SLOVAKIAN PARADISE
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006Kosice is a surprisingly relaxed city with a vibrant pedestrian corridor and old town that is at least a mile long and bounded on both sides by beautiful buildings, centered with fountains, churches, and even some medieval ruins buried partially under the main square.
We only spent a night, but were located perfectly to enjoy some of the energy and good food. The food included a vegetarian Indian lunch served on stainless steel cafeteria trays by the Hare Krishnas. Bizarre, but at $3.25 it was some of the best and good value food we had had to date….and did I mention there were vegetables and spicy flavors! Cured meats and cheese alone, along with bread, cucumber, and tomato had accounted for at least 50% of our daily intake for the past few weeks and boy were our bay Area taste buds ready for a change.
We visited the Technical Museum which had some vary cool old mechanical devices and displays, including what must be the worlds largest collection of Typewriters (mostly Eastern European). The Roman ruins under the old square have been restored into a mini-mueum with skylights to the square. They even use some of the space for public events, as they were setting up for a reception that evening.
I will not get into the details of the dancing musical fountains until we have photos available, as they were probably one of the boldest permanent public art installations that I have ever seen. (although on a decideingly modest scale) Cheryl may have more on these fountains as she is still talking about them. 
They were pleasant and bizarre. And they’d never have made it out of the art commissions halls in San Francisco. One of the stranger sights that we have run into in the former eastern Bloc.
So we gladly got back on a train (versus a bus) late the next morning and headed up though some beautiful fall foliage and hills towards Spisske Podrahie, which is the home of the Spis Castle, one of the more famous UNESCO landmarks of Slovakia. You take a mini electric connector train to the edge of town from the main line and then head a mile straight up a steep hillside to the site. It’s a cool approach as your perspective changes with every step and you can really appreciate how difficult it would have been to try to storm this castle. It was started in the 12th century and added to as time went on (it’s a long story http://www.spisskyhrad.sk/en.html), but the structure is impressive and one of the coolest castles I have ever seen, in a most dramatic location.
We had our full packs on for the castle (except for the final trip up the big tower) which really made us appreciate our light packing, since the lack of clothing choices is getting to be a bit tedious, especially in the colder weather. We actually both have ended up buying a few fall/winter clothes more appropriate for the weather (and to make us blend a bit more). We planned on picking up appropriate clothes as we travelled, so this is not a surprise, and as with everything else on our trip; it’s cheaper than San Francisco.
The town below the castle is a gritty and somewhat bleak spot in the otherwise Tuscan like countryside of the Spis region. We caught a local bus to Levoca, Slovakia from here and once again found people to be very nice and helpful at the bus stops, except for some truly bewildered teenagers who gave me a compete and almost uncomfortable bodyscan. I’ve rarely been stared at with such fervor as these kids were obviously living in tough times in an area of Slovakia going through a slower and more painful transition to capitalism. They checked us out from head to toe, as we had all our gear and belongings and were waiting besides 100 kids after school for 1/2 hour or so. Although sometimes awkward, these small places and interactions with people off the beaten track are what you remember most. UNESCO sights are nice, but people are always more interesting.
As we have experienced a lot of local buses in Slovakia and Poland recently, I want to diverge a little bit to discuss some of the positive and negative things I’ve seen in local transit systems. (The bigger intercity buses are generally fine and quite efficient) There is a network of buses in rural and small city Slovakia (and Hungary and Poland are similar, but the buses nicer and more efficient) that connects just about EVERYWHERE, but they are often slow and inefficient, despite serving as a lifeline for the locals where auto-ownership rates are still relatively low. The loading process is painfully slow as everyone pays cash, the driver issues a little ticket (not a transfer), and gives any amount of change. (which is nice as a tourist without change, but a bummer for daily riders) They have also seemed to all be crowded with often only one or at best two doors. Although we have grown fond of the “Muppet” buses as we call them, the so-called mini-buses can be quite a ride, as you bounce along from town to town. (It helps to sing the song from the Muppet movie as you ride to get in the proper mood) The good things about these buses is that they seem to pick-up and drop off people just about anywhere, as long as you can wedge on the bus, or jump off in time as the driver only slows to about 5 mph as you jump out. (Not many lawyers here) They serve a great need for the people, but I won’t even mention the leg room, as my knees are still cringing, but it sure is fun.
Our next stop in the Spis region was Levoca, which was a somewhat attractive old town in a beautiful area that clearly could have tourism play a big role in the future. Again, clearly this town was changing and we were one of two foreign tourists in town, and it was evident that jobs were a bit scarce and that change was slow. 
The upside of this slow change is that there is still some remnants of traditionally Slovakian way and dress. We saw an older man bring in two horses and a wooden cart right into the bus depot, and leave them to go get his morning snack and coffee.
I also sat right next to a traditionally dressed Slovakian woman on the bus (and I mean close on the mini-buses) complete with puffy dress, black boots, and head scarf. Clearly though, these traditional ways are just about dying out, as we saw no one under 60 in anything but plane street clothes. In another 10 years or less, I imagine only the Skansens and other recreations for the tourists will be remaining of life before cellphones and car dependence.
We again headed out in the morning with no transit info and another goal of getting to Cingov( pronounced Ching-go), one of the gateways to the Slovakian Paradise National Park http://www.slovenskyraj.sk/en.html which required two short bus rides; however, this time when we got to the connecting town, we had missed the one bus to Cingov by a half an hour. We contemplated trekking the 7 km, but with no good map and sense if the roads were safe (or miserable), we reluctantly decided that a taxi was the only way to go. We decided we would spend up to $20 on a taxi, but again, it only cost $5 as our Bay Area price base was way off.
We made it the Hotel Cingov and had a wonderful two days hiking in the magnificent fall foliage, up the Hornad River Canyon, and just hanging out out the Chatras (chalets that serve beer, Goulash, and Pihorys!) The hiking was extremely pleasant and reminded me of New Hampshire and Vermont in the fall.
“JUST LIKE NEW ENGLAND, BUT WITHOUT THE NEW ENGLANDERS -Rich C”
The smells, crisp air, low sun, and hues of yellow and orange all brought my senses back 20 years. We even got to experience a Slovakian wedding at our hotel Saturday night that went from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Although singing and dancing kept us half the night, it really didn’t bother us so much as they all seemed to be having such a good time, and the music was good, not the usual “Wedding Singer” medleys of many American weddings. We just wished we could have crashed it!
Luckily the second night had no weddings and we caught up on our sleep and headed out for yet another day of uncertain transportation. We got to the train station and figured out that we could make it to Krakow that evening so we did it, although it turned into a very long day and my lack of Internet for a week forced us to book a lonely planet room over the phone that turned out o.k., but a difficult distance from the center of Krakow (long walk or inconvenient transit). We learned a lesson in trying to do a little too much without good info, and will try to slow down a bit in the future…..
But so far, Krakow and Warsaw have been very interesting and the people of Poland are extremely nice, across the board, so we’ll let you know how things go as its time to head up out of the Internet cafe cellar back to the big, wide boulevards of Warsaw.
rich.coffin