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.

Hanging in there

The post will  have to be brief because I am having great difficulty grasping the language, and need to get back to my room to try to find some way for my brain to accept this challenge.

In the meantime, one quick story.....

Today, we headed to the "Red Castle".  Now, I'm sure that there is a better word for the name, but that is the English translation and, quite frankly, I don't have time to research it to give you the correct name.  Amy and I headed out the door at 3:00 and boarded the bus that was already nearly full.  Prior to entering the bus, I asked the one professor  what her name was (in Slovak) after introducing myself, and asked her what town she came from.  (the reason for the question was because she bears an amazing resemblance to one of my relatives...but I'll have to elaborate on that in a later blog.)

In any event, it was obvious that I didn't speak Slovak.

We headed out to the castle, and when we disembarked, and headed into the castle grounds, there were some confusing moments when it became obvious that we had boarded the incorrect bus.  What is rather amusing is that the one instructor actually did a head count three times.  Besides Amy, there was another young woman with us, which should have increased the numbers by three, but somehow, these women missed that fact.

During the tour, the one instructor came up to me and began to converse to me in Slovak, asking me the typical drill questions for newbys.  I am proud to say that I could converse with her through about three questions:  my name, where I lived and my profession.  Also told her that I was pleased to meet her.  That was certainly exciting for me as I continue to fall short in the classroom when it comes to answering questions.

Oh, one exciting thing for the day:  Amy was interviewed by the Slovak Television crew and should be on television tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.  That would be 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, not that any of you would pick up Slovak television to see her, but thought it would be worth mentioning.


I'll leave you with some photos of the day.

Slovak Language Course: Day 2

Just thought I'd share a photo of our Slovakia home these next few weeks.  It really does stand out in the countryside.

We're still having a tough time sleeping despite daring to keep the window and door open at night to try to get some sort of air circulation in the room.  We've been told that the weather is supposed to get cooler....so we are definitely looking forward to that.

Our classes went fairly well today.   For those of you wondering, we are not the only mother-child attendees.  We have a Swedish mother and her son as well as a mother and daughter from Thailand in the class along with us.  And I hear tell that there is another mother/son in the other set of classes.

We do have a great group of participants, although the other American,  (a retired man was born in McKeesport and claims to have a Slovak town named after his Slovak ancestors) has been a bit annoying.  Actually, he seems to feel the need to answer any question that I direct to the teacher in a very condescending tone.  I thought that perhaps his tension was only felt by me, until Amy mentioned to me that she noticed his abruptness as well and was going to say something to him about just leaving me alone.  Not to worry....I'm up for the challenge.

I can't quite understand why this man is in the class if he already knows Slovak. And, to be quite honest with you, if there is a town named after his Slovak ancestor who supposedly was an earl, then why did he emigrate to America?   If one had a entire village named after him, I'd think he was pretty important and wouldn't decide to go trotting off to another country.  Don't you?

Lunch was certainly a surprise.  We have to order out meals the day before so they know how much to prepare.  I have had a difficult time finding items that do not have peppers in them.  (Remember that I am violently allergic to green/yellow/red peppers.)  So, I ordered the fruit for today.  Sounded safe.  And it was:

Yep...that was all mine.  4 Bananas, 4 nectarines, 2 oranges and 2 apples.  Obviously, I didn't eat it all.  Amy ordered a ham dish that actually was pepper free as well.

So, we shared her meal, ate a couple of pieces of fruit, and brought the rest to the room for snacks.  

When the classes were complete, we headed into Modra as part of the program, by foot.  But it really was only a walking tour with a group, then we were on our own.  Amy and I decided to eat dinner in town since dinner here is limited to one choice and it was not pepper free.

We had some great Bryndza pirohy, 

and I enjoyed a glass of wine, which, by the way, only cost me .5 euro for a glass!

Nope...I'm not shocked by the price.  I'm actually trying to open my eyes wide enough so that I don't look so tired for the photo!

After dinner we walked along the town.  For now,  I'll say Dovidenia while leaving you some photos of Modra to admire.