The atmosphere is hushed, despite the number of people. Families walk slowly, stopping for a moment here or there with a candle or flowers. Candles and more candles flicker in the dark, illuminating a portion of chrysanthemums or the leaves on the tree above.
“May perpetual light shine upon them…” Prayers for the dead waft heavenward.
I’m in a cemetery. So are many others. Click to continue reading
Bryndza, a soft sheep cheese, is a traditional food in Slovakia. It tastes something like feta but is soft. Bryndzove halusky is the classic Slovak dish, little potato gnocchi smothered in byndza and bacon. This version simulates the taste for those who don’t have access to bryndza or don’t have the time to make potato gnocchi.
Ask any Slovak about traditional Slovak foods, and you’ll most likely hear about bryndzove halusky (halushky).
Halusky is usually translated as potato dumplings, but I’ve seen dumpling cover everything from bread-like blobs to Chinese wontons to Slovak potato drops, all exceedingly different.
Bryndza is a soft sheep cheese, tasting something akin to feta, salty and sharp. It’s used to make spreads for bread, fill perogies, or even make soup. It’s most common application is as a sauce over halusky.
Many brands mix sheep and cow milk to make bryndza, but some brands use only sheep milk, and a few even have raw sheep bryndza. To fit in with my probiotic and fermenting theme, bryndza is full of probiotics. There is a study examining which bacteria bryndza contains and their antimicrobial activity.
Jarmok, pronounced yarmok, is a festival of the grape harvest season in Slovakia (at least, I think it is). While a few weeks ago we saw a dozinky, a celebration of the grain harvest, jarmok is a fair put on by the town. In Trnava, there are a number of sections: handmade crafts, everything for sale from clothes to kitchen gadgets, fair rides, food, medieval demonstrations, music.
I meant to walk to the various parts of jarmok and take pictures for you all, but after wandering for 2.5 hrs at the handmade arts section, I had to run back home. I just enjoy marveling over objects of beauty, even though I don’t usually have money to buy them.
So, following are some of the pictures from the handmade section. I tried to choose photos of crafts unique to or common in Slovakia, with explanations. There was some lovely pottery, and you can see what I bought on my Instagram account.
Trdelnik is a Slovak treat that waft sweet vapours through the fair; the smell alone is enough to ensure long line ups. Long strips of sweet dough are wrapped around a wooden cylinder and rotates as it bakes. It is then rolled in your choice of sugar and cinnamon, walnuts, and other toppings. Pulling on it causes the trdenik to unfurl and pieces are ripped off to eat.
Just to make sure you always have a shot glass available, you can hang it around your neck.
For the last installment of our trip, where we first went to the open air museum in Martin and then hiking in Rohace, we go now to Terchova and Cicmany.
Terchova is a small town in northern Slovakia known for being the hometown of the Robin Hood like legend, Juraj Janosik (pronounced Yuraye Yanoshik). Juraj, the Slavic equivalent of George, lived from 1688 to 1713. When he was 15 he fought with the Kuruc rebels against the Hapsburg reign but, after a battle lost by the Kuruc, he was recruited to join the Hapsburg ranks. As a prison guard, he helped a fellow Slovak escape and became the leader of a highwayman band.
The men robbed rich merchants although apparently they were chivalrous robbers, not murders. Legend has it that they gave to the poor, like Robin Hood. A few years later he was captured and hung from the side on a hook to die.
Janosik became of symbol of fighting for the oppressed, a Slovak champion of freedom. He is celebrated in Slovak folklore, literature, and movies.
Tucked up in the north of Slovakia are the lesser known Zapadne Tatry, the western Tatras, where people still live in quaint wooden houses. The western Tatras are less commercial then their taller neighbours, the Vysoky Tatry, which means less people on the trail.
We have some guests visiting from Canada and to show them a sample of Slovakia, we headed up north to hike Rohac (Rohach). The mountain is named similarly to the rohac beetle, a large beetle with two large pincers, as the mountain has two peaks.
The peak on the left is Ostry Rohac, with it’s two peaks. The peak on the right is Placliva, the crying one.
As a Canadian, when I used to think of gypsies (or more properly, Roma) I thought of colourful dresses, energetic music, and wood covered wagons. When I first heard Central Europeans speak about the Roma at college in the States, I was horrified, they seemed so racist. After being in Slovakia, I began to understand complications of the situation of the Roma in Central Europe.
The Roma (or Romani, or Romany) originate from India and spread throughout Europe during the medieval ages. As nomadic people, they had various skills, like metalwork and carpentry, that they used to gain employment while camped on the outskirts of a town. The nomadic lifestyle was not so compatible with modern country borders, however. During Communism in Slovakia they were provided with housing and other needs, however, women were also subjected to coerced sterilization and the men lost the skills they traditionally had used for finding employment.
Roma are different from Slovaks in more ways than just skin colour. As groups, their behaviour is completely different; imagine packs of Italians in Germany. In public, Slovaks are reserved and somewhat cold (although not in private with friends). Gypsies, on the other hand, will have yelling matches in the town square. Roma have their own completely different language. They also have many children; some Slovaks are inclined to think it is a way to get more money from the government, but I’m inclined to wonder if it has to do with their traditional emphasis on and value of children and the tight knit extended family.
The Romany people have faced discrimination in various degrees throughout Europe since their arrival, and were a target of the Nazi regime. In Slovakia, at any time before 1989, I would attribute discrimination to simple racism. Since then, however, the problem is a little more complicated.
Today’s cultural feature of Slovakia is little, nothing earth shattering. Their children’s board books are often hinged together accordion style. The book looks normal when it is closed, but when you get to the back you keep turning the ‘page’ until the back of the front page. They make for good farm fences.
When I first came to Slovakia, I worked as an English teacher. I was literally learning about my native tongue while preparing for a class. Present perfect tense? What the heck is that?
Anyway, I remember getting my first assignments back from my Slovak students, written in cursive. It was in English, but I couldn’t read it.
Click to continue reading
Last weekend my husband and I got the treat of going for a ‘date’ on our own. A brother and sister in law agreed to take the kids, and we decided to go hiking. While we do live near hills, we wanted something a little higher.
Vapeč (pronounced Vapech) is the nearest peak-out-of-the-trees-high-hill. Or is it a mountain? At almost 1000m (3280 ft), it was close, beautiful, and not too difficult. Click to continue reading
As an ex-pat, it’s easy for me to be completely confused about what everybody else takes for granted.
Take, for example, the large metal red and white box at the end of the schoolyard. When we first moved here, I asked my husband what it was for. “To hold water for the firefighters,” he replied, and then we got distracted by something else.
I thought of various reasons why that box would be there and occasionally saw a firetruck go into the schoolyard, but didn’t pursue what exactly it was all about. Was there an underground cistern or source of water? Did they need to keep extra water by the school for safety? SIX years later, I finally know. Click to continue reading