Slovensko Do Toho

Forget the royal wedding; Slovakia's got other things on its mind today, the beginning of the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships. This would be a big deal in any hockey-crazy country, but it's an even bigger deal here because this year Slovakia's the host. From now until May 15, games will be played in Bratislava and Košice, with 16 teams competing. Fan gear is all over the place here, and lots of businesses are using hockey in their advertising. 

I personally am concerned about the fact that the Stanley Cup finals started in the middle of April and could go on until June. This means that some players may have to decide between playing for their job and playing for their country, and that's an unfortunate choice to have to make. It also means that I'm pretty sure the US isn't going to win very many games here. 

Banská Štiavnica

Before we returned to school today I managed to squeeze in one more day trip. Tuesday was a working day, though not a school day, so the buses were running normally, and I found that it was easier to get to Banská Štiavnica on a weekday than on a weekend.

Banská Štiavnica is a former mining town. Back in the olden days, there was gold in them thar hills, and silver, too. The town became the site of a mining academy, and one of the most prosperous areas in Slovakia. It has not one but two castles, many churches, and a lot of handsome buildings.

If you're planning on visiting Banská Štiavnica, the first thing you need to know is that it's in a hilly area, so there's lots of going up. The second is that if you're going by bus, you should get off at the Križovatka stop, which is the one right in front of the Billa. Then, facing Billa, turn left and walk up the street until it becomes Dolna, which takes you right up to the historic center. Ahab: Getting off at the wrong bus stop so you don't have to.

I was in the town for a good four hours, but I don't feel like I did four hours worth of anything. What I did do was visit one of the many museums, the Kammerhof, which had exhibits about mining and the life of the miners. It made me realize that mining would be a horrible job for me personally, and that it couldn't have been fun for anyone. Of the objects on display I especially liked the models of mines built in bottles.

As previously mentioned, the town has two castles, although in Slovak these are zámky, not hrady. The newer, Nový Zámok, has an exhibit on the defence of the town from the Turks, and I walked up the hill to see the castle itself, but didn't go in. Instead I visited Starý Zámok. When I first was reading the various sites' opening hours, one listed the Old Castle as being closed on Mondays AND Tuesdays in April, and for a while I was pretty miffed about it. There was a small door open at the castle itself, though, and there were listed special Easter hours, saying that it was indeed open. Huzzah!

As in Kremnica, this Old Castle is a walled enclosure around a central building. I liked the one in Banská Štiavnica better than Kremnica, for a few reasons. One: there were no workers digging things up and looking somewhat reproachful at visitors. Two: the Old Castle is smaller and cozier. Three: there's a walkway around the inside of the wall. Four: I saw a squirrel there. It used the stairs and ran up and down the walkway and then sat on the roof and ate a nut.

In the towers on the wall there are different displays. One, called Himmelreich, was the prison tower, and still has old manacles and plank beds with iron restraints. Another has various pieces of decorative ironwork, and another has keys and locks and tools all made of iron. I liked going in the bell tower the best. It had big doors that opened up with views of the town (as below), and descriptions of the three bells, the oldest of which is from the 16th century.
I'm not entirely sure what the building in the middle of the complex originally was. In its courtyard and the rooms off it there are displayed a number of sculptures and monumental carvings. On the second and third floors there appear to be offices or something. On one corner there is the most pointless spiral staircase, as it literally just leads into a wooden roof. The cool thing about it is that instead of a plain, solid circular central post, the staircase has a three-part, open Gothic column.

There are lots of things I didn't get to do in town. There are two different parts of old mines that you can tour, other museums and galleries, and a very famous Calvary on the hill opposite the Old Castle. As I got ready to leave, I felt like I hadn't gotten everything I could have out of Banská Štiavnica. Maybe if I had had more time, or gone earlier, or had been with someone who could communicate more clearly than I can? I'm not sure. While it is certainly a nice place to visit, and probably worthy of its UNESCO listing, I was merely whelmed by the town. I did have some delicious mandarinky zmrzlina on the way to the bus stop, though.

A Brief Tour of Lučenec

When you come into Lučenec from the east, the first thing you see is a ginormous silver double cross.

At the bus station, you'll find very nice, new facilities. The bathrooms are especially noteworthy. You don't have to pay to use them, and they have Dyson Airblade hand dryers.

In the historic center, there's this church

and this one,

and this knight who's half wood and half metal. The descriptions are in Slovak and Latin, so I should understand what it's all about between the two languages, but I don't. Something about defending the town in 1551.

Then you walk down the street to find the old synagogue.

Finally you go to the town park, which is rather big and really quite nice. 

Then you go home and cross another one off your list. 

Kremnica

We in Slovakia are on Easter break starting today. As you can tell by the fact that I'm writing a blog, I've not gone abroad anywhere. This is because I procrastinatoriously failed to buy plane tickets somewhere before they got too expensive. So while I'm not in France, as I'd hoped to be, I do have the opportunity to chip away at my list of places I still have to see before I leave.

Today I went to Kremnica. This town is most famous for having something like the oldest continuously-operated mint in the world. The town itself was granted a charter in 1328. The old part has double fortifications: one wall around the square and the mint, and another around the castle complex on a hill.

The square is grassy, rather than paved, and the weird thing about it, aside from the fact that it's currently being dug up, is that it's tilted. The highest point is the corner nearest the castle. There's also a nice big plague column in the square. The mint is on one corner, and two other museums are on the square as well.

As I said before, it's a castle complex, not one castle building. To be honest, it's not all that castley. The most important part of the complex is the cathedral...which is closed for renovation. It's supposed to be really impressive inside. In the complex you can also go in (from left to right below) the bell tower, the cathedral tower, the north tower with an exhibit on archaelogical finds and the defense of the castle, and the pink tower, which incorporates the oldest building there, a Romanesque chapel and ossuary.

When the guide was telling me about the cathedral tower, she said it was a strenuous climb of 127 steps, at which I thought that 127 wasn't too bad. The sign outside the tower itself says, among other things, "Going up the 127 winding stairs is pretentious." I laughed, and then started up, and then agreed, as long as your definition of pretentious is "terrifying as hell." Why do I keep going up these towers with the really steep, really narrow steps? I don't like being afraid; but I always go. When I was almost at the top, I heard people coming down, so I pulled over into a little alcove to let them go by, and these two workers literally ran down the stairs, as if to mock me.

The town museum is quite good. It includes exhibits on the history and guilds of the city, the mining process, medals and medallions, and, my favorite part, money in the area and Slovakia in general, from the earliest Celtic coins to the euro. I recommend visiting this museum. You might have to hang out for a while to get in, though, depending on whether the one guide is giving a tour or is available to sell you a ticket.

It was a good one-day trip (I left just after 6 this morning and got back just after 6 this evening, for the record). Maybe if I'd gone earlier in my Slovakia time I would've been more wowed by Kremnica, or maybe if I'd been able to go in the cathedral, but it was still a pleasant day and I enjoyed it.

In Living Color

For about a year, Blogger hasn't let me post videos directly to my blog. I investigated moving to a different service, but the one I was interested in charged for video uploading, and that was not going to happen, so I stayed put and just didn't post videos. But after the accordion madness, something had to be done. I needed you to be able to see the accordion videos! To that end, I broke down and signed up with YouTube.

If I've marked everything correctly, you won't be able to comment on the videos on YouTube, nor will they come up in a search. People are rude and ignorant when commenting on that site, and I don't want to have to deal with that; the videos are only going on there since Google Video is kaput. So I know the videos are poor quality, often shaky, blah blah blah. Most of them were taken on a digital camera (although a few were done with my mom's camcorder), and I have problems holding still. It's not necessary for you to tell me these things.

Now I'm going to post some of the videos that I would have done in the past had I had the ability. First up is the bus tour of Kraków from last July, at a dizzying quadruple speed.

Next, what Tisovec looks like from the fourth floor of the hotel.

Here are the bells from York Minster.

And finally some head-butting sheeps.

The Best Homework I've Ever Assigned

Last week in 20th century history I asked the fourth and fifth years to write a short response (220-250 words) to the question "How do the events of the Cold War/Communist era affect my life today?" I wanted them to think and to connect the present to historical events. As an example, I told the kids that one of the products of this time was a drink created in Czechoslovakia to compete with sodas like Coca-Cola: my beloved Kofola.

This may have been the only time in my teaching career that I was actually excited to collect and read everybody's homework. Common themes in the responses were:
--I don't really know about the communist era because I was born after it ended (1989) but
--my grandparents think it was a positive time overall because everyone had jobs
--I actually talked to my parents about my homework
--there sure are a lot of big gray buildings built during that time
--we'd all be learning Russian right now if Communism were still here
--now it's much easier to travel to other countries and we appreciate that
--even if it had some advantages, I'm glad I don't live in a Communist country

When I was in high school, Communism was a joke, just another word to use when describing something we didn't like. Shortly after arriving in Slovakia I realized that Communism was no joke. Its remains are everywhere, and the current leaders of the country are mostly "former" Communists. Many Slovaks believe that Communism had advantages for their country, although most also acknowledge its disadvantages. For those of us who never had to experience such a system, I hope reading these excerpts will give you insight into what Communism was and is really like. Some things in the responses made me sad, like the one about the library, but some made me smile, and they also made me think. I hope they do the same for you.

"In my opinion the thing which affects my life mostly and not only my life but all of ours lifes is that regime was changed [in 1989] but thinking of people was not."

"Before communism we had a really nice and old library with huge windows [in Lučenec]. There were so many books and it had so much space. Inside of that library was an interesting spiral staircase. That time no other towns and cities in the region of Novohrad did not have library like my town. But when the communism came, they removed it and built a statue of one man there. This time we have a library which is very useless and ugly. We just can't say we are proud of our 'new' library."

"Summer camps are something, what have beginning in communism and I never regret that it incepted. And nice is that I'm not alone, who love camps and who is grateful for this. Camps have long tradition but always in one spirit, or with one motto...Live for fun, friends and love. Camps contain all of these important life values."

"Other thing is that there is one biscuit from communist era which I love - Horalky. This is the best biscuit ever. I hope you love it too. I think in this era they made better biscuits than now."

"The weapon of self-destruction of communist system is Liberta. Liberta is bicycle. But no normal bicycle. It makes you free, it has magical power. Communists wanted to create something what will calm down unsatisfied rebels in peaceful way. But when people tasted the taste of liberty by Liberta, they recognized what is true freedom and what is communism."

"I could say that there is also second thing which affected me. Fashion. Extravagant in this time was striped shirt and on graduation class-photographs, they could not have this shirt, because it was not allowed. In this time, when you want to be extravagant you would wear something like in communism was normal. Now it is called retro style and you would be really cool. So I think that fashion in communism really affected us. also it had breakthrough and I am really happy that we can wear what we want and nobody looks at you, like you are an idiot."

"I remember when we had Škoda and it was super car. In those times it was like a limousine. It is interesting that engine is in the rear side of car. You can do pretty nice drifts on it. When you sit into Škoda 105 you feel like boss. This car was awesome."

"To tell the truth I had never seen such a reliable, nice, friendly and persistant car neither before nor after it [the Škoda 120L]. This dark green car seemed to be able to do anything. We ised to ride to town, to forests, simply everywhere. And from me as a child with lack of confidence became a strong individual. I learned to trust this mechanism. I was not afraid of machines anymore. My family and I were given new possibilities. I even started to learn how to drive and I was only twelve. I also learned how to care about it. At last we gave it a name--Elza. Unfortunately, we had to sell it some time ago but I can tell that I became completely different person than I had been before. I thank socialism for Škoda 120L."

"However, I found a good thing that was invented during that time. It is Slovak famous "good night" show for children that is called Večerníček. Večerníček is a character with resemblance of an old, kind man who has the role of an usher. He ushers the show and fairy tales are broadcasted in the show. I loved it as a kid. Before I went to bed I must have always seen it and then I could go to sleep. There was also a special soundtrack that was very catchy. Always when I heard the first sounds of it I ran straight to the living room. I sat down on the floor, in front of the TV and I was watching my favorite show. It started shortly before 7 and after that I needed to go to sleep. Večerníček is shown also nowadays. It has started in 1963. Honestly, I am not that excited to see it as I was when I was a kid but I still have some good memories about it. Especially, when I hear the soundtrack it makes me smile."

"If I just imagine the situation if there had been no comunism, Slovakia would nowadays be much more developed. But--it isn't so. Therefore we--the young people--are the ones to help the state development. I think it is a big motivation for us eventhough if there had been no comunism, we would certainly be somewhere else. I would really like to take a role in helping the slowly developing system."

Picture of the Day

The picture's a little blurry, since I wasn't able to open the window in time, but here's a horse cart full of kids from Sunday afternoon. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

Early Eggs

Earlier this week, my friend/coworker Adička brought in Easter eggs her mum had decorated to sell. Eggs like this are called (wait for it) vyškrabávané vajíčka. The black and white ones are more traditional than the colored ones. Now I just have to try to get mine home safely.

Second Years' Tourism Adverts

We read about tourism last week in 2A, so I asked the kids to write a short piece to attract tourists to Slovakia. Here are some of the unedited results. In regards to the second selection, we did talk in class about how lots of (predominantly) British guys come to Bratislava for their bachelor (stag) parties.

"Small country with Big heart. Also like this is called Slovakia. It's not very rich, not very big in size, but we are still happy! Not the materialistic things makes us, like money happy. Our environment, beauty of nature; honest people, beautiful sightseeing places like Vysoke Tatry, Nizke Tatry, Poloniny, Pieniny, Slovensky raj (mountains), Spisky hrad, Krasna Horka, Cachtichy hrad (castles), many caves should attract you here. We want tourists, We love tourists from whole world. Every nation, every race are welcome in our 5* hotels. Come to Slovakia, You won't regrate!"

"Okey. When you want to go to Slovakia for bachelorette it is very good choise. However, disco clubs aren't good in Slovakia you can get drunk very cheaply, but you watch out for you to arrest by the police due your bad behavior. (:D) I can also say that we have very pretty girls, but lots of them are gold-diggers. (:D)"

"Sheep cheese is traditional delicacy too. This cheese is produce on chalets. On chalets you may ride on horses, sing old people's songs with folk dancers, eat a lot of good food like mutton, veal, bryndzove halušky...

If you want to see all of this you must come and live through everyone of these things."

"People around the world visit these places to see the way of life of native people and feel the atmosphere of the past."

"I recommend this country for trip with your family on holiday. Your children will see things that they have never seen before. I like our home because I grew up here. Don't waste your time and come to Slovakia and experience something that you will remember for rest of your life."

"My words are useless, you have to come here and see it!"

There you have it. Time to ring up the tourist board and tell them their new campaign is all sorted.

Accordion Heaven

At the staff meeting on Monday somebody mentioned there would be a concert that some of the students would go to on Thursday, but the details were a little hazy. Things cleared up as the week progressed; the whole school would go at 10:30, meaning I'd miss a 20th century history class (aw darn), and the concert would involve...accordions.

I actually really like hearing people play the accordion. Sometimes I can hear kids practicing from the music school behind us, and it always makes me smile. I was stoked for an accordion concert. The concert involved kids from the Tisovec music school, including beginners with tiny accordions (see right), and a group of about 30 musicians from the Základná umelecká škola (basic arts school) in Lipany, near Prešov. There were a few kinds of different accordions, and different colors, and one was even plugged into an amp. It was rad.

(Not played at this concert, but related, is kind of an old-school accordion with all buttons and no keys, called a heligónka in Slovak. Isn't that the best word ever? Heligónka!)

A sextet of accordionists, accompanied by a bassist, played a song written by a man named something that sounded like Tupac, because I said to Rob, "They're going to play a Tupac song?" and that might have been about Jánošík. I was going to ask one of my students, the girl on the left, what the song was called and who wrote it, but she wasn't at school on Friday.* I really liked this piece. I don't know why I was holding the camera kind of wonky, though; sorry about that.

And then they played "Final Countdown."

It was the best day ever.

*Hello from the future. The song is called "Dupák" and was written by Ján Cikker.