James Funfer

From Terchová I travelled further east, toward the birthplaces of my grandparents: the villages of Zábiedovo and Vitanová. While I had been hoping to bump into a long-lost relative, I was rewarded with a different kind of existential experience: a glimpse into the beauty of rural Slovakian life.

A map of the region, in Vitanová

A travel shrine outside Zábiedovo

Row houses in Zábiedovo

This was not a tourist area in the least, and I received more than a few suspicious looks from locals as I snapped pictures. An attempt at conversation in Zábiedovo’s grocery store was challenging.

Life in these farming villages is idyllic: rows of brightly painted houses amongst the foothills of the Tatras Mountains. While the GDP of Slovakia is about $15k lower than Canada, I saw very little evidence of poverty in the smaller towns; a different story than when my great-grandparents left Slovakia in the 1930s. This can be partly explained by the fact that the cost of living is lower here than where I live — beer is cheaper than bottled water, for example.

My hotel for the night was booked fairly last-minute, but I was not disappointed in the least. For $60 CDN, I stayed at the beautiful spa hotel of Oravský Háj. While I did not partake in any of the spa services, it was a blessed retreat, complete with local folk musicians playing during dinner (which only cost me 20 euros, including dessert and brandy).

The following day I drove east to one of my big-ticket destinations of my journey: the medieval castle of Spišský hrad.

The hike up to the castle in the heat was intense (doubly so because I had forgotten my headphones in the car for the audio tour and had to go back down and up the hill) but it was well worth the hike and the 6 euro entry fee. Spišský hrad is an immense fortress at over 4 hectares in size, and was an important defensive position in the region since Roman times, when the local Celts occupied the area.

View of the middle and lower baileys from the tower

I could write about the castle’s history all day, but I’ll just give some highlights. The castle is very popular with both Slovakian tourists and others (I met people from Holland and Japan there) and even during busy times, the castle grounds are so large that it never feels crowded. You can see every part of the castle, except for a few areas which are under restoration (the castle’s gunpowder storage exploded in the 18th century and the entire fortress was consumed by fire, which is why the structure is now gutted).

Although the re-enactment shows were in Slovak, they were still quite entertaining, and the sword fights were well-choreographed.

The tower

The Romanesque palace

A re-enactment in the upper fortress

I learned a great deal about the history of the castle and the region, especially from the stories included in the audio tour. My favourite was a tale about a 13th-century Tatar princess who was captured by the lord of Spiš and fell in love with him.

The view from the tower was the best I’ve had yet on my trip — you could see all the way to the High Tatras in the distance (though smaller than the Rocky Mountains, they are striking because they shoot up like a row of teeth — I wasn’t able to snap a good photo of them from the car, for driving reasons).

The view from the tower

The museum within the upper castle was small but well-designed and informative, with exhibits about the history of the castle and region, local artifacts, and everyday medieval life. The highlight for me was learning about the system of natural caves beneath the castle, where the body of a third-century merchant was discovered. He was carrying bags of silver coins minted with the profiles of Roman emperors such as Hadrian.

A model of the castle (before the fire)

Hostels are hard to come by in the smaller villages, but Penzion-style accommodations are common. I had a newly renovated private room with a shared kitchen, but the highlight of this hotel was the perfect, unobstructed view of the castle at night:

To the stars, Bowen…

The final photo is blurry because I befriended locals who were staying at the hotel: Dominik and Lilly. Slovakian hospitality is a bottle of vodka passed around.

Tomorrow: Party Prague