MY SECOND SPRING 1998 TRIP TO SLOVAKIA

In the last issue I wrote about my friend Maksi. He arrived in Vancouver from Cariboo on Thursday evening April 23. Friday we went to pick his new passport and did some last minute shopping. Saturday early evening Maria drove us to the airport and we were almost on the way. One of the ground workers at the check in to Transat Airlines Charter noticed my carry on suitcase and felt it was perhaps a bit too large. After lengthy explanation about the values of the photo, camera, and computer equipment I was allowed to take the suitcase with me on the plane. I went to great lengths prior to purchasing this carry on suitcase to find the measurements of allowed carry on bags and I purchased the one that fits into all airlines. One thing I forgot was to check the charter airlines and of course it is too big for their guidelines. So I have to look for yet another smaller carry on suitcase. What a life. I feel that without all these different regulations my life would be boring. Flight to Frankfurt was with stop over in Amsterdam and we arrived on time. The crew was fantastic the food was good except for the afternoon snack, which I didn't like. On charter flights the drinks axe extra as are the headsets, so I drank just the wine with the meal and the rest of the way it was orange juice or soda and it was great. Frankfurt airport is much older than Munich, it is dark with low ceilings and not very modern. Maksi's friend Milan (Hektor) Pozorny, whom he didn't see for over 30 years was waiting for us. We picked our car, again Nissan Primera and we were off to what I thought was the way to Ulm, and soon I found that we were going in totally opposite direction instead of going southeast we went northwest. So we returned to the airport and started again this time a bit more careful and reading the directions. Few hours later we made another wrong turn, so we stayed off the Autobahn and tried to find Geislingen. Well we did find it. Maksi had phone directions from his friend in Geislingen, Robert Pozorny whom he also didn't see for 30 years. We started to look for Roberts's place and look and look all according to instructions. Finally we gave up. Maksi went to police station and found that we are looking in wrong town and that his friend actually lives in Eibach, few miles away. So he asked Robert to come to pick us up. What a reunion it was. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. Had few hours of sleep and off we went to Ulm, Augsburg, Munich, Salzburg, Linz and Vienna to Bratislava. We noticed that there are no more checkpoints between Germany and Austria and we went through the border at over 120-Km per hour. There was a huge lineup at the Austria-Slovak border. Mostly though on the Austrian side. You see at most European borders; both countries of the border do the checks. First we went to see my friend Miroslava Dulova, from where we made all the necessary phone calls to arrange next few days. I dropped of Maksi at his brother in law, went to unpack, and continued on to Zvolen. Next day I visited Banska Bystrica. I finally visited our correspondent Dana Hodulova, my friend, and the editor of Enviromagazin, Alena Kosturikova. I was happy to learn that her mother feels better after suffering a light stroke in March. I also visited the Slovak Government tourist agency, where my friend Jelka Faltanyova works. If everything goes well for her she will be studying English in the USA by the time you read these lines.

Next few days are written up in special report on following pages: 

VECKO 98-Worldwide reunion of Veckar's "Generation 1968."

Monday morning I picked up tired Maksi and off we went to Vysehradne, only to find that my friend Rasto Haronik went to visit his dentist in Prievidza. His mom was home so I gave a guided tour of this beautiful mini and private museum to Maksi and soon we arrived at Martin's Slovak National Museum and visited my friend and the director of the museum, PhDr. Martin Messa. We continued after a while to Andice and Dubrava near Liptovsky Mikulasa as Maksi's ancestors are from these villages. We were unable to find direct link from the available records at the village office, nor from the tombstones at the cemeteries. We continued to Liptovsky Mikulas and visited my friends at the Tranoscius publishing house: Karel Ilja Dvorak and Nadka Gillanyova. Went for lunch at Slovak Restaurant located at the towns square and soon we were on the way to Partizanska Lupca as they have a nice Gothic Church there and the town has rich history. The church was closed so we decided to go through the back roads to Liptovska Luzna, one of the longest villages in Slovakia. What is interesting in this village is the fact that the people speak Goral dialect, mostly spoken in the border areas with Poland. This village is however about 70 Km south of Polish border. I went through this area first time in 1994 and tried to find a road to village Magurka, the highest altitude located village in Slovakia, about 1250 meters above the sea level. Since this time we were driving from the north we did noticed the small sign pointing to Magurka. Few minutes later going over a mountain road we were in Magurka. We continued through Liptovska Luzna to Vlkolinec a world Heritage Site, located under Malino Brdo mount, south of Ruzomberok. There is a big no entry sign at the entrance to the village. As I was working and having my International Press Pass with me I disregarded the sign and drove right to the village. Here we were greeted by I guess what was the village welcoming committee consisting of one man, telling us that it is prohibited to drive to the village. He was standing in front of two parked cars. My answer to him was: "So what, I am here on business." Later I found that he is just a resident and has no right to say anything to anybody. Anyway I will try to look him up in the summer for some heart to heart talk, as I feel that if he wants to tell the visitors anything, first he have to make sure that nobody drives to the village at all. No locals, no visitors and then it will be fine with me too, if I am there just visiting and not working. Shortly after we were on the way to Martin as we were going to stay at my friend Martin Messa's place. We had really great dinner of spinach sauce and French bread and we went to his favorite pub for few beers. Maksi's picture and story was featured on the front page of "Novy Cas-New Time” the most read paper in Slovak Republic with circulation of over 300000. As soon as we walked to the pub all the eyes were on Maksi as the people felt that they know him from somewhere. It was really funny. We continued to a bar located in the center of town in hopes to catch my friends from the folk dance group Turiec who were supposed to have a practice that evening. Yes we met them walking out of the bar as there was no practice this evening. So we went to the bar just the three of us. Here too the eyes were on Maksi as the barman and others recognized him. They cut out the picture from the front page and asked Maksi to sign it, which he gladly did. He received honorary membership to the club. Early morning we were off to Litmanova a village located south of Polish Border and north of Stara Lubovna as I had some genealogical research to do there.

I learned that the huge houses that almost replaced all old log houses are houses of people that were working in USA. It was cold and rainy, not a pleasant day to be out. I decided to go southeast to Plavnica and on back third grade roads through Krasna Luka to Spisska Kapitula where I had little work. I found that the documents I need to continue one research are in fact there, so I will return again in the summer. From here we drove to Levoca to visit my friends the lectors at the church of St. James. Maksi got a private tour and I went to see my friend Lucka Stasikova at her dormitory and we decided to go to visit her parents. One thing to note when visiting larger and historic towns is Slovakia by car is the parking signs and regulations. In many towns you have to buy a ticket in tobacco store or newspaper stand. They usually cost 5 Sk per hour and you have to mark the starting date and time and place it at the dashboard. If you don't you may not find your car upon your return. It costs about $75.00 to retrieve it, however they open for business after 5:30 PM, and you end up losing the entire day. Prior to picking up Lucka we went for dinner at my favorite Levoca's place: Restaurant of the Three Apostoles right at the town’s square. I always stop here to eat, the staff is very friendly, and the food is excellent and yes they do speak English as well. We had garlic soup. I had steak tenderloin and it was just fantastic, medium rear, as I like it, like home away from home. Maksi had Cernohorský schnitzel, just as good. The surprise was the price. Including the tip of $1.50 it was about $9.70. Soon we were on the way to Vitaz, home of Lucka Stasikova. Passing by the Spis Castle the light of the sunset was just irresistible and I had to stop at my secret place to take yet some more sunset pictures of the largest gothic castle in Europe. They are building tunnel under Branisko Mountain and the service roads and exits on the East Side are now finished. So now the freeway bypasses the exit to Vitaz at village called Siroké and you have to go all the way to Fricovce and turn back to Siroke and then turn left to Vitaz. Lucka's mother wasn't at home as she was away on business trip in Prostejov. We had really nice evening with Lucka and her dad. Next morning we took Lucka to school in Levoca and we continued to Poprad. Here I made stop at grocery store and bought some vodka, as I wanted to stop at a salas in Lucatin, close to Slovenska Lupca. High Tatra Mountains were visible and that is a rear sight. We went to Telgart and made stop at the spring of the River Hron. It is so sad to see the spring of the most sung about and the second largest river of Slovakia almost unmarked. There is a sign marking the spring 4 by 12 inches of course clearly visible when you pass by there at 100Km per hour. Everybody just passes by without stopping. We try to visit my Vancouver’s friends Maria Demcak's parents, but they were at work. So we made stop at The Cervena Skala institute for mentally challenged children and visited the kids including my friends Lubos and Riska. I always bring lots of candies and chocolates for the children, as I like to see the glitter in their eyes from happiness. Next stop was the salaš in Lucatin. Baca the main shepherd was away but my friends the helpers were in. I produced bottle of vodka, they produced two wooden carved glasses (crpaky) of zincica a drink made out of sheep’s milk and let to go sour and tasting great. We also got over a gallon of zincica in two bottles to take home. Later on in the afternoon we arrived in Bratislava I dropped of Maksi at his family. Next day I continued to Liptovsky Mikulas where I had a pleasure of visiting one of the remaining Slovak Grofs, Grof Okolicani and his wife and family from Okolicne. Later on that day we went together for few days to Low Tatra Mountains, Liptovsky Jan and stayed at Mountain Chalet Maria. The scenery, is beautiful, the air is clear and fresh and most of all I enjoyed the absolute quietness and the serenity of the place. Next day I went to see the Festival of Ghosts and witches in Bojnice and Maria Rybarova has report on following pages. Our ten days in Slovakia were coming to an end. Next day I picked up Maksi in Bratislava and off we went to Vienna, Linz, Passau, Nuremberg and Frankfurt. Boarded the plane and soon we were home in Vancouver, beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

GO BACK TO TRAVEL

Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 6, No. 3, Fall 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.