Wine & Warhol: What a combination

This morning we were introduced to the basic rules of past tense verbs, and this afternoon Amy and I chose to sit in on the conversation class which is designed to get you to have a dialogue with someone in Slovak.  I can say that I really do know a lot more, but I'm in no way proficient enough to carry on much more than a simple conversation.  I can think it in my head, but it takes awhile for me to process before I actually speak.  Katarina, the one instructor, even mentioned that I was speaking "pomaly"  which means slowly, which is probably a first for me!  And I can just see some of my  friends reading this while nodding their heads and chuckling.

The afternoon excursion planned for today was to the Elesco Wine Park and Andy Warhol Museum.  I didn't give the combination much thought as we have taken trips where we board the bus and go to a second destination.  We no sooner got on the bus,  when the skies broke open and we found ourselves sitting inside it with lightening striking around us and the rain coming down in a deluge.

The Wine Park is only a couple of miles away, but it is off of a country road, with no sidewalks, and it really would be quite a hike from this school in Modra-Harmonia.

A young woman from Romania, who is Slovak, offered to translate for us, as she teaches English and Slovak to Slovaks living in Romania (a lesson for another day).  One of the first things that she told us was that they built the building so that it would fit in naturally with the environment.  I need say no more.

We toured the facility where we learned the process of taking grapes from the field and producing wine.  This facility makes several different types of wine, and their hope is to become one of the best wineries in the world. 

We were expecting to actually taste some of the wine made at this facility, but when the tour was complete, the group was led back to the entrance where we followed a  hallway to another wing in the building that featured museum devoted to Andy Warhol.

No  photos were permitted inside the museum.  What you see here is wall art in a children's play area that must be there for kids to play in while the parents taste wine.

The museum was interesting to say the least.  I found it amusing that I was standing in a museum that was dedicated to Andy Warhol just outside of Modra when I knew there was one in Pittsburgh that I could visit if I chose to do so.  What was the connection between Modra, Warhol, and Pittsburgh?

Well, I can tell you that Warhol was born in Pittsburgh to immnigrants from the eastern part of Slovakia.  There was some discussion between the Slovaks and the Ukrainians as to which country he was actually born in.  That's because the town is located right on the border between the two countries, and the border has changed throughout history.  The funny thing was that the Ukranians said that he was born in Slovakia and the Slovaks said that he was born in the Ukraine.  Perhaps that was due to the translation on the board that stated that Warhol was a weirdo and crazy.  Perhaps neither wanted to take credit.....who knows?

But the fact is that Warhol was never in Slovakia, and his family came from the opposite end of this country, so I have as yet to find the connection between the museum and the wine park.

The museum does feature several Campbell soup can displays, as well as a wall devoted to various screened prints of Marilyn Monroe's face in many different colors.  The building is large enough to display the art so that one can really see the interesting facets of Warhol's work.  But, I wouldn't suggest going out of my way to Modra to visit this museum.  And, we never did get to taste the wine....

As our last opportunity to eat dinner in Modra, Amy and I invited Anna and the three of us went back to the Winery of Ludwig that we so liked.  We had an enjoyable meal, and since the rain had stopped, we decided to walk back to our residence.  You can see by the photos the mist above the trees.