MY WINTER 2001 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

I stayed up almost all night prior to my departure. I had to finish my last master video “SLOVAK CHRISTMAS 2001” and start making copies right away. I packed and repacked my two huge Samsonite Oyster Shell suitcases several times and finally went to bed around 4:00 AM. Got up really early. Soon I had my first phone call. It was my friend Ondro Mihal from Toronto wishing me safe journey. He also mentioned that during his recent trip from Thunder Bay one of his films in the carry on luggage as damaged by the x-ray machine. The films in his suitcase were fine. So perhaps it would be a good idea to pack all the films in the check in luggage in the future. This conversation made me also realize that none of my films are packed and they are still in the fridge. Boy I am lucky. The price of films in Slovakia is much higher then in North America.

Today it is windy, the clouds are gone, and it is cold also. We got to the airport around 10 AM. Boy, lots of room everywhere. I put my suitcases on the dolly; the automatic door opened and wow very few people at the check in counters. No line-ups, at all. I have never ever seen Vancouver airport with so few travelers and I fly through this airport 4 to 5 times per year. When you fly stand by, you usually don’t know if you get on the flight you are listed on just few minutes prior to departure. You check your luggage and receive a gate pass. You wait at the gate until everybody boards the plane and if there is a room you go on, if there isn’t, you are transferred to the next available flight and you wait again. If the flights are busy you cross the airport from gate to gate several times before you are lucky to get on. This wasn’t the case today, as the flights aren’t full. I got seat assigned at the check in to Calgary, Alberta, as that is where my flight to Frankfurt will originate.

The security check of the carry on luggage was more detailed as ever before but still not as thorough as I was accustomed for years at German airports, where I sometimes had to even take picture with my camera, just so they can see that it works.

Got to my gate C 32, bought local paper, only to discover later on that there is a huge shelf with all kinds of morning newspapers at the gate for free. As I read, I noticed sudden change in light. Later on I learned that there is a power failure on the island where the airport is located. So now it is a waiting game. I have 5 hours to get to Calgary and to catch the plane to Frankfurt. I sure hope that I will make it. Even here at the departure terminal you can notice the lack of travelers. This place is usually buzzing with people. Not the case lately. There are two reasons: one, the people are afraid to fly and the second is the job security. People are putting their travel plans on hold and are sitting tight.

Power just came back on after an hour and we will depart shortly. By the time I got off the plane in Calgary, my suitcases were on the carousel already. That usually doesn’t happen very often. I check in again and got seat assigned right away, as there are plenty of unsold seats to Frankfurt. I am flying.

The weather in Calgary at the present is cloudy, windy, and cold, minus 2 Celsius. There were some light snow flurries just prior to departure enough for the Captain to get the plane de-iced.

We left on time and the Captain announced that it would take us 9 hours and 24 minutes at 39000 feet to reach Frankfurt. As soon as we were in the air, as usual, I fell a sleep only to be wakening up for drinks and food. I even slept through the duty free sale and when I realized I missed buying my favorite liquor Grand Marnier, just prior to landing I wasn’t able to make the purchase anymore. Well I can do without it, no problem.

And now few words about car rental. I used to book through Holiday House, however they don’t have the deals they used to have, anymore. Also recently some mysterious charges appeared on my credit card account and I am trying to clear it up for the whole year with no luck so far. The new company I book through is Auto Europe from Portland and of course through my favorite travel agent SANDY at PACIFIC SUN HOLIDAYS (604-688-0444). I mentioned before that many years ago I switched from my former friend and local Vancouver Slovak Travel Agent who used to take me for a ride on every ticket. In Germany they deal with AVIS car rental. You have to declare at the time of booking that you traveling to Eastern European Countries and you have to specify which ones. The price of course goes up. Germany has 16% VAT (value added tax) on your rental, highway fee of about 1.34 DM per day and if you rent at the airport there is additional 12% airport pick up surcharge. Just the airport pick up surcharge on my five week rental added over CAD$100.00 to the bill. I left my booking until the last minute and then I wasn’t able to find a price for a taxi ride from Frankfurt airport to the nearest Avis location on the Internet, so I ended up renting at the airport. Here I found that the taxi would be about DM 20.00. So this is my last rental at any airport.

I got OPEL ASTRA DIESEL again as ordered. It has 21000 Km and few scratches on driver’s side doors and one on the hood, which I immediately reported and it was noted on the rental contract. I don’t know if I mentioned before that it is very important to check if you have all the documents for the car prior to leaving the rental location. In Europe all cars must have a technical papers on which the license plate is noted and for international travel you must have a Green card as a proof of insurance. Without these documents, should you be checked at any border, you won’t be able to enter or leave the country. This may get really difficult and the prevention takes only few minutes. Soon I was sailing the German Autobahn again. Funny in British Columbia I wouldn’t even dream of going past 110 Km per hour, which is already 10 Km past the allowable speed limit. In Germany there is no speed limit, just suggestion and restrictions on speed in certain sections of the highway. When I go 150-160 Km per hour, I am always passed by faster cars doing 200 and over that. It is 810 Km from Frankfurt to Bratislava and it took me less than 7 hours to reach the Slovak border. The average speed was lower due to many sections of the Autobahn being repaired and speed in these sections is 60 to 80 Km per hour.

I went to bed about midnight and woke up after 3 AM as I have a jet lag and can’t sleep, so I decided to put these notes written on the paper in the computer. In few hours I will go get my recharge card for my cell phone, buy prepaid telephone card; go to the post office to mail the newsletter and at 10 AM I am shooting a hockey movie for my friends just for fun. From the daily papers I have learned that Ministry of Culture is closing the House for foreign Slovaks and will make it just an office for foreign Slovaks under the Ministry of Culture, thus reducing the staff and office space drastically. I welcome this new move as I felt for a long time that this House was totally useless and the employees there really didn’t do anything. For instance very few knew any foreign language. I know that the person under whose jurisdiction was North America didn’t speak any English. This was few years ago. In summer I learned from a client of mine that he went there trying to get some information on the statute of foreign Slovak and the employees there had no clue about anything so he gave up. What he wanted was really elementary, and to become experts on this issue the employees would have to read few paragraphs, and it would take them few minutes. This perhaps was too large of a task for them. Well I guess they were too busy doing nothing.

Thursday was a national holiday in Austria and this is the day of free admissions to all museums. So I went to Vienna early morning and visited Belvedere, summer residence of Austro-Hungarian kings, seen Crown Jewels in Hoff Burg, National Museum of Art and Natural History Museum. Wow it was fantastic experience. Then I went walking through the old Vienna, streets, churches, and town squares I never visited before (I lived in Vienna for six months in 1969), found new street markets. All thanks to new guidebook I purchased in Bratislava recently. You can get these guidebooks in North America and I consider them to be above all guidebooks the BEST. DORING KINDERSLEY TRAVEL GUIDES. There is nothing better out there. I returned to Bratislava in the evening and went for dinner with my friends to our favorite restaurant “U Vodníka.” Everyone’s dinner was fantastic except mine as I ordered highly recommended roasted duck with lokše, red cabbage, and dumplings. I felt my duck was roasted few days ago and just reheated for me. This was far below the standards one is used at this restaurant. So I will never ever order ducks there again. On the positive note the green salad with their homemade garlic dressing was just fantastic.

Next day I went to Liptovská Tepilčka and booked into my favorite Pension Dolinka, where I feel like at home and made it my base camp for many days.

Sunday I went to Prešov and visited my friend Jaroslav Biroš Bohumile Onnasisse. Bohumile recently returned after few years’ absence to dance again in one of the best Eastern Slovakia’s folklore groups ŠARIŠAN. Later on continued to Údol near Stará Lubovňa visiting family of my friend from New Jersey. There was a religious celebration in Údol as the day of St. Dimitrij was on Friday and St. Dimitrij is also the patron of the church. The whole village celebrated this day on Sunday. All members of all families gathered together and had family lunches. It was a great honor for me to be invited for lunch at my friend’s family. Later on I went to Poprad visiting our long time friend Nórika Gašková Č.S. who used to be a nanny in Vancouver few years ago. I returned to Liptovská Teplička later on and still visited my friends Dr. and Mrs. Vladimír Pohánka.

Monday morning I went to Telgárt visiting friends and delivered pictures together with video of the first mass of newly ordained Greek Catholic Priest Martin Mekel, to his father the Mayor of Telgárt. I learned from him that there will be a large celebratory Beatification mass in Prešov on November 17^th at which the humane remains of martyr Bishop Pavol Peter Gojdič, OSBM will be put into his final resting place at the cathedral in Prešov. So I will be there. From Telgárt I went through Brezno, Čierny Balog, Hriňová and Korytárky to Detva. Here I visited my friend and deputy director of Detva’s cultural center Milka Sekerešová and learned that MEGALOMANIAC GRUSKA IS GONE FROM DETVA’S FESTIVAL FOR GOOD. Apparently he couldn’t take the objective criticism his disastrous programs and creations were subjected to and he walked out of the review meting. You see he didn’t get it yet that he lost his touch with reality and that what he once had is all gone forever. There is a sign of relief in Detva since then. As it will take years to repair the damage he has done to DETVA’S festival and it’s reputation. However there are still several members of what I call FMS-THE FOLKLORE MAFIA OF SLOVAKIA involved in organizing committee of Detva’s festival. I don’t want to mention their names at this time, but they and everybody else involved in Slovak folklore all know very well who they are and I may publish their names sometime in the near future. One of them used to lead one of the best amateur folklore groups in central Slovakia and yes he was a communist and until recently he would have taken the Christ from the cross with his bare hands. Now he is first deputy of Slovak cultural organization and every speech he makes, he mentions God and prays at public speeches during folklore happenings everywhere, says blessing before meals, but all of us know that he is just a fake and a turn coat. He and others already tried to bring back the former director of Detva’s festival, who they discredited and tried to destroy, but he told them to take a hike. I guess it is time for rest of THE FOLKLORE MAFIA OF SLOVAKIA to LEAVE DETVA FESTIVAL ALONE, to leave and promise to never return. I also learned that Milka’s program that I’ve seen and liked very much at Východná festival and mentioned in the last issue entered competition in Zvolen and advanced to the next round of competition. Congratulations Milka. I also visited PhDr. Jana Kuzbelová the owner of PARTA folk store in Detva and learned of her plans of an incredible program for next year Detva’s festival which I am sure will be great since the MEGALOMANIAC GRUSKA IS GONE FOR EVER.

I have noticed many changes everywhere these first few days in Slovakia. Gas prices are about the same as in the summer: Diesel is 30.40Sk, Seta Diesel 28.70Sk, Normal gas 30.10Sk, Super gas 30.40, and Super gas + is 32.70 per liter. You get about 47.00 Sk for 1US$. Packages are getting smaller and prices for them are higher. Price of bread has increased and at the same time the weight was decreased. Coca-Cola also produces soda water in Slovakia called Bon Aqua. The bottle used to be 2 liters, now it is 1.5 liters. Decrease in the size of 25% and decrease in price of only 10%, therefore net loss to the consumer is 15% increase. Cases like this you can see everywhere. There is plenty of everything in all stores. For instance I have seen some English ducks in Kaufland store in Poprad. Huge MEGA stores that are open 24 hours are opening in almost every major city. On average they have over 60 check out stands in every store. The market is dominated by TESCO, CAREFOUR, BILLA, KAUFLAND, BAU MAX and METRO stores.

Wednesday it was so warm I was wearing just a T-shirt, but by Thursday evening it was really cold and snowing at higher elevations.

Thursday was a national holiday in Slovakia, All Saints Day. People ere decorating the graves of their deceased family members for days and today it was a day to go to the cemetery and pay respects. The cemeteries were full of people. This is also the busiest day on all highways in Europe with increased police surveillance and lots of accidents. I spent the next few days in Liptovská Teplička again, visiting my friends and cooking dinners for them. I made chicken Cordon blue, my wife Maria’s famous pork spare ribs few times, chicken on bacon and mushrooms with apples and pork tenderloin on dried and fresh mushrooms with bacon and cream. Sunday I visited my friend master potter Rasťo Haroník and his mother in Vyšehradné and here I made pork spare ribs again, however this time it was on the wooden stove and it was great. While in Bratislava I went to the Slovak National Theater Opera to see Donizetti’s Elixir d’amour again as I really like it. I love Opera and I can see the same performance time and time again and I love it every time. This was a remarkable performance. While visiting my friend and the press secretary of the Slovak National Theater Izabela Pažítková I learned that LÚČNICA the best Slovak amateur folk ensemble would have performance on Tuesday at the hall in Istropolis center. I had a choice to go and see Verdi’s TOSCA or LÚČNICA. Since TOSCA plays at the Slovak National Theater more often than LÚČNICA performs at home, I chose to see LÚČNICA. The program was called “SONG AND PLAY.” What a performance. I still know many dancers, musicians, and former dancers and of course Prof. Štefan Nosál, the choreographer and artistic director is my friend since EXPO 86 in Vancouver. Their manager Ing. Július Jackuliak is a friend of mine as well and so is their scene designer Academic sculptor Ján Ťapák. I arrived prior to the performance, of course without a ticket. Got to sit in the best row right in the middle of the theater, thanks to my connections for free. The head of the Slovak National Council Mr. Jozef Migaš and many members of the government were in the audience as well. The program started with celebration under Poľana continued with sowing poppy seeds, songs from Liptov that were sung at hay fields, beating the flax, Vallachian Hajduk, dance of legendary Janošík’s friends, in kúdeľná izba-in the spinning room (my favorite from Važec), music by Devils violin and Cymbal solo by Ernest Šarkózi, Roma dance, Potters from Pozdišovce, My throat, Bottle dance, Polka Upper Hron song and finale Holiday afternoon of upper Hron Youth.

Next day I went to visit my friend and the former director of the Slovak National Museum in Martin, Martin Mešša who in now working for ÚĽUV in Bratislava. ÚĽUV is Centre for Folk art Production. We went for lunch and then I went to take some pictures in the old town. As I was returning home, I stopped at the telecommunication center to get a new phone card and had to make some long distance phone calls, which are by the way less expensive from the phone booth then from the mobile phone. At the present time there are two providers of mobile phone signals in Slovakia. Globtel and Eurotel. Both are billing by the second. If you are calling someone on the same system it is less expensive then if you call someone on the other system from yours. The most expensive call however is from any mobile phone to regular phone or the other way on system that is provided by the Slovak Telecommunications. It is common on European regular systems that you are charged impulse charge even on local call, same as long distance in North America. You do have monthly fee for having the phone access and every call you make is charged extra same as on cell phones in North America, depending on the length of the phone call. Once my family gently mentioned to me that if I were invisible guest they would know that I was there as soon as they received their phone bill, which went to astronomical heights during my visits. So now I do not use their phone at all and use my mobile or I use the phone card and phone from the phone booths. However there is a difference on the cell phone charges. As here in north America we are charged for every second receiving or dialed phone calls and in Europe or at least in Slovakia you pay only for cell phone calls you dial, not the received ones. As I was on the phone, my friend and the president of the Slovak Folklore Union Štefan Zima passed by. I told him I was meeting our friend Martin Mešša after work, so we went to the Courtyard of Crafts located at the ÚĽUV Centre at Obchodná Street 64. Štefan offered me to have a photo exhibit that I have been thinking about for a long time “The forgotten treasures of Slovakia.” It would be a collection of my sacral work and little known treasures of Gothic art in Slovakia. Well I asked him where would he host such exhibit to which he replied at Východná Festival 2002. So I told him to forget it as I had bad experience with the organizing committee of the Východná Festival once before and I will never ever have anything to do with the National Cultural Centre. By the way they still owe me money for my last exhibit. To this he replied that how about if they would give me some space on their web pages that aren’t in existence yet. He missed the fact that at the present time I have 349 pages on the web totaling 111.5MB of space and get 150000 hits per month and that I hardly need his offer. I do believe that I will have the exhibit sometime in the near future, but it will be in some more respectable place in Bratislava. Martin Mešša was soon finished with his work and we went for beer to SLOVAK PUB right next door. It is sad how much they use English words in everything. Like for instance this “PUB” should be called Slovenská krčma and the translation should be Slovak Pub. If you listen to Slovak radio station and you don’t speak a word of English, you may have problem understanding the talk. We had few beers and Martin and I went to the center of the town to the Old Market and we had some langoše and I also had a lokša with geese lard. From there ewe went to Café Amsterdam, where I was told by one of the owners a day before that would be a reunion of some kind, but it never materialized, so we had a beer and went home.

Next morning I went to Nitra. Just prior to Nitra in village called Lehota lives my friend, fujara, whistle, and bagpipe player and maker, Drahoš Daloš. I know Drahoš since about 1989. He taught me how to make straw Christmas ornaments. Over the years we have been to many festivals and became personal friends. Drahoš is an excellent folk musical instrument maker and he sells his instruments through a Swiss company around the world. Last year I sold one of is beautiful three piece assembling Fujaras to a friend of mine in the USA and I have decided to sell his instruments on the web as well. So I took pictures of all instruments he makes. I spent the day in Nitra and in evening I attended The Fiddler on the Roof musical performance. I seen it in New York with Zero Mostel in 1971 and in 1999, I seen it here in Nitra. You never get enough of the beauty in Fiddler on the roof so I arranged for my tickets through their press office on the Internet. It did work as my tickets were waiting for me in the box office and yes they were the best tickets in the house, right in the middle of the theatre. I stayed in Nitra overnight in the Hotel of Agro Institute. The hotel isn’t cheap by Slovak standards. It cost about 1000 crowns per single person to have one of the “better and remodeled rooms.” They have two elevators one new and one old. The old one makes so much noise that it can be heard throughout the whole floor in your room. There is no ventilation in the bathroom at all. I guess they forgot? Windows are very hard to open in some rooms. The room however does have a TV and a fridge, no bar. No ice machines as well. Somehow I feel that they just can’t see the details or perhaps they don’t care if the tourists return? There are tiles and grout missing, things do not fit, there is dirt everywhere, and nobody is checking anybody for general neatness of the place. To us that is what counts, the perfection and neatness and cleaning ness in everything. It is very common to have pillowcases; bed spreads and even towels with holes in them. I feel returning and happy guests are the name of the game in most parts of the world, but I guess it is not the rule in Slovakia yet. For what they have and give for the money in this hotel, they are greatly OVERPRICED.

Next morning, Friday, I visited Zvolen, town where my family is from and I arrived in Liptovská Teplička early afternoon. From here I went to Detva to video and photograph the 30th anniversary Gala performance of the folklore group DETVA. Read the story and see the pictures on following pages. I returned to Liptovská Teplička following the performance.

Saturday, I returned to Detva again for the second Gala performance, this time it was for invited guests and dignitaries only. I couldn’t resist taking some more pictures and some extra video. The party after the performance lasted till the morning and then I went to visit my friends in Telgárt early Sunday and continued to Liptovská Teplička. Monday afternoon I returned to Bratislava and I went to see Verdi’s opera AIDA in the Slovak National Theater. Next few days I stayed in Bratislava. I learned some tinker’s craft with steel wire at ÚĽUV (story and pictures on following pages). Wednesday I attended the opening of Bratislava’s latest Shopping mall-AU PARK whose general director is my long time friend Ing. Igor Dula. This shopping center is located in Petržalka just across the river Danube by the New Bridge. The mall is made to western standards and it has three floors, 190 retail stores, 13 restaurants, 13 coffee shops, children’s play corner, fitness center, multi projection theater with 12 cinemas and 2350 seats that will open in the first quarter of 2002 as will the 18 lane Brunswick bowling center. There were about 5000 guests at the opening; champagne was floating everywhere, as was the red and white wine from my favorite Eastern Slovakia vine-growing region TIBAVA. There was plenty of food and it was excellent as well.

Next morning I went to Liptovská Teplička again, as I needed to be closer to Prešov. The weather was nice, but it was getting really cold and windy. Friday morning I started to make an ancestral village video in Hranovnica near by and later on I continued to Prešov to the Byzantine rite Greek Catholic Bishop’s office to get permission to film and photograph the second Beatification mass and transfer of the human remains of the Martyr Bishop of Prešov, Pavol Peter Gojdič next day on Saturday. I got written permission to enter on the main floor and to go anywhere. On the way back from Prešov I finished the video in Hranovnica. My fingers almost froze off during the filming of the cemetery. It was unbelievable windy and really cold, but still sunny.

Early morning on November 17, I went to Prešov and picked up my video assistant for the day Jaroslav Bohumile Onasisse Biroš and we went to the Sport’s Hall to attend the Second Beatification mass and moving the mortal remains of Bishop Pavol Peter Gojdič into the cathedral’s crypt. My pass worked and we were allowed to park really close, however there were people everywhere and as soon as we entered the hall through the back door we realized that perhaps we should have come earlier as the place was already packed with people and dignitaries from all over Slovakia, Europe and even North America. To mention just few, Mrs. Steven Roman from Canada, Premier Mikuláš Dzurinda, former president Michal Kováč, leaders of political parties, members of parliament, as on this day, this was the place to be and be seen. It is very sad that most of the leaders of the political parties and members or parliament in Slovakia are former communists and atheists and suddenly they all turned religious. Read about the mass on following pages.

After the mass we went to Tesco hypermarket in Prešov, bought some supplies for lunch and had a really good lunch at Jaroslav’s place with his girlfriend Helenka. Later on I was to go to Brezno and photograph and videotape the new festival of heligónka players called Podstavenkova Heligónka. There simply wasn’t enough time for me to make it to Brezno on time, but I have a story about the festival on following pages from our correspondent Stela Ihring and pictures by my long time friend and photographer Peter Berčík. So later on in the evening I returned to Liptovská Teplička. Sunday I went to Nitra and Vyšehradné visiting my friend Jaroslav Haroník again. This time I just made snack of imitation crab fingers with mayonnaise and mustard and we had some champagne with it. Tuesday I visited my friend Tibor Kobliček and picked up GAJDY-Slovak BAGPIPES for a client of mine. Tibor makes bagpipes, fujara’s, nineras, whistles, violins, and other folk musical instruments.

You can read about him at: http://www.slovakheritage.org/Folkartists/koblicek.htm
and  the musical instruments are at: http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Musicinstr/musicinstr.htm

He makes gajdy from scratch, he even kills his own goats and skins them and prepares the leather for gajdy bag, gets and dries the cherry wood, makes his own brass zinc or horn decorations. He makes them all by himself. They really sound great. He gave me instructions during which I was taping it on the video, so my client wouldn’t have a hard time learning to play. It all went fine and later on the gajdy arrived safely in Canada and now they are in USA.

After I picked the bagpipes I went to Bratislava. While in Liptovská Teplička I learned from my friends that one of the members of folklore group Tepličan, Stanka Bulavová has just been diagnosed with leukemia and is in hospital in Bratislava. She is 17 years old and very nice girl always making jokes and very pleasant. She dances and sings beautifully. She has been a member of Tepličan for a long time. The hospital she was staying and where they were making her tests is very well known to me as I did donated my blood to the Slovak Red Cross here on several occasions over the years. I went to the market and got some bananas, as that is the fruit she was allowed to have and went to the hospital. The staff was very pleasant and helpful in finding her for me and even though there were no visiting hours at the present time, they did allow me to see her. She was very surprised and happy to see me, as she didn’t know that I was in Slovakia. Stanka has lost a lot of weight, they cut her hair, but she didn’t loose her high spirits and hope.

In the evening I went to Opera again and this time I seen my first opera written in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Magic Flute. Mozart had a concert in Bratislava in 1762 when he was 6 years old in today’s Austrian embassy located in the old part of the town.

Next day I went to Liptovská Teplička again as I was invited by my friends Dr. And Mrs. Vladimir Pohánka to attend the opera recital by one of the best Slovakia’s opera singers, Matrin Babiak in one of the better four stars hotels, Hubert, under the High Tatra Mountains in village called Gerlachov. I have never been so close to a singing opera star as we sat in the first row of conference room that was filled to the last seat. Following the performance we went for dinner in their gourmet restaurant where they had “Husacie Hody” a “Geese feast.” Of course we all had geese and it was great. It has been snowing on and off for the whole day and of course it was still snowing after the dinner and so we went really slowly to Liptovská Teplička.

Friday it was the first gala 45th anniversary performance of folklore group JÁNOŠÍK in Svit. I left Liptovská Teplička really early allowing myself plenty of time to get there. As I was driving towards Šuňava I suddenly realized after all these years, how steep was the road through the forest. It must have been due to the snow on the road that it seemed much steeper then ever before. It was very dangerous as it was still snowing and wind was blowing strong as well. I was greeted by the director of the folklore group, Slavomír Bednarčík who was really happy to see me. I went to greet my friends the members of the folklore group in their dressing rooms and it was really nice to see them on this big day, their 45th anniversary. Read about the gala program on the following pages. Soon after the performance I left in snowstorm and wet to Liptovská Teplička. Saturday they had second gala performance followed with dinner and dance party in near by restaurant. I went to Poprad first as I was to do some small shopping for my friends; it was sunny as I walked into KAUFLAND super market. Well the weather changed so fast and it was snowing heavily by the time I got out of the store and the highway was covered with snow and snowdrifts. I got to Svit on time, changed to my suit in their changing room so I look decent for this memorable occasion. This performance was for invited guests only, mostly former members of the folklore group JÁNOŠÍK. Slavo was worried before performance as he said that yesterday’s performance was for public and the audience tonight may be far more critical. Everything went fine and great and there were long lasting ovations after every number throughout the evening. Dinner reception and dance party and followed the performance and continued till the early hours of the morning. The weather was really bad; it was freezing and snowing most of the evening. The roads were icy. Since I had to get to Liptovská Teplička that night I didn’t stay too long, but I really enjoyed it all.

Sunday I went to Bratislava. Recently I started to use a different road to go to and from Liptovská Teplička. I go through Nitra as the freeway goes there now and from Nitra I go to Zvolen, Banská Bystrica, Brezno and I cut across the mountains through Čertovica and go to Hybe, around Východná, Važec to Štrba and from there to Šuňava and Liptovská Teplička. If I am early, like before 4PM when they close the gate, I take short cut through Kraľová Lehota and the man made dam Čierny Váh and then go on paved logging road that is in fairly good shape, to Liptovská Teplička. That saves me time and 14 kilometers. I go back the same way if I can. However this wasn’t the case today as it was cold and windy and snowdrifts were forming everywhere. The road was icy and I couldn’t see the road at times at all. Lucky there were not too many cars on the road. I decided to play it safe and not to try my luck through the mountains and I went the upper route through Liptovský Hrádok, Liptovský Mikuláš to Ružomberok. This is all on freeway and pretty well leveled. Then from Ružomebrok to Martin, Žilina, Bytča and Považská Bystrica. From Považská Bystrica there is a freeway all the way to Bratislava and it goes by Trenčín, Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Piešťany and Trnava. I was extra careful and the trip took me six hours. Usually it takes little bit over 3 hours. I arrived in Bratislava safe and sound, next morning packed and repacked and as usual I left large quantity of books behind as I was over my allowable weight of luggage. Later on in the evening I drove to Frankfurt where I arrived early morning. There were no problems in getting a seat right away, as the flight wasn’t full at all. I arrived in Calgary nine hours later, boarded another plane, and arrived on time in Vancouver and thus my Journey to Slovakia Winter 2001 has come to a happy end.

Vladimir

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 9, No. 4, Winter 2001
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2001 
3804 Yale Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without the express written permission of Vladimir Linder. All rights reserved.