OUR SUMMER 1996 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

PART FIVE

We went to Plostin near by Liptovsky Mikulas to visit the Marathon runner Ludmila Sunova. I promised to her at the Vychodna festival that we will visit her. She wasn't home, I guess she was running somewhere. We went pass Poprad to Mlynica where I photographed the Roman Catholic Church and stopped in Stara Lesna, only to find the old Catholic Church closed, so we went to High Tatra's and Stary Smokovec, visited the wooden Catholic church there and took the cable tram to Hrebienok. I remember Hrebienok from my childhood as we used to come here in winter for tobogganing and it was great. We took a trail to Cold Water Falls, it took only about 10 minutes and we were in different world of untouched natural beauty. We walked all the way back to Stary Smokovec and returned to Poprad.

Thursday, we went Southeast to Gemer county, first making stop at Dobsinna Ice Cave. I remember from few years ago that the entrance to the cave is far away and high in the forest on the side of the mountain. I was hoping that the horse and carriage ride was still in operation. I was really pleased when I spotted the rider. He took us almost to the entrance. The cave is beautiful and always changing and moving. From here we went to Betliar castle. This castle has won an Europa Nostra recognition and a medal in 1995 for its restoration. I was here in 1995 and knew that they don't like photographers taking pictures, so I immediately asked to see the director of the museum. I was told that she is viewing an exposition of table settings from last century with another director of museum in Bratislava. So I asked if it was by any chance the director of The Slovak National Museum, my friend PhDr. Peter Maraky. Yes, it was, I rushed to the exhibit and there he was with the director of the Betliar's Castle viewing the last table on display. It was funny and after a brief introduction to the Betliar's director, I got permission to photograph and a private showing of the castle with a security guard. Betliar Castle deserves to be written up at some later date as the castle is really beautiful. I have the pictures and a story to tell. From here we went to Krasna Horka near by. We stopped at the mausoleum first and then went to visit the castle on the hill. I will write about Krasna Horka too. From here we returned to Telgart. I tried to get gas in Dobsinna, however in these small towns the gas stations close at 6 PM and it was after 6. I barely made it to Telgart only to find nobody home at my friend's, Marienka's parents. I realized that I won't make it to Brezno where I was sure would be an open gas station. So I went to Marienka's uncle, who was visiting Vancouver this Spring. We went through the village looking for gas from friends and after about two hours we found someone with unmixed gas. I bought two liters and went to see if Marienka's parents may be home now, and they were. After the kids went to bed, Marienka's father and I went to the newly opened krcma, by my two friends that returned to Telgart after living many years in Vancouver. I was unannounced and stood behind the bar, while Peter was washing beer glasses in the sink. He turned briefly and couldn't believe what he saw. We were both happy to see each other. It was funny, to meet them in Telgart. So we all had few beers together. Late night I was promising to drive Marienka's dad and mom to work at 5:30 in the morning. Right on!

I woke up at 9:00 AM, still feeling the beer and the rest, only to find everybody gone.

Marienka's mom still works at the Sanatorium in Cervena Skala, so Julia, Mathew and I went to visit my old friend Lubos, bringing him as usual candies and chocolates that he shares with the other patients-kids. Lubos is now adult, old enough to receive disability pension and he decided to purchase a satellite dish from his pension for the sanatorium, so they can all watch some good programs.

From here we continued through the beautiful villages and towns of the Upper Hron Valley: Pohorela, Helpa, Zavadka, Polomka, Brezno, Valaska, Podbrezova, Predajna, Nemecka, Brusno, Slovenska Lupca, making a short stop again at McDonalds in Banska Bystrica. They had a deal, by giving you a card and punching out your orders and every fifth order of the same kind was free and that effectively was a 20% discount. We had free food at McDonalds on numerous occasions. We also made stop at my favorite book store at the town square in Zvolen. This book store has a great selection of folk music tapes and CD's. I would say probably the best in Slovakia, well at least from the stores that I visited and believe me I do stop in many towns and it is always book stores, record and tape stores, beside the points of interest, churches and museums. I always find something new, that I don’t have yet, to buy there.

We continued east to Zvolen's suburb Lieskovec, home of the parents of our nanny friend Norika that we visited few days ago in Poprad. She always comes home from Poprad on the weekends. I was trying to go to visit her parents on three previous occasions and I never made it there as something always came up preventing me from visiting them. This time we all made it. Norika's grandfather used to be a big Gazda, farmer. Now all is left is a really big house above the village and huge property behind it. Her parents have chickens, rabbits, cows and couple of pigs, for their own use. We were treated to a gala diner served on marvelous china, eat with real silver cutlery, drank champagne from crystal glasses, boy we were really treated like Royalty.

Later on in the evening I left yet for another festival: "Koliesko," in Kokava nad Rimavicou in the Gemer County. This was the last one. Kokava is celebrating this year the 400 anniversary of their town’s coats of arms. I arrived late Friday night only to catch the glimpse of the final Friday's program called: "Fujaristi nas Kokavou." There were fujara players on many roofs of the main square buildings playing their fujaras. This was fantastic. The musicians played in the courtyards of many houses all night, so the next morning started kind of really slow. I went to check out many courtyards and listened to the music and sang some songs with my friends. I was officially invited to meet the mayor of Kokava, Mr. Ondrej Balint and later on I introduced to him my friend and the mayor of Chrenovec Emil Trgina, who was also participating at Kokava's festival. I also visited my friend, choreographer and the director of Vychodna's festival Pavol Butor who was born in Kokava nad Rimavicou. I felt like at home, between friends. In the afternoon I watched: "Fujaristi" program, that was both enjoyable, educational and funny, thanks to fujara players from many regions of Slovakia. I also enjoyed the program at the outdoor amphitheater: "From Hont" a Southern region of Slovakia south of Zvolen. The best program by far, or at least the one that I liked the most, was a profile of a musician and my friend, Jaroslav Hazlinger and his folk music. The performance took place in old Kokava's Jewish Synagogue that was turned into a gallery. Relatively small in size, but it was packed and Jaroslav Hazlinger, his musicians, singers and narrator Igor Danihel entertained us for two hours.

The entertainment in the courtyards continued again till the morning and I returned to Lieskovec, had lunch and we were on our way to Borsky Peter to visit my Godson, Janko in his summer cottage, where he was with his brother Misko and family. In Borsky Peter they have great krcma serving marinated barbecued mackerels, just delicious, tasty and reasonably priced. You get them wrapped in plain paper, greasy, still on the wooden stick and they are great with beer. We stayed overnight and returned to Bratislava. Next day we went for a really great ice cream at the town square in Modra, that we discovered with Mathew before, and continued to Cerveny Kamen castle, that I visited many times before alone. Few days later on August 15, we have departed home and our glorious seven weeks in Slovakia have come to an end.

In summary, I have made 42 hours of digital video, took over 2000 photographs, visited ten folk festivals, five caves, 23 wooden churches, seven castles, two skanzens-open air folk museums, three folk artists, eaten at McDonalds at least ten times, traveled over 11000 Km and that is more than twice across USA or Canada.

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 4, No. 3, Fall 1996
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1999 
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.