Croatia

The trip to Croatia from Bratislava is long. Very long. It’s not so long that it takes more then one day, but that one day is a long day, very long. The road we chose took us through Hungary, Bosnia & Herzegovina and then into Croatia. After severl hours of uneventful driving we made it into Lovište.

This is my second summer in Croatia so I knew more or less what to expect upon arivial. What you should expect on arivial to Lovište is a small bumpy one-lane but somehow two-way street that we live at the end of. We unloaded everything from the cars into our apartments which I will now try to describe to you.

There is a small but invieting looking brown metal fence in front of the house. Once you open the gate you step up on step onto a slightly rough stone walkway, the stones the big ones, not the little pebbles that always stick to your barefeet when you run accros them, they are all held together with poured cement. The stones are colored as if they once could have been cream but then had samd poured in and mixed in. On either side of the walkway is a magnicifigant garden, on the left is a small knee level wall made out of the same stuff as the walkway. The left side is also seperated with several concrete walls going from left to right seperating the garden into sections, in each section is a tree, in one a lemon tree, in another a tree I don’t think I have ever seen before and I am sure I don’t know the name of, in the last a short, but stout and impressive palm tree. On the right of the walkway the are none of the little knee-high cocrete walls everything grows free, there are many plants there but none that I can identify. There is also a grill used for frying fish on those wonderful occasions when we do fry fish.

Me with Korcula in the background.

After you come to the end of the walkway there is one building that is sperated into an upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs lives the Popoviches, from whom we rent our living space, which is funnily enough not the upstairs one. The Varys live in the apartment above the Popoviches. If you were to walk past the metal staircase leading up to the Varys apartment you would come to a small patio behind the Popoviches building, above the patio is a structure for grapes to grow on, but the structure also has some green cloth draped all the way over it, the cloth takes the edge away from the sun and makes the light have a pleasent almost green glow. In the patio is a picnic table and benches as well as plants in three of the four corners.

We live in a small four-room house which was half underground so it would stay cooler. Me and my brother were to sleep in the kitchen on fold out beds, which were actually suprisingly comfratble. My parents slept in the bedroom across the hall, in the hall was a very small bathroom with only a tiolet and sink. The fourth and final room was the bath room (I mean the real one, with the shower and all that deal) which was only accseseble through my parents bed room.  

Lovište is a almost magical place, as in the days just sort of bleed together, the mornings the afternoons and then before you even realize its midnight and you have to go to sleep so you'll have energy for the next day. Having said this you can understand why it would be exceptionaly hard for me to write everything in chronological order so I'm sure you'll forgive me for only going into the major events as we were there for quite a while.

One of the nicest things about our slice of Croatia was the proximity to the water, our houses were maybe 30 feet from the water. When we woke up we went swimming, after we ate we went swimming, before we went to bed we went swimming, there were also many times in between that we swimming. We also went snorkeling, (we saw many crabs and fish and things of that sort) I tried windsurfing, I learned that although windsurfing may look fairly easy it is not easy, not at all. By the time I was done trying my hands were blistered and bleeding from pulling the sail out of the water but by the end of the trip I was actually able to go a few feet without falling so it was worth it. And of course as there always are when the right ingrediants are present; raft battles. 


While in Croatia most people do two things all day, of those two things I have already told you about one, swimming. The second is relaxing, just chilling, or kicking it with your friends and family. Just lying near the water, reading a book, listening to the water and feeling the wind. Now this is really very enjoyable to do but I'm not sure how interested you would be to here about me sitting on a beach and not doing anything so I'll spare you. 

Croatia.

Some Korculan roofs.

Lovište is a fishing village, almost all of the year round inhabitants are fishermen. Even some of the summer inhabitants are fishermen. Atien Popovich is a man who spends his summers in Lovište with his family and is aslo a fisherman (he is also the man we rented our houses from). One day while strolling through town we saw Atien fixing his fishing nets with his fishing partner. We went over to say hi. We started talking and at some point my brother Marko asked if he could go fishing with Atien, being very generous Atien agreed to take me and my brother. We were to wake up the next day around four and be out fishing with Atien and his partner by five. Somehow we managed this feat and by five we were in thier fishing boat. We rode through wind and waves for about an hour until a white bottle was spoted floating on the water we drove by it slowly until Atien snatched it out of the water fast as lightining. He pulled the heavy net out of the water till all of it was on the boat. This was repeated several times untill all the nets they had layed two days before we inside the boat. We started on the way back. I noticed there were more and more boats on the water, and one in particular almoost seemed to be coming right at us, but Atien and his partner had done this before, I was sure they knew what they were doing, but when we were about ten feet from the other boat and they were screaming at us to turn and everyone started cursing and shouting I realized they somehow hadn't noticed the impending boat, which was not by any means small, it was a massive and lumbering thing, the kind of thing that would take quite a while to turn, which presented us quite a problem in our current predicement. Luckily we did escape unscathed with about an inch to spare which was very exciting but at the same time nerve racking. 

Just chilling, you know.

As I probably said and you might know, this was not my first year in Croatia I was there two years ago. While there two years ago me and Simon made some friends while playing basketball mainly two boys named Peter and Stephan who we remembered very well and very much hoped to meet. Dario (Atiens son) invited us one day to play soccer up on the field we agreed of course and went with him and while playing we saw Peter and Stephan. After we meet we concluded to meet again later and play basketball. Peter is in the top ten basketball players in Croatia (I think second or somewhere around there) so whoever played against him was brutaly crushed. Soon we noticed the light slipping away and our shots growing harder and harder due to the visablity. After this we met every night to play basketball. 

On the beach.

Every night after playing basketball we would meet at cafe Bolero, where some of us would have ice cream and others would have vodka but all had a good time. This continued far into the night, we would go out in the late afternoon and (only sometimes) stumble home in the dark at midnight or one in the morning. But this is ok, Lovište is a safe place there are no police which is of little consequense as there is no crime. Also there is no doctor which can present a problem if one is required for an emergancy medical situation. And there is no school. Don't worry though all the kids go to school. The nearest school is on a nearby by island town called Korčula, in which Marko Polo was born. Being so close and all we had to visit Korčula so thats what I'll tell you about next.

I'm on a boat.

Korčula is, as I said an island and driving to an Island is not a task easily done so we took a boat. The  ferry perticular we took offered and extraordinary view of the sea, of vineyards and of lots of nice cliffs and such so it actually was quite exciting. One of things one would notice as one comes into Korčula are the walls. The walls seem to sprout out the the white waves constantly crashing on them almost like a huge, white tree.

Yes. We are siting on a banana.

Yes. The banana is being pulled by a motor boat.

Korculas history.

The roads of Korčula are not paved as we have here or where ever you are (most likely) but they are cobbled roads that are very beutiful and a pleasure simply to walk on. The building look old and historic, which is of course because they are old and historic. There are many new resturants, bars and stalls selling none of which are old and historic and few of which sell things that are old or historic but with one major exception. The "Marco Polo Shop" is not in itself anyhow old or historic but it is made out to look very old and is all about history as that is what Marco Polo himself is part of. Last time I was in Croatia I bought my little brother Marko a shirt from the Marco Polo Store that said "Marco Polo". We visited Marco Polos house which is now a muesam. This was all very interesting to do but I have a feeling no matter how I write it, it won't be interesting to read so because of this I'm not going to write it.

Best ice cream in the world.

More Korcula.

We walked all through Korčula and explored the town all the while marvouling at old churches and belltowers and such. Not long after we discovered we had worked up quite the appititie, so being near to so many wonderful resturants we decided to go to one. The meal was amazing of course and everything was delicious. Soon we had seen all we came to see and it was time to go back. The way back was the same as the way there is I feel little need to describe it it detail but they way on the way back all of us the Suchys and the Varys sat on the front of the boat to feel the salt spray even more. We returned to Lovište and that was the end of our excorusion to Korčula.

Sometimes in Lovište there are special events such as "Den Lovište" which means "Day of Lovište" and every so often there are putdoor parities or diocos with lights, DJs, and a mobile bar. The last time I was in Lovište they had thier celebration of "Den Lovište" which I remember very fondly. One day while walking back from the store at which we had bought donuts for breakfast we noticed a poster promoting a tequilla party nailed to a tree. Being curoius we came closer and examined it and realized that we would be in Lovište during the party. Since we were in Lovište and the party was in Lovište, of course we were going to the party. 


Partys in Lovište aren't the same as partys in other places. Parties in Lovište are an event the whole village attends, they are outside near the boats and water. A stage is erected seats and tables are put into place as well as a moblie bar. The had some impressive light effects as well as a color changing screen placed behind it. In between the bar and stage with chiars and tables to either side was a large open space left for dancing. As darkness desended upon Lovište and the appointed hour arrived we started our advance towards the party. Almost immediatley we (at this time Simon and me) met some people we knew. 


Familes started coming, being this as it is the familes started dancing. Our familes came, (Simons and mine) so of course we had to go dance with them a little which we extremly relucantly we persuaded into. Now I have to give you some history. There was once a mailman in Lovište, this mailman was an interesting guy, he really, really liked to party. Last time when I was in Lovište at Den Lovište he got exceptionaly drunk and started dancing a way that only a drunk mailman can dance. After he finished dancing he figured it being a party and all he might as well do something crazy. He got into the biggest nearby fishing boat and found the emergancy flairs. Taking two of these he stood on the tallest point of the bow with one lit flare in each hand, then him as well as everyone else started chearing. As the postman was drunk he didn't stay on the boat for very long soon he toppled off the boat, flairs and all. If you're so drunk it's not easy to walk then I would not advise swimming. This was the postmans predicament, he could not swim, which if you are in the water is a vry, very big problem. Some of the postmans slightly less drunk friends jumped into the water and rescued him, much to the amusment of all the spectators. We were told not long before our coming that the postman stole all the post offices money then ran to America where he currently is working on a fishing boat. The postman is a very colorful charcter in Lovište so two men got thier flares out got on their boats and amped up the party with a tribute to the postman. 


Since it was a tequilla party many people were drinking, not only tequilla but everything you can think of. Two of my Lovištian friends ended up shirtless in the street tumbling around singing "Guns n Roses" songs. I met many new people some of whom were tourists and others who were residents. I met one girl from Germany with whom I became good friends. The party went almsot all night Simon and I returned late at night.


The next day after we woke we met with our friends from the night before, we were impressed with the carnige left over from the night before. Bruno (who was singing "Guns n Roses" the night before) had broken the motorcylce he had made himself in his garage, it layed in the middle of the street along with many plastic cups and empty bottles. I found my german friend and we spent the rest of the day together on a bench by the sea. 


The next few days were slow, with just realxing and before we knew it our time in Croatia was over. We endured the same brutal drive back to Bratislava and that brought a close to this chapter of our time in Europe.

Ukraine

About twenty or fifteen years ago my mother worked as a photographer in a very small, very remote and by your stranderds probally very unusual village. The name of the village was Kryivounia, which means something like crooked straight in Ukrainian I think. The village has a population of just under 2,000 if you count just the people, if you count the cows, geasse, sheep and goats it would be much, much higher.

My mother lived in this village on and off for about a year, so she has some good friends and memories from there. As we were in Europe and we relitively close to Ukraine my mother decided it would be a good idea to go back the the village (the one with the really long name that is really hard to spell) and check things out.

Being a good photographer my mother also got a grant to come to Ukraine and teach English at the "Ukrainian Cathlic University" which happens to be where I am writing this from. The grant is for the next three summers so we may very possibley be coming back here to Ukraine soon.

The road from Slovakia, specifically the capital Bratislava (where we live) to Ukraine is a long one. Altough Ukraine and Slovakia share a border is it very small an on the oppisite side of the country. We decided to take the highways through Hungary, they would lead us to Ukraine faster. We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. We passed through the Hungarien capital of Budapest and countinued on to the border.

You may or may not know that Ukraine is not part of the EU (European Union) and therefore there is a border that is moniterd by police and soldiers. As we came closer and closer to the border, everyones nerves ran on edge, being in Hungary with a borrowed car from Slovakia with three American passports and one Slovak passport trying to cross the border into Ukraine is not very typical and we thought it very possible we could have some problems with the border police.

We came to the border and everybody shut up excpet my father who speaking Slovak, having learned some Russian in school, and understanding a little Ukrainien was able to using all his languistic skills, with the occasional use of "sign laungue" communicate with the guard enough to get through the checkpoint. We congradulated ourselves and rejocied. Moments later our good feeling evaperated as we realized that we had only gone through the Hungarien part of the border and now the Ukrainien part was coming up, we were only half way.  

After a few mintues that seemed like eternity we ended up at the checkpoint. All was not as we expected, instead of the typical jerks guarding the border, the guards we talked with were very good to to us, halfway through the checkpoint we realized we needed to call someone to arrange how we were going to find the place we were supossed to be staying at. Our phones don't work in Ukraine so we were unable to place the call, one the border guards borowed us his phone to make the call! A border guard lent us his phone! Isn't that crazy?

Soon we passed through the checkpoint, fourtunatley the police did not find the dead body we are hiding in our car trunk. No I'm just kidding, we dumped it out in a river before we crossed. There was supposed to be a man waiting for us father down the road, he would get in the car with us and direct us to the place where we were supossed to sleep.

Fortunatley the man was waiting. He got in our car and not long after we pulled into a school for people studying to become priests, complete with a church and a bunch of other buildings for I have no idea what. My brother and I were shown to one dorm by a future priest while my mother and father where shown to another dorm by another future priest. We woke up well rested. Since we had stayed with religion students we found it was not exactly possible to refuse an invitation to early morning mass on Saturday morning. My brother and I dressed and showered then went down to our parents dorm.

Not long after we all shuffled into church. The only people there were the students, it was slightly odd coming into church and seeing only priests. We were recogniozed by the preist, I mean the one who was doing the preaching, as speacial guests from France. I still have no idea why we thought we were French. Everything was in Ukrainian and almost everything was sung, it was very peculiar for me. After mass ended we went had breakfast with all the future, and present priests. The breakfast was simple but good, bread with cheese and ham.

Right after breakfast we got going, we still had a long day of driving ahead. The countryside slowly transformed before us. The flat land slowly changed into steep mountains, the clear sky into mist shrouded mountian peaks. We continued on our way.

Farms, fields, cows, and the occasional stand selling fresh fruit all flashed by my car window, although everything was a flash from the car, I was amazed at the beauty of the Ukrainian countryside. I began to see why my grandparents missed their country so much.

As we peacefully continued on our way we were suddenly attacked without warning by a huge swarm of cows. Well I guess it wasn't so much of attacked but more enveloped. All we could see through the windows was cows, cows, cows and cows. The cows had been out grazing all day and were being herded back to their rightful owners.

Traffic in both ways was slowed to almost a halt. Honking and mooing were constantly heard. Then the semi trucks came. Tuck driving can be a hard job, constantly wearing down on your nerves, always driving. Now I'm sure you've heard a truck honk before and are aware that more often then not they are equipped with an extremely loud and obnoxious horn.

Now there were two or three semi trucks freely blasting away on their horns many other cars, also blasting away on their horns, and all the cows mooing. All this commotion didn't in the least bother any of the two or three cow drivers, this was an every day happening for them as I was later informed.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Slowly but steadily the mass of black, white and brown thinned and eventually dispersed leaving the road clear of all except the occasional cow dropping. Soon we were well on our way to the mountains.

After a while of driving we came the village where the woman who had been my mothers assistant in Krivoyonia lives. The woman who at the time when she was mothers assistant was a little less then ten years old, is now a fully grown woman. The woman agreed to help us get back into Krivoyonia, she would stay there a few days herself as most of her family lives there. We were to meet then go back to her house and then drive in two cars into the village.

We came to the place where we were supposed to meet without problem, I was told the name of the meeting place but all my attempts to read the road sings were futile as they were in the cyrillic alphabet. A rather old looking truck pulled up, and out of it the woman we were meeting her husband and her small child.

My mother recognized the woman and we all greeted each other. The woman came into our car and navigated us to her house. After a little while we arrived there. Is was a larger house in the more rural part of the village. As we came inside I was supprised to see two elderly people there, at first I thought they were visiting then I remembered that in Ukraine it is often traditional for grandparents to live with their children. We had a delicious meal consisting of ethnic Ukrainian foods that by now I have forgotten the names of, well all except salo, but I'll get into that later.

After the meal we talked for a while, I understood more of the the conversation then I had first thought I would, the Slovak and Ukrainian languages are both of Slavik root and are very much alike. After this discovery I took it upon myself to learn to read Ukrainian. Eventually after much pain and struggle I did.

We were going to go in two cars, Calinka (the woman who was my mothers assistant) with my mother, brother and father. I was going in the second car with Calinkas husband and son. Calinkas car was an old truck that was missing several parts in several places, it was old but reliable.

Calinka speaks some English which is good for me because I don't speak any Ukrainian. Unfortunately Calinkas husband doesn't speak any English at all. Now, I wouldn't if you've ever tried to communicate with someone who does not share a common language with you, but here is something you should know about it; it is insanely hard. Like for real. Luckily he spoke some some Czech, Slovak and of course Ukrainian, all of these languages are very much alike because they all share a Slavik root.

With a combination of all the languages mentioned earlier and hand signals we managed to have a "conversation" about Ukraine. The time passed and we made our way farther and farther into the mountains. The trees we had been driving through for a while suddenly broke and revealed a beautiful clearing with an extraordinary view over the mountains. We stopped the car got out and spent a little while just looking out at the view. When we finished appreciating the view we got back into the car and went along on our way.

The road was more or less a pot hole minefield. Somehow everyone came out of it in one piece. Now we were in the village, I mean the only one I've been talking about, the with the long complicated name.

As we had arrived rather late all we did was unload the car then go to sleep.

To be completely honest I'm not sure how many days we were in Ukraine for so I'll just give you an overview of everything that went on in Ukraine.

The first thing that happened was the beds, yes beds can happen. As you most likely aren't aware of I have allergies to dust, not so severe ones but enough to cause myself discomfort. Now that you know about my allergies you can probably guess what was up with the beds, but just in case you can't I'll tell you.

The bed I slept on could have been completely made of dust from the way I sounded during the night and the way I looked in the morning. I was told one morning after waking up by my mother that she woke up in the middle of the night and heard something, that at the time she thought was a wolf outside the house, it turned out to be me breathing, or more trying to breathe. The last night in the village I slept in another house in which I was able to have a comfortable sleep without worrying about dying.

Now I'll tell you about some more fun things that we did in Ukraine. Ukraine has a good number of mountains and being the fact that we in them we figured that we might as well climb them. One of the people who my mother photographed has a house even higher in the mountains where his wife was currently taking care of their animals which are at that house, the one higher in the mountains. We were invited to hike up the mountain and go sleep at that house. We agreed and went with one eleven year old boy (who actually was the Mayors son) named Andrej. After navigating through many the cow-shit minefield, walking through a stream or two and climbing many feet in altitude. At the house we had a delicious and not at all nutritious meal of some mac and cheese then some bread and salo. Salo is a traditional Ukrainian food that consists of fat, fat and fat, it is straight fat that you're supposed eat on bread. Although this food is extremely unhealthy it is really, really, really good. Up at the mountain house we also went wild strawberry picking then ate the strawberries with this amazing cream that the Hutsels make. We slept at the hut high in the mountains then went back to the village the next day.

Screening my fathers movie.

From the photos my mother made, my father made a movie. This movie is called "Pictograph". I've seen this movie about 253456256 times and been promised about the same number of times that I would go the place in the movie someday. It was very interesting for me to finally get there and actually see the place the film is about. We screened the movie in the village, that's what the photo above is.

In Europe Futball, no I mean Soccer is extremely popular and they play it pretty much everywhere. As the village is in the mountains there is not very much flat ground to play Soccer in so being resourceful they play in grass path that goes through the entire village. We set up some beer bottles for goals and then I got scraped in Soccer, scraped real, real bad.

Getting demolished in Soccer.

One of the main attractions of Krivoyonia is the fact that Ivan Franko an extremely famous Ukrainian writer once had a summer house there. There is a museum dedicated to him, there are also two more museums one has some of my mothers photographs, the museums weren't very interesting for me so I'm not going to write anything about them.

I was able to observe another way of life in Kryivounia, one I would not normally be able to see, one most people who aren't born into it aren't able to see.

Not to long after we arrived we had to leave, it was sad but true, but fortunately our trip to Ukraine was not at a close yet. After Kryivounia we where to visit a larger Ukrainian city by the name of Lviv maybe you have heard of this city, maybe not, but that dosen't change the fact its one of the biggest citys in Ukraine and often reffered to as the capital of western Ukraine.

We were going to Lviv to meet my mothers old friend who grew up in Syracuse and is now the head of the Ukrainian Catholic University and a priest. We rented an apartment from some older woman who loved to talk, and talk, and talk. We met my parents old friends and had dinner and all those fun things which you have probably have been through yourself. I learned lots, and lots about Ukraine's history, culture, alphabet, and current political situation which is more precarious then you would think. This was extremely interesting and eye opening for me.

On the way back we stopped to find the grave of my great, great grandfather, somehow we did find it. We took some earth from the grave put it in a little bag for sentimental reasons then we took some photos, paid out respects and left.

I bet you a dollar you cant read the tombstone.

The trip back was just as long as the trip there. That actually isn't true at all, The way back was about
 four hours longer than the way in. At the border we passed the Ukrainian border with no problems at all then we came into the mile long line for the Slovak side of the border, we waited in that line for five hours. The problem on the Slovak side wasn't with anyone's paperwork, it didn't have much to do with the few cars being completely unpacked, it wasn't even because there were to few people. It was because almost all the people there weren't doing anything they were all just kind of sitting and chilling. Finally we made it through all the lazy border guards and came into Slovakia.

Instead of sleeping at a church we slept at Mr. Musinkas (you may remember him from one of my former posts) son. After a good breakfast we came back to Bratislava and were home.

Eskimos and Hochschornes

One of the previous bloggs I wrote, (bloggs has two g's right? The computer tells me I'm wrong no matter how I write it but the website your on right now writes it with two g's so I will to) well before I get sidetracked I should probably tell you about some Eskimos and some Hochschornes because you probably don't know any and I don't want this post to be to disappointing.


Unfortunately I do not know any Eskimos, sorry to let you down but I'll get to that later. Fortunately I do know some Hochschornes. (this is the last name of a family in case you where confused) The Hochschorne are a very water-oriented family, what I mean is that everyone in that family is an incredible white water kayaker or canoer or something along those lines. 


The Hochschorne twins are Olympic gold medallists in the C2 canoe division several times over. They are the most successful Slovak athletes and certainly among the most successful athletes in the entire world.


My father knows both parents of the Hochschorne twins, their mother is currently teaching me to kayak. Their father is their trainer and manager and everything like that.


I was recently at a man-made white water facility, at that facility was not only the Hoksici twins but also the Japanese white water slalom team. There we saw the twins father who my father knows, we talked for a while and watched the twins train, they were really, really good.

Hochschorne brothers

Me with the Hochschornes in the background

As I have talked about the Hoksicis a lot a feel the time is ripe to discuss Eskimos. When I say eskimo, I don't mean a person, or in fact, any living being at all I simply mean a roll in a kayak, the link below is an example.

Having such an excellent teacher as Gaba Hochschorne (the Hochschorne twins mother) I learned to do an eskimo roll in around three weeks (I go kayaking twice a week) I think this is considerably fast. I'm not really sure if everybody else thinks so but I can think what I like.


Here are some pretty awesome photos of my eskimo. My very own personal eskimo.

Coming around

I'm actually coming out of the water

I love this photo

Me and Dennis

Different angle

Finishing up

This is what I've been up to lately. Since I told you what I'm doing you really, really, really, should probably consider commenting on this and telling me what's up.

Painting

The apartment my father used to live in when he grew up in Bratislava is now quite dilapidated. Although it is a living space, when we came it was uninhabitable, well at least not a pleasant place to live. In the beginning there was no heat, not for the house, not for the water, not for anything.


Now there is hot water and heating for winter. Even though there is heat there are still several problems in the apartment, these problems include but are not limited to; there is only one bed and four people (me and my family) are soon going to be living there, there is very little furniture (as in three chairs, two tables and some shelves), there is no refrigerator and the walls need to be painted.

Since there are so many problems we (my father and I) decided we should probably try to do something about these problems before we start to live there, which we will very soon.


My father has been working on painting for a while, so far he has painted the kitchen and some sections of other rooms. Today I spent my entire day helping him painting the apartment.

Fast hands

My fathers feet

We started and finished the first coat of the entrance room, which is considerable progress for one day.

Painting, painting, painting

I woke up in the morning and left to go paint and that's what I did pretty much the whole day. That's what I've been up to lately.

Kids Day

Today at my school we had Kids Day, which as you might have realised is a special day for kids. A boy named Oliver and I wear running the sword fighting event. As you can probably imagine this was an interesting experience for me.


Kids day worked like this, all the classes of little kids (I'm not exactly sure what grades) would go with their teacher, all around the central part of the school and participate in all the different events available. After participating in an event whoever was running the event would give the class a small slip of paper with an icon having to do with the event on it. The class would glue the slip of paper onto a larger paper.


Their were many crazy events of which I don't think would fly in the US, for example their was a rope going from the upper floor the the main door in the school, the kids would put on a harness and use the rope like a zip line. This wasn't the only crazy event, their were many more including blind soccer, blind eating and many others of which I have forgotten.


As me and Oliver were  in charge of the sword fighting it was up to us to explain the rules and make sure nothing bad happens. We were to explain the rules to every group, the rules were that if you got hit in the leg you had to jump on one leg, if you got hit in the other leg you died. If you got hit in one arm you have to put it behind your back and put the sword in your other arm. If both of your arms were cut off you died. Nobody was allowed to hit anybody in the head and you weren't supposed to hit very hard but we weren't really worried about that last one.


Since my Slovak isn't that great Oliver handled talking to the teachers and I was the practice dummy. Oliver would show the kids where to hit by hitting me with the sword and explaining the rules at the same time.


After a few times of going through this is started to get a little tiring, watching little kids try to sword fight isn't exactly that intriguing. Most of the kids didn't realise the point of a sword fight is not to hit your opponents sword, but to hit their body.


We had exactly the number of paper slips so that each group could have one slip, after every group left we thumbed through the reaming papers trying to somehow magically make them disappear. After a while we did run out of slips of paper, not everybody had finished so we just chilled and watched what everybody else was doing.


After everybody finished we didn't have to stay, so I had lunch then left. Over the course of the day I saw more then enough children for two or maybe even three lifetimes.

The Circus

I've never been to the circus, until now. It was may birthday on May 19 so my father thought that for my birthday me, him, and some of my cousins could go to the circus.


I took the bus then the tram and soon arrived at my grandparents apartment. Neither of my grandparents was there at the moment. My father gave me a box of eggs and told me to go to my uncles house and tell my cousins to come here.


I walked to my uncles apartment which is in the same building as my grandmothers just on another floor. When I got to my uncles apartment I gave them the eggs and after a little while me and my two cousins were back at my grandmothers apartment.


After we made some sandwiches and gathered food and packed it into out backpacks we got on the tram and left. After we arrived in "Medics Garden" (that's where the circus was) we met up with our other cousin. 


We sat down on a mat we had brought played cards, ate, and watched "Juicy Lucy" hang from a rope with her foot and sing song about showering. When Juicy Lucy finished we left and went to the big circus tent.


In that big tent we were to see "Witty Look" that is a Japanese unicycle duo. Before we saw the unicycles a man wearing a green hat in all green cloths with his face painted green came into the tent riding a green scooter. The green man put his scooter on stage then proceed to pull an unlucky and unwilling "volunteer" towards the stage.

Witty looks poster

The green man then stripped the man down to his boxers commented on how the mans armpit smelt and then dressed him in a green dress. The green man pulled several more "lucky winners" to the stage and then got married to the man wearing the green dress. After the marriage the green man got on his scooter, dropped some sparklers or something like that and left.


We waited a little while, then a women wearing funny cloths with a sparkely pink bow tie in her hair came on stage. Soon a man wearing similar funny cloths appeared on stage. After a series of quite hilarious pantomime acts the two got out their unicycles and started to cycle.


The duo jumped rope and jumped two people, all while on a unicycle, the man also rode a unicycle that was about six feet tall. They did many other things to but these were the most notable.


After the show was finished we went outside and just kind of hung out for a little while. Another show was to start soon and we wanted to see that one too. The next show was called "Shake, Shake, Shake!"

Note: Not my photo

The show started with a man dancing an old dance.Soon he stared climbing two poles set up with a platform at the top. He looked slightly like a squirrel, although he may have looked like a squirrel he must have been a lot stronger than a squirrel because soon he showed us his "horizontal pullup" which is exactly what it sounds like.


After a while he called up a "volunteer" to dance with him. The volunteer seemed very timid and we thought she must have felt terrible. Soon the volunteer showed their true nature, both changed very quickly into disco cloths, they also got their afros going. Shortly the Dj cued the 70's music and everything got going.


The acrobats started doing their thing, the man climbed up the pole and the women followed they linked hands and the women jumped from the platform they had been standing on atop the two poles. The man had his legs locked on the platform. The women did many crazy stunts, flips spins twists and all that other great stuff. After a good deal of acrobatics, 70's dancing and laughter the act was over.


When the circus ended we went to my fathers apartment which wasn't very far away. We played a few games of cards, I didn't understand the rules of the game and apparently they didn't understand me because they certainly were not kind to me. 


I was pretty hungry so I ate an entire loaf of poppy seed bread, by myself. It was late so I went back to the Várys house and soon was sound asleep with dreams of Japanese unicycles, crazy flips and crazy 70's music and  dances.

The Israeli Ambassador

I walked into school and everything was normal as was to be expected because it's not a surprise if you expect it. The day continued normally for about two or three hours.


After about three hours I noticed some abnormal things, there was a barricade set up next to the stair case leading to my hallway, this is very unusual, there were also very many funny looking men whom I had never seen before.


It turns out those "funny looking men" were police who were wearing tuxedos. They even had a small, black dog that probably would have bitten your hand off if you tried to pet it. The reason for the barricade and the dangerous looking men in tuxedos was that the Israeli ambassador to Slovakia was coming to visit our school.


The ambassador started with showing us a movie by a popular Israeli music group, it was really crazy, the point it made was that Israeli is a little country with a big influence. I think that is true, not only because of what I learned but because I am always hearing about Israel in the news.


As it turns out the Israeli ambassador was not born in Israel as you might guess, he was born in Soviet Russia. He also lived in Costa Rica before Israel.


Thankfully the ambassador spoke English and the entire presentation was in English. The ambassador told us about Slovakia and Israel's relationship, apparently it is very good. He also told us a little about why Israel is special and many interesting facts about Israel.


When I think about Israel I think about camels, soldiers and Jews. The ambassador only knew about one camel in all of Israel. The part about soldiers is true, boys and girls must both go to the army at the age of 18 boys for three years girls for one. While in the military the soldiers must carry their guns where ever they go so it is not an uncommon sight to see bands of people walking around with assault rifles. Some dance clubs even have special places for soldiers to deposit guns. Not all of Israel is Jewish, only a mere 80% of the population.


Israel is in the Middle East, and most places there have oil, Israel is the only one without oil, or anything else. In Israel there are almost no natural resources. Most Jewish families greatly value education (Israel has the second highest literacy rate in the world) so many people in Israel are very smart, Israel has lots and lots of technological expertise. Many things like cell phone cameras, computer chips, and many more things of this sort we first created, thought of or expanded on in Israel.


The ambassador was very funny, he was also a very stereotypical Soviet Russian. He looked more fitted to be a politicians bodyguard than a politician. He also had an impressive accent.


It was interesting to listen a real Soviet Russian who is now Israel's ambassador to Slovakia talk about politics, especially Israel and Slovakia's relationship. 

Beginning of the End

In Slovakia in some schools there are four grades, in others there are five. On Friday May, 13th all Slovakia's seniors finished school. When I say "finished" I mean they only have tests left to graduate school. They got out on Friday now they have a week to study then they take the what many have told me is "the biggest exam of their lives".


Even though graduating from high school is generally considered a good thing, I think it is always a little sad. As Friday is the seniors last day together they absolutely must do something crazy, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. The entire class makes something that resembles a poster, it reminded me very much of signs carried at a protest. The entire grades pictures are on the poster along with their names.   


The Students parade usually around their school with their poster, they collect money, which is apparently used for drinking at the pub later. They also make as much noise as possible. They dress up in fancy cloths like suits and ties, get out their noise makers and parade throughout the streets chanting "Give us money" and for some reason many people do.


We saw many groups of students participating in this it looked like a lot of fun. I wish we did this in the USA because it's a memorable way to end your high school career. It's also the last fun thing they do all week, they have to study pretty much all week long. That second part is the only thing I don't like about the whole deal.

White water races

On Saturday I saw my first white water slalom kayak race. When my father was young he used to white water canoe, I am now learning how to kayak. 

On the Danube river

Trying not to fall

Me, my father & the belly of the kayak

I took the bus to Bratislava's "Botanical Garden" and then waited at a gas station. I was waiting for my dads old canoeing partner's wife who would drive me to the race.


After about 25 minutes I saw a small dark red Škoda car, it had two bars on top of the roof for carrying many things, but in that families, mainly boats. My grandparents have a car just like this and it is very common in Europe.


After driving for about 30 minutes in silence, mostly because of my linguistic problems we arrived at a rather big and artificial looking sports center of some kind. 


It was obvious something was going on, there were cars everywhere and many trailers with boats of all sorts on them. We walked in the obvious direction of the water. When we got there it had already started and many people had taken there run.


I walked to one of the three concrete bridges, there was Radko (his wife had driven me there). I leaned on the bright blue round rail and asked Radko who had been canoeing partners with my dad how they had done in races and things like that.


There were some truly amazing kayakers and canoers, for certain not all, but some. I didn't know this at the time, but apparently there were two brothers there who had together won several Olympic medals, there mother is teaching me how to kayak.


Some of the people there weren't all that great at kayaking or canoeing or whatever. One kayaker flipped over and instead of flipping back around started swimming. Many others flipped over, which is very common and happens to everyone, but they were able to flip back around and continue on their way, it was very interesting to watch that, especially when it was the canoes.


The main difference between kayaks and canoes isn't the boat or the paddle, it's the way you sit. In a kayak you sit with your legs extended in front of you, in a canoe you sit on your legs or kneel. The paddles and boats are also different but they are not the main difference.


After about four or five hours of watching Radko and his wife drove me home, I had to fight not to fall asleep on the way, I think I lost that fight, not badly but a defeat.


I was dropped off at my grandparents apartment where my father is living, I saw him, told him about how it was and then went back to the Várys.

Huty and Easter

At the same time as spring break is in the USA we had Veľká Noc (that literally mean "Big Night") this is our Easter vacation. We had Thursday to Wednesday off. We went back to school on Thursday.



The Várys own a cottage in a small village in the mountains called Huty. Huty is in the high Tatars and is a pretty remote and isolated place. The drive there is not a short one, it was about five hours from Bratislava. When we were about two thirds of the way to Huty we were able to see the Tatras looming above us, they were capped with white snow and looked almost as if they were about to fall on us.

The Tatras

As we drove through the village I saw a whole lot of chickens. Apparently everyone that lives there year round raises chickens. There were very many old building that were made out of wood and had a very distinct type of architecture. There were also plenty of new fresh looking houses.


It is a remote village and it being remote means its hard to get running water up there so all the water is in one facet outside. The water from this facet was the coldest water I have ever felt, by far. There is also a latrine with a huge spider in it.


We pulled up to the Várys cabin or hut or whatever you want to call it. Me and Šimon got out of the car and opened a large picket wooden gate. After fumbling with the lock for about five minutes we finally got rusty hinges to grind out, then back into place after the car had driven inside the fence.

This is the hut.

The village, taken from the hill behind the house.

The immediate yard of the house was not very big, behind the house was a small wooden table. There is a little stream that runs behind the house, behind that his is an extremely short, but steep hill and behind that more small hills covered by tall grass.


I walked up the five or six steps into the house into a small room that slightly resembled a kitchen. There was a table in the left of the room and another right next to the door but the one next to the door was covered by a hot plate and other cooking utensils.


The next room was every image of what a cozy cabin cottage should look like, there was even a rocking chair. When you walked in through the door on you right was a small table with a pitcher of water or tea and glasses or mugs. Next to the table was a door to another room the next to the door was a heating oven powered by wood, then next to that was a shelf with assorted liquors and a radio sitting on it.


On the left was a small table with two benches and three chairs around it, next to that was a dresser with a mirror on top and lastly a sofa. In the next and final room were three beds another wood stove there was also another dresser with a fold-out bed on top of it.


Being that we arrived late in the day we didn't do anything but read and relax or chill or whatever for the rest of the day. The next day we woke up, Žofka had difficulties waking up so Šimon and Maroš went and got a pitcher of that frigid water from the facet outside, they came back inside and brutally assisted her.


After everyone was awake we had breakfast. After breakfast we all piled into the car along with the Várys dog Tory. We came to a parking lot which apparently housed more cars then anybody had thought could fit into such a small village we found a parking spot on the grass and got out of the car. There a smooth path made from small pebbles that was next a very small river.


After walking down the path for a good while we came to some old mill houses which were now big attractions of the village. There were lots and lots of people around the mills, being the same as everybody else we took out our cameras and started taking pictures.

On the way to the mills.

The mills

I never knew goats could be so interesting.

After looking through the mills and enjoying the wonderful outdoors we went back home ate and fell asleep.


The next day we woke refreshed and anew, well everyone but Žofka who needed help in the same way as she needed it the day before, Šimon and Maroš gladly helped her. Soon everybody was awake. We ate as we had the day before took the dog for a quick walk and then piled into the car again.

Maroš was more than a little annoyed.

Šimon realised.

We drove off and soon arrived under a ski mountain which being in the Tatras still had a little snow. The place were were at was called "Tarzania" it was a very peculiar looking ropes course. After a brief training session on how not to fall down and die we started on the ropes course. Surprisingly we did not fall down and die.


There were many things I have seen before in this ropes course and many things I doubt I could have imagined. There were some very easy obstacles which I just ran across and one or two where I got frustrated and simply climbed the cable my swiss seat was attached to.   


After me and Šimon finished (we had been the first two to go) we talked with the guy who has in charge of making sure we didn't die. As it turned out he happened to be an excellent freestyle semi-pro skier, we talked about skiing, skis, snow and things of that nature.


After we finished we said goodbye to the employee we had been talking to and drove back to the cabin. Once we got back to the cabin we ate and fell sound asleep.


The next day was Easter. Slovakia, being such an old and historic country has many traditions. My favourite tradition of all is the Easter tradition. On Easter the men take could water and pour it over the women's heads after they pour the water they beat them with whips. The women are not allowed to retaliate in anyway, they must serve the men good drinks and food. The best part about all this is that its true. Somebody, I can't remember who, but it was somebody important said "Without traditions people wouldn't be people."


I watched as Šimon and Maroš practised tradition very vigorously. After all our traditional ceremonies we drove five hours home. We arrived and stumbled, almost zombie like to our beds and fell asleep. Everybody was extremely tired.

Žofka and Maroš taking a picture of us.

 

Košice-Don't forget your Slavic blood

Everything must come to an end and this film festival was no exception. The festival was certainly coming to an end, but it had not reached it quite yet. There would be two more days and two more nights of films and then everyone who had come for the festival (mostly the filmmakers themselves) would leave sometime the next day.


We saw many more films, many more people, and I sat through (without understanding) many more Q and A sessions. As is common when something like this comes to a close people want to party and have fun.


After the films ended for the day everyone went to have dinner. Everyone was responsible for their own dinner and went to go buy some food somewhere. After dinner everyone was going to meet at this place called "Madrid" for beer.

Yummmm

Madrid was a pub. The door was locked the first night when we came and one of the people already inside had to come and open the door for us. We shuffled slowly one by one through a extremely narrow but relatively short hallway. We rounded the corner, and came into a small room, the light and even walls in the room were red, not bright red, but the same color as red sand or red stone. There were two rows of small tables pushed together to make two extremely long tables there were chairs all around the tables, many of them already occupied. All the people in the that room of the pub had some connection to the festival and my father knew many of them.

Left to right: Jan Gogola, Mišo Suchý, Marek Šulik

Mišo and Jan

Smoking is much more common and publicly accepted in Europe so people were allowed to smoke in the pub. Since people were allowed to smoke in the pub they did, when we arrived the air was thick and hazy from cigarette and hookah smoke. We sat down at one of the tables and ordered kofola (coke only better) and looked around.


My father started talking to one of his fellow filmmakers, who I have no idea but I know he did. Šimon started talking to someone to, if you wanted to know who you would have to ask him. Eventually I started talking with a man from Prague, (Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic) we talked about all the differences between the United States and Europe. Although he did not speak good English nor do I speak any Czech we were able to communicate fairly well, we only had to use hand signals once or twice.

Šimon

After our conversations ended and our glasses emptied we figured it was about time we went to the hotel and went to sleep. When we got back to the hotel it was around 2:45 in the morning, fortunately there was still a receptionist at the desk and we were able to get in. Everybody showered and then went to sleep.


The next day was very similar, we saw a lot of films then in the evening went to the pub "Madrid" as we had the night before. The only difference there was that we sat at the other table on the other side.
Everybody started talking, I had a conversation with one filmmaker named Adam that was very.....inspiring and interesting, I'll give you a summary.


This conversation was a while ago and very confusing, even at the time so this may or may not be in chronological or an other sensible type of order but I think that's okay.

Me and Adam

We talked about the different regions of Slovakia, how if you travel just short distances you will be in a completely different place with its own pronunciation of words and its own customs and traditions. We compared and contrasted this to the USA. The USA is similar but definitely not the same.


According to Adam western Europe is more logical and progressive, while eastern Europe (Slovakia is in eastern Europe) is old and traditional often disobeying simple rules of logic or common sense in tradition.


We also talked about how people work together and become friends. Conflict is a problem, just by its definition. Since conflict is a problem it must be solved or bad things will happen. Conflict can come in any size or shape, but when it is big it usually involves many people. These many people must solve the conflict and by doing or not doing this they form bonds that we know as friendship or any relationship like it. At the time that is was spoken this made perfect sense, if  you don't understand what you're reading that's okay, I don't understand what I'm writing.


This is an example of tradition, I mean the thing about conflict. There are some very old conflicts in Europe that have been existent for a very very long time. Two people will unite to conquer a common conflict and then become friends, maybe. This is the theory, this theory applies to everyone with Slavic blood, that means me and maybe you.


This theory is not mine, and I'm not going to tell you what my opinion is on it because right now my opinion is very confused.


As we were leaving the pub Adam out to me "Myko, don't forget your Slavic blood". Since then Slavic blood has been an interesting topic to my father, Šimon and me. All I know is that most certainly, not now or ever will I forget my Slavic blood.


We came back to hotel after braving the streets which were full of drunk hockey fans (The world championship was to be partly held is Košice and is going on there right now). After we came to the hotel we were greeted by the same man as the night before. It was about the same time as we had gotten back the night before (2:45) and we went to sleep gladly.

Šimon asleep next to a nun.

The next day we left the city. We went by train, it is a five hour trip from Košice to Bratislava by train and five hours on a train suck. We were in a cabin with two middle aged ladies and a nun. I tried the whole way to fall asleep but alas my attempts were in vain, I couldn't sleep because it sounded like somebody was trying to saw through the floor of the cabin with a metal filer. Soon, well not so soon actually we were in Bratislava.