Slovakia with a Two-and-a-Half-Year-Old, Part 2

Continued from Part 1:

Our second week of the trip started out like a déjà-vu copy of last year's, i.e., we drove to Bratislava to stay at Terezia's brother Tony's house in Bernolákovo. As I've said about Bernolákovo before, it's a rapidly growing suburban town just outside of Bratislava. The houses in the new part of town all kind of look like what you'd get if Ikea made prefab houses.

The same stupid photo I've been using for years whenever I write about Bernolákovo. If I were to bother to take a photo today, there'd be moms and kids everywhere in the background.

But our visit to Tony's house on our 2018 trip was cut short largely due to the fact that their daughter, Tea (pronounced like Tay-ah), was only about five months old then and therefore not particularly mobile, and they hadn't needed to childproof their house yet. Simon was 18 months then, and was getting into everything, and we had to constantly follow him around and redirect him to keep him from grabbing delicate or dangerous objects. It was immensely stressful, and Tea was obviously much too young to be able to interact with Simon.

But this time, Tea was around 17 months old and she and Simon hit it off extremely well. Also, Tony and Silvia's house is now pretty well childproofed, and it looked like a tornado had scattered toys all over the living room, so the whole situation was much more suitable for a visit from a family with a two-and-a-half-year-old. What also helped this time was that Tony took a few days off from work so he could actually spend time with us (last year he was in tense phone meetings the entire time we were there).

Bernolákovo - at least the newer part of town where Tony lives - is oversaturated with babies and little kids. It seems like every house is inhabited by a young family, and the small playgrounds situated around the rapidly expanding housing development have a steady stream of moms and small kids filtering in and out. Every time you turn a corner onto a new street, you see several moms (and occasionally dads) pushing strollers, and slightly older kids whizzing around on bikes. It's kind of surreal.

In fact, Tony told me that Bernolákovo's population has tripled (!) over the past several years. And the town has been super slow to respond to this explosive population growth. According to Tony and Silvia, the local public elementary school has up to 200 kids on the waiting list, and people are having to take their kids to schools in nearby towns like Senec. Bernolákovo has reportedly started expanding the kindergarten, but that hasn't been enough. There are plans to add some modular container-style boxes to the school to serve as temporary new classrooms to house the overflow, but I'm not sure if that's happened yet or how much it will really help.

Here's a recent aerial image of Bernolákovo. The areas circled in black are the new neighborhoods that have sprung up over the past decade, and which continue to expand. As you can see, they now make up a pretty significant chunk of the town. The housing in these developments is also much more dense and compact than in the older parts of the town, so you have a lot more residents crammed into each block.

Another problem is that there are only a couple of main roads out of town and onto the main highway and the D1 freeway into Bratislava, and during the morning rush hour both roads are backed up like a colon clogged with fried cheese. This turns Bernolákovo into one big bottleneck. And once you make it out of the town, which can take up to 45 minutes on a bad morning, the D1 freeway to Bratislava is a bumper-to-bumper mess that can add up to an additional hour to your morning commute. The morning commute out of Bernolákovo has gotten so unbearable that more and more residents are taking the commuter train into town, but the problem with that is hordes of people are now driving to the train station and the parking there is wholly inadequate. The result is that you have people parking all over the center of town in any random spot they can shoehorn their cars into. A new, more direct road and on-ramp connecting Bernolákovo to the D1 freeway is currently in the works, and that may help alleviate some of the congestion once it's completed, but the D1 is still going to be a nightmare.

The thing is, the town's mayor and council really should have seen this coming, and should have responded much faster. That the town was rapidly expanding with new developments, all of which seem to have attracted young families who are breeding like rabbits, was certainly no secret, and the population is continuing to grow.

One upshot of this growth, however, is that Tony's part of town, once kind of isolated and completely devoid of grocery stores or shops or restaurants of any kind, now has a much-needed Billa and a restaurant/pub just a few blocks away, i.e., in easy walking distance. The pub/restaurant, called Trafford Cafe, has an outdoor patio with a slightly janky wooden play structure for kids, with swings and a slightly too steep slide. If you open any kind of eating/drinking establishment in a neighborhood like this, it had better be kid friendly. Their food is pretty blah, but it's a decent place to go to have a beer on the patio while your kids climb around the the adjacent play structure. We went there with Simon and Tea a few times.

Bratislava

We did our by now obligatory short morning trip into Bratislava's centrum/old town, and this trip was almost like a carbon copy of 2018's excursion, so there's not a hell of a lot to report. We parked in the underground garage at the nearby Eurovea shopping mall (where you can park free for the first three hours!) and strolled through our old neighborhood, passing by our old apartment building, while making our way to the pedestrianized historic center.

Sadly, during 2018's annual Christmas market in Bratislava's main square, a food vendor's stall caught on fire and caused significant damage to one of the more prominent buildings on the square. The building's facade was still covered by a wall of scaffolding when we were there, but at least they put a screen over it with a life-size color image of the building's facade. If you weren't paying too much attention, you almost wouldn't notice it. Adding insult to injury, a city representative issued a statement saying the stall's owner hadn't actually secured permission to operate the stall there, which means the stall was illegal. That, of course, raises the question of how the vendor got away with operating the stall in such a highly visible spot in the first place! Seems like if someone had been doing their job, the vendor would've been kicked out before they finished setting up.

You can see the scaffolding over the facade of the Hapsburg-yellow, Art Nouveau-style building that was scorched in the fire on the main square.

Just like in 2018, we had lunch at one of our favorite spots - Bratislavský Meštiansky Pivovar. I described it a bit in this post. It's always bustling and their daily lunch specials are almost always a few notches above most other restaurants in the area (but also a euro or two more expensive, but still cheap and totally worth it). The soup, an orange-colored, paprikash-based soup with chunks of frankfurters and parky (Slovak hotdogs), turned out to be delicious. For the main dish, I ordered what was basically halušky (little potato dumplings, a bit like gnocchi but smaller and differently shaped) with a hunk of smoked pork, with bacon bits and sauerkraut woven throughout, which was actually really good, despite looking like a pile of brains or maggots with a slice of meat on top. Terezia went with the beer-battered chicken schnitzel and potatoes, a classic, simple Slovak dish, but done very nicely. Simon really dug the soup but preferred Terezia's fried chicken over my dish.

What looks like a hunk of meat atop a pile of brains or unusually plump maggots is actually smoked pork on a bed of halušky interspersed with sauerkraut and bacon bits.

Terezia's beer-battered chicken schnitzel.

Bratislava has been growing vertically since we moved away, and that's having a noticeable effect on the city's skyline. An area near Eurovea that used to be a sad, vacant wasteland now has three giant, identical towers going up. And just the next block over, the old main bus station has been completely demolished and they're building a massive new replacement that will no doubt come with yet another sleek shopping mall and at least one high-rise tower. Check out this article for some visualizations showing how the sprawling new complex is supposed to look. I don't understand how one would justify building another shopping mall a mere two blocks away from Eurovea, and about a mile away from Au Park just across the Danube, but shopping malls seem to be the only thing developers can think to construct in this city when building on or revitalizing a space. The vast public space on the top with a rooftop garden looks promising, though.

Just like in 2018, this trip to downtown Bratislava was all too brief, but we'll take what we can get. I really look forward to being able to spend a longer and more leisurely bit of time there when Simon is older.

Morning Trip to Trnava

On Wednesday morning we took a quick trip to Trnava, which was about a 30-minute drive from Bernolákovo. We'd never been to Trnava before. I'd always heard mixed reviews of the place, so it was lower down our list of priorities and we just never managed to make it there back when were living in Bratislava.

Whenever I've asked people about Trnava, there always seems to be a disconnect between what the locals say and what foreigners seem to think of it. In my experience, locals will tell you it's a must-see destination with a nice historic center, whereas foreigners I've spoken to give it more of a lukewarm review, saying it's okay but a little dull, and that I shouldn't go out of my way to see it. After spending one very rushed morning there and getting a quick taste of the place, I would put it somewhere in between. Going in with low expectations, we were actually somewhat pleasantly surprised by what we saw there. But at the same time, I'd say the historic centers of Košice, Banská Štiavnica, and Levoča are a bit more consistently attractive.

Trnava is Slovakia's seventh largest city (with a population of around 65,000), and it's extremely church-y, to the point that it's often referred to locally as "little Rome." It's been an important religious center in the region for centuries, especially when, in 1541, the Hungarian Archbishopric of Esztergom (kind of like the catholic headquarters for the Kingdom of Hungary) was relocated to Trnava for nearly 300 years while the Ottomans were conquering much of what is present-day Hungary. The town boasts a lot of big, snazzy, historic churches within its compact historic center, not to mention numerous church-related offices, convents, monasteries, universities, etc., housed in adjacent, ornate old buildings. The one or two longtime followers of this blog probably know that I'm vehemently anti-religious, but that I love the architecture of these centuries-old religious structures, and in Trnava there's kind of a lot to see in that regard.

Trnava also benefited from sitting along two important trade routes, and for centuries it has also been a big university town and a major center for the development of Slovak education, literature, and culture. The town was fairly multi-cultural in centuries past, with a big number of Slovaks, Hungarians, and Germans all living there, as well as a large Jewish community (the town has two nicely restored, repurposed synagogues from the 1800s: one is now an art gallery, and the other is a cafe).

But let's back up a bit. Much of Trnava's old town is still encircled by its medieval defensive wall, which you might pass through depending on where you enter. I'm not sure how much of the red-brick wall is original vs. reconstructed, but it's a cool thing to see.

The old defensive wall as seen from inside the historic center, with the massive soccer arena/shopping mall complex directly on the other side.

When you enter the old town on the lengthy main drag, the center unfolds gradually. At first you see a mix of architectural styles from different eras: The usual goopy, colorful Hapsburg-style facades are interspersed with drab, 20th-century communist-era apartment buildings, as well as what are probably older buildings that were given modern, boring, streamlined facelifts. While sometimes the contrast is almost comical, I suspect this is partly why some non-natives tend to think a bit less of the place. Though the historic center is comparatively big (for a Slovak town), it does have a fair amount of dreary 20th-century intrusion, and it doesn't quite have the striking, uniform beauty of historic centers in, say, Košice or Prešov.

But the main drag is very well maintained and inviting, with nice, new paving stones; sleek, modern benches and fountains; new, well-manicured trees; and lots of cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating. When we were there, you could see on the main drag/square some fast-walking university students, young moms with strollers, and some old pensioners milling about.

As you walk up the main drag, the old town's historic clock tower (built in the 1500s) comes gradually into full view.

If you turn right to face the main square at the base of the tower, Trojičné námestie (Trinity square), you'll see a snazzy plague column and a fairly sprawling square behind it. However, you'll notice immediately to your right a comically ugly commie-era structure that clashes pretty severely with its surroundings.
 

Just past that building, if you turn right on that street, you'll see more 20th-century brutalism as well as a massive, more contemporary grocery store/shopping complex. But if you look straight ahead and start walking east, the square ends and you come to a gently sloping, increasingly atmospheric medieval lane that leads to the town's main (and biggest) cathedral, the basilica of St. Nicholas.

Now, I have to admit, the cathedral looks a bit drab in photos, since much of its stonework is coated in a boring, simple, beige plaster, not to mention there's a noticeable lack of ornamentation, and the towering twin spires above the facade are also fairly spartan. But in person, the sheer size of this thing actually does make an impression, and the overall effect is more striking than you'd expect. There are also several spots along the exterior where the plaster has been stripped away, exposing a layer of old brickwork underneath. The interior is appropriately dark and somber, and while most of the walls appear to have been covered in boring, white plaster, there are numerous frescoes, some of which look old and faded, and others which look restored. You've got ornate, baroque chapels flanking the nave, a gorgeous and massive pipe organ, a detailed wooden choir, and a spacious, vaulted ceiling, etc.

Obviously, this thing lacks the rich, detailed beauty of Košice's Gothic cathedral, but it's still worth a look.

What's also striking is the pedestrian walkway that runs along the right side of the church. Adjacent to the cathedral's facade is this walkway's entrance, flanked dramatically by old, graceful statues on pedestals.

But when you walk along this path, you come to a portal in the old defensive wall just behind the cathedral, and when you pass through it, you find yourself on an elevated platform suddenly overlooking this wide vista over the communist/20th-century part of the city, with panelaks, shopping complexes, and a long, elevated pedestrian walkway, which all makes for an amusingly jarring contrast with the quaint old town behind you.

After checking out the cathedral, we had to start making our way back to our meeting point with Tony, Silvia, and Tea.

We really didn't have much time in Trnava, and we didn't get the chance to check out a few of the other historic churches in the town, notably the St. John the Baptist cathedral, which is said to have a crazy Baroque interior. We had to get back to the town's shopping mall just outside the old town to meet Tony, Silvia, and Tea, who had gone there to buy some stuff while we were sightseeing, and we all had to rush back home in time to feed our kids lunch and get them down for their naps. Alas, this is what's like when trying to travel with toddlers.

We really only got a quick taste of Trnava, and I'd like to go back and spend a little more time there. When that will be is anyone's guess, as I don't think we'll be making another trip to Slovakia until Simon is at least four or five. But if we are at Tony's place in Bernolákovo again, we'll definitely try to make it back to Trnava, as it's barely just a half hour away by car.

While I wouldn't call Trnava skippable, I'd say it's the kind of place where if you temper your expectations a bit, you might find it a worthwhile day-trip destination. There's just enough to see, and just enough of that old-world charm, to make it compelling enough - certainly more so than gritty Zvolen and maybe even Nitra. But to reiterate what I've already said, for us at least, it doesn't quite reach the level of ambiance and over-the-top beauty that you can find in Košice or Banská Štiavnica, and I wouldn't spend more than a day or an afternoon there.

Slovensky Grob

Terezia and Tony thought it'd be fun to order the traditional Slovensky Grob goose feast that happens in autumn in Slovakia each year. This feast consists of one whole goose slow-cooked in its fat, a generous portion of red cabbage, a big jar of velvety foie gras-style goose liver, a pile of lokše (which are these round, flat tortilla-type things that come slathered in grease), and a bunch of pickled vegetables. The goose is slow-cooked in the oven in these traditional ceramic pots that were originally made for baking bread, and when done right it's moist and tender inside with a perfectly crispy skin.

Slovensky Grob is actually the name of the village, just east of Bratislava and not far from Bernolákovo, where this traditional feast originated. Raising geese was a big thing in this region, and in times of financial hardship, the villagers realized they could make a lot of money by roasting the geese themselves and selling them prepared at local markets. Enterprising housewives then took it a step further and started transforming their living rooms into makeshift restaurants each autumn and preparing the full goose feast for paying customers. There are currently several such homes-turned-restaurants around the village which offer the goose feast. These are supposedly the real deal, preparing family recipes that go back generations, and many of them still look more or less kind of like houses (albeit very fancy ones, no doubt due to all the money they've been raking in from this endeavor) and some are tucked away on quiet residential streets, a bit off the slightly more commercial village center's main road.

Locals will book reservations at one of these places months in advance, but you can also do what Tony did and order the meal at least 24 hours ahead to take home. Tony and I went to pick it up, and it was all carefully placed in a big cardboard box. The goose feast is not cheap, especially by Slovak standards, but it's something people in the region are willing to spring for every autumn. Our takeout order cost a little over 130 euros, which for five people comes out to around 30 euros per person, which is really not bad given what you're getting - and we had leftovers.

Terezia says that you're actually getting a good deal because just the liver alone, given its high quality and quantity, would cost a ton of money in some high-end foodie shop in the US.

The goose.

When eating the meal, you take your goose part of choice, a pile of red cabbage, and take a chunk of liver and smear it on the lokše, and enjoy.

The red cabbage.

A chunk of the velvety liver.

Half a piece of lokše.

The entrance to the Slovensky Grob place that we ordered from.

The one we ordered was quite good, particularly the leg that I chose. And the liver and slightly smokey flavor of the lokše is kind of an evil treat. And I could eat heaps of the slightly sweet red cabbage. Geneally, duck and goose are something Slovaks (and Czechs) tend to do very well, and Slovensky Grob is the kind of thing that should be attracting hordes of foodie tourists looking for a delicious, authentic, unique, and cultural culinary experience.

But while this is the kind of thing that foodie tourists would go nuts for, it might be a lot of work trying to arrange it if you're a foreigner, i.e., you'd need to book quite ahead in advance and come in the fall, you'd need a car (or to call a taxi) to get there, and I'm not sure what kind of a language barrier you'd encounter at these places.

There are a few restaurants in Bratlislava that offer the goose feast too. Back when we were living there, we ordered it at a restaurant in the town center called Pulitzer. It was good, but I think the Slovensky Grob one was better. It's definitely something that's worth looking into if you're in Bratislava in autumn.

Click here to see the full set of photos from this trip!

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this trip.

Slovakia with a Two-and-a-Half-Year-Old, Part 1

So, we've gone to Slovakia again. I know, I know - I was emphatic in my posts about last year's trip (in 2018) that taking a toddler on a trans-Atlantic long-haul flight to a time zone that's nine hours ahead is a terrible idea, and I vowed never to do it again until our son, Simon, is at least five years old. But several months after the 2018 trip, Terezia started making some noise about going again, and soon started eyeing airfare, and before I knew it, plans for another trip were taking shape. Terezia said she and Simon would go with or without me, but there was no way I could let her take Simon alone – that would be intensely cruel. It's difficult enough dealing with a two-year-old on such a trip with the two of us, and forcing Terezia to make the trip without my help would cause her to have a complete mental breakdown. 

Fortunately, this flight to Slovakia went a little smoother than the last one. The first advantage this time around was that Simon had his own seat. Last time, we very stupidly wanted to take advantage of the kids under two fly free deal that many airlines offer, which was a HUGE mistake, because at 18 months, he was already too tall and too active to spend the flight in our laps. On that 2018 flight, Simon slept about two hours at the end of the flight, making the preceding seven hours an absolute nightmare. This time, however, Simon slept for about six of the nine hours, which was a colossal relief/improvement. Simon was sprawled out in the middle seat, with his head on my lap and his feet on Terezia's lap, while Terezia got to doze for a bit and I got to watch three (!) in-flight movies. 

But things were at times pretty rough for those first three hours when he was awake. He really hated having his seat belt on, and there was a fair amount of intermittent crying and mini tantrums, but we eventually got him to settle down with a small travel-sized kit of Play-Doh and some other new toys, as well as some videos and Peek-a-Boo Barn on an iPad.

Sleeping like a baby on the flight from Copenhagen to Budapest.

Then came the 3.5-hour layover in Copenhagen, during which Simon spent an inordinate amount of time taking one of our carry-on suitcases up and down these three steps next to where we were sitting while waiting for the gate number for our next/final flight (to Budapest) to be announced. Fortunately, Simon slept for the majority of that 1.5-hour flight to Budapest in the window seat. Unfortunately, the smaller plane dropped us off so far away from an actual gate that we had to walk outdoors for what felt like three miles to reach the airport building. After then waiting for what felt like the time it takes to read Moby Dick for our checked luggage to arrive on the baggage carousel, we high-tailed it out of there to where Terezia's mom and the cab driver from Lučenec were waiting for us. We reached Terezia's parents' place in Slovakia two hours later, just around midnight.

Norwegian Air Kind of Sucks

We flew Norwegian Air this time, a newer airline that's been offering reasonably priced flights from the west coast to Europe - and not just that, but from Oakland airport (!!!) rather than big, dreadful, out-of-the-way SFO. But I have to say, the only advantage of flying Norwegian turned out to be the convenience of only having to go to Oakland airport.

The flight experience was definitely subpar: the selection of in-flight movies was extremely limited, and you had to buy earbuds from them if you didn't have your own; the flight attendants were snippier than usual; they had no WI-FI; the food was worse than usual for economy; anything like food, drinks, luggage (carry-on or checked) is considered an add-on and costs more; their restrooms had no fucking diaper changing tables, nor those flimsy wax-paper toilet seat covers; they charged extra for any between-meal snacks and beverages; and they had no milk and they were really snitty about telling us that when we asked (airlines that we'd taken Simon on previously, like KLM, had milk which the flight attendants were happy to bring for Simon).

So, while Norwegian tends to offer reasonable deals and some nice direct flights, I would think long and hard about using them, especially if you have small kids, because the overall experience was pretty lacking compared to other airlines. They're basically taking a budget Ryanair approach to long-haul flights, and I don't think that's a good thing.

Jet Lag Redux

Then, of course, we had to deal with Simon's jet lag. As I mentioned in 2018, this is hugely challenging because two-year-olds don't understand that they need to stay in bed and try to fall back to sleep when they wake up at odd hours of the night from being nine hours ahead. They just wake up and they're ready to play, and this makes it that much harder for you, the parents, to adjust. So, like last time, we kept all activities to our bed with the light off, and we watched old cartoons (this time episodes of Krtko) on the laptop until Simon fell asleep. On the night we arrived, Simon had gotten so much sleep on the planes and the two-hour cab ride to Terezia's parents' place that he no longer wanted to sleep by the time we were going to bed. That meant we didn't get to sleep until around 5:00 AM that first night, and we woke up shortly after 11:00 AM.

Sleep Deprived and Taking It Slow

For the first several days we did very little, partly out of exhaustion/jet lag, but also because there's just not a lot of serious traveling or sightseeing that you can do with a two and a half year old. 

Like last time, Simon spent a lot of time in Terezia's parents' backyard since there's so much space for him to run around. He loves picking the sweet, dark purple grapes off the vine and eating them, and chasing (and feeding) the cats that live in the yard. He also liked "helping" Terezia's mom rake leaves and doing other garden-related chores, as well as taking buckets of sand from the sandbox and dumping them at random spots around the yard.

We did make it into nearby Lučenec several times to do some errands and to take Simon to the playground and the great ice cream place, Záhradná. We also checked out Lučenec's train station, because Simon likes trains, and we got there just in time to see the Bratislava-Košice line make its stop.

Sometimes Terezia and I forget how seemingly everyone in Slovakia over the age of 50 has this permanent facial expression that looks like someone crapped in their lunch. It's like this perma-scowl that they wear as naturally as a hat or a jacket. When sitting at Záhradná's outdoor patio with our ice cream, several tables were occupied by older people who sat there frowning or scowling while licking their ice cream cones, which was kind of hilarious. One such couple at the table next to ours eventually let their guard down after Simon kept smiling at them. The woman allowed herself to smile, while the man temporarily broke out of his perma-scowl and started trying to talk to Simon in basic English phrases like "Good afternoon" and "How are you?". 

No trip to Podrečany is complete without a little excursion to the castle/hotel in Halič, and this time was no exception. On this outing, we actually went down the back of the hill to a sort of park/duck pond at the bottom. It's a nice park, but it's tricky to access from the hotel, as you have to descend a steep, narrow, and twisty dirt path to the bottom of the hill, and it's much easier to get there from an unmarked and gated dirt road that runs off a side street below. Not something hotel guests would be wont to do unless they brought a decent pair of hiking shoes. Once you're down at the pond, things are well maintained and it's easy to get around, and there's ample shade from all the trees. We were hoping to see some ducks or swans for Simon's sake, but there were no waterfowl of any kind down there on this particular morning.

 

Entering Podrečany.

I love the big sky and sense of wide-open space when you're out in the country.

Piddling around the shore of Lake Ružiná.

Celebrating Terezia's mom's 70th birthday at a restaurant in Lučenec.

Short Trip to Banská Bystrica

We took a short morning trip to Banská Bystrica. I've written about the place here. It's kind of known for being the heartland of Slovakia, since it's right in the center of the country, but it was also the epicenter of the Slovak National Uprising (known as the SNP), which was the short-lived armed resistance movement against the Nazis during WWII. We hadn't been there since 2014, so we thought it was time for a revisit.

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, it's a pretty nice town, but I actually think Banská Štiavnica, Levoča, and Košice all have slightly more attractive/visually interesting historic town centers. As historic centers go, Banská Bystrica's is pretty compact; while the main thoroughfare and lenticular main square are fairly big and consistently nice/old, the old architecture doesn't really extend much beyond it. Go a block in any direction away from the main square and you're surrounded by dingy 20th-century buildings. But Banská Bystrica is still a lot nicer than Zvolen, so I'll give it that.

When we got there, a big gathering of mostly young people was underway in the main square as part of the global climate strike that was happening that Friday.

Like the previous year's quick day trip to Banská Štiavnica, we didn't do a whole lot because we were with Simon, obviously, but we piddled around the picturesque main square for a bit. Simon was especially drawn to the big water fountain in the main part of the square. After ambling around and then eating lunch at a place on the square with outdoor seating while being bombarded by persistent and curious yellow jackets, we walked to the SNP museum where Simon got to see the WWII-era trains, tanks, and airplane out front, the latter of which you can board for 50 euro cents. Of course, immediately after we paid the 50 cents and got on the plane, Simon told me he'd made a poo-poo, so we had to abruptly rush out of there and deal with that.

The SNP Museum - one of Slovakia's coolest examples of modern, communist-era architecture.

All in all, this first week was pretty uneventful. Terezia and I felt like the jet lag hit us harder than it has before, and it's taken us even longer to adjust, and it hasn't been any easier for Simon. As a result, we really didn't do much the first week, and I don't have much to report.

VILLAGE LIFE

CBA: Rest in Peace

I'm sad to report that Terezia's parents' village, Podrečany, has lost its only store, the CBA. CBA is/was a chain of small convenience stores that exists around Slovakia in both urban and rural areas, and they sell a variety of food products. They're a quick, convenient alternative to the big grocery stores like Tesco or Billa, and in rural towns and villages, they're often the only place that's walking distance to grab some milk, beer, bread, eggs, Kofola, etc. I was told CBA came under new ownership a few years ago and they've recently been shuttering stores all over the country.

Podrečany's "Old" Pub on the left with the now-shuttered CBA (RIP) on the right.

For folks in villages like Podrečany, this means they no longer have a store they can just skip down to to grab whatever they need. They now have to drive to the nearest village, Lovinobaňa, to get to a CBA equivalent, which is a few miles away, and just a little too far to walk or bike to for most folks who live in the village. That means you have to drive there, and - importantly, for Slovaks - that means you have to do it before you start drinking. Or, you can take the train, but that means planning your day around the erratic schedule of the local train.

We always used to send Terezia's dad down the street to the CBA to get some milk or whatever we'd run out of, and he always liked going because it was something to do, as well as an excuse to stop by the village pub that was right next to the store.

I suppose it's possible that another convenience store chain could move into the space, but not having one at all really sucks, and it does make life for the villagers more difficult.

(Edit: Since posting this I've gotten a few more details about the situation. A few years ago, the CBA chain was bought by a Polish company. That company actually changed the name from CBA to Kačka, but they went bankrupt this year and they have been abruptly closing all of their locations. The last I heard, something like 1,800 employees have suddenly lost their jobs as a result.)

The Old Hunting Lodge Is Falling Down

In other sad local news, one of Podrečany's oldest remaining buildings continues to fall apart. Each time we come back, a bigger portion of this building's roof has collapsed. I mentioned in this blog post that a local once told us that this building dates from the 1700s and that it was the hunting lodge of some bigwig general in the Hungarian army of Francis Rákóczi. The people who currently own it reportedly only use the patch of land in front for growing potatoes, and apparently have no money to deal with the problem. The building is so far gone that reconstructing it would likely be exorbitant, requiring the kind of money that few villagers in this region have. It occupies a nice plot of land right smack in the middle of the village on the main drag, but I reckon if the owners put it up for sale, the real estate listing would describe it as a "tear down."

The hunting lodge in May, 2013. Back then the roof was mostly intact, but you can see a small hole on the left that may have been where the collapse started.

The hunting lodge in December, 2017.

The sad state of the lodge in September, 2019.

The village likely doesn't have the money or desire to step in and help either, nor would I expect any help to come from the regional level. Tourists would obviously have no reason to ever come to villages like Podrečany, so there's just no incentive for anyone to preserve and maintain centuries-old buildings like this unless it's something really unique, like the village's old manor house.

I don't know if there are any local or federal laws that dictate what you can and can't do with old structures like this one, nor do I know if there's some kind of funding the owners or village could tap into to save the building, but it would likely come with conditions that would limit how the building could be used, and require a certain level of upkeep that just might not be worth it for whoever owns it.

The side of the lodge that faces the main road, as seen in May, 2013.

The same side of the lodge in September, 2019.

Nevertheless, it's sad to see a piece of history go neglected.

Podrečany Gets a Sidewalk!

In happier news, Podrečany finally ponied up the money to install its first ever sidewalk along the main drag. Prior to this, Podrečany had no sidewalks of any kind, which is not unusual for a rural village of roughly 500 inhabitants. In such a small, quiet village, this is not usually a problem, but cars do go through the main drag fast enough to keep you looking over your shoulder when walking along the edge of the road. The new sidewalk runs along only one side of the road, starting across the street from where the village's bus stop is and ending by the bridge that you cross just before hitting the train station. Notably, the sidewalk connects the village's two pubs, so this will hopefully mean fewer drunk people stumbling about in the street. I like it because I don't have to worry about getting hit by a car when doing my daily village stroll with my iPod. Amusingly, a number of the locals stubbornly continue to walk on the other side of the street where there is no sidewalk.

  
See all the photos from this trip here. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip to Slovakia!