OUR SUMMER 1996 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

On June 23, my son Mathew and I flew overseas to Amsterdam and continued to Vienna where we were picked by our friend Mira and her son Andrew. This time we flew KLM as this was the airline offering the best prices at the time. During the flight to Amsterdam I finally revealed to Mathew that he isn't going only so Slovakia, but he will go in few days to Spain to the island of Ibiza for two weeks. His eyes sparkled and I could see smile and happiness all over him. Mira's family was going to take him and that was great. Upon our arrival in Bratislava the first thing I did after unpacking and taking shower, I went to the post office at the main train station to mail the latest issue of our newsletter to the Slovak members and I discovered that the postage went up by about 50%. Since I was still determined to send all members postcards as in the past I have decided to do just that.

Over next couple of weeks I was buying and writing postcards at many locations I visited. Finally when I had written over 800 postcards I went to the main post office in Bratislava up stairs, where they do have an office that sells only large quantity of stamps, to buy all the stamps. Anticipating that the total bill would be around 5000 Sk, I counted out 5 x 1000 Sk bills and put them on the counter. The total bill came to 5604 Sk, so I reached in my wallet and took out what I taught were two 500 Sk notes and added them to the 5000 Sk on the counter. The gentleman behind the wicket said that I am giving him way to much money to which I replied, yes, that I am giving him 6000 Sk. He said that I am giving him still too much and pointed at two 5000 Sk bills that I mistook for two 500 Sk bills. To that I replied: "It is so great that you are honest." I wanted to write to the newspapers about this, but my busy schedule prevented me from doing so, until now.

Next day, following our arrival in Bratislava, we went to check out the newest McDonalds. This restaurant is packed day and night. It is located right in the center of town at the SNP square. The prices are the same as in Canada or in USA, as is the quality of food. Several days later I did visit their head office, everyone there speaks English and they are opening two more McDonalds in October of this year. One in Lamac, close to Bratislava and another in Trnava a town about 50 Km from Bratislava. Plans for next year include six new McDonads restaurants in Slovakia.

I made few phone calls to the director of the museum at Bratislava’s castle and got permission to photograph. One of very interesting exhibits located at Luginsland watch tower, next to the castle is "The Heritage of Musical Instruments." It displays musical instruments of: shepherds, miners and glass workers, boys at Easter time, Christmas cribs, wagoners and rag and bone men, hunters, watchmen and community officers, children’s sound toys, wedding organizer and best men at wedding, bagpipers, string instruments, dulcimers and clarinets, accordions and zither players, fujaras, flutes with finger holes and without. One can see and get really familiar with all instruments that can be found in Slovakia. We also went to see, at least partially, the main exposition at the castle. As I have been going to Slovakia and Bratislava every year, almost more than once a year, since 1987, somehow this year I have noticed the increased tourist traffic. In the old town one can see many groups of tourists with their guides explaining the history of the town in many languages. I have heard: English, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Italian just to mention few. I feel this is great. Bratislava is beautiful and more and more buildings in the old town are restored to their original beauty. Embassies are everywhere, specially in the old town, almost next to each other.
We have also visited my friends at the Jewish museum and discovered that they added two more rooms to their display at the main floor that used to be the old prayer rooms.

In the afternoon we went by a boat across the river Danube to Petrzalka's amusement park where Mathew tried his driving skills at the motorcars. He was great.

During Expo 86 in Vancouver I met many dancers from the best Slovak amateur folk ensemble Lucnica. We became friends and the friendship continues. One of my friend is Jana Tapakova whose husband is an artist sculptor. We did visit his atelier in Slovensky Grob near by Bratislava and were able to view his work.

I have received a phone call from my Nitra's friend Drahos Dalos that had thought me how to make the straw Christmas ornaments, informing me about the upcoming 11th festival of Horna Nitra in Cerenany and Nitrianske Rudno. Originally I had planned to go to Straznice in Moravia, but I was at Straznice festival once and didn't see the festivals in Horna Nitra, so I decided to go to Cerenany.

I was to pick up my car on Wednesday from my friend that was always able to get some old beat up car for me, but this time he didn't have any. On Thursday night, I had finally decided that I have to rent a car from a car rental company. These days it isn't a problem as in the past. The only problem is the high cost.

Friday morning Mathew flew to Ibiza, Spain and I went to pick up the car. I got Skoda Favorit. The rental is a bit different from ours as they don't take credit card deposits and you must bring cash up front. They estimate the approximate cost of your total rental and you have to give them the money before they give you the keys. They charge extra for everything like: radio, alarm, demobilizer, central lock and even for their test drive and of course insurance, same as everywhere else. My car rental came to over $40.00 CAD a day. So I have decided to rent in Munich this time and the cost is $20.00 CAD per day all inclusive. One thing I can say the car was really good, expensive, but good and so was the service. The owner of the company speaks English, they do have 30 cars for rent.

Early Saturday morning I went to Cerenany, a small village located close to, or midway between Partizanske and Novaky. I passed by Nitra and I noticed that in near by village of Drazovce, they are celebrating the 883 anniversary of the village and the Romanesque tiny church of St. Michael located on the hill above the village. I have passed through this village on many occasions during my travels thorough Slovakia in the past and I was never able to find the road to the church. I had a feeling since they were celebrating, I might be able to find my way up the steep hill now. The police had asked me to park below as they felt that the noise of my car my disturb the open air mass currently being held close to the church. I walked the ten minute path to the top of the hill. What a site, what a beauty, finally, I was there. The church was open and I went inside. It has just one room, walls are white, no frescoes visible. It looks as they will be restoring it soon. After the mass, there was a display of folk artists selling their works. There was also blacksmith forging a sword and that was interesting.

Later on I arrived in Cerenany, the weather was perfect. Many of my friends were there. Organizers, dancers, singers, managers of the folk groups. I felt like at home, between friends, some of them I haven’t seen for few years. Here also, many of the folk artists from Horna Nitra were displaying their works of art and also were actually creating new ones. There was a woman decorating honey cookies, another decorating Easter eggs, Ujcok Lenhart was creating belt buckles, another artist was weaving baskets, yet another was carving wooden spoons and dishes, etc. This was very popular amongst young and old.

The program started with parade of participants through the village ending at the amphitheater. This was followed by performance of children’s folk ensembles: Maly Vtacnik-Prievidza, Mala Lubena-Poluvsie, Sykorky-Velka Lehotka, Maly Hajicek-Chrenovec-Brusno, Maly Kosovan-Kanianka, Vanok-Novaky, Nadej-Valasska Bela, Secanka-Sec, in the program called: "Happy, that…" Second program was called: "The song in my life," a program of interpreters of three generations of one family. Later on we were able to view the "Encounter" a program of many folk dance groups showing numerous crafts' activities of Horna Nitra. Early evening the weather turned ugly. It started by high winds, followed by slight rain, which resulted in cancellation of the performance of a really great folk ensemble Turiec, from Martin. The festival ended early. I was asked by two friends to give them a ride to Prievidza and we run into such a hail storm and rain as I had newer ever rode through or seen before, simply unbelievable. After dropping them off, I continued to Vysehrande to stay at my friends Rasto Haronik’s place.

GO TO PART TWO

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 4, No. 3, Fall 1996
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1996 
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.