MY SUMMER 2003 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA  

I had enough airline points to get a free ticket again through my Visa account and I chose to fly with KLM Airlines.

I left Vancouver on Tuesday, June 17 and arrived in Amsterdam next day early in the morning. The flight was great as usual; the only thing I didn’t like was the long wait in Amsterdam for over six hours for my connecting flight to Vienna. So in the future I will try to avoid flying through Amsterdam. In Vienna I was picked by my friend Andrew Dula and soon we were on the way to Bratislava. In the evening I rested and next morning I arranged for my car pick up from ADVANTAGE CAR RENTAL. As usual everything went very smooth and I got Škoda Felicia, which I rented on previous occasion. Car is a plain Jane, but it is fine, considering the savings I enjoy as to oppose renting from a multi national car rental company franchise. I went to Liptovská Teplička where I will have a photo exhibit during their 8th year of Folklore Festival Under Káľová Hoľa. Saturday early morning I was on the way to Košice, where my Friend FRATER GABRIEL was going to be ordained Dominican Deacon in the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth by his Excellency Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christophe Schonborn. This was a very solemn and memorable occasion. Frater Gabriel has written a story about the Ordination ceremony. I returned to Liptovská Teplička in the afternoon and in the evening I went up the hill with my friends to participate in singing and dancing around fires on St. John’s day that was on Sunday. As the village church is blessed to St. John and he is the patron of the village, on Sunday there was an open-air service at the amphitheatre above the village, that I attended. Monday I went to Svit, visiting my friends from the folklore group JÁNOŠÍK and then I returned to Liptovská Teplička after buying some steaks at Poprad’s TESCO and I did pepper steaks on brandy, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and steamed corn and we had a pretty good bottle of red wine with it. Tuesday, I left Liptovská Teplička really early, went through Martin and Vyšehradné visiting my friend Rastislav Haroník for a short time, as I wanted to go to Nová Lehota by Piešťany, where I was doing Ancestral Video. From there I went through Banská Bystrica, where I got a speeding ticket for 500.00 Sk, which is about US$13.50. Tried to make a deal with the police officer, but it didn’t fly as I went through the photo radar. After that I went to my favorite HOTEL FIM in Demänová Valley, near Liptovský Mikuláš. I had a really fantastic dinner at Hotel FIM. As an appetizer I had a half a portion of their Italian pasta with three cheeses, absolutely delicious and as a main course I had the meat plate from the newly created menu. To all this I had a bottle of Australian red wine, Jacobs Creek Shiraz. I was able to find this wine also in the METRO stores, something very similar to COSTCO in Canada or USA and the price in Slovakia is about the same as here. Next day I spent with my friends from the Folklore group Jánošík from Svit and I also went to their performances at Štrbské Pleso in the High Tatra Mountains. Tuesday I went to Mníšek Nad Hnilcom to do some Ancestral Pictures and I stopped by at JASOVSKÁ CAVE that is part of Unesco World Heritage Sites in Slovakia. From there I went to Hrušov, County of Veľký Krtíš, visiting my dear friend UJČOK TONKO BENDÍK. Ujčok Bendík is a fantastic heligónka player, singer, and storyteller. He is also very well known for his fantastic pear brandy and I had some taste of his 20-year-old HRUŠKOVICA, which was absolutely fantastic. I wanted to stay over night at the manor house in Mojmírovce as I stayed there before and I liked it, however they were completely full so I returned to Bratislava later on that evening. Friday I went to the Upper Hron Festival of Song and Dance in HEĽPA and watched fantastic performances by jubilating folklore group KYČERA from Čierny Balog, PARTZÁN from Slovenská Lupča and MARÍNA from Zvolen. Saturday I went to UHORNÁ near Krásna Hôrka in Gemer County where my friends had a yearly reunion of campers. This year it was earlier than usual so I was able to come and next year we are having 50th anniversary of visiting this site. This is pure nostalgia. Upon my return to Liptovská Teplička that evening I got together with my friends from Prešov Bohumile Onasise Jaroslav Biroš and his wife Helenka. This time I didn’t stay at the PENSION DOLINKA as I found a very reasonable private accommodation at PENSION ĽUDMILA, where I had a one bedroom finished apartment with full kitchen and huge bathroom for about US$ 8.00 per night. I have set up a web page for them with pictures and it can be viewed at: http://www.lindervideo.com/Ludmila/ludmila.htm. Sunday I went to the opening of the tunnel under BRANISKO Mountain, attended by many politicians and dignitaries. This 7 billion Sk, five-kilometer tunnel took six years to build and it was opened one year late, cutting the original over the hill route by 15 to 20 minutes. The tunnel is connecting the Spiš and Šariš regions. After the ceremonies I went to Okružná near Prešov, visiting the parents of my friend Bohumile Onasise Jaroslav Biroš, where we had a roasted baby goat that was delicious. Later on I went to visit our friend NORIKA GAŠKOVÁ in Poprad who used to live and work in Vancouver. Following few days I spent in Bratislava, visiting family and friends. Went for a dinner at Mojmírovce manor house near Nitra, next I visited friends in Detva and returned to my home in Liptovská Teplička. Friday I went to the Východná Festival. This was their 49th year. This weekend was also the annual Marian Mount Pilgrimage and I had arranged for a car pass and photography permit from my friend MONSIGNOR FRANTIŠEK DLUGOŠ. It was very exiting to attend for the second time this annual pilgrimage. I went to four services in two days and produced a video that is four hours and thirty-seven minutes long. The main service on Sunday was attended by many polititians of the Slovak Government, such as the President of the Slovak Republic Rudolf Schuster, Premier Mikuláš Dzurinda and the leader of parliament Mr. Hrušovský and others. Monday I went to get some great herbal teas at AGROKARPATY PLÁVNICA and I visited their new retail store on the main road. Next few days I spent again in Bratislava, and I went to visit and Sv. Jur, Pezinok and Modra as those are the nearest towns to Bratislava that had the privileges of Free Royal Towns in medieval times and I started to make a documentary video on all Free Royal Towns in Slovakia. This weekend was the 38 anniversary of DETVA FESTIVAL UNDER POĽANA. And what a festival it was. Three days of flawless back-to-back performances and thousands of visitors and everybody was really happy. It seemed to me that DETVA had as many visitors in one day as VÝCHODNA had during the whole festival. My friend ONDREJ MIHÁL from Toronto was to write report on Východná, but it didn’t arrive yet, so perhaps ti will be published in the winter issue.

Following Wednesday I was shooting my friends the DEVIL’S VIOLINS at Trenčianske Teplice Spa. This was a perfect performance. Next Sunday I went with Jánošík folk ensemble to a folklore festival in Orava Region in Sihelné. This was their 8th year. I don’t want to criticize it but I don’t think I will return here soon. It is far away from everywhere and the quality of programming and sound isn’t there. The next weekend I spent Friday night in Horná Malíkova at PENSION MÁRIA and Saturday I went to MAKOV attending the zero year of ANNUAL COUNTRY SATURDAY. This was fantastic happening. I was probably the only real westerner there without the cowboy hat. There was roasted steer and other Slovak specialties for dinner, plenty of beer and other beverages, great country music and professional dancing, horse back riding and many other activities. The atmosphere was unbelievable and everybody had a great time. Sunday at noon I went to the open-air folk museum in PRIBYLINA, to watch performance by my friends, the folk ensemble JANOŠÍK and I seen for the first time their new dance Šariš Polka. I returned to Bratislava later on that night. Monday I went to Vienna for lunch at where else than my FAVORITE FIGLMÜLLER and in the evening I was making pork spare ribs in my wife’s Maria special sauce for my friends in Liptovská Teplička. Tuesday I went to Levoča and had a swim in Poprad’s covered thermal pool, Wednesday I took some kids from Liptovská Teplička to Telgárt, and Červená Skala, visiting sanatorium there and on to Banská Bystrica for McDonalds hamburgers, fries and ice cream and we continued from there through Donovaly, stopping by at the church and visiting our former priest from our Slovak Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in New Westminster, JOZEF MENUŠ. We also stopped for another load of ice cream and late lunch at Hotel FIM. Next few days I was resting in Liptovská Teplička and visited the open-air folk museum in Pribylina taking pictures of the newly renovated church and some of the interiors of log houses. I also went to Spišská Sobota, where my mother was born. The town square is fully renovated and beautiful and I also went to visit my friend and Salesian priest Father VÍT UŠÁK in Poprad-Velká. The first August weekend I was attending the 8th anniversary of the Folklore Festival Under Kráľova Hoľa in Liptovská Teplička, where I also had my fourth photo exhibit. I had over 120 pictures on display. The festival was fantastic and attendance records were broken, due to the great popularity, fantastic programs and great weather. Festival ended Sunday after 11 PM, which is very unusual for any Slovakia’s festival to end this late, however it is standard in Liptovská Teplička. August 6, very early in the morning I drove my friend’s car to Vienna’s airport, flew to Amsterdam, where there were unbelievable lineups everywhere like I have never seen before. There I boarded plane to Vancouver and in les than ten hours I was back home.

Vladimir

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 11, No. 3, Fall 2003
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2003 
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.