MY WINTER 1997 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

This was a FREE trip courtesy of frequent flyer program with Canadian Airlines International. Originally I planned to fly to Vienna, Austria as during my summer trip a friend of mine threatened me to lend me a car in Bratislava. I couldn't get hold of him in the fall, so I wrote a letter. There was no reply so I had to reschedule my ticket for extra $50.00 to Munich and rent the car there. I arrived in Munich late evening and to my surprise received a brand new Alfa Romeo rent a car. Well this is a dream car and soon I was cruising the Autobahn at over 200-Km per hour. I made several rest stops, as I didn't want to arrive in Bratislava really early in the morning, I went through Vienna's core of the town and still arrived in Bratislava early morning.

First order of business after unpacking was to mail the newsletter, go for a coffee at "U Maziarika" place and then later on to continue to visit my friend in Vysehradne. Rasto was all stressed out as his dog, the Cuvac Bessy was just giving birth to the fifth baby and wasn't too keen in accepting them. It all worked out fine, as she finally accepted them and started caring for them later on. Next day I went to Zvolen. As most of you are well aware, it is my family town and also the Slovak World news group server is located here. There were some serious problems with the server in October and we decided to collect money for new equipment. Few days after the call went out we had pledges well over $1000.00, and at the same time the Canada Post went on strike. Since I have a great respect for the members of Slovak World I had given a check from my personal Zvolen's bank account for 60.000.00 SK to the administrators of the server for the replacement equipment. I am happy to say that as of February 11, 1998 we were able to collect a total of $2320.00.I will be delivering the rest of the pledges during my next trip in February 1998.

The first folklorist happening was a celebration of Margita Senkovs's 100th birthday in Lucky near Ruzomberok. Yes there is no typo in this one. Margita Senkova turned 100 on November 28, 1997 and I am very proud of the fact that I was there to witness this joyful occasion. Celebration had three parts. "Thanksgiving for life of person and a nation," Birthday celebration in the local House of Culture and "Bouquets and Wishes" created from rafters’ and other songs, music, dance and poems. Numerous groups and soloist singers from the region had participated in this event. Margita Senkova is a great singer, folklorist, taleteller, and a former rafter-cook on the river Váh.

Next day I went to Bratislava to a concert by the most prominent Slovak opera singer Peter Dvorsky a Pavol Habera. It was just fantastic. Thanks to Mrs. Dvorsky I was able to get a seat in the third, reserved for family, row. This was truly memorable experience for me. As always, I visited my friends in Levoca, Kezmarok, Vitaz, Okruzna, and went to see the beautiful Christmas displays in Kosice and Presov. Soon I attended the VII. Year of Days of Christmas Carols of Christians of Slovakia in Chrenovec-Brusno and Bojnice. You can read the full report by Maria Rybarova on the following pages.

Soon after the festival I went to Bratislava packed and drove to Munich, this time via Passau at night. At Munich airport, I was confronted by the ground crew having too many carry on bags. You see the allowable limit is one and I always have three bags. Still cameras, video, and computer bag. After a long talk about insurance I was finally allowed to take my carry on huge bags on to the aircraft. BTW the airline was British Airways. The flight home was real smooth sailing.

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 6, No. 1, Spring 1998
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1998 
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.