Road Trip around Slovakia and Thanksgiving

We had yet another vacation on Tuesday, November 17 as well as the day off (as dovilenka - a vacation day) on Monday,  November 16 and this gave us the opportunity to take a four day driving tour of Slovakia.  The holiday was the "Day of Freedom and Democracy" in honor of the arrival of a democratic government 20 years ago in Czechoslovakia.  So on Saturday we picked up a rental car and headed north out of Bratislava.

Our first stop was at Bojnice Castle about two and a half hours drive north and east.  We passed through rolling countryside as we left the Danube plain and headed into the lower mountains.  This is a spectacular Cinderella's fairytale castle in a beautiful setting on high ground above a charming village.  As with many of the castles in Slovakia, this has a long history dating from 1133 through Hungarian nobles up to the time of Count John Pallfy, who renovated the castle and furnished it during the 19th century. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful craftsmanship and artistry of the decorations and furnishings.  For more information on this castle, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojnice_Castle.

From Bojnice, we drove north to Liptovski Mikulas where we met with friends who teach at the school there.  We had dinner at a typical Slovak restaurant where the food was hearty and cheap.  We then spent the night in a pension in a nearby town; one that had another small castle that was not open to visitors.  We planned to attend church on Sunday morning at one of the famous wooden churches nearby, in the town of Svaty Kris (Holy Cross).  This is one of five so-called "Articled" churches, created in the 17th century after Emperor Leopold's "Decree of Tolerance" - in reality an anti-reformation effort.  According to this decree, Protestants could build churches of wood without the use of nails or metal.  The churches could not have towers or otherwise look like churches and could not face onto the main street of town.  Moreover, they had to be built within one year and could only hold one service per week - a strange form of "tolerance." 

The church in Svaty Kris had been moved from its original site when the latter was to be covered by the water of the man-made Liptovsky Lake. It was a little difficult to find in spite of the fact that it was large enough to seat 6,000.  It's location was outside of the town and not very well-marked by signs so we arrived 15 minutes after the advertised starting time of 9:00. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone at the church and no evidence of a service.  We spent some time taking pictures outside and trying to peer inside through the windows, but were puzzled by the complete absence of people or explanation.  For more information on these churches, go to the site http://www.liptovtravel.com/artikularny/

We next traveled to the High Tatra mountains, only about 25 km from the place we spent the night, hoping for a change in the weather.  The rain let up after a while, but all afternoon the clouds hung low and we got only an occasional glimpse of mountains.  This was similar weather to our last trip in 2006 to these mountains, so we have as yet to view them in their glory.  We noted many tree-less hillsides that had been devastated by a windstorm 5 or 6 years ago. We drove through the mountains to the village of Zdiar with its many intricately painted houses, typical of traditional folk architecture in this region.

In the late afternoon we stopped in Kežmarok to see a couple of churches and the castle there.  This was one of the towns of the Spiš region which had been settled in the 12th century by German miners who had been invited in to work for the Hungarian lords who ruled at the time. There was another wooden church (closed) in the center of town right next to the new (1906) Evangelical Church that was one of the strangest churches we've ever seen.  This church was built in the style of Turkish gothic - if there is such a thing.  We would have liked to see the interior, but of course it was closed.  We spent the late afternoon walking through the old part of the city toward an unusual castle that was modified and added to in different architectural eras.  Kežmarok has some very unusual architecture.

We spent the night in Levoca, historically the principal city of the Spiš region.  We intended to see the town hall and St. James Church, particularly the altar in the latter which is claimed to be the tallest gothic alterpiece in the world.  Since we knew that the church was closed on Monday, we waited until after Sunday evening mass to enter to see the interior of this church.  Unfortunately, they turned the lights out very quickly, so we only had a few minutes to see the altarpiece and other aspects of the church, but it is clearly very beautiful.  Unfortunately the town hall was also closed for renovations so we didn't see its interior and much of the exterior was covered by scaffolding and construction screens.  For more information on St. James church go to http://www.chramsvjakuba.sk/en.html

On Monday morning, we headed out of town to visit the ruins of Spiš Castle.  We found a sign directing us to a parking lot from which we could see the lower parts of the castle through the fog.  There was a steep, muddy trail up to the castle which we took only to find a sign at the top saying that this entrance to the castle was closed. This highlighted for us a problem in communication that seems to be part of Slovak culture.

We drove on to Košice to visit with Delores Wright, a teacher in the Evangelical School there who we met during orientation. She showed us around town and particularly the beautiful St. Elizabeth Cathedral that is located in the center of Hlavá Ulice, the Main Street of this city. We found this street to be somewhat reminiscent of Budapest with nice shops in the 19th century buildings on either side of this broad pedestrian street.  The gothic cathedral is the largest church is Slovakia and contains many beautiful works of religious art.

On Tuesday, we headed back to Bratislava with a stop in Svolen where we wanted to see the gothic renaissance castle there, but unfortunately we found another closed castle although the grounds were open.  The other interesting sight there was an armored train that had played a role in the Slovak National Uprising at the end of World War II, when partisans cooperated with the Red Army to drive the German army and pro-Nazi Slovak puppet government from the country.

We learned and observed a lot on this trip.  Slovakia is a beautiful country with various different regions, each with its own charm and attractions.  The highway system is quite good.  There are very good limited access highways in much of the country, and the other two-lane roads are well-designed.  The land is heavily agricultural, even in the mountains.  We were really impressed with the richness of the soil as well as with the size of farms.  There is a deep and interesting history with many sites that support its study - from early Celtic sites to castles and cathedrals that speak of the several different cultures that have impacted the country.  We did not see a great deal of poverty except in the Roma (Gypsy) villages that we passed through.  These villages contained the roughest of shacks with garbage strewn to a considerable height all around.  We have seen signs of unemployment in the villages and cities, with some poor neighborhoods, but the social support network seems to take care of most needs for these people.  The Roma are an obvious exception, but we don't know much about them. We hear a lot of opinions from our students and others about their character (or lack thereof), but we are curious to learn more about why they live in such poverty.  We feel that Slovakia has a long way to go in terms of meeting the needs and desires of tourists - it is not "tourist-friendly."  The people who provide service in restaurants and hotels are very good at providing service, but other agencies that could be providing information, quidance, and service to visitors are almost non-existant.  Accurate and specific information is often in short supply.  In spite of our disappointments with not being able to see much of what we had planned to see, specifically the insides of churches, castles, and museums, we came away from this short trip with a good feeling about the country and its culture.

After returning home, we experienced two thanksgiving celebrations.  On Thursday, the student council at school organized a "Turkey Day" complete with turkey and  (some of) the trimmings.  They put on a Thanksgiving skit and we American teachers sang a song that one of our group had written.  It was fun to eat with the students and enjoy their efforts at celebrating our holiday.  On Saturday, we had a Thanksgiving party (again at school) with all the ELCA missionary teachers from Slovakia and Poland.  They all came to Bratislava for the weekend, so we had plenty of opportunity for fellowship and good food.  Everyone brought some parts of the dinner, as best we could construct them from Slovakian recources - canned pumpkin, Jello, and fried onion rings (for green bean casserole) are virtually nonexistant.  We had a great spread, enjoyed skits by the various groups, and played the gift-giving (and -taking) game of "IT", sort of a frantic version of a white elephant exchange.  Both of these events gave us the opportunities to be thankful for the experiences and friendships that we are forming here, but also to reflect on those from home who we miss very much.  We love you all.