MY SUMMER 1994 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

I have spent considerable amount of time in planning this trip, as I wanted to be busy and use every minute of my time getting to know Slovakia more and more. Now looking back at the seven beautiful and hot weeks I spent there, I must say that I am very happy with what I've accomplished, seen, been to, did and in all it was a memorable trip.

At this time I will give you some geographical information to compare how big is Canada, USA or British Columbia and how really small is Slovakia.

Canada has 9,922.330 sq. km or 3,831.033 sq. mi. with population of over 25 million, USA has 9,371.786 sq. km or 3,618.467 sq. mi. with population of over 265 million, and British Columbia has 948596 sq. km or 366255 sq. mi. with population of over 2.6 million. Slovakia has 49,030 sq. km or 18,925 sq. mi. with population of over 5.3 million.

Canada is therefore over 202 times, USA is over 191 times, and British Columbia is over 19 times larger than SLOVAKIA.

In my seven weeks I managed to travel by my Škoda automobile over 11,500 km or 7,145 miles, almost all in Slovakia and that would take me more than twice across USA or Canada.

My trip started on Monday, June 13 on Lufthansa/Canadian Airlines shared flight 1072 to Frankfurt Germany. I wasn't pleased with the service received during the flight. From Frankfurt I flew to Vienna, Austria and then by car to Bratislava.

The first order of business was to mail the summer issue of The Slovak Heritage Live Newsletter to our Slovak members and then I went to pick up my Slovak and International press passes. In the afternoon I went to a town called Stupava, short distance from Bratislava, where I visited museum and home of one of the best Slovak potters Ferdis Kostka.

On June 22 it was my 25th anniversary of leaving Slovakia. As many of my friends were out of Bratislava, I didn't celebrate.

One of the things I did following my arrival was to visit my friend Drahos Dalos in Nitra to give him the promised book: "Shepherds art." We talked about the book during last year's Bojnice's festival of Christmas carols of Slovakia. This book is sold out in Slovakia and I happen to have three in Burnaby. So I exchanged it for leather bound "Old Testament" from 1917. From Nitra I traveled to Zvolen where my family is from, seen my uncle and aunt and went on to Banska Bystrica where I was born. There I met my friend, the primas of folk music Valaska, Adriana Valaskova. Adriana just finished her studies at the University of Matej Bell, becoming a bachelor of education. We went North through Donovaly to a salas at Liptovska Luzna. Interesting about this village is, that it lies high in the middle of the Low Tatra mountains and its people speak dialect of Gorals from around the eastern part of High Tatra mountains, some 100 miles away. At the salas we got some great tasting zincica.

We stopped at Vlkolinec. Vlkolínec has been named earlier this year by the UN a World Heritage Site, together with Banska Stiavnica. and Spissky Castle and surrounding areas. It is incredible for a small country like Slovakia to have three World Heritage Sites dedicated in one year.

Later on the same evening we stopped at a hotel in Podbanske to get something to eat, the kitchen was closed, nobody would even make us a sandwich so we continued to the tourist Mecca of Strbske Pleso in the High Tatras. We really had a hard time to find anything, as it seems that the owners of the hotels are trying their best to hide their establishments from tourists. It was really dark everywhere, no signs. After about a half an hour of searching through the forest on dark paved roads we did manage to find a hotel that was open. The parking attendant told us that there is a restaurant open on the ninth floor. The elevator took us only to the eighth floor. We tried to push the button for ninth floor numerous times, but it wouldn't move. So we walked up to the ninth floor, only to find the restaurant closed due to some technical difficulties. We went back to the lobby, where we were directed to go to the bar, and were told that they will cook for us something there. We sat at the bar, the barman was really pleasant, and he offered us ham and eggs. We didn’t really care what we get as long it is something, as we didn't eat since the lunch at my favored "Bageteria" in Banska Bystrica. As the barman was preparing our food we discovered that everyone has to pay cover charge, as this was, to our surprise, also a disco. There was nobody dancing and the music was bad, but if we wanted to eat, we had to pay. Only in Slovakia you say?

The next morning we stopped at the open-air museum of Folk architecture in Pribylina to see my friend, Jiri Pribyl, but he wasn't there. We continued through Liptovsky Mikulas, around the man made lake of Liptovska Mara, North to the skanzen, open air museum of Orava's village in Zuberec. Ibis museum was opened to the public in 1975. The visitor really gets the feeling of village life here. On the way to Zuberec we did stop at another salaš for some great zincica. The weather wasn't very cooperative, it was cold, and it started to rain. Following the visit of the skanzen the plan was to go west to Orava's castle. I took the wrong turn at unmarked intersection and later on discovered that instead of going west we were traveling north towards Polish border. It was too late to turn back, so we continued to Trstena and Tvrdosin. When we got to the town called Oravsky Podzamok the sun light was just fantastic for picture taking so I couldn't resist of taking some great shots of Orava's castle.

From there we went to Martin where the 10th year of Turcianske Slavnosti has just begun. Many of my friends were performing at the opening program and many of my friends were in the audience. Here I've learned that my good friend Monika Barabasova has just returned from hospital and still isn't feeling well.

As I was pressed for time to go to the festival in Myjava, Western Slovakia, I went on to Bratislava through Kremnica, stopping at the geographical center of Europe, Svaty Jan and next day I continued to Myjava's 35 th anniversary festival. Shortly upon our arrival I met many of my old friends from festivals in Helpa, Vychodna, Detva, Bojnice and from many folk groups around Slovakia. I have also met my old friend, former musician from Lucnica, Pavol Michalec, who is now an artistic director of a great children's folk music band "Javorinka" from Stara Tura". Javorinka won the competition for the trophy of Samko Dudik (the greatest ever Myjava's musician and primaš at Myjava's festival. I have met Pavol in Vancouver at Expo 86 where he was the base player of Lucnica's music. He was one of three members of Lucnica's music that I arranged for to pet "Hyack," the killer whale at the Pacific National Aquarium in Vancouver. Following the festival I returned to Liptov again and managed to visit interior of the great articular Lutheran church from Paludza, now in Svaty Kriz.

During the few days I spent in Bratislava, I took lots of pictures of the historic part of the town. Gotten a permission from the director of the Bratislava's City Museum, Ph.Dr. Simon Janco with the help of his secretary Mrs. Jarmila Domesova to go up to the bell tower of the old City Hall and photograph the old town from above, including the old clock mechanism and the historic bell.

I frequently visited my favorite places such as a great little restaurant "Cafe U Petra" located at Dunajska Street, owned by my school friend, restaurant "Modra Hviezda-Blue Star, located at Zamocke schody, on the way to Bratislava's castle. Funny I always eat the same thing there: "Mothers specialty," it's sliced roasted beef tenderloin with carrot sauce and cranberries. The owner is my friend Maros Krkoska and he has great wines to offer too. The restaurant is in a medieval house and partly in an underground brick wine cellar. My third favorite place is the "Lucnica's club," where they serve simple, fast and inexpensive meals and this is a Mecca for folklorists. Members of many folk groups from Bratislava frequently stop by, after their training sessions. One night we stayed there until about 3 in the morning singing with many musicians from different folk music's, all playing together for fun and for the love of the music and songs.

While at the Lucnica's club I had mentioned to my good friend Miroslav Kapasny, from Vazec, now an artistic director of a great folk dance and singing group from Bratislava "Technik," that on Friday I will be going to the festival in Straznice in Moravia and that he can go with me. I know Miroslav Kapasny also from Expo 86 in Vancouver, where he was performing with Lucnica. So we went together to Straznice, stopping at Habans settlement in Velke Levare, visiting Brodske, village of our member Steve Burskey's ancestors, then we visited the ceramic museum in Holič and museum and town of Skalica.

CONTINUE TO PART TWO

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 2, No. 3, Fall 1994
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1994 
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.