Heart of Europe: What Good is Swimming in such Dangerous Water?
I was born 14 years after my 16 years old auntie Zofka was declared a missing person, and 10 years after my auntie Ota escaped to West Germany and the Communist dictators confiscated all my grandfather's properties. However, as a child I was not only scared of German Nazis and Soviet communists, but also Spis raftsmen.
Number one, they are raftsmen and have learned to fake sincerity from the time they began smuggling illegal goods across the Poprad river.
Raftsman Mato Oberta pushes the wooden raft (plt) filled with tourists away from the bank of the Vah river, jumps in and grabs an oar. Then he turns to the passengers and says: If you fall in the river, nothing's gonna save you. The lower currents will pull you down, no matter what you do. I cannot swim, but what good is swimming [in such dangerous water]?
Symbol of national history Girl of Dowina
Devín Castle is one of the oldest castles in Slovakia, Devín, sits on a huge rock overlooking where the Morava river meets the Danube river . The name Devín probably derives from Dowina, which in Old Slavic meant girl.
No blogging of Slovakia would be complete without posts about castles. The countryside is bursting with them - from the squat block of Bratislava Castle, to the fairytale towers of Bojnice Castle and the sheer scale of Spis Castle.
It is no surprise that Slovakia has such a wealth of castles, considering its position in the centre of Europe. The armies of Rome (Rim), Hungary (Madarsko), Poland (Polsko), Turkey (Turecko), Austria (Rakusko), Napoleon, Germany (Nemecko), and Russia (Rusko) have taken turns invading the country for thousands of years, with varying degrees of success. The fact that Slovakia exists at all is in part testament to its castle-building tradition.
· Kezmarok, Town of my birth to Maria and Jozef described as a miracle (smile) [CityBlog ]
· Roman Empire: Great Moravia [Sloval Spectator]
· Great Human Power [Sloval Spectator]
· Castlelated Country: 300
· Slovakia is riddled with almost 4,500 caves
· Nitra: Mount Zobor The Mount of my Czechoslovak army years
· The fort of pride and beauty
· Cerveny Kamen (Red Rock); Unnot in Schauffhausen, Switzerland
· Tam okolo Strecna, cesta nebezpecna
· Lubovna Castle: Memories of my Grandmother Katarina
· Spis Castle lords over the village of Spisske Podhradie
· Orava Castle
· The City of Fashion, as Trencín
· Liptovsky Hradok
· Lietava Castle
· Ghosts and Spirits at Bojnice Castle
· Orava Castle
· Strazky Chateau: the place of my tertiary studies
· Tatra wanderers: Childhood playground
· High Tatra Activities of my childhood
There are few swimming pools in the High Tatras mountain area, best know is the one in Vysne Ruzbachy. The complex at Vrbov in the Presov district has seven thermal pools and there are plans to add two more pools and another thermal water spring.
· Thermal Pools built on my grandfather's land
If Nagyvazsony was a happy surprise, Kezmarok was a miracle. This town, at the gateway to the High Tatras, a branch of the Carpathian Mountains bridging the Slovakian-Polish border, was settled by Germans from Sexony (sic) in the 13th century, brought there by Hungarian rulers to augment the local rural Slovak population against numerous and diverse invaders. The Hungarian king, Stephen V, gave the town and others in the region, called Spis, unusual privileges of self-government and autonomy. These boons lasted almost 600 years.
· Town of my Birth is a miracle
PS: My folkloric teacher, Marta Chamillova, used to say If you want to set something afire, you must burn yourself. I jumped into Morava river instead, but almost drowned myself...
· Prague's Second Spring [Current Affairs Bulletin March 1990]
