The Trip from Hell

Well, I'm back in Boulder for a quick visit. Work-related issues made it financially reasonable to come back for a week, but it wasn't an easy trip. I started at noon on Monday by taking the train from Presov to Bratislava (5.5 hours). I avoided the notorious rip-offs of the Bratislava cab drivers by taking the tram to the bus station, and then took a very crowded bus to the Vienna airport (another hour). I got a shuttle bus to my hotel, and then walked into Fischamend for pizza and beer. The prices in Austria make me realize how cheap we have it in Presov.

Up the next morning at 5, back to the airport for a 2.5 hour flight to London. I haven't flown through Heathrow in years, and with good reason. What a zoo! Another 8 hours on the plane got me to JFK where it took close to an hour to get through customs. Then another 3.5 hours to Dallas and 2 more to Denver. Andrew picked me up at 11PM and I finally got home at midnight, roughly 43 hours after leaving Presov.

Easter in Slovakia

They told us Easter was a big holiday here - they weren't kidding. Pretty much everything shuts down from Friday through Monday. The persistent heathen can still find a couple of restaurants and gas stations open, but all the grocery stores (big and small) and most of the cafes are closed.

It rained all day Saturday, and since everything was closed, we had a boring day in the apartment. Easter Sunday was nicer so I got on the bike, rode up through Velky Saris and took the back road into Sabinov, arriving just in time to ride through the huge crowds coming out of the big church. I wanted to check out the ski area at Dreinica (closed for the season), so I rode up through the village past the lower lift. The road kept getting steeper, narrrower and snowier. When it got to 15% grade and a couple of inches of wet snow, I couldn't get enough traction so I turned around - the last half mile to the top of the ski area can wait for drier weather.

We went back up to Bardejov in the afternoon - much nicer than when we were here in February. Charles got some nice pictures at dusk, and we went into the cathedral during eveing Mass, even though it was 'closed for touristic purposes'.

Tanks and Wooden Churches on Good Friday

Today's tour covered two very different types of sights: wooden churches from the Ruthenian culture and World War II battlefields. The area around Svidnik is famous for its 'Greek-Catholic' (Ruthenian) wooden churches. The Ruthenian minority are spread across eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine, and there's a lot of Ukrainian influence in architecture and language. This area was also the scene of some major fighting in the fall of 1944 as the Soviets forced their way into German-occupied Slovakia. Our first stop (after finding espresso in Svidnik) was the monument showing a Soviet tank crushing a German tank. This monument marks the beginning of the Udolie Smrti, the Valley of Death, so-called because more than 85000 Red Army soldiers died here in late 1944.




Farther up the valley, there are tanks (only Soviet) scattered across the hillsides.


For a change of pace, we stopped in at Dobroslava to see the wooden church (which was locked), and then headed back out to the main road.




Dobroslava is a long way from anywhere:


We visited a couple more churches, and then headed to Prikra, apparently the smallest village in Slovakia (population 7 in 2001, although it looked bigger than that). At the local church we could hear a single voice chanting inside, so we got up the nerve to open the door. There was one elderly woman kneeling on the floor between the pews, reading from a small booklet in Slovak or Ruthenian. She didn't glare at us, so we sat down for a few minutes while she continued to read.

Before we left, she indicated a bowl where we were to leave a small donation (which we did).

Next, we headed over the Dukla Pass (502m) and into Poland for about 1km, just because it was there. There's a big observation tower at the pass, but it's not open until April, so we just looked at the tanks, fighter planes and artillery pieces that are scattered over the landscape. On the way back to Svidnik, we stopped at a couple of wooden churches in Nizky Komarnik and Ladomirova. Emboldened by our experience in Prikra, we opened the door and went in. At N.K., there were about a dozen people chanting the rosary(?) in some Slavic language (Slovak? Old Church Slavonic?) and we sat for about 10 minutes and listened. (Charles also snuck in a movie.) They also had a machine that goes 'thunk', but it didn't seem right to try it out during services.

At Ladomirova, no service was going on, but there were three ladies inside who were eager to show us around. They even led us behind the screen and around the altar. Cindi bought an icon (made in Russia) and we left a few more crowns as a donation.

Back in Svidnik we stopped for pizza and beer, and then drove back to Presov for a fruitless search for cake and coffee. Everything was closed up for the Easter holiday, so we went back to the apartment for ice cream and tea.

Gorges Scenery

Today we headed west from Presov to visit the so-called Slovak Paradise (Slovensky Raj). This is a national park consisting of an uplifted area roughly 10-15 miles wide with thick forests and deep gorges. After driving through a couple of snow squalls, we arrived in Podselok and turned into the large parking area. There was one other car, but at least 4 piles of broken window glass - not a good thing when you are going to leave your car with foreign plates for a few hours. We drove across the bridge to the nearby restaurant where I talked to the local cop. After some negotiation with the locals, he told us that we could park in the restaurant parking lot 'just this one time'. We decided to do the Sucha Bela gorge ('dry gorge') since it was supposed to be the most popular. We figured that there wouldn't be many people out on a cold Thursday in March, and we were right - in 3.5 hours, we saw three guys from a work crew drinking beer in the forest, otherwise nobody.

The gorge itself is quite nice, with many wooden walkways and a few long ladders.







There were some really icy spots.



We were still walking in the creek much of the time - my Merrell GoreTex boots seemed to be waterproof. It took about 2 hours (including lots of photo time) to get to the top of the gorge and another 90 minutes down. We stopped in at the restaurant for some hot Slovak food. Charles had a beer, but since the village policeman was there, I stuck to coffee. (The woman who ran the restaurant had put the cop to work changing the keg.) This area is definitely worth a return trip - I hope the weather is a bit clearer next time.

More biking

Another good ride today - I completed the loop through Sedlice. I'd been out part way around the loop in both directions, but did the whole thing today. It's about 35 miles, and has a couple of good hills - maybe a couple of thousand feet of climbing. Every time I head out on the smooth roads, I wish I was using my skinny tires, but there's always a section of road that makes me glad I've got the cross tires on.

My cycling map of the Presov area seems to make no distinction between a good paved road and a potholed dirt track, so I never know what I'll get. I made it home just a few minutes before the rain.

Poland - Krakow and Auschwitz

This weekend we took another trip to Poland, this time to visit Krakow and Auschwitz. There are some spectacular views of the north side of the High Tatras and the border crossing is another one-lane affair. There just doesn't seem to be much Polish-Slovak traffic in these parts.

We blundered through Krakow without a good map and finally found our hotel. We took a cab back downtown - what a shock!


This isn't Presov - the whole downtown area is packed with restaurants, bars, clubs, bookstores, shops of all kinds, and also with tourists. Half the people in the square seem to be speaking English, and all the staff in restaurants and stores speak it too. Prices are not bad by US standards, but pretty expensive by Slovak standards.A simple cup of coffee would set you back about $3 (and apparently it's lousy). Beer is no bargain either - 2 to 3 times the Slovak price, and it's nothing special. They burn a lot of coal around here, and Saturday night there was enough of a fog and inversion to make things look like London in the 1800s. Our eyes were burning.

Most of Saturday was devoted to a trip to Auschwitz, about 60 km from Krakow. I won't say too much about it - it's one of those places you have to visit for yourself.

But the size of the place is amazing - it goes on and on. Most of the buildings at Birkenau (the larger section of the Auschwitz complex) were destroyed (a few have been reconstructed), but some of the buildings you may have seen in "Schindler's List" are still there.

Visiting a Roma Village

Today we got a tour of a local Roma village. Svinia is a few miles west of Presov, and the Roma section of town is about half a mile away from the Slovak part. One of Cindi's colleagues at the University arranged our visit with the local social worker, so we were escorted into the village by someone they knew. But we're not sure if we really needed an escort - we were immediately mobbed by children who all wanted their picture taken. And most of the adults were quite friendly too. My brother and I were the biggest things (literally) to hit the village in a while. These people begged my brother to take their picture and this is their best smile for the camera. The social worker told us that 900 people lived in this small village. At first we didn't believe her, but after visiting a few houses and apartments, I think she may be right. This whole family seems to live in a room about 10 feet by 12 feet. Total chaos seems to reign in the village. Here is a short video.
(This isn't working - is this a blogspot problem?)

Here (on the left) is the oldest person in the village - she's 67 and has had 18 children. (Cue Borat saying "This my mother. She oldest woman in village.") After we left the Roma village, we went back to the center of Svinia and visited the school. The school has one principal but two buildings - the Roma building and the Slovak building. Guess which one is nicer. Cindi got in a bit of math teaching action in a Roma classroom. Then we went over to the Slovak building where the principal has his office. He was quite hospitable, and broke out the hruska (pear brandy) for us. We were lamenting the fact that school principals in the US aren't allowed to have pear brandy in their offices. It would certainly ease the pain of a hard day of dealing with kids.

Lost in the Hills

Today I wanted to ride the bike, and nothing short of a rainstorm was going to stop me. I wanted to explore the hills southeast of Presov, so I put the bike in the car and drove to Dulova Ves. I headed up the road into a stiff cold headwind through Sigord and Zlata Bana. Both of these towns have billboards and advertisements implying that they are major tourist destinations, but in mid-March there's absolutely nothing happening. The road wasn't bad - I was telling myself that the 700x25 tires would have been fine when I got to the far side of Zlata Bana and the pavement ended as the road went up a 12% grade. A local in a tractor gave me an odd look as I struggled up the road - he was the last person I'd see for the next hour. I reached the 'pass' of Puste Pole (666m) and stopped for a break.


The view would have been nice on a sunny day



and a sign implied that there were actually groomed ski trails up here (but no snow on the trails today).



The road continued to deteriorate as it rolled through the woods, with potholes and patches of ice and snow along the sides.



At the next intersection, I misread a broken sign and ignored a gate that obviously indicated that I was on a side road. After about a 2.5km descent the road suddenly ended in a mudhole. Nothing to do but ride back up and take the other branch. Eventually signs directed me to the world-famous Dubnik opal mine (we'll take the tour someday) and the town of Cervenica where I finally saw people again. After a banana break, I headed back towards Presov through a couple of small towns where the Roma children ran out to cheer me on. Nice to have a fan club. Total ride: about 27 miles, a couple of thousand feet of climbing and a total of about 30 cars (both directions).

Skiing on the Dark Side

My brother is keen to ski in as many countries as possible, so we took off this afternoon to ski at 'Relax Center Plejsy', about 35km west of Presov. Plejsy may be highly rated by local standards but we found that 3 hours was plenty. The rental shop didn't have any telemark gear, so I went over to the dark side and rented (gasp!) alpine equipment. It was the first time in about 10 years that I'd skied fixed-heel - I had a couple of close calls where I tried to lift my back heel and it wouldn't come off the ski, but on the whole I was able to give a pretty good impersonation of a downhill skier.

Here's the entire upper half of the resort (the lower half is just one run leading to the hotel):



After skiing we stopped in Krompachy for some tasty cakes and cappuchino.



We'd spotted a couple of Roma communities on the way into town (one of which is described in the book 'Bury Me Standing') and wanted to take some pictures, but I was afraid that we'd be stoned or hexed or worse. We pulled over by the first village with my brother's camera at the ready, just as 3 Roma men with wheelbarrows came walking up. They started calling something to us and I got nervous and drove off, only to realize a moment later that they were just saying "Hi, what's happening?" (or the Roma equivalent). The next village was farther from the road so we got some pictures. Notice that every house, no matter how decrepit, has a satellite dish.

Top of Hungary

Another weekend means another trip to Budapest to trade houseguests. Our son was going home, and my brother was arriving so we set up a rendezvous in Budapest for Friday afternoon. We decided to liven up the drive by doing a bold winter ascent of Kekestoto, the highest peak in Hungary. At 1014 m (3326 ft), it's hardly nosebleed territory, but the Hungarians are proud of it, and I'm always up for adding to my collection of country highpoints. We turned off the highway at Gyongyos and drove up into the Matra Hills on a nice winding road. This would have been an excellent ride on the road bike. After 14 km we reached Matrahaza and turned up the final few km to the summit. A few hundred meters from the top we were forced by one of the local tribesmen to leave our trusty steed under his watchful eye (what they call 'parking' in Hungarian) and set out for the summit on foot. There were dangerous snowfields to cross



but we were able to reach the summit cairn without breaking out the ropes or ice axes.


There was a nice view to the north, extending to some snow-covered peaks that were probably the High Tatras on the Slovakia-Poland border. After descending the same route, we drove back down to Gyongyos for lunch. I was looking forward to some gyros, but apparently in Hungarian the word 'gyros' means toyshop. We ended up at a McDonalds clone called Manhattan Burger where I had something called a 'wartburger' - kind of like a hamburger with mushrooms and a slice of lunchmeat on it. Now I remember why I hardly ever eat at fast food restaurants.

We reached our hotel in Pest after only one wrong turn and met up with my brother. We all took the bus downtown to the Buda side of the Danube and walked up to the chain bridge, Budapests most famous landmark. The evening light was just right for taking pictures, so Charles did his photographer thing for a while. Restaurants seemed to be scarce in the downtown area, but we eventually found a decent grill (although the prices were extremely high by our usual Slovak standards).



Breakfast at the hotel the next morning brought new meaning to the word 'mediocre', so we stopped at a highway rest area for espresso and croissants (you can't do that at a rest area in the US). After lunch in Kosice, we finally got back to Presov around 4 PM.

Tele Skiing the Beskids

A major low-pressure system named 'Emma' moved through central Europe last night, killing more than a dozen people in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, shutting down airports and knocking out power. We're far enough east that all we got was a lot of wind and a gloomy and rainy Sunday. What better to do than go skiing in Poland? We headed off north through Stara L'ubovna with the only clear skies around visible in our rear-view mirror. North of SL the road surface deteriorated as we headed up into the snow. Fortunately, this was only a minor pass and we descended into the rain again quickly. There's a nice wooden church in one of the villages here.

We could tell we were getting close to the Polish border by the sign and by the proliferation of small shops advertising 'Alkohol' - apparently Polish booze prices must be much higher that Slovak prices, since there were quite a few customers stocking up on Sunday morning. The actual crossing into Poland wasn't marked, but the road got even narrower. Huge chunks seemed to have washed out, so they just made it one lane - there doesn't seem to be enough traffic here to cause problems.



We found the road up to Wierchomla which appears to be a very nice hotel attached to a modest ski resort. The local mountains are known as the Beskids. The ski school claims to be the only one in Poland that teaches telemark skiing, and they had rentals, so here I was. Their biggest boots were just big enough to fit me, and the skis had the Black Diamond Skyhoy bindings which I'd never used before. I bought a punch card for 5 runs and headed up into the fog and snow. The first views were not auspicious:



All the snow on the runs is manmade, with a healthy mixture of dirt at the bottom of the hill. After an initial few hundred meters to adjust to the new gear, I got in some good turns on lousy snow. I was the only tele skier out that day - for that matter, there were only a few dozen people on the mountain. I did one run too many - my 5th time up the lift I was able to wring water out of my gloves, and I was sitting in a puddle. I really wish I'd made space for my GoreTex pants and gloves... But now I've added one more country to my list of places I've skied.



After warming up in the hotel, we headed to Stary Sacz, about 30km N from the ski area. Apparently, Sunday afternoon is a popular time in Poland and Slovakia for eating out, and we had no problem finding a restaurant. We had a hearty meal of Polish wheat soup with kielbasa, pierogies and potato pancakes with goulash. I washed mine down with a glass of Zywiec beer - tasted good, but I should have gone for the Zywiec porter. Next time...

I'll admit to having a juvenile sense of humor sometimes, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign at a small grocery - doesn't excactly make you want to buy that bottled water, does it?