MY WINTER 1995 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

On October 18, 1995 I went to Slovakia for the 12th time in nine years. The plane in Vancouver was overbooked and this resulted in frequent flyers being upgraded free to business class. I was one of them. Wow what a flight. It seems that the time flew very fast, as you were kept busy at all times. The movies were playing non-stop, the service was non-stop. The food and refreshments were excellent. In all a very pleasant flight on my favorite Canadian Airlines International. No, they are not paying for this plug. I stayed few days in Bratislava and my first sop was to visit my friends in Tvrdosovce, close to Nove Zamky. Erika's brother just got married a day before, so we went to visit our friend Milan Arendas a master potter. I do have a collection of his work and will write a story about Milan in the future. For now I will tell you that he was the youngest master potter in Slovakia to be called to the guild at age 25. Few hours later I was on my way again through Vrable and stopping to take some pictures of the castle at Arboretum Mlynany close to Zlate Moravce. From there I went to visit a friend, Salesian priest Vit Usak in Hronsky Benadik. I was invited for lunch with the priests of the monastery and after the lunch we drove to Psiare, where a new church is just being finished. Here I met The Most Reverend Archbishop Jan Sokol who will be consecrating the church on May 24, 1996. Later on I continued to Detva to visit our correspondent Dana Hodulova. We wanted to surprise my friend and the best Detvan dancer Pavel Smílek, he wasn’t home. Dana had to go to Presov for Monday meetings, so we decided to travel to Telgart to visit parents of Maria Demcak my friend from Vancouver. Grandma Lunter was visiting form Surrey, B.C., it was nice to see her again. The next morning we continued across the Low Tatra Mountains to Poprad. The weather was just fantastic, sunny, and clear. It does not happen to often that when you passing by the High Tatra Mountains that you actually see them. I was lucky this time, unbelievable sight. We stopped in Levoca and I photographed the church of St. James (in Slovak Sv. Jakuba, thanks Paul) again. The lectors in the museum know me by now as I photograph the church every year. The rules have changed my original permission from the bishop's office had to be approved again. One of the altars in the church is being currently restored and it is not in the church. Levoca is one of my favorite towns and I will write about Levoca soon. After a short photo session we continued to Presov. I have been to this part of Slovakia many times, and as the main road conveniently bypasses Presov, I never went to town. I photographed the church at the main square and the old buildings in historical medieval center of town. Presov has one of the largest town squares in Slovakia. I also went to the Greek Catholic's bishop office and got written permission to photograph every wooden Greek Catholic church in Slovakia. This will be the task for summer 1996. Presov deserves to be written about in future issues. Later on I went to visit my fiends in Vitaz, the Stasik family. They were all surprised as they did not expect me so soon. The following day I made stop at the first McDonalds in Slovakia in Banska Bystrica. It was few days after the grand opening. I started to talk English and almost did not get served. They weren't prepared I guess for "forefingers" that soon. After repeating my order few times, I got what I wanted. I can say the food tasted the same like here, great and every time I went through Banska Bystrica I did stop at McDonalds as it reminded me a home away from home. The prices are roughly the same like here. Big Mac, Large fries and a Coke about $5.00 Canadian. Later on in the week I went to anniversary performance of children's folk dance group "Maticiarik" in Banska Bystrica, where Dana, our correspondent is a director of their children's music. This was a truly memorable performance. I have returned to Vitaz, stopping on the way in Zehra to see father Krajnak and give him some pictures from my last trip, I took in their church. We went to Krompachy near by, for a benefit performance by Kosice's group Zeleziar, directed by my friend Vlado Urban and a funny group of musicians called Drislak. This program was organized by a non profit society called "Humanity for Life" from Kojsov. All proceeds were donated for charitable purposes. These types of actions and acts of good will were unheard of before. The school was out for few days, so I took my friends for a round trip around Levoca's Mountains. We went to Stara Lubovna, took some pictures in Podolinec and Spisska Bela and went to Kezmarok. Few years ago I did spend a week in Kezmarok during a choreographer's training. They opened the church for us and I took lots of pictures. Kezmarok is beautiful an I will write about Kezmarok too. There is a rare wooden Articular Lutheran Church in Kezmarok. Last time I saw it, it was in devastating stage. I was surprised to see it restored completely inside and out in such a short time. We stopped in Spissky Stvrtok where I have given a set of pictures from my last picture taking session to the priest. Zapolsky's Chapel is perhaps the most beautiful Gothic Chapel I have ever seen. Later we stopped in Levoca and again I took more pictures. Every time I see something there, I did not see before. I could spend days taking pictures of every altar. The details of the ancient carver’s work are magnificent. We continued east and made stop at Spisska Kapitula. I left a set of pictures from last trip in the Bishop's office and Sister Laura took us to the Cathedral. I told her about my work and she offered to show us areas of the Bishops residence not open to the public at all. We also visited the Bishop’s private chapel and the representative areas on the second floor. Next day we went to Bardejov where I needed to find Mr. Drobniak, the director of the Sv. Egidius bell's fund. I found him after stop in the bishop's office, where I was told that he is attending a meeting at the City hall. It was through the lunch break, we went upstairs and I started to ask for Mr. Drobniak. He was just finishing his sandwich. I told him who I was and what I had for him. We went to the Mayor's office and there in attendance of deputy mayor Mr. Tarcala I have given the Sv. Egidius fund a check for 5300.00 Sk. That equates to about $ 185.00. We collected only $85.00 from our members and $100.00 was donated by the society. I was allowed to take pictures again, but this time we were also taken to the bell tower, completely closed to public and seen and photographed the two new bells installed in the bell tower, high above the town square. The sight of the town and the Town Square below is unbelievable. Mr. Drobniak wanted to see me in the afternoon to give me some materials, so we went to a town near by called Krive to test my new written permission to photograph the Greek Catholic wooden Churches. I found the lady with the keys and without any questions after reading my letter, she opened the church and I did take lots of pictures. Back in Bratislava I visited my friend and the director of the Slovak National Museum, PhDr. Peter Maraky and enjoyed exhibition Wedding in Slovakia. Wedding customs, traditions, attire, table settings of different regions and nationalities in Slovakia were displayed. I also visited my friend and director of the Bratislava’s Museum, PhDr. Simon Janco and photographed the exhibit again. There was one very valuable addition on display. Last year as you all know, Holy Father John Paul II visited Slovakia for the second time. At each place visited, he blessed the soil. This blessed soil is on display in sealed jars and case. I also visited the Museum of Historic Professions, that has very interesting display of artifacts. I wanted to go and take some pictures of Vlkolinec, but the weather and also my car was not cooperating, so I decided to go to Chrenovec and on to Prievidza, Bojnice and to visit my friend master potter Rasto Haroník in Vysehradne. He was busy putting finishing touches oh the Christmas ceramic ornaments. Saturday, I rushed to Martin, as I wanted to congratulate my friend Monika Barabasova on the birth of her daughter Marta, born early September 95. I reached Martin almost as the stores were closing. Most of them still close at noon on Saturdays and remain closed on Sundays. I was able to get some little gifts for little beautiful Marta. Later on it started to snow, so I headed east to Vitaz. The roads were terrible as no one was expecting the winter to arrive this early. This was November 4. It took me five hours to travel about 100 miles. There were many accidents on the roads all over. It was almost evening when I reached a village called Korytne, just under mountain called Branisko, small distance past Spis's Castle. I should explain that this is an international trucker's route to Ukraine and Russia. The traffic was not moving at all. So I parked my little and old Fiat 128 on the side of the road and I was hoping for the best. Three or four hours later the traffic was still not moving. Suddenly I heard a voice from a truck that was parked all this time behind me that said in Czech: "why don't you come in to warm up?" So I did and discovered that the guy that called me was a hitchhiker on Ukrainian truck traveling to Ukraine as he had some problems at the Slovak border transporting a foreign car. The motor was running all night keeping us warm. The snowing has stopped, they cleared the road by morning, and I went on my way to Vitaz. It was really scary and I still wonder what would I have done if they would not call me in, to warm up. I arrived in Vitaz totally exhausted and to the surprise of my friends, as they were expecting me a day before. That morning everything was icy. Catastrophic road conditions in Kosice and Presov, so I stayed put for few days. November 11, I visited Kosice. Finally after all these trips to Slovakia. Kosice's main square was also spruced up for the Holy Fathers visit and almost all buildings at the square including the Kosice State Theater are restored, and freshly painted. I got permission from the bishop’s office to photograph the altars of the St. Elizabeth Cathedral a National Historic Monument. This was also the second day of the Kosice Days of folk groups, organized by Kosice Folk Studio. Many groups from Kosice and surrounding area were participating. On Sunday the program continued in the Kosice State Theater with children's group Zeleziarik from Kosice and Pridancata from Vitaz. Evening was a premiere gala performance of folk dance group Zeleziar new program called "If you want us, here we are." This was completely new songs and dances and choreographies that I haven seen before. So my four weeks in Slovakia have come to an end, I returned to Bratislava and on November 15, I flew home.

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 4, No. 1, Spring 1996
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1996 
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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 reserve.