MY SUMMER 2002 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA  

Early this year I received an invitation from the folklore group Jánošík to go with them this summer to two international folklore festivals. The first one being in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in town Iskele and the second festival in town of Bursa, Turkey.

The invitation sounded very interesting and after a while I decided to join them and go. I used my frequent flyer points from Air Canada for my ticket and flew Vancouver-Frankfurt and then to Vienna, Austria. As usual the flight was fantastic. In Vienna my friend Miroslava Dulová met me and soon I was in Bratislava. Immediately after my arrival I went to pick up my car. I decided to rent a car in Slovakia from a Slovak company. While I think they are also very expensive, but less expensive then the multinational car rental companies with huge stock of cars and not too many renters at the moment. I got some kind of Škoda, not bad, fast, however no air-conditioning that I am used to for years. It really gets hot in Slovakia in summer, but since I needed the car only for few days prior to my departure for Cyprus I didn’t mind the extra sweat. I picked my cell phone and of course the batteries were dead and I left my cigarette lighter charger at home in Vancouver so I had to charge the phone battery over night. The first morning, while I was still very tired from the jet lag the phone rung and it was my correspondent and Camera person from Liptovská Teplička, Marcela Slmolárova informing me that our friend and a member of folklore group Tepličan from Liptovská Teplička, Stanka Bulavová of whom I wrote in past issues passed away after almost a year long battle with leukemia on June 19 and the funeral will be on Friday June 21. That was shocking news as she would have been 18 years old on October 8 of this year. So I rearranged my plans for the next few days and I went to Liptovská Teplička.

The funeral started at 1:00 PM in front of the family house. Usually the coffin is open and viewed by the members of the family and everyone else in the courtyard of the house. Since Stanka’s family home is on the hill and there were so many people in attendance her open coffin was displayed in the middle of the street in front of their house. I think the whole village came to pay their last respect for Stanka. The village funeral has three stages. First of all since she was so young, she was dressed in White and her coffin was white. The first stage is to say good-bye to the family and the family home and neighbors. The priest is in attendance at all three stages. After the last goodbyes from the closest family members the coffin is closed and there is a procession through the village to the church. There is a lot of symbolism here. Two children that at wedding hold a bouquet of flowers and rings on white pillows were in attendance, but one of them had lemon on the pillow, symbolizing the bitter life that she left and another child had bent burnt out candle on the pillow, symbolizing the end of life. Stance’s cousin was dressed as her groom. The funeral ceremony is also her wedding ceremony. This is very old custom still practiced in Slovakia. After the last good byes to the church there is procession from the church to the cemetery above the village. Stance’s grave is on the top of the hill overlooking the amphitheater where she used to perform and it also overlooks the whole village. At the cemetery her friends from the folklore group, elementary school and secondary school said last goodbyes to her and she was laid to rest. After the ceremony there was a wake at the Pension Dolinka and there were many people in attendance all remembering her smiles and jokes and her pleasant personality. This is a poem her friends wrote and sung at the ceremony:

Good Bye hills, my native slopes, Good Bye my birth village,
everything that I loved so much I left forever.
In my early age God had called me, I had enough of suffering,
father, mother I thank you for your love and for your worries.
With you my dear brothers and sisters, today I bid farewell,
That we lived in love; I thank you from my heart.
I will never sing on the hills, won’t jump on the horse,
Twilight of death covered my eyes, my leg weakened.
Mother of God you take me by my hand in front of God the highest.
To have mercy for my soul, for pain of your heart.
Good Bye our dear sister, you left this world
But your soul dear Stanka, shines in the heaven like paradise flower.
The God above the life and death ended your earthly life,
so he can accept you in your youth so you may try the heavenly life.
We are saying Good Bye not for long, as everyone’s life will end
and we will meet again in the beautiful heaven, when God of life will call.

Saturday I went do some ancestral village photography in Spišské Vlachy and then continued to see my friends in Údol near Stará Ľubovňa. Before returning to Liptovská Teplička I met my friend and the president of the folklore group Jánošík, Slavomír Bednarčík  in Svit and I left my suitcase, cameras and laptop with him as it would be too difficult to travel by train with so much luggage. Sunday there was a First Mass by newly ordained priest Stanislav Misál in Liptovská Teplička newly remodeled amphitheater. The whole village attended the mass. Late afternoon I went to Poprad and visited our friend Nórika Gašková, we went for a dinner at newly opened restaurant at Poprad’s town square and the food was excellent. Early morning I drove Nórika to work and I went to see the mayor of Bošáca in Western Slovakia south of Trenčín and picked some excellent Slivovica for my Vancouver friend.

After my arrival in Bratislava I went to the train station to buy a ticked and reserved seat on the Intercity Express train to Poprad. It leaves before six in the morning and I think by 9 AM it is in Poprad, while making very few stops on the way. I returned the car to the Advantage Car Rental Company and they gave me a free ride to downtown.

I learned from my friend Miroslava Dulová that if you call the taxi company by phone there is a better rate charged then by just flagging a taxi on the street. It sounds funny but it is true. So I booked the taxi for the morning and of course the taxi was on time. Soon I was at the train station, bought some newspapers and magazines and I was off to Poprad. The train arrived on time in Poprad after making I believe only about three stops on the way. The president of the folkdance group Jánošík, Slavomír Bednarčík came to pick me up and we went to Svit. I stayed in Svit all day and the next morning we boarded a luxury bus and we were off to Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The roads through Hungary were great and very similar to those in Slovakia. However the journey through Romania and Bulgaria was terrible. The roads are bad, services are minimal, the landscape is devastated and there is garbage all over. Both countries reminded me the scene of some gypsy settlements in Slovakia and I said to myself that if I ever have to go to these two countries again it must be only over them in a airplane. The border crossings in these two countries are something else as well. The customs officers are waiting for gifts of beer and cigarettes before doing anything to clear you through. What was nice was the final arrival in Turkey. They do have a class there. The roads are good, everything is relatively clean and inexpensive and the people are very friendly. We went through Turkey from Istanbul to Ankara and then south to Tasucu near Mersin where we boarded a ferry. The ferry was to leave at midnight, but for some strange reason there was nobody from the staff to be found on the ferry all night until early morning. So instead of midnight we left at 4 AM. It took about seven hours to make the crossing to Cyprus. Actually this is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. We arrived in ancient city Girne also known as Kyrenie. This city dates back to 10th century BC. Here we were greeted by the organizers of the 34th Iskele Festival. After lengthy delays at customs we finally boarded our bus again and were on the way to Hotel BOGAZ near Iskele. Since the weather is really hot all the festival activities take place at night. First day there was an official opening of the festival at the town square. Next day were short introductory performances by every group. Next day was a show of folk costumes by all the participating nations: Cyprus, Macedonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Bosnia Hercegovina and Turkey followed by beauty pageant. Each country had five contestants and there were five winners with Slovakia having two most beautiful girls of the festival. Final day was competition, and closing ceremonies. One day we went on a sightseeing trip to ancient town of Salamis, Famagusta and we also went to see the Basilica of St. Barnabas. Saturday morning was a time to say goodbye to our friends and we boarded the same ferry and went back to Turkey. We traveled northwest to Bursa, which is about 150 Kilometers south east from Istanbul. Bursa used to be the capital city of the Ottoman Empire and this was the 41st anniversary of the Festival and 16th anniversary of Golden Karagoz Folk Dances Competition. Here there were 17 nations participating: Turkey, Bosnia Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ireland, Korea, Cyprus, Macedonia, Egypt, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia Jánošík and Železiar, Turkmenistan, Mexico and Greece. This festival is really huge and very well organized. All groups were staying at hotel KARTANESI, a mountaintop skiing resort in Uludag National Park in. Again at this festival all the festivities have taken place at night with the exception of the parade that taken place in the afternoon. There performances at several amphitheaters, children summer camp, and parking lots. Each group got to perform at all locations. One thing that is sad about the festival is that there is almost no time for individual sightseeing. We went to the real BAZZAR in Bursa and were able so shop and bargain for better prices, we also strolled through the market. It was exciting. I went with our guide Elif Gursel and we also had a typical Bursa lunch. There was a big party prior to the end of the festival at the hotel. Festival ended in the main amphitheatre with dance competition. Saturday morning we started our journey home. Soon we boarded ferry that took us over the Marmara Sea, thus saving us lots of time. In few hours we were passing through Istanbul and I guess that thaw the saddest moment of the trip to go through Istanbul and not stopping. We had to rush home so we went practically non stop Through Turkey, Bulgaria, boarded another ferry over Danube to get to Romania and soon we were in Hungary. We arrived in Svit on Monday July 15 and our beautiful trip has ended. I left all my stuff with Slavo Bendarčík and went to Bratislava by train, picked my car and went to BURE, where my family has a summer home, stayed over night and then I had ancestral videos to make in Unín and Kúty. I returned to Bratislava and continued through Nitra, Banská Bystrica and Brezno to Svit. Here I met my friends Evka Ištváňová and Marek Karčmarčík from the folkdance group Jánošík and we went together through unbelievable strong hail and thunderstorm to Liptovská Teplička to visit another group member Martin Bulava. Of course I stayed at my favorite pension DOLINKA. Next morning we went to Plavnica where I visited AGROCARPATY CO-OP. They have large variety of herbal teas. So I took 10 packages each of almost everything they have to offer and I will finish my collection on my next trip with purchase of more teas. From here we went to Vislanka near by, where Evka is from. Her dad who was just inspecting the damage around his house from yesterday’s storm met us. From here I went through Stará Ľubovňa, Poprad and Ružomberok to Dolný Kubín to visit my friend and now the Dominican monk with life promises Frater Gabriel and his family. It was so nice to see them again. We had beautiful lunch and talked for a while. Later on I returned to Liptovská Teplička again and next morning I went to Bratislava stopping for a short time in Vyšehradné at my friend Rastislav Haroník and then in Bojnice. Saturday morning I went by bus to Vienna and flew to London, then to Toronto and I arrived in Vancouver the same evening. And thus my beautiful Summer 2002 trip has ended.

Vladimir

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 10, No. 2, Winter 2002
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2002 
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.