Last weekend Bear and I rented a car so that we could go explore northeastern Slovakia.
On Friday afternoon we stopped at Krásna Hôrka, but sadly, there was no trebuchet; I think they did away with it because it was falling apart.
We spent the night at a friend's flat in Košice and learned that you can't take your pistol into Tesco.
On Saturday morning we stopped in Prešov and I bought a sweet Slovak baseball cap at Tesco to be my new driving cap, and we walked around the old town and I ate ice cream.
I saw two vehicles that were imported from North America: a GMC truck with a Canadian (Ontario) license plate and a Dodge SUV with a New Jersey plate.At an Orthodox church in Stropkov we were offered spring water that we drank from plastic neon smiley-face cups tied to the spigot.
Andy Warhol's mother was born in Slovakia, and there is a museum dedicated to Warhol and modern art in Medzilaborce.
Our reason for going to the northeast was to visit tripartite Greek Catholic wooden churches, of which we saw the exteriors of five (Potoky, Hunkovce, Korejovce, Príkra, and Bodružal) and went into four more (Ladomírová, Krajné Čierno, Nižný Komarník, and Miroľa).
The Dukla Pass, on the border between Slovakia and Poland, was the site of a month of hard fighting between the Soviets and their allies and the Nazis in 1944, and there is now a memorial to the battle there.
And since the Dukla Pass is on the border, we went into Poland for the heck of it.
On the way home we passed through Bardejov and stopped to have a look at the charming old town square, with its cathedral dedicated to St Egidius and its Renaissance town hall.
When I was getting in the car, I was mindful not to spill any ice cream on the seat; and while I didn't spill, I managed to stick my delicious chocolate-orange scoop into the upholstery on the top of the door frame (I also managed to get it clean again).Back in Bystrica, we got the car washed and returned it, then had to take the bus back, which was lame after having experienced the sweet freedom of the open road.
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