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MY SUMMER
1997 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA
PART ONE
Well here am I again, flying.
This is my second trip to Slovakia this year. I am flying KLM airlines as I do
have frequent flyer points membership with them also. My last three trips with
Canadian and British airlines resulted in lost suitcases on each flight, but you
have read the report of those fiascoes in the past issues. Long time ago when
Canadian Airlines partner used to be KLM, I did fly to Amsterdam many times. KLM
has always managed to deliver my suitcases to the arriving area very shortly
after the plane arrival at the terminal. I was shocked at the Vancouver
International Airport to see a big line up for the check in; soon I discovered
that this was due to the computer problems and people objecting to pay extra for
their excess weight of their luggage. I have also discovered that they are
implementing a new rule of only one hand baggage for the cabin. I felt horrified
as I had three carry on bags. Well they didn't mind and I got on without
any extra charges. My two suitcases were overweight, however they did passed the
allowable excess limit and I didn't have to pay any extras. The plane left on
time. The service is excellent. I had a really pleasant surprise by being moved
to the business class seat, even it was just a seat and no business class
service, it was still great as I had a wide seat and plenty of room for my legs
to stretch. I had Indonesian style de-boned chicken for diner, just fantastic.
For breakfast I started to have feeling that the good old times in-flight food
experience is gone as we were served just muffin, cheese, jam and butter with
some fruit salad, followed by coffee. It came true also on the flight from
Amsterdam to Munich. On this flight I also had a wide seat with plenty of
legroom. We were served drinks first; my usual gin and tonic came without ice or
lemon, still free. The meal was a real JOKE and here I could see that the KLM
alliance with Northwest Airlines of USA has meant the END of great food on
shorter flights and introduction of American way of flying, where you are lucky
to get anything on the flight. I chose the ham sandwich. What a JOKE. It
reminded me a flight from Toronto to Memphis few years ago to Disney World
Florida, where we got brown muffin and coffee and on connecting flight to
Orlando we got half a sandwich each. Wow. Well I guess in-flight service like
this does improve the airline bottom line. I was pleasantly surprised in Munich
with arrival of my two suitcases. That was a time to celebrate, as you never
know if your suitcases are going to arrive on the same flight as you do. Munich
airport is very modern and well laid out, however you do walk a lot. I stopped
by the British Airlines office to see if Miss O'Sulivan was there, well it was
her day off, so I left an issue of SHL for her. I am sure she would be surprised
to see her name mentioned in our newsletter. I continued to the car rental, Sixt
Budget Rent a car. Here I was offered a choice between Ford Astra station wagon
and Fiat Bravo. I had no clue how they look so I went to see them in the parking
lot, while still upset that I won't be able to get my favorite Opel Corsa. I
have chosen the FIAT BRAVA. It is bigger then Corsa and soon I discovered much, much,
much faster than Opel Corsa as I was able to SAIL the Autobahn at 200 Km per
hour with no problem. Sometimes I felt as if I was a pilot of a jet plane. What
a great ride. At this speed I was getting low on gas long before Vienna, so I
gassed up for 100 ATS (Austrian Shillings) as the gas is much more expensive in
Austria than in Slovakia. Soon I discovered that that amount wont get me too far
as I run out of gas before reaching Vienna. I started to worry, as they don't
have gas stations every mile as they don't have them that often anywhere in
the world. Took the next exit, which led me to some recreational area of
villages and no gas stations. The light was red indicating that I am driving on
reserve gas. I drove through about six villages with no luck finally finding an
Esso station, just closed. They were still counting the cash and were so kind to
open again just for me. That felt great and I gassed up for additional 200
Shillings. So I glided all the way to the border. On the Slovak side, the border
guard officers now have new booths to sit in equipped with computers, however
they still only have two lines for cars. This is improvement since this April,
which was the last time since I went through.
I stopped briefly in Bratislava
and continued on to visit my friends at Vysehradne.
Friday evening I went to Martin and the XIII. Turiec Celebration of Folklore to
see a program called Message of Cultures. This was the opening program of the
festival with following groups: Folk dance group Zerotin from Straznice,
Czech Republic, Folk dance group Klasy from Stara Pazova, Yugoslavia, folk
dance group Busuioc Moldovenesc, Republic of Moldavia, Children folk dance group
Turiec and Folk dance group Turiec from Martin. Of
course I liked the Turiec groups the most as I know how hard it was for the
folklorists to rejuvenate the lost folklore of Turiec
region, practically non-existent as it was forgotten by the generations.
Still they did it and the Turiec folklore is alive and well thanks to few hard
working individuals. The festival continued Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday morning I went to
Vienna, to the market and just to browse around as I love Vienna, since that was
the town where I started my freedom in 1969 and I lived there for six months and
I know Vienna very well and I love her. Evening I returned to Bratislava to
attend the first premiere of Giacomo Puccini's TOSCA.
What a performance it was. Read about it on the following pages.
Sunday morning I traveled to
village of Okruzna near Presov. I was told during my last trip to Slovakia
that there would be an thirtieth anniversary repeat gala program performance of
the folk dance group Sarisan on June 15th. I arrived early afternoon, the
stage at the village square wasn't set and I soon found out that there won't
be a performance this afternoon. So we decided with my friend Jaroslav Biros
(alias Bohumile Onasisse) to go to the ruins of Kapusany Castle. He felt that
there is a road from village north of the castle called Fulianka. We took every
road leading from the village only to go to a dead end each time. We asked
numerous passers by for directions to the castle. Finally one gentleman has
given us directions, which we followed only to run to another dead end above
village Kapusany. So I asked an owner of a house at the dead end for permission
to park, partially blocking her entrance. She was very kind and gave us
directions for the climb. Of course we missed the green mark for the trail and
continued the wrong way. We run into a group of young people having a beer and
making fire for frying bacon on the sticks. They told us where to turn, which we
did. This trail is pure murder. Steep, steep, steep and dangerous. It offers
some beautiful views of the surrounding valleys and hillsides, just spectacular.
I started to feel like mountain climber. At first you don't see the castle ruin
at all, about half way through the top of the ruin appears, and as you climb to
higher elevation suddenly the Kapusany castle is in front of you. The castle is
not very big. However its remaining walls are about six to seven feet thick.
There is a lot of debris covering the bottom floors; still I would say that it
probably did have about seven floors in the old days. Many of the original sand
stone window and doorframes are still intact. As we were browsing through the
ruins we could hear to our big surprise noise of a car motor. Soon the driver
and his family appeared, so we got the directions from them and decided instead
the climbing down to take the gentle road through the forest to find the
entrance to this mysterious road, that we couldn’t find. It wasn't hard at
all, as it is with everything, when you know.
I stayed over night in Okruzná
as Bohumile Onasisse operates a great little Kerestvey Karcma (pub) there,
had few drinks and than watched the tape of their gala program on the eve of
their anniversary few weeks ago. It was beautiful with the main theme being the
Tinkers of Eastern Slovakia.
Early Monday morning still
overjoyed that now I know the road to the Kapusany Castle, I went to the castle
again. The sun was in the right spot and I am sure I got some beautiful shots.
After that I continued to Bardejov spa where the Slovak Television was filming Sarisan
later on that day in the open-air museum-Skanzen. It was slow in starting and
the taping continued for most of the day. Late evening I returned to Vysehradne
and on Tuesday morning I went to visit the birthplace of famous Slovak poet
Ludovit Stur and a politician Alexander Dubcek. Later on that day I also
went to Bratislava to see Verdi's La Traviatta.
Wednesday I visited Cachtice castle where so called Slovak Vampire
Alzbeta Bathory used to
live and committed many bloody crimes against young girls. You will read about
it in the next issues. I continued to another beautifully restored castle ruins
in the area, Beckov. This was followed by visit to Bosaca near by and the
ruins of Husite church in Haluzice near Bosaca and a rotunda Lutheran church
in Zemianske Poddhradie.
Thursday I visited the Trenčín's
castle, the town of Trenčín and the Vršatec castle near by. This weekend
was The Myjava festival so I went there and met many friends and truly enjoyed
two days there. Monday I went to do a genealogical research for a client in Katlovce.
Tuesday I returned back to do some more research at the archives in Dechtice
where I learned about fantastic little church above the village and read on the
following pages about it. On the way to Bratislava I made stop at the Smolenice
castle and later on in the evening I was invited by Prof. Nosal to join him at
their Gala performance in Bratislava, Istropolitana club, which I did. Lucnica's
performance as usual was just perfect. It couldn't have been better. Their
performance was followed by a fantastic reception where I have seen many of my
friends and made interview for Markiza TV of Bratislava and it was actually
aired few weeks later.
Wednesday morning I made my
usual trip to my favorite bookstore to discover the new publications and I did.
I found a great book "Sacral Monuments of Slovakia" that has many
churches listed with photographs previously unknown to me. So I altered my
traveling plans and went by the book, visiting many Romanesque style churches in
Boldog, Mala Maca, Cierny Brod, Diakovce and many more. Later on that
day I went to Novy Tekov where my friend and primas Adriana Valaskova, now
living in Brazil was performing with her Brazil group. It was great to see her
after few years with her Brazilian son Cyril.
Thursday I rushed in the
afternoon to see the festival of the Slovak Canary in Lucenec,
stopping first at Divin castle and Stara Halic church.
GO TO PART
TWO
GO
BACK TO TRAVEL
Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 5, No. 3, Fall 1997
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1997
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.
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