Štrbské Pleso

Hawaii is a wondrous place. Warm tropical breezes and bright sunshine abound, and the inviting beaches and lush scenery easily make for enduring memories.

Slovakia is also a wondrous place, but it is not likely ever to be mistaken for Hawaii. Weather and scenery aside, there is a simple reason for this: in Hawaii, you are never far from a vowel. Every word has at least a 1:1 consonant-vowel ratio. One of my favorite places to visit in Hawaii is the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (City of Refuge) National Historical Park on the Big Island. Seventeen letters, eleven of them vowels. Very reassuring.

In Slovakia, one can visit Štrbské Pleso. That's not a typo: Štrbské Pleso. That's 12 letters and only three vowels. That first word is a doozy, isn't it? It is a lake and surrounding resort area in the High Tatra mountains. It is beautiful, but unlike Hawaii in every other way. We visited by train, taking the 100-year-old Tatra Electric Railway to get there. I could really get used to taking trains to places like this. Not far from the depot is the lake, Štrbské pleso, after which the area is named.

As a family group, a dozen or so of us walked around the lake, enjoying the views, eating wild raspberries, and breathing in the fresh mountain air. Tessie got some hands-on nature experience:

We stopped for lunch at a "traditional" (read: touristy) Slovak restaurant, where the prix fixe menu includes a shot of the local gin no matter who orders it; the two young girls, ages nine and eleven, sitting at our table were each given a shot along with their main courses. Solely in the interest of propriety these were consumed by their elders at the table.
After lunch we continued our leisurely circumnavigation, stopping again for coffee/ice cream/more gin at an outdoor cafe by the train station. Tessie had none of the above, snacking instead on the seemingly endless supply of wedding goodies still available.

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This kezboard is driving me crayz!

Poprad

Poprad has a population of 55,000, making it the tenth largest city in Slovakia (don't ask me to name the top nine - there's no way I'd spell them correctly). (By the way, 55,000 is roughly the capacity of Dodger Stadium.) Still, it is a very walkable city, and this morning's stroll took us into the downtown pedestrian shopping district.

Tessie enjoyed being chauffeured by her ever-helpful cousins, and Hannah and I enjoyed not having to be constantly on Tessie duty with a bevy of watchful relatives on hand.

Up and down the streets we strolled, buying postcards and produce, until it was time to return to the apartment for lunch.

After lunch, people started to disappear in preparation for the wedding that was the primary reason for our trip to Slovakia. Most of the disappeared were resting up for the festivities to come, for a Slovak wedding can be quite the endurance test.

I don't mean the ceremony itself, which was a lovely Catholic ceremony in which Zdena and Peter were wed, and which was conducted in Slovak so I couldn't understand a word; no, I'm referring to the reception.

The happy couple:

Immediately after leaving the church, everyone made a dash for the reception hall in the Hotel Poprad in the center of town. We were seated at long tables in the form of a letter E (or maybe a W, depending on your point of view), and our assigned seats were right in the center of a cluster of English-speaking guests. Very helpful!

Tessie has been working on her table manners:

Unlike wedding receptions I've been to in the States, Slovak receptions seem to be about eating. Oh, and drinking. (And drinking.) The first course was at our table when we arrived. A few speeches (sadly, incomprehensible to me) from interested parties later, the soup came out, followed closely by the main course, Chicken Cordon Bleu. All the while, dessert was staring us in the face as the tables were piled with small plates of a seemingly endless variety of little bite-sized cakes and cookies.

And then there were the drinks. While Tessie's Mom and I limited ourselves to the outstanding Zlatý Bažant (Golden Pheasant) beer, full bottles of vodka and cognac were available to anyone who wanted them. Just to be clear: I'm not talking about an open bar; this was more like an open liquor store.

The party only just started and she's already under the table with her shoes off!

Dancing? Of course there was dancing. Tessie spent a lot of time on the dance floor, but she ran out of steam (so we thought) around ten p.m., so we walked her back to the apartment (everything is local!) and put her to bed. Hannah and Peťo returned to the party, leaving me to watch over the sleeping Tessie.

Except she didn't sleep. Half an hour after going to bed, she stood up in the crib and announced, "I wake up." After that there was no getting her to lie back down, so we stayed up playing and watching the Olympics until the rest of the group came home at two a.m. (Actually, Peťo and Zuzka stayed until the DJ left at four a.m.!)

Of course, everyone was sorry that I ended up missing the fun of the reception, but Tessie and I actually had a good time together anyway, and it's possible she would not have been as happy staying in a loud reception hall, so it all worked out for the best.

I can say that because the next day, today, was part two of the reception, in the apartment of the parents of the bride. Leftovers! Cakes, cookies, soup, meat, and of course beer, cognac and vodka. A good time was had by all, again, and this time Tessie stayed until the end.

The High Tatras

On our arrival at the Poprad train station, we were greeted by a large contingent of relations eager to see Tessie (and possibly the people she brought with her). For once, we actually had more people available than pieces of luggage. Everyone pitched in and we made the short walk to the apartment of our hosts Peter and Danka and their daughters Zuzka and Andrejka.

For the rest of the first day our hosts took it easy on us, and we spent the remainder of the afternoon catching up with each other and watching the Olympics on television. Danka prepared a hearty meal for us in mid.afternoon, and it abated our hunger until we went to sleep that night.

Tessie got to know her cousins (well, second cousins actually, but we°re not about to keep score) and they played together on the apartment complex playground. The two young ladies are very eager to be helpful and take turns pushing Tessie°s stroller around.

The next day, we all went to the local mountains, the High Tatras. We walked from the apartment back to the train station where we had arrived the day before and boarded a small regional light rail line that took us to the Tatranský národný park (Tatra Mountains National Park). Imagine that: public transportation to a national park! We disembarked and made a beeline for the local ice cream shop, figuring we°d burn off the calories later.

A short trek later, we happened upon a mini golf course, and the two young ladies were so enthralled with the idea that we decided to indulge them. Andrejka won, Tessie°s Mom took second, I got third, and Zuzka, well, it wasn°t her day. (The other members of our party, Petr, Danka and Tessies Moms Dad, abstained from ritual self humiliation.)

What°s a round of golf without a beer afterward at the nineteenth hole? Well, the course only had fifteen holes, and one of those was closed for repairs (which is how we all broke par, by the way), but we didn´t let that stop us.

After that, we kept walking until we came to the park museum, which was about to close for the day, so the kindly ticket seller let us all in for free. The fifteen minutes we spent inside were probably at the limit of Tessies attention span anyway, so it all worked out for the best. She saw and identified several species of animals (stuffed museum displays, of course), including several we didnt know she knew.

After that, the older girls tried the mountain bobsled, and Zuzka even dared the ATV couse. Is this not sounding much like a typical North American National Park? There seems to be a different attitude here toward park concessions, and a variety of entrepreneurial enterprises have opened up to separate tourists from their cash. This is nothing new of course from our more familiar national parks; its just that here the concessions are inside the parks boundaries rather than clustered at the entrances. We saw license plates from Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and even Latvia and Lithuania in the parking lots, so these concessionaires are drawing them in from all over.

Nature got the last word, however, when as we heading for our train we stopped to watch a large deer. Of course, the deer was soon chased back into the wood by another visitors Jack Russell terrier, so maybe its not so clear who got the last word after all.

(Editorial note: this post, the previous post, and very likely the next few to follow, will be a mess. Im using a Slovak keyboard, which, in addition to switching the positions of z and y, has characters like ô, í, á, č and many, many others more readily available than, say, an apostrophe, which you the reader may have noticed is either missing from several words above or replaced with a °, which, I admit is suboptimal. Just bear with me and Ill clean it all up when we get home.)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Combine a family wedding in Slovakia with a professional conference in Copenhagen, and what do you get? A great excuse to travel. What don't you get? A convenient way to connect the dots.

So we strung together a series of flights, punctuated by a two-hour shuttle bus ride, to get to where we need to be when we need to be there. Los Angeles to Seattle to Copenhagen to Prague to Kosice, Slovakia, to Poprad, and then the reverse.

Leg #1: Los Angeles to Seattle. We checked our copious baggage in Los Angeles, hoping we'd see it again at some point, and boarded our first of two flights for the day. For some reason, a direct flight from LAX to CPH wasn't available, so we were sent via Seattle. Tessie had been excited for some time about riding on an airplane, so with great enthusiasm she allowed herself to be strapped in for takeoff. This being a short flight, her enthusiasm remained until it ended, whereupon we began a layover at Sea-Tac, and Tessie got her second Burger King meal of the day. Luckily for all of us, she didn't seem to like it too much. [Airline: Alaska. Kiddie freebie: Disney coloring book, but no crayons]

Leg #2: Seattle to Copenhagen. This was the longest flight of Tessie's life thus far and her enthusiasm from the previous leg had already worn away. Already an experienced jet-setter, she held the seat belt in particular disdain, and we had our hands full as she repeatedly requested to go for walks up and down the aisles. As the cabin arrangement was 2-4-2 and we had a window seat, only one of us could be by Tessie's side, thus magnifying the individual challenges, but allowing us to switch off. Tessie provided lots of challenge by refusing to just sit still and fall asleep until well into the flight. After that point, though, we were able to avail ourselves of the in-flight interactive video games and movies displayed on our individual seat back screens. Tessie slept until landing, sprawled sideways across a seat and a half. [Airline: SAS. Freebie: none, although a child-size sleeping bag was thoughtfully provided. Tessie hated it.]

Layover: We could have pressed on with our third leg at this point, but would still have needed to spend a night en route before arriving at our first destination, so we decided to split up our journey by staying one night in a city to which we would return later, Copenhagen. After storing a couple of bags we wouldn't be needing right away, we discovered how delightful it is to visit a city with a simple rail connection between its airport and downtown. No messing with taxis or shuttles; we just caught the train at the airport, rode it about ten minutes to get downtown, and walked from there to our hotel for the evening. The hotel itself was fine, if small, but we are glad Tessie is still too young to ask us about the adjacent "Erotic Lifestyle" shop and topless bar.

We checked in and then hit the sidewalk to stretch our legs, wandering the Stroget (pedestrian shopping zone) as far as the city's Botanical Garden. There, the scenery and pleasant cool air caught up with me and Tessie, and we fell asleep on a park bench overlooking a lake. Luckily, we weren't mistaken for transients, and woke up ready for dinner. We found it at Den Franska Cafe, a canal-side cafe with absolutely delicious smoked salmon sandwiches and fresh Tuborg beer on tap. After feeding ourselves we fed the canal's ducks and swans, then walked back to our hotel.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that Tessie got her second wind. She had no interest in sleeping, and, while we were exhausted, she carried on most vocally about her general disinterest in the idea. She did eventually fall asleep, only to wake up a few short hours later and send me on a hunt for a glass of milk. The receptionist at the front desk raided the hotel's breakfast supply for me, and thus I didn't have to head out to the local 7-11.

When we finally woke up for good, the hotel provided a great Scandinavian breakfast (bread, herring, yoghurt, herring, cheese, herring and herring), but the highlight was, of course, the Danish pastry. I don't know if that's what they're called there, though.

After breakfast, back to the airport.

Leg #3: Copenhagen to Prague. Tessie spent this flight alert and happily playing with stickers by applying them to herself, primarily her right leg. A short flight; the crew barely had time to reach altitude, serve a sandwich, and descend. That seems to be the way Tessie likes it. [Airline: Czech. Freebie: None!]

Leg #4: Prague to Kosice. A tight connection (which is actually a good thing as it eliminates a lot of down time that must be filled) got us on to our last flight for a while, this one on an ATR propeller-driven puddle-jumper for a one hour jaunt into our fourth country in two days, Slovakia. Tessie napped for almost the whole flight, but not before receiving a gift from the flight attendant: a little plastic helicopter toy. [Airline: Czech. Freebie: plastic helicopter!]

Leg #5, Kosice to Poprad. Our last "flight" of the day, a service of Czech Airlines, was a large van we shared with three other passengers for the ride to Poprad's bus station. We all slept for at least a part of the two-hour drive, but Tessie was out for the whole thing and needed to be awakened upon arrival. We were greeted at the train station by a large contingent of relatives who escorted us (and helped carry luggage) back to the apartment of Tessie's Mom's cousins Pet'o and Danka, where we will be staying for the next few days.