The second trip to Slovakia - July 2001
Jarek and I returned to Slovakia on Friday, July 13, 2001. This time we brought Agata, his 14 year-old daughter, and Jola (now my ex-wife), with us. Because I wasn't keeping a journal at that time, the only way I remember the date, other than the dates stamped on the photos I took that day, was because of a cookbook I purchased in Žilina that day in which I wrote the date, inside the front cover.
We drove to Žilina, the "big" city closest to the border from where we lived. It took about 45 minutes from Ustroń, Poland to reach Žilina. There, we walked around the old town square and had lunch somewhere, and then drove to Budatínsky Zmok (Castle). Here stands a 13th-century castle near the confluence of the Kysuca and Váh Rivers.
This is the only view I have of it; I don't recall that we went inside. There was a lot of tall, wavy grass in front, which got cut from the picture when I cropped it. It was like we were on a "let's-hurry-up-drive-past-this-place-see-it-and-move-on" kind of mood. If we were going to slice off the top portion of Slovakia in a single day trip, we had to get a move on! There were a lot of other castles, perched on hilltops overlooking the river.
Oh, we drove through Martin, we saw picturesque valleys with quaint little churches set against stunning mountainous backdrops. This was like Switzerland!
Somewhere near Martin
Eventually, we came to Orava, the northern-most region of Slovakia, with its stunning Oravský Hrad (castle) high on a rock overlooking the town of Orvaský Podzámok below. This castle is one of the most famous in all Slovakia. It was built in about 1241 (following the Mongol invasion) in the Romanesque and Gothic styles, then later reconstructed in the Renaissance and Neo-Gothic styles, if you're into architectural styles. The castle gained fame early on, as it was used in several scenes in the 1922 film Nosferatu, to represent Count Orlok's castle in Transylvania. Again, we didn't go inside the castle. As I recall, the visitors' gallery had already closed by the time we arrived, so we just looked at it from below, oohed and aahed, then went for a beer.
Jarek and I were the beer connoisseurs, and our favorite Slovak brews then were Kelt, Martiner, and Smädný Mních, or the "Thristy Monk". This was in the days before they were bought up by the big commercial brewing companies from the West and transformed into Beer That Tastes Like Every Other Beer. One of those beers was on tap at the pub below the castle.
Orava Castle
After our refreshments, we piled back in the car and returned across the border to the "mountain house" in Sopotnia, Poland.