I apologize for how late I am with this second post for our 2024 trip. For various reasons, it just took me a while to finish this post and get it into semi-presentable shape.
But what further delayed things was a serious problem with Blogger: the function for downloading and inserting photos into the posts suddenly stopped working entirely. I eventually found a temporary workaround, but it's not something that will be tenable over the long term, since it requires me to use up the free space in my Google/Blogger account, which is finite and dwindling (since I refuse to pay for more space).
At any rate, things started picking up a bit on this trip since my last post, but that doesn't mean we've been doing anything that we haven't done before (and which I haven't written about multiple times). Plus, some days it has rained here more in a single day than it does in an entire year in the Bay Area, which, coupled with my having to work the first few weeks we were here, limited how much we could do (and how much time I had to write about it).
Banská Štiavnica (Again)
We did manage to take a day trip to Banská Štiavnica, which is, of course, not a new thing for us. I've written about this gorgeous medieval hill town multiple times: here, here, and here. Check out these older posts for some brief history and more detailed descriptions of the town.
Right before we left for our trip, Terezia's mom, who came with us, had to run to the village potraviny (small food/convenience store) to buy something, and right when she went to pay for her purchase, the lone employee working that morning sauntered out front for a cigarette break. Terezia's mom kindly asked the woman if she could put down her cigarette and ring up her purchase, because, she told her, she was in a hurry as she was leaving at 9:30 am to go to Banská Štiavnica. Visibly displeased with this reason for having to prematurely stub out her cigarette, the cashier grumpily asked her, "Why are you going there?"
We get this question frequently from strangers and even family whenever we tell anyone here about our various day trips. I have to emphasize, it's not being asked out of genuine interest or curiosity; it's more like they're asking, "What reason could you possibly have for going there?" or "Why on earth would you want to do that?" Even if you try to explain it, the thought of visiting just about any Slovak town or region merely just to explore it or take in the sights is seen as an incomprehensibly pointless and stupid way to spend one's time. You might as well tell people you're going to go lick a fence post and rub gravel in your hair.
At any rate, this was probably the most satisfying day trip we've had there in years. Simon is finally old enough to kind of appreciate the town and some of the sites, not to mention to be willing to walk around and explore a bit more (as long as we keep dangling the promise of ice cream over his head), so we were able to take things in at a slightly more leisurely pace and enjoy it more.
I, of course, love Banská Štiavnica. As I've mentioned before, it's one of the most beautiful, intact, and well-preserved historic towns in all of Slovakia, and one of the few historic centers in the country to give you that kind of old-world yet small-town "European" experience that many non-European tourists come looking for in Europe. It's pretty off the beaten path, so it's generally not swarming with tourists (and if you do see lots of tourists, they're likely part of a group that's been bussed in on a day trip, or it's a bunch of teenagers who've been bussed in on a school field trip), but that also meant that it was more or less left alone during communism, unlike many other towns and cities.
We went inside the old castle (Starý zámok)—rather than just gawk at it from outside—which is something we've never done before. When we went up into the old bell tower, Simon was freaked out by the super-old, creaky wooden steps (and towards the top, creaky old ladders), so he didn't go all the way up to the top where the bell is. His loss, as the views over the town were fantastic, even if they did have to be seen through netting put in place to keep birds out of the tower.
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| No, it's not snowing in June! This is an older photo showing the old castle (note the bell tower in the center with the castle just behind it) that I took back in winter 2012 which I thought I'd recycle here. |
For lunch, we were feeling lazy and didn't want to trudge up and down the streets in search of a place to gamble our luck on, so we just headed straight to a restaurant on the main square that had ample, covered seating on a nice terrace out front. A few other customers were there, chatting, sipping drinks, and smoking. We didn't see any waitstaff or host when we got there, but we sat down at one of the numerous open tables anyhow, since that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do in most typical Slovak eating establishments.
Then we waited. And waited. The people there drinking and smoking got up and left at some point. Then, after about eight minutes with not even a head peeking out the front door, we got up and took a gander inside to find a completely empty restaurant, devoid of any signs of life, save for some pop music blasting on the house stereo. We stood around for another minute, and Simon even shouted "Hello!" into the echo-y medieval stone room a couple times, but no one ever came out.
After standing around for a final minute, we shrugged our shoulders and left, and went to what wound up being an unrelentingly mediocre place in a cool medieval building on a quiet, narrow side lane that runs parallel to the main street.
When it was time to leave, Terezia and her mom came up with the brilliant idea of taking a long, scenic route back to Podrečany, which involved a series of narrow, winding, lovely back-country roads through the hills and forests in the area south of Banská Štiavnica and Zvolen, which we'd never really explored before. This took us through the southern town of Krupina, as well as the cute village of Bzovík, which is home to a pretty cool-looking castle ruin, and through several other quaint, middle-of-nowhere villages. It really is a beautiful part of the country.
We eventually made our way to Modrý Kameň (which I wrote about last year here), where we stopped for coffee and cakes at the historic castle, before continuing home.
More Bike Rides
I did some more riding on Tony's snazzy road bike, this time exploring the vast area on the other side of the main highway from Podrečany. The first part of the first ride was lovely, and the roads were (mostly) smooth, except for the connected/adjacent villages of Cinobaňa and Turíčky (combined population: 1,995), both of which have some of the worst, most utterly destroyed paved roads I've ever personally encountered in Slovakia (and that's really saying something). The route took me through the charmingly run-down, one-road village of Mládzovo (population: 110), and the road on either side of it was smooth and scenic. I was less enamored with a lengthy span of road labeled 595, which went from Breznička all the way to Tomášovce. It was fairly busy with cars, the scenery was dull, the pavement surface sucked, and the whole time I was riding directly into a headwind.
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| Approaching Turíčky. |
After Tomášovce, I went through Stará Halič and up into the hills to Tuhár, which I've written about here and here. The natural surroundings were absolutely beautiful, especially with the early evening sun hitting the landscape at just the right angle on this particular day. Tuhár, in particular, looked gorgeous in the spectacular shimmery light. After Tuhár, I flew down the hill into Divín, rounded the Ružiná reservoir, went through the village of the same name, and from there it was a straight shot back to Podrečany. The whole ride was about 35 miles long.
On the following Saturday, I went on a ride with Tony, which was kind of a mistake. Tony has been regularly doing these longer 50-mile rides (I never have time to do more than 35–40 these days), so he's built up his endurance and stamina, not to mention, he has a long history of athleticism (he was a track star in his late teens/early 20s, and was actually on track to run in the Olympics back in the mid-90s until his running career came to an abrupt halt when he sprained the same ankle twice), so even though I've likely done a lot more cycling than him over the past several years, he has quickly surpassed me. At any rate, I could only hack about 32 miles before running out of gas on this sweltering day (and on a ride with a fair amount of uphill climbing), but Tony opted to keep going and did another 18 miles or so. Towards the end of my ride, when I could feel my posture sagging and muscles starting to tire and ache, and was running on fumes, Tony had gotten a second wind and was sitting perfectly rigid and keeping a very brisk pace, so I felt like I was going to start holding him back.
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| The center of Turíčky. |
On another ride later that week, which I spent almost completely on the other side of the highway from Podrečany, I was riding between Poltár and the tiny village of Rovňany (population: 244), when a large bee (or yellow jacket or wasp or something?) came flying fast on the headwind I was riding into, and smacked me hard in the right temple. In the fraction of a second that it made contact with my head, the damn thing stung (or bit?) my temple! I stopped in the village of Rovňany for a few minutes to use my phone's camera to inspect the damage. Expecting to see my face all swollen up like the Elephant Man, there was thankfully only a small, round, slightly raised bump, which didn't appear to be getting any bigger, so I got back in the saddle and continued the ride. The constant stinging pain in my temple put a damper on the second half of my ride, though. Goddamn countryside.
Trip to Bratislava
We did our necessary trip to Bratislava where, yet again, we spent a couple of nights at Terezia's cousin L'udmila and her husband Christoph's gorgeous, spacious flat in the hills. Again, not something new, but we always love hanging out with them, and we deeply appreciate their warmth and hospitality. Simon likes playing with their daughters, Sasha and Zuzka, too.
Bratislava still proves to be oddly compelling for me. The city tries hard to make me dislike it, yet I'd move back in a heartbeat. And each year it seems a few new skyscrapers have gone up, while a handful of the same medieval buildings in the historic center continue to crumble. At least the new buildings make the city appear more substantial and important from a distance.
As with Banská Štiavnica, Simon did a bit better ambling around the old town than in years past, but as mentioned above, he still has his limits, and after a few hours, he will crash and burn hard, and only the promise of ice cream will keep him from melodramatically collapsing in a heap right there on the cobblestones.
When we walked up the hill to Bratislava's castle, we had to take some time out to let Simon climb all over the play structure on the playground that's up there. Again, you've always got to remember that when traveling with your kids, they are obviously going to want to do kid stuff, and there's only so much trekking up and down the streets of pedestrianized historic centers they can take. Wherever we go, I always try to keep an eye out for decent looking playgrounds and file them in my mental Rolodex for possible future use.
We had ice cream at the great but pricey Luculus on Hviezdoslavovo Námestie, a hearty lunch at our usual haunt, Bratislavský Meštiansky Pivovar, and Simon loved taking the bus and tram between L'udka and Christoph's flat and the old town center (he is a big fan of public transportation).
I'm always struck by how lovely Hviezdoslavovo Námestie is this time of year, when the trees lining the square are all so full and green that they form this super inviting shady tree tunnel that runs the length of the square.
I got to meet up with my friend James in said square on our first night there, and catch up with exciting developments in his personal life as well as the current sad state of Slovak politics (which I summarized briefly in the last post).
On our second evening in town, L'udka and Chris took us to a surprisingly good burger place called Karlsburger that's dangerously close to their flat. My expectations were super low going into it. See, it's hard enough finding a good burger place in California (where cooking a burger perfectly medium-rare and not turning it into a desiccated hockey puck seems to be a major problem for many establishments, not to mention where, in the Bay Area at least, the hip burger joints all seem to use excessively lean [i.e., dry, tough, bland] beef]), so I tend to lower my expectations even further when getting burgers abroad. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I bit into this super tender, juicy, and flavorful bacon and cheese burger.
I kept taking more bites, not simply because I needed to put fuel in my empty stomach, but also out of a need to make sure I wasn't imagining how delightfully good this burger was. The fries were adequate, but the beer, whatever it was, was super tasty and refreshing.
Directly across the walkway from this burger place was a somewhat bigger and more modern (and gated) children's playgrounds than what I've tended to see in this town, so Simon and Sasha spent time playing there while we were able to watch them from the restaurant. It's incredibly nice that L'udka and Chris have all this so close to where they live.
I wish we could have stayed in Bratislava (and at L'udka and Chris' place) longer. I really miss that unassuming oddball town (and I love staying in their flat), and I'm always pining to move back there when we visit. And L'udka and Chris are exceptional hosts who go out of their way to make us feel welcome, and they are smart, engaging people who are always fun to chat with.
At one point, L'udka and Chris remarked that they are very happy with where they are and don't imagine themselves moving in the foreseeable future. However, L'udka added the one thing that would definitely make them want to pack up the kids and flee the country is if Slovakia ever left the EU. I personally think this is highly unlikely to happen, though I can see why someone might be a little concerned about it. While Robert Fico and his nationalist/populist Smer party spew loads of anti-EU rhetoric, I feel like they have to know that actually exiting the EU would likely drive the country into a major economic meltdown.
I mean, it's one thing for a well-established country like the UK, with its very long history, G6
membership, and general standing in the world, to leave the EU (and the UK has not been having an entirely easy time of things after
Brexit), but for a small "black hole" like Slovakia to leave would be
devastating, and they would probably go running straight into the
Kremlin's arms to sign on to some sketchy economic agreement to stay afloat, and become some kind of Russian-style oligarchic, authoritarian vassal state. Fico uses the EU as a bogeyman to scare people into voting for his party, but I don't think the more mainstream parties in Slovakia, like Smer, would actually upend the country's economy and general stability by leaving it. Maybe I'm being too sanguine about this?
However, there are some weirdos on the more far-right/ultra-nationalist/fascist (yes, there have been actual fascists in Slovakia's parliament before) fringes of Slovak politics who probably would try to leave the EU, or at least have a voter referendum on doing so, if they were ever to gain enough power to have any say in the matter. But I'd like to think that's not likely to happen either.
For starters, the fascists don't always cross the five-percent threshold that's necessary in elections to get seats in parliament (and when they have, it hasn't been by much, though the fact that they have at all is still alarming). The liberal, pro-EU opposition party Progressive Slovakia got the most votes in EU parliament elections earlier this month, and while that has no bearing on Slovakia's current government, it still reflects voter sentiment (albeit amid low voter turnout). Plus, the current pro-EU political opposition does seem to be generally a bit stronger here than the opposition in, say, Hungary. So, this is all to say I don't envision Slovakia doing anything drastic like this in the foreseeable future. But let's hope I'm not wrong!
At any rate, stay tuned, as a post about our trip to Croatia should be coming soon.
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