Tuesday in Trnava & Piestany

Today was the planned excursion to Trnava and Pietstany. We left bright and early and headed to Trnava where our first stop was to the museum.

The main building is located in a monastery once belonging to the Little Sisters of St. Clair. The former church here was first concentrated to the Virgin Mary and All Saints in 1255. The tour began with a walk through some rooms that held some truly beautiful and fascinating religious items. The tour was, of course, in Slovak, so I could only understand a few words here and there. Imagine my surprise when we turned the corner and I found myself in a room filled with Natural History collections. I certainly did not expect to be admiring religious figures one minute and walk into a room featuring foxes, racoons, bugs, and the like in another. Not to mention animal bones and a whole wing devoted to minerals. At this point, I realized that we were walking through a museum devoted to much more than the religious order that once lived here.

Some of the highlights included Kroj, folk costumes from various areas in Slovakia, along with ceramics. The museum also holds a collection of church bell gathered from around Slovakia.

We walked through the convent gallery which was built in the 17^th century and featured reliefs dating back to 1690. The collections also included musical heirlooms as well as many other varied items.

Two items that really took me by surprise were gravestones that were clearly inscribed, dating back to the early 1800's, and moved to the museum from the Village of Dobra Voda. This would be a genealogist's worst nightmare! Who would ever dream that their ancestor's gravestone would be on view in a museum in Trnava when the family lived Dobra Voda?

After the museum, we headed into to town to see a few of the historical sites. We were so glad that Lubos had taken us on a tour of this lovely city earlier in our visit, because the women who accompanied us today spoke very little English. Thanks to Lubos, we were already familiar with the churches along today's tour. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that today's tour guides thought that we actually understood them, when in fact, we could only surmise what they were saying from what Lubos had told us.

One thing of note: the altar in St. John the Baptist Church is supposedly the largest altar in all of Europe. I don't know if the photo can capture the enormity of it, but it is truly spectacular to view.

At this point, we boarded the bus, and headed to Piestany, which is a spa town in Slovakia. The students had brought their bathing suits so that they could swim in one of the spa pools, but that was of little interest to Amy and me. We entertained ourselves walking through the town, but with today's high heat, four hours was really a bit too long to be meandering through a town.

The bus ride home was hot, and it appears that we are headed for some more steamy weather. So glad that I bought that fan!

The Best 8 Euro ever spent!

Let me just say that buying that fan was the best 8 Euro was the best investment that I've ever spent!

Last night, we closed the window and ran the fan. It not only keeps us cool, the buzz helps to hide the outside noise, and it acts as a pretty nifty underwear dryer when placed appropriately.

I probably got one of the best night's sleep here in Modra last night, all due to the luxury of my Tesco Fan!

Today was spent mostly in class, and I find myself understanding much more as the 3^rd week begins. We obviously still have a great deal to cover, but I can see that the time investment on my part is finally paying off.

And, there's nothing like immersing one's self into the local culture, like enjoying a Smadny Mnich with our lunch. 

Smadny means thirsty in Slovak.

After class, we headed into town once again, this time finding a better grocery store way off the beaten track, where we purchased some items to enjoy in our room. There is small kitchen with very limited supplies down the hall, but it does have a toaster oven with two burners on top and one pot for the using.

So, along with some Tokaj wine, we enjoyed a yummy meal in our room while listening to the tweeting of swallows that still have not flown the coop.

What a real treat!

Always an Adventure

Our trip to Vienna was a welcome respite from Modra, but Amy and I soon tired of the summer holiday crowds. We had decided to visit the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Rooms in one of the Hapsburg museums, but had not realized that it would be so crowded inside. At one point, we found ourselves crushed between tourists in a narrow hallway with no ventilation, and with no one willing to yield to let us pass by.

We had just completed walking through the rooms that seemed to feature every dinner setting ever purchased in Austria from time immemorial. And one lesson learned: audio guides are a hazard to those without them. Believe you me, we found ourselves the victim of many a protruding elbow as we made our way through the rows and rows of collections. I think every emperor who existed granted some sort of dinnerware to Austria, but, really, how many sets of dinnerware can you admire? They all start to look alike after awhile.

And, we probably would have enjoyed the Imperial Rooms more had we not found ourselves trapped in narrow hallways at the mercy of the speed of the tour guide in the room. We might even have had some compassion for poor Elizabeth who was featured as the forlorn Empress from Bavaria throughout all of the rooms. But I'll admit that it was a bit difficult to sympathize with someone who obviously lived in the lap of luxury and was upset that she couldn't ride her horse alone after her marriage to Ferdinand. I suppose that there are always two sides to a story, but one would think that if one was going to devote an entire museum wing to an Empress, that she would have been reflected in a more positive light, rather than as the constant complainer.

After returning to our room on Saturday night and thoroughly enjoying the solitude, we had decided to take the metro to Stephanplatz and attend mass at St. Stephen's Church in the middle of the square. We knew that we could forget a peaceful walk to the church when we entered the plaza from the metro and immediately spotted 4 tour guides with numbered signs in their hands. 

We somehow managed to force our way into the church, which was filled with tourists who weren't there for the service. One apparently has to pay 4 euro to see the church during non-service hours, but it is free for the taking during Mass times. So, while the priest is saying mass on the altar, scores of people are shuffling through the back of the church to take a peek at the interior. Luckily, the church is long enough that all of this commotion is not that noticeable during the service for those of us in the front pews. 

After Mass, Amy and I felt like we really had had enough of the pushy crowds, so we decided to make our way to the bus station. We easily located the tram stop for our return trip with nearly an hour to spare, much to our relief!

After a couple of stops, it became obvious that we were not following the route on the metro map that we had managed to get at the hotel, and we began to worry. We weren't sure what to do , when suddenly an older man jumped up and started flinging his hands around. It was obvious that the tram driver had taken some sort of detour. Apparently one of the overhead wires has broken and he was forced to take the tram the long way around the city. Since we didn't understand any German, you can only imagine our concern when time kept slipping away to the scheduled departure from Vienna to Bratislava. .

Our concern must have been obvious, because another old man next to me began to tell me some sort of story in German while moving his hands around. I held up the map and showed our destination to a man sitting behind me, and he gestured that I should not be concerned because he was also going to this bus station. He didn't speak English, but his facial expression was enough to ease my fears. Except that he didn't know that we had planned to catch the 1:00 bus back to Bratislava, and the time was getting extremely close.

We finally reached our destination with only a couple of minutes to spare. We decided to take the elevator to save time to the pass-through which is located underground, and we were just hitting the down button when an Indian family decided that they would join us. So we waited while the family, complete with Grandma and a baby in a carriage, all tried to squeeze into the elevator with us. Really, we could have been down the stairs by this point, but we were squashed against the back of the elevator, so there wasn't any escaping.

But, as luck would have us, the doors behind us opened on the ground floor, and we dashed up several sets of stairs, and over to the bus, just as it was arriving. I handed the man my ticket, and he tgestured to me that it needed to be stamped in the office. Something that was NOT mentioned to us, by the way, when we purchased the tickets.

So, we rushed over to the little office, where a very kind man assisted us by stamping the tickets, then we ran back to the bus, boarded, and just about collapsed into our seats.

We arrived in Bratislava just fine, and managed to make our connection to Modra-Harmonia with out any incident. We even walked into town for dinner, back to the little restaurant that serves fabulous Bryndza halusky and pirohy.

And I didn't even complain when I ordered the 'jeden' serving of Cervene vina and the waitress brought the 'dva'. She must have somehow known that I needed the double serving!

(Wine is ordered by volume here. Jeden means 1 in Slovak, and dva means 2, so I had a double serving of Red wine...and it was great!)

Co Je Vikend !!

Ok, so without diacritical markings, I cannot do the title of this blog justice.
"it is the Weekend!!!"

A planned trip to Vienna was just what  Amy and I needed to give us a break from bird feathers, smoke and a LOT of noise..  And, the fact that it was pouring rain when we left would have made staying in Modra that much more difficult, even with a winery just down the road.

So, we headed off yesterday after class, and finally figured out how to get a bus from Modra to Bratislava, where we then boarded a bus to Helga's flat.   How happy we were to greet her.

Of course, she made us a fabulous meal and spoiled us last night.  Then, this morning, we headed off to the Bratislava bus station to board a bus to Vienna with Helga's assistance.

Everything was going smoothly until we reached the metro station in Vienna.  Apparently the Red Route, U1, is under construction, so Amy and I just could not figure out how to get to our destination. There were no paper maps, no instructions to be had,  no tellers behind windows to help one with tickets.  We were two people walking around in circles in an underground metro, generally confused and frustrated.

Finally, I spotted a man in a bright yellow vest who was helping a group of 4 purchase tickets.  At least Amy and I had figured out how to do that much!  I flagged the man down, and he was happy to walk us out of the building to a platform outside where we were told to get on tram 68 and take it to the end, then transfer to the red line for the stop near our hotel.

Without this man to help us, I'm sure our feet would hurt even more than they do now!
And, why do they hurt?  Because the map that the hotel gave to us is extremely confusing.  Amy and I pride ourselves on being relatively good map readers.  But we got lost so many times, I gave up counting.

We soon found ourselves laughing as we went through town and noticed that anywhere there was a group of 3 or more huddled together, regardless of nationality, they had a map that they were studying, so obviously, we were not alone!

We enjoyed a great lunch at a side-street cafe.

got lost several times more, took advantage of our metro day passes when we got way off track at one point, then headed back to our hotel.

We are SO enjoying the quiet atmosphere, extremely large and clean room, and I may just take a shower tonight AND tomorrow........... just because I can!!

Despite the luxury of the moment, we will head to mass in town tomorrow, then back to Bratislava and onto Modra tomorrow afternoon.  After all....we've got studying to do!!

Slovak A 0

In case you are wondering, the title reflects the language level that I am presently taking here in Slovakia. It certainly has been an interesting 2 weeks as I have attempted to learn this language.

Friday began with yet another morning of intense Slovak. The pace is extremely fast and words and verbs and phrases are being thrown at us left and right. I spent most of the 3 hour travel time on the bus Thursday, reviewing flash cards that I had made up that list the Slovak word on the one side and the English on the other. You know how that goes....one never remembers the word that the teacher asks you about. Or at least that seems to be my fate.

In addition to memorizing the words, we have to keep in mind that there are three genders: male, feminine and neuter, each having a different ending when used in a sentence. Also, each verb has a different ending depending on the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd singular and plural. So, there are 6 different forms of the same verb in the same tense.

The possessive pronouns are also dependent upon gender. For instance, if I want to say “My son”. I say “Moj syn” ; My mother: Moja mama; My child = Moje diet'ca.. Feminine words generally end in a, but child is an exception and is a neuter word.

Your (singular) son: 'Tvoj syn'; Your mother: 'T'voja mama'; Your child: ' Tvoje diet'ca'.

“His” is “jeho” for all genders and “ her's” is “jej”.

The word changes for “Our” and “Your” (pl), similarly to the singular.

The verb ending change depending on the ending of the infinitive. If the verb ends in “at”, then one changes the ending to “am”. So, to play “hrat'” becomes (without the diacritical marks): hram (I play), hras (you play), hra (they play); hrame (we play), hrate (you, pl, play) and hraju (they, pl, play).

Cestovat' means to travel. It becomes cestujem, cestujes, cestuje; cestujeme, cestujete, cestuju.

I have to remember that “c” is pronounced “ts” c with a diacritic is “ch”. “j” is pronounced as “ya”.

So “I travel” would sound like “Tsest oo yem.”

So, just a simple sentence like 'My son travels' would be “ Moj syn cestuje”.

My daughter travels would be: Moja dcera cestuje.

I travel would be “cestujem”. My son and My daughter travel: Moj syn a moja dcera cestuju.

My intent here was not to give you a Slovak lesson, but to show you that in order to form a simple sentence, there are many variables to take into account. So, you not only have to know the vocabulary, you need to know the gender, think about which possessive pronoun to use, and what verb ending to use where.

So, I'll admit that my brain takes a few minutes to process all of this. When the teacher asks me a question, I don't always answer right away, because my brain is attempting to figure out the word, but she is ready to move on, and in the process of rushing me, I get flustered.

Yesterday, she wrote a sentence on the board and used the word “zo” instead of “z”. “Z” means 'from' in Slovak. She wrote the Slovak equivalent of 'someone from Sweden' first writing “z Svednsky” then she changed the z to “zo”.

Well, I asked “Preco zo?” (Why “zo”,......I keep my questions simple.) She told me, in English, that I knew the answer. (do you really think that I would have asked had I already known?.) Then, she asks Amy if she knew the answer, and Amy nodded. (Amy took a Slovak class before) Then she asked Albert (again, who knew more Slovak walking in than I will probably know walking out), and he said yes.

At this point, in my younger days, I would have been rather embarrassed. But, I just looked at her and said “Well, apparently I'm the only one here who doesn't know” which probably isn't the case because no one was offering to tell me why.

Simple answer. It is too difficult to say “z Svedsky”, so the say “zo Svedsky”. But they can say zmrlzlina without any problem. Go figure.

In any event, it has become obvious to me that this course is merely a stepping stone to speaking Slovak. I am getting the basics explained to me, with many exceptions to all of the rules. I can read it fairly well, if I know the vocabulary. And I can write it somewhat. But I am terrible at speaking the language, because I have to figure out which word to use. My understanding is better, but I must say “pomaly” which means slowly, in order to comprehend what is being said because Slovaks say “Co je to?” Which means 'what is that'? Pronounced (Cho yae toe) which, when said quickly, sounds like Choe yatoe, which really could be an entirely different word for all I know.

So one good thing that might come out of this is that I might just be talking slower, which will make Marty happier since he says that I talk to fast for him to understand me.

We have one more week of classes, but with that great winery down the street, I'm not sure how much time I'll be putting into studying.......Just kidding!

Bojnice & Trencin

Do you remember the promised 3 day excursion that was suddenly cancelled?  Well, I will admit that I did voice my unhappiness during "Slovak Singing" class when the announcement was made that the trip was no longer an option.  I did not get angry, but when Rustov broke the news, I just couldn't help but tell him that I was extremely upset by the decision.  He certainly does not know this, but Amy will tell you that it was the excitement of this 3 day excursion to the High Tatras that sealed her decision to stay and not just pack up our bags and high-tail it out of this place.

Amy is certain that it was my reaction to the news that prompted Rustov to plan a day trip to help to satisfy those of us who were denied this trip. After all, some of the money that we paid for our stay here was delegated to the foregone trip, and that has become extremely obvious as days go by and we participate in small day-excursions and are not expected to pay.

Today's trip only cost us the admission fee, as the bus had already been paid for by the funds collected from us during the enrollment of the class. And, the fact that Rustov mentioned at least twice today that he hoped that today's trip would help to soothe our disappointment, convinced me that my comments did make an impression on this young man. So, I am glad that I decided to just come right out and tell him my feelings rather than get angry and not mention my disappointment.

Today we headed out to Bojnice Castle, which took us about an hour and a half by bus. Much to our surprise, we found ourselves boarding an air-conditioned bus, which was pretty nice considering that the temperatures rose again to the high 80's here in this area.

Rustov requested an English speaking tour, and he actually thought that the tour would include both English and Slovak, but was surprised to find that only English was spoken by the guide.  It was certainly great for us, as it was the first tour where we actually could learn a great deal about what we were seeing.  I do realize that I am in Slovakia and should not expect the tour to be geared for me, but Amy and I did enjoy finally being able to participate in one of these tours, and about half of the people with us did understand some level of English.  Most of the others were kids who just talked through the other tours anyway, so although I did feel a bit guilty about it, I decided to enjoy the moment.

Marty and I actually toured the castle in May 2010 as part of our trip to Slovakia. We tagged along a tour with a bunch of school -age kids, and made our way through the castle under the direction of a Slovak guide. All I can say is that we sure did miss a LOT of details that Marty will find fascinating.

One was a room with a black and white marble floor. Sure, it was beautiful, but little did we know that it was decorated in such a way so that the black resembled fish tails, something that was supposed to bring good luck. Who knew?

Also, adorning one of the beautiful blue turrets is a gold gilded crown of thorns. Rather large, as a matter of fact. I don't know that I actually realized that it was a crown of thorns when we toured in 2010, But it stood out strikingly today when the young man mentioned it.

Apparently Palffy, the owner of Bojnice, was in love with a French woman whom he wanted to marry. His plan was to give her Bojnice Castle as a wedding gift. But, the required repairs took 20 years to complete. In the meantime, this maiden became tired of waiting, and she decided to marry another. (Really, can you blame her? 20 years is a pretty long time to wait if you ask me!)

Palffy was heart-broken, and he had the golden crown of thorns added to this turret to symbolize the pain and suffering that he endured as a result of this breakup. He lived to an old age, never marrying another. Sad story, don't you think?

As we were walking through the castle, Amy and I spotted a female tour guide, dressed in 18^th century fashion, leading a group of children and their parents on a special tour. But she was not alone. Along with her was a muppet who looked surprisingly like Gonzo. Many of you may not appreciate the humor behind this, but my children will be excited to know that Gonzo is apparently Slovak, because this woman was carrying what appeared to be Babka Gonzo. We weren't permitted to take photos inside the castle, but I did capture this shot of a sign in the entrance way.

We had a lovely lunch in Bojnice, and I enjoyed some lekvar pirohy that were sprinkled with cinnamon, and, to be honest with you, laden in butter as well.  Probably terrible for me, but I enjoyed every bite nonetheless.

Around 2:00 p.m., we loaded up on the bus and headed to Trencin for a quick walk around town. We were only given an hour to explore the place, which certainly wasn't enough time to actually take in any of the sites, but considering that the skies broke open right about the time of our meeting place for the return, we won't complain, since our touring time would have been cut short due to the weather.

While we were waiting for the group near the designated meeting place, Amy and I decided to relax on a bench in town.  We no sooner sat back on the bench when two men came to us and one of them began to address us in Slovak, obviously asking directions.  Amy told him that we didn't speak Slovak, and he went on his way.

About 2 minutes later, another man came along and began to tell us that it was going to rain. He was showing us the gray skies and going on and on about something that neither of us could understand. We just smiled and nodded our heads and he threw his hands up in the air, smiled, and went on his way.

Amy commented that we may not be able to speak the language, but we must look like we are Slovak since this seems to happen to us frequently.

On the way back to Modra, Rustov pulled out his guitar and had a Slovak sing-along which really was quite entertaining, even if I didn't know the words. 

After we returned from the trip, Amy and I headed to Modra for dinner, and ended up being caught in a pretty intense thunderstorm. We decided to take the bus to the stop up the road rather than walk through torrential rain. By the time we got to our room, we were both soaked, despite having rain gear.

So, as I write,  our room is decorated with laundry washed in the tiny bathroom sink because the so-called laundry facilities that I had asked about in my original e-mail, can only be accessed via key request, during the day, when we have class.

Really, does that surprise you? (Thanks, Stacey, for the Tide to Go....it sure came in handy!)

Dinner in Harmonia

I don't know if I've mentioned this previously, but Amy and I have decided that Harmonia just does not exist.  There are no signs of a village to be found, and we've hiked quite a bit around the area.  But, the school is supposedly on the outskirts of Harmona, thereby the Title of Today's Blog. 

Before I go any further regarding dinner, I want to share a story that I forgot to mention in my last blog regarding our adventures in Brno.

Although the Czech Republic is 70% atheist, there are a surprising amount of beautiful churches in the town. We popped our heads into several while walking the town. One such church is a Capuchin Monastery. The monastery holds a crypt below ground, and Josef found the prospects of going through this crypt to be quite exciting.

Personally, I could have foregone that type of excitement, but I certainly did not want to dampen his fun when he had so generously offered to take us on this excursion.

Little did I know what to expect when we walked through the heavy door towards the crypt. Inside there are skeletal remains on display throughout the crypt. Apparently, very important people of the town are in the coffins, where the lids have been removed and a glass cover has replaced it.

I opted not to examine anything too closely as it just creeped me out. When we got to the final room, I was surprised to see so many skeletal bodies lined up in a row on either side. Since the Capuchin monks took a vow of poverty, they were to have no possessions, including a coffin. So, when they died, they were put in a coffin that was specially made so that the bottom slid off. The head of the deceased was placed on two bricks, the bottom of the coffin was removed, the body slid off, and the coffin was then put together to be used again. 40 bodies lay with their heads on brick, lined up in rows behind a glass wall. There are openings for ventilation in the walls of the room.

On the wall there was an inscription written in Latin:

What you are, we once were; What we are, you will be.

Nice to know, don't you think?

Needless to say, I was rather anxious to leave the crypt and move onto the other sites of Brno.

Now, onto today's adventures. We began the morning in class, learning about the rules of Slovakian verbs. Quite a lot of rules, and even more exceptions. Way too much to try to absorb in a day. While in class, we learned that there was a last minute excursion set up to see the Slovak Museum of Ludovick Stur in Modra, along with the Ceramics Museum. Well, who would pass on that opportunity?

So, even though it meant skipping out on “Konverzujeme”, we opted to go. The museum is located in Modra center, but the two people who were in charge of our group decided to take the long way into town, through the vineyards rather than on the road. And what was really interesting, was that they needed to stop along the way and ask a woman working in the fields where the museum was located. I'm still trying to figure out how someone who works for this university in Modra doesn't know how to get into the town.

In any event, the story of Ludovig Stur was told, with the guide speaking in Slovak, but, luckily, there was a small amount of English written on the boards. So, we learned the importance of this man in the beginning stages of Slovakia's search for independence from the Austrian Hungary Empire.

Then, we moved to the ceramics museum which held some very old pieces of Modra pottery behind glass.

With Amy and me being on our own, we opted to buy a frozen pizza at the grocery store for dinner. There is a toaster oven in the kitchen. The biggest problem that we have is lugging whatever we have up to the school from town. The bus comes once an hour, but we can often be back in our room before the bus will show up.

So, tonight, for dinner we feasted on pizza and wine from a local vineyard that is only a stone's throw away. Josef clued us onto that one. Believe me, it is great stuff. We didn't even bother tasting any wine. We just went in and asked for the wine that Josef's mother had given us for dinner.

As you can see from the top photo,  we are quite happy with our choice.

Na Zdravie!!

Tuesday night in Modra

The internet is painfully slow here, so it takes me quite a while to post a blog.  I'd like to take a quick break from studying to share some adventures, but, somehow, "quick" never seems to actually come through for me.

As I mentioned in my last blog, Amy and I had the opportunity to go to Brno in the Czech Republic with Josef and Anna yesterday.  Us three girls were feeling a bit guilty about skipping out of the afternoon conversation practice, but Josef was so excited about taking us, and the thought of getting out of this Soviet-style building was way too tempting to say no.

It took about 90 minutes to get to Brno, and the drive was relatively easy, although there were a lot of twists and turns, but I wasn't driving, so I can't complain.  I actually did study in the back seat and used Josef, who is Slovak, to help out with some translation questions that I had.

This young couple is a delight to be with and the day went by way too fast.  Both Amy and I commented on how this was the second great day in a row, and the fun was entirely due to circumstances that did not involve the Slovak Language Study Program.  Except, as Amy put it, we wouldn't have been in Brno if we hadn't met Anna who is enrolled in the class.

Dinner was prepared at the rental house, which is really hidden in the woods, by his mother, who was a delight.  She had made barbecued chicken and french fries for us, and when we returned from our astrological adventure, she had plates of dessert on the table.  True Slovak hospitality.

The tour of the observatory was a hoot.  The telescope in the one building was built in 1925.  It is the original equipment, and in order to open the roof in order to use the telescope, someone must climb over a rail, and manually turn what looks like the steering wheel in a car in order to open it.  I was surprised that such a facility did not have an automatic feature to open and close the roof.

We also got a night tour of the grounds where we saw how they collected water and temperature information.  They use a wet bulb-dry bulb method to record the humidity, and they use an old fashioned thermometer to record the highest temperature of the day.  The man showed us how he shakes down the thermometer (mercury, obviously), to set the thermometer for the next day's recording.  This observatory holds one telescope for analyzing asteroids and another one for meteorites.  The information is recorded and shared with facilities in the Czech Republic as well as in eastern Slovakia.

The man obviously had our attention, and he was so excited to take us around the grounds and shows us all of the tricks of his trade.  We finally decided that we should stop showing such an interest when it was 10:00 and we realized that we hadn't prepared for today's lesson.

When we showed up at class this morning, the teacher mentioned that she had missed us at yesterday's conversation practice.  I merely mentioned that we had been on an excursion with Anna and that her husband spoke Slovak. I found it rather amusing that she would even think to say anything.

This afternoon we went into Modra with a school group and toured the ceramic factory which this town is known for (besides its wine).  We watched the pottery being made from start to finish.  This factory had once employed 400 workers.  Now, only 20 people work there.  The items that they make area all hand crafted and are truly amazing.

Amy and I opted for  dinner in town, and some zmrzlina before heading home to study for the evening.  It really is quite tasty.

Things are looking up

First of all, the little birdies seem to be getting big very quickly.  We were wondering just when they will actually fly from the nest, since the feather count has been escalating as of late.   Not so great for us allergen prone people.  We've got the notion that they'll leave when we do, which won't be of much help to us.

I have to keep this very short as we had a very full day yesterday and didn't get back until late.
We met Anna's husband, Josef, on Saturday and he invited us to tag along today on a trip to Brno.  So, Anna, Amy and I skipped out on Conversation practice and headed out with them for an absolutely delightful afternoon and evening.

The family has rented a vacation home nearby, so they even brought us there where we were greeted with this wonderful dinner.  It is on University grounds where there is an observatory and we went on a twilight tour of the facility.  It was quite fascinating, and I'd love to share some more details later.

The man in the observatory who showed us around was so taken with our attention that he told us that we could come back during the day and walk about 100 meters into the woods to see the place where they measure the magnetic field of the earth.  There is apparently a completely demagnetized structure there, but someone stole the roof, as it was made of copper.

But, more about that later.  I've got to read over my notes prior to class.  Dovidenia.

Fabulous Day in Trnava

Did we ever have the best day today!  Absolutely nothing to do with the Slovak Language course, except that we can surely say that we experienced slovak culture at its best!

Amy and I  began the day by walking into Modra to catch the bus to Trnava.  After getting over the initial fear of language confusion, we managed to board the right bus at the right time and end up in the right spot.  Now that's something to be proud of, but you can be assured that I will not get all cocky and presume that I'll know what to do in the future.  I have certainly learned my lesson regarding traveling abroad and I know better than to presume anything at this point.

The plan for the day was to meet Lubos Mrena, a relative that I found on facebook after my visit to Slovakia in May of 2010.  Marty and I  had stopped in the town of Zavar, which is about 5 km from Trnava, and were led to the grave of my great grandfather, Josef Mrena, by a lovely woman who was working in the cemetery that day.  I noticed that there were fresh flowers on the grave, which led me to believe that there must be relatives till living in the town to care for the grave.

One thing led to another, and after we returned from our trip, I began a search and found Lubos on Facebook.  After a few messages exchanged, we realized that my father and his grandfather were first cousins, and the next thing you know, we were fb friends.

I had mentioned that we would be in the area, and Lubos expressed an interest in meeting with us, so today was the big day.

We arrived early and enjoyed a yummy coffee in the local shop while awaiting Lubos' arrival.

 

After enjoying a wonderful meal at a local restaurant, Lubos acted as tour guide and showed us the many sites of Trnava.

Afterwards, he took us to his home where we met his mother, father, and grandmother.  I can honestly say that that was more fun that I would have ever expected.  They were so excited to meet us.!

What was really rather amusing was that they seemed to think that since we were studying the Slovak language, we should be able to converse in Slovak.  Luckily, we had Lubos to translate.

Teresia, Lubos' mother, was excited to tell us that she had seen the clip on the news about the program, and how excited we must be to be able to make the trip to the High Tatras.  Well, wasn't that interesting?  I suppose they neglected to mention that the trip was cancelled.

All in all, the day was fabulous.  Just look at those smiling faces:

Isn't it just great when things come together like this?  A great big thank you to Lubos!

Travels in Smolenice

Let me begin by saying that lunch certainly was a big hit with us.  There's nothing like being handed a big blue bag and peeking at its contents while sitting in the bus.  One huge sandwich (and I mean huge), made with cold breaded pork cutlets between 2 slices of rye bread, 2 apples, 2 oranges, 1 nectarine, 1 bottle of water, and two large sugar wafer cookies:  one made with chocolate wafers with nutella layered between, and the other some type of lovely chocolate concoction.  Sure glad we didn't miss out on that deal.

Once again, I awoke early, after tossing and turning all night.  I would blame it on the cheap bottle of wine that Amy and I tried last night, but it's probably much more than that.  In any event, we thought that we needed to be ready for the bus at 8:00.  The realty was that breakfast was at 8:00 and we were leaving at 9:30, which really became nearly 10:00 thanks to some slow moving students.

But, that gave me some early morning time to try to absorb some of the Slovak language.  I'm not sure if the difficulty I'm having is due to having an old brain, or just to sheer exhaustion with all of the commotion that has been going on.

Today we headed out to Smolenice Castle for our excursion. We were supposed to hike in the Small Carpathian mountains, but the plans were changed due to possible storms in the area.   Let me just mention that we never saw even one raindrop until after we arrived back in Modra.

But, we enjoyed our day nonetheless.  I think the women in charge felt bad about eliminating the hike, so they somehow managed to find a way for us to tour the castle.  We had been told yesterday that it was closed and that we could only just walk around it.  One of the women on today's trip spoke English and she was excited to translate for Amy and us.  She was just one big bubbly source of entertainment, and Amy and I really appreciated her efforts as translator.

The view from the top was stunning, and above you can see the highest mountain in the Small Carpathian mountains.

This castle now serves as a source of relaxation for the Slovak Dept. of Sciences Academy .  It sure is easy to see why it would be relaxing.

After our castle excursion, we loaded back up on the bus and headed to Driny cave.  

Above you see the woods that we walked through to get to the entrance.  It was quite a hike uphill to the entrance.  This is apparently the only cave in this area of Slovakia where one can walk through.  Not that I would put that on the top of my list of things to do, but it was interesting, nonetheless, and we had our great interpreter to help us enjoy the experience.

Here's a photo looking down from the entrance.

After we returned to the room, we headed into Modra to attend 6:00 mass at St. Stephen the King Church.

Of course I only understood a few words, but we certainly enjoyed the renewal of vows by a couple who was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  

Afterwards, we headed to a quaint restaurant where we had enjoyed a lovely meal earlier in the week. Here the waiter patiently listened to our botched Slovak language ordering, only to answer us in English.  The meal here was great, and despite having to walk through wind and rain to and from Modra, we enjoyed ourselves very much.

We certainly had an enjoyable day, and we look forward to tomorrow when we attempt to head into Trnava to explore that beautiful city that is supposed to be known as "Little Rome".  We hope to meet up with our cousin, Lubos Mrena, so here's hoping for another great adventure! 

I'll keep you posted.

Dovidenia!

Floating down the river

No classes today due to a scheduled excursion to Bratislava for a trip up the Danube to Devin Castle. Luckily for us, Anna, the English speaking German young woman whom we befriended, mentioned that we needed to be in the lobby at 8:00 to board the bus, not 8:30, which is listed on the schedule.

We mentioned that we hadn't seen any change on the board, and she said that the change was written in Slovak, not in English.  Hmmmmm......

In any event, we were ready to board on time.  We noticed that the rest of the group had blue bags filled with fruit and other items. At this point, Katarina informed us that it would be a good idea for us to register for lunch tomorrow so that we would have a bagged lunch since, tomorrow's trip will not have any place nearby to eat lunch. Apparently, we were supposed to have done that for today.......only no one informed us.  We are definitely out of the loop when it comes to receiving information.  

In any event, please note that I am smiling, because I am really trying to make the best of this situation.  Amy, Anna and I were the only ones to sit up on the deck for the boat trip on the river.  Everyone else was huddled in the lower cabin due to the "cold" weather.  I mentioned that today's temps were hotter than any than I experienced in Scotland, and, even though it was raining, there was a roof on the boat.

We enjoyed the solitude of sitting alone upstairs, and really took in the beauty of the area surrounding us.

We managed to tour Devin castle before the rain began to fall heavily.  One of the amazing features is a well in the center of the castle that is 55 meters deep.  The guide took a cup of water and poured it into the well, and I counted to 10 until we could hear it splash in the bottom of the well.  The sound of the splash echoed up through the well.  Pretty cool, actually.

Here you see Amy standing in the ruins.  That is Anna in the background on the right, and note the sunflowers in bloom in a field in the distance, which is Austria.  It really is a beautiful view.

Above you see the point where the Danube and the Moravian rivers meet.  That is the "virgin tower" that you see jutting straight up.  I'd tell you the story behind the name, but since Amy and I had two different translations from two different people, I'm not quite sure which is correct.  The long and short of it is that the tower involves a young woman who decided to jump from it.  The who and the why are questionable at this point.  

Here you can see Austria in the distance.

After our trip through the castle, we boarded the bus for a ride to Bratislava.  We separated from the group to enjoy lunch in the restaurant on the castle grounds.  We had several hours on our hands until we needed to meet the group for the return trip, but it was pouring down rain, so we headed to Tesco, now called My', pronounced Mee in Slovak, to buy some things. 

The best buy of the day was a fan!  Only 8.9 Euro.  How is that for a steal?

Tomorrow we head out for a trip to a Castle that is closed, and a walk through a cave.  Sounds, exciting, don't you think?  I just hope that we signed the right list for lunch, or we are in big trouble.

A Walk in the Woods

Today, after our regular classes, Amy and I decided to attend the Slovak singing class.
We sang Slovakian folk songs while be accompanied by guitar, and I was surprised to recognize one from years ago that I remember hearing on a record.

The experience was certainly entertaining, but would probably have been more entertaining had I just not read on the bulletin board that the 3 day excursion that was planned for our group had been cancelled.  This certainly does not make for good public relations when it comes to promoting the program here in Modra.  They showed us this exciting trip that was planned for us, complete with photos and an actual itinerary.  It looked too good to be true, and apparently it was.

Needless to say, that didn't make my day.
But, after our singing, we headed out on a hike to an area that is actually the spot of a fortress that had been built in the 7th century.  None of the structure remains, but the view from the top was outstanding.

The climb up was a bit challenging, but the view from the top was well worth the effort.

The weather is cooling down a bit, which is really much welcomed relief.

Until tomorrow........Dovidenia.