Slovakia - March 2007

The following are the highlights from my recent trip to Slovakia.

Though the circumstances were sad, the scenery was beautiful and the company was exceptional. Rastislav (Rusty) is my brother by heart, though not by blood. He is from Slovakia where his extended family still lives. His father (Jan Valko) recently passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack. My mom and I flew with him to Slovakia to attend the funeral. Mom came from Phoenix, Rusty from Minneapolis, and I came from Denver. We all met in New York and flew together from there. Here we are in New York:

From New York, we flew to Zurich Switzerland where we changed planes and flew on to Budapest Hungary. Here is the view of the Alps from the plane soon after leaving Zurich:

In Budapest, we rented a car and drove to Slovakia. Here are mom and Rusty at the border:

In Slovakia, we drove to the town of Topol'cianky where we met Rusty's girlfriend, Nadia and her family. We had a delightful evening of fine food, drink, and excellent company. Topol'cianky is the location of hunting lodges from the time of the Hapsburg dynasty. In more recent times, the town served as the summer home for the Czechoslovakian president. In current times, the buildings have been converted to hotels and hunting lodges. Because of the hunting influence, horse breeding is also a significant part of the town's culture and a state-owned horse breeding stable is located in the town. These horses were absolutely beautiful! When I return to Slovakia, I will dedicate a great deal more time to this amazing town. Unfortunately, the camera and I were in different cars... this picture is of the now hotel (I pulled it off the internet):

The next day mom, Rusty, Nadia, and I drove to Presov (Rusty's hometown). The drive was roughly 4 hours through the rugged section of the country that is very reminiscent of driving through the Colorado mountains. Without time to kill for photography, I managed to get a few good "car" photos of the mountainscapes. This is the tallest mountain in Slovakia in the Tatra range (cool train in the foreground):

As we drove through the country side, we saw many villages - all have their own church with steeple (the country has traditionally been catholic and remains so in current times). I was most amazed by all of the open space. I had a vision of Europe being far more densly populated - sort of like a sprawling suburb. I was wonderfully suprised by the great amount of open space (mostly farmed) with the "clustered" villages dotted throughout. As we neared Presov, we came upon the most amazing castle! I love castles, so this was such a wonderful view. This is the Spissky Hrad I'm using the not-zoomed photo so you can see the village in the fore-ground for scale. Amazing!

We then arrived in Presov where we met Rusty's family. We went to dinner at a universally "traditional" PIZZA place :-) The food was good (as pizza always is) - but the company was exceptional. Mom and I could not stop smiling despite the sad circumstances. It was just so wonderful to meet Rusty's family - to look around the table and see family resemblance in appearance and mannerism, to feel the genuine affection of family. After dinner, we went to a hillside overlook of Presov. Here is Rusty's family. From left to right (forgive mispellings)- Vlado (brother-in-law), Slauka (sister), Katka (step mother), Gabriella (neice), Rusty, Sarka (step sister), Phillip (half-brother). A beautiful family :-)

We had a little time to wander around downtown Presov (the third largest city in Slovakia). It is a fantastically historic town with beautiful architecture. Here are a few of my favorite pictures - Rusty, mom, Nadia in the foreground.

Mom and Nadia:

Mom, Neptune, Frog, and church:

After Jan's very sad but very dignified funeral, mom and I drove back to Budapest to catch our flight home.

We had roughly 1 hour of daylight to play tourist. It was enough time for us to realize what a very beautiful and historic city it is - and convince us that we need to come back with more time. Here are some photos from our VERY quick tour.

Castle:

One of the most haunting statues I have ever seen - Anonymous is "any man". See if you can make out the eyes:

There were thousands of these amazing old mansions. These were not the most spectacular, just the ones I could get hanging out of the car at a stop light...

The visit was short and the circumstances sad - but it was truly a blessing to meet these wonderful people and to see a part of the world previously outside my experience. I have every intension of returning under happy circumstances, with more time to spend with my new family (as I truly felt welcome as family) and with more time to explore.

Here is an excellent link for anyone wanting to learn more about travel in Slovakia:

http://www.spectacularslovakia.sk/ss2003/index.html