast. My travel companions wanted a sandwich. They think pastries for breakfast is weird. I don't mind.

I enjoyed my poppy seeds and cherry strudel. The travel companions had croissant-sort of pastry with blueberries on top. They are American blueberries because they are white inside. So weird to be using American blueberries when Slovakia has so many blueberries. We saw many of the blueberries bushes during our hikes in Tatra mountains.

Then, we went to the train station to check on tickets availability for our tomorrow's destination, Poprad. There is a customer service office and the lady behind the counter informed us that we can buy the tickets tomorrow. There is no shortage of tickets. Plus, it is an hourly train departure. We went to a pharmacy in the train station to buy electrolyte tablets that can dissolve in the water. We bought those as we will hike in the mountains and know that we will lose a lot of electrolytes through sweat. We brought from Sweden too but was worried if they were insufficient.

There is a recommended bar, Stacniny Pivovar, at the highest floor of the train station. My travel companions had their beer. I like that they offer one-time ticket to use the public toilet in the train station. I think many locals know of this offer as I saw some people walked in and straight to the glass filled with one-time tickets to take a ticket. Without a ticket, a toilet fee costs EUR1. I took one ticket. 

I did not know of the one-time toilet ticket. I don't know Slovakian. The thing that caught my eye was the word 'WC' which I know stands for water chamber = toilet. Curious, I took Google Translate and translated the words. Yay to being curious! Saved EUR1. We asked the bartender if we could take 1 and he confirmed it. 

We decided to go to the Botanical Garden. I did not have many suggestions for Kosice. With the burning heat outside, we were unsure of a suitable activity. We thought that the botanical garden will be shady and surrounded by trees. Took the tram 2 from Stanicne Namestie station (stop at the main train station) to Havlickova. Tickets were bought from the ticket machine outside the train station. 

Here comes the tram.

One is required to validate the tickets in the tram. I did not encounter any ticket controllers during my trip. 

We have arrived at the Botanical garden which is managed by the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University. There is only one university in town, I think. We went inside the greenhouse which was really hot inside. One part of the greenhouse that has citrus trees was really warm and humid - reminded me of Malaysia. It was even cooler to be outside even though it is extremely hot outside too. The air was very still in the greenhouse. We spent 1,5 hour in the greenhouse. I did not learn anything though which is disappointing. There are not many descriptions of the plants. 

Went inside a butterfly room. There were two heavy PVC stripes so the butterflies can't escape. There were not many types (?) of butterflies, though. Probably 4 or 5 different kinds. 

The only place in the greenhouse that I requested to have my picture taken - with some orchids. 

A mini pond. There are fishes inside. Uncertain what sort of fish.

A room just for cactus. This place was the hottest of all. I had to put on my sunhat again in this room. 

In the citrus room - lemon tree, lime tree.

We saw a sign for a minizoo in the garden. So, we went there. The signs were are not clear in pointing the direction so we asked a family for help. The teenager in the family could speak English and helped us. The parents could not converse in English. The landscape in the garden is very neat and well taken care of.

The minizoo consists of birds and rabbits only. A bit disappointed. I felt misled.

Sad to see the rabbit house though. There are many rabbits cramped in the house.

Inside here are rabbits. About 4 or 5 in one cage. That is very cramped. I thought a university would have better knowledge on how to care for animals.

I like that there is a watering system for the bell pepper plants. I saw some of the bell peppers have matured and could be plucked. Not sure who pluck them, though.

My boyfriend found a lunch place, Bayer restaurant, nearby but he was misled by the photos of a restaurant in a basement. He saw that the restaurant is opened but it turns out only take-away is available and the restaurant will open the following week. So, we continued our walk to the town, as it was only 20 minutes. But the heat made 20 minutes unbearable. During the walk, I felt faint and held on to my boyfriend. It was 36 degrees. I think I was being cooked by the road. We stopped at an ice-cream place and I had my ice-cream. It was very much needed to cool down my body. 

Finally, lunch spot at Karczma Mlyn. I did not have any appetite to eat. So, I took zurek soup. I enjoyed zurek soup when I was in Poland. But here, it was disappointing. It was not sour at all. Here, I tried my first kofola. This soft drink is Slovakia's version of Coca-cola that was widely consumed during the Communist era in 1960s and 1970s. During those year, Coca-cola and Pepsi were expensive and limited. So, Slovakia made its own version that containe liquorice and 13 types of herbs. Kofola is described to contain 30% lesser sugar than Cola. To me, Kofola is sweet but it does taste different than Cola. I enjoyed Kofola!

Some part of Kosice town has water sprays. We walked under it to cool us down but it was not sufficient. A really smart solution. 

We found a cafe that was recommended. I did not find anything special about the cafe. Reviewers commented the design is minimalistic and coffee is good. Yes, I agree that the cafe looks plain. Haha! To me, the coffee was not exceptional. It does not stand out. The two layers in the glass reminds me of Malaysian three-layered tea. 

We took the tram back to our apartment. From station Nam Osloboditevelov to Okresny Urad. We could have walked but it was 39 degrees! It was not worth it to walk with this heat. We bought radler from a store. I enjoy radler but somehow radler in Slovakia is not the same as radler in Munich. Radler is a mixture of soda and beer. The taste in this radler is mango and pomegranate but there is nothing sour in this radler. Disappointed.

We went out to have dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant which is near our apartment. We went out at 7.15pm. Still bright as it was not sunset yet. I had a simple stir-fried noodles with chicken. It was a large portion. I did not order any drinks and I received a glass of water. The staff in this restaurant are not efficient. When I wanted to pay, two male staff saw me. One was on his phone. And the other was speaking to an elderly lady holding her hand, unsure if he was taking her pulse but they were chatting. I waited at the counter hoping that the female staff will appear. After 15 minutes, I opened the kitchen door and saw her doing the dishes. I told her that I wanted to pay. She was surprised to see me at the door and I think she commented something to her useless male staff. 

We received honeymelon as dessert. It was complimentary.

After dinner, we walked to Billa to get some mixed nuts for our hike and headed home.