Making new friends in Slovakia

Well, there's one thing that I must admit and that is that each day seems to present itself with unique and memorable events. This morning we left a Penzion in a quiet, cozy town just south of Banska Bystrica. Tonight we sleep in a grandiose room in Old Town Kosice, with our windows overlooking some sort of excavation and the trolley lines passing right next to our hotel. It reminds me of sleeping at grandma's when I was little.

Marty said this was all quite appropriate, seeing that we are in Kosice to seek out the Hanchak villages of origin, so it falls into place that we would be staying in a hotel that reminded me of the home that my grandmother lived in. I thought that was pretty clever of him. We'll see if he thinks the same in the morning.

This morning we headed out with Castles on my mind. There were a couple that I had hoped to see along the way, one only a short distance from the Penzion where we had stayed.
Our Garmin Girl directed us up this tiny, windy road. We hesitated about continuing up, but since there was no way to turn around, we kept going to the top, which did take us to a small parking lot just outside the doors of the castle. There was a man up there, taking photos, and I asked him if he spoke Slovak. (We were curious as to whether or not we'd be able to get back down of if there was an entrance that we had missed.) He laughed at me when I said that I did not speak Slovak, in Slovak. I apparently spoke that so well that he questioned my real ability. Another man came along, not speaking English either, and he pulled out his cell phone and began to call someone who apparently spoke English, but was not at home to take his call.

In the meantime, I introduced myself in Slovak and they introduced themselves as Miro and Lubo. I pulled out my Slovak Dictionary and gave it to Miro who immediately motioned that he couldn't read the words without glasses. Lubo went running to his truck, and the next thing I knew he was scrambling over to Miro with a pair of glasses that he popped on his nose. That made me laugh out loud.

After some botched conversation on my part, and some pencil drawings, we established that there was just one way in and one way out. We decided to stay and see if the castle would open at 10:00 as the tour book had listed.

In the meantime, Lubo jumped into his little truck, and pulled out a wedge of soft cheese that he had stuck a knife into, and offered us both some "syr". I knew that meant cheese. He mentioned that it came from sheep, and he was excited to share it with Marty and me. We both declined, with me telling him that we had just finished ranajky and were too full. He seemed OK with that.

Marty was walking along, taking photos, and I was waiting for the doors to open, in hopes of running to the "toalety dami". Nothing seemed to be happening regarding the former, so I was attempting to be polite to these men while clenching my teeth, wondering if I'd be able to hold out for the doors to open.

The next think I knew, Lubo pulls out a Slovak bagpipe and shows me how it works and begins to play it. Miro had a huge camera and was filming Lubo while he played, and then I watched Miro interviewing Lubo whom I heard welcoming people to a festival. Apparently there was to be a huge Bagpipe festival this weekend at this castle and these fellows were hoping that we would stay for the festivities. We explained that we needed to head onto Kosice, and they seemed a bit disappointed.

In the meantime, another car showed up, and this time, to our good fortune, a man named Martin arrived, who was a violinist scheduled to play with the bagpipes for the festival. He spoke very good English and he and Marty had a grand time talking of Slovakia and music.

We soon established that the castle was not opening until 14:00 and that I could forget the opportunity of using the bathroom. We bed farewell to these men, but not before they gave us their e-mail addresses. Once they were gone, I decided that nature just could not wait, and I managed to find a place near the castle, but was certain to avoid anything that looked like poison ivy after Stacey's recent scare.

Once again, we were holding our breath traveling down this windy path, and we did have to back up in one instance when a yellow truck coming up seemed to think he should have the right of way. But, soon we were on our way again, traveling through the Slovakia countryside.

We certainly traveled over hill and dale and came, once again, to another castle on our list. We opted not to actually tour the castle, as it was required to stay with a Slovak speaking tour guide upon entering, and we decided that we had made the correct decision when we passed a bus load of school students hiking up the hill for a tour.

We managed to make it to Kosice just around the time of rush hour traffic, and after circling the same roads a couple of times, we finally ended up at our hotel and we were happy to park the car!

We met Sylvia, the local girl who has offered to show us around the towns of our ancestors, but we did not have time to go out today. So that will be tomorrow's adventure. In the meantime, we went to an excellent restaurant where I had home made pirohy and a balkan salad with a wonderful local Slovak wine. The waiter gave us both a shot of Amaretto "on the house" as we finished our meal. We wondered if we'd be able to manage the walk home, we were so full.

On the way back to our hotel, we passed the singing fountain, which really is such a lovely, romantic idea, spurting water up and down along to the music that is being played. So, the day began with a musical adventure and ended with a musical delight.