Introduction to Slovakia - February 2001

It was one of those trips you would not expect to turn into anything more than just a memory of a moment of fun.

It was a chilly, grey day, February 17, 2001. Back then, I called Ustroń, a small town of 17,000 inhabitants in southern Poland, home. (Ustroń will be the subject of a future blog about Poland.) It is located in close proximity to both the Czech and Slovak borders, so it's easy to travel to both countries. From this little mountain town, I set out with my Polish friend and "Slovakophile", Jarek. Jarek loved mountains and hiking, and Slovakia was one of his favorite destinations.  

We set out by car. Jarek lived in Gliwice, further north in the coal mining Silesia region of Poland, and came through Ustroń to pick me up. He worked in mechanical engineering at Silesian Polytechnical Institute and was the head of the department’s mountain home retreat, located near Sopotnia, a few kilometers from the Slovak border. On this occasion, Jarek invited me to the mountain house, but first things first. We needed some beer, and beer was cheaper on the Slovak side of the border. The drive took 90 minutes from Ustroń, and finally we crossed into Slovakia, into the village of Oravská Polhora. I had entered a new realm. For me, visiting a new country meant another feather in my cap. In his region, the landscape didn't look all that different from Poland--forests, rolling hills, occasional cottages, and farmhouses. Soon we came to a village and the road turned into a long, dusty street. Suddenly I became aware of the quaint village-like feel, with the similar stone houses lined up in a row along the narrow street, electric and telephone wires running amock overhead. It took on an ethereal "other world" feel as I could hope to find in the pages of National Geographic. It did not look like a very wealthy area. Life looked basic, perhaps even hard. I wondered how people scratch a living here.

So... what did Jarek and I do in Slovakia? We found the nearest pub in a small hotel called Biela Farma. It had a nice view of the mountains and nearby pastures. There, we saddled up a game of pool, despite the jeers from a group of drunken Poles who were threatened by our speaking English. You can never run far from assholes. But we had fun. I took a few pictures, and Jarek got one of me standing behind the bar with the ladies who worked there. After the game of pool, we headed back to Sopotnia for the night.

So this was Slovakia, the "other half" of Czechoslovakia.

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