Harvest Festival

Looking at the calendar, I see it is the last weekend in September. We will be missing the Arroyo Grande Harvest Festival.



Today, Gary and I need to go to the farmers' market to buy fruit and house slippers. As soon as we get to the Centrum in the center of the square, we can hear music and see a group of older Fiats in the center of the square. Something out of the ordinary is definitely happening.


Yes, this is the Martin, Slovakia Harvest Festival.

When we get to one of the statues on the square we see a trampoline and gigantic slide for kids.



Then came the booths with handicrafts. Brightly colored, and homemade. Rugs that are handwoven, paintings, glass candle holders and angels, baskets and delicately decorated gingerbread cookies....pieces of art.





Then we got to the area in front of the Roman Catholic Church and encountered the FOOD! There is chicken, sausages, kabobs, and homemade tortilla-like bread. Then there is cotton candy, decorated cookies, candy, candy, candy.

The street between the church and the farmers' market is closed to auto and bus traffic. The street is full of booths with clothes, tablecloths, shoes, etc. Behind the market is the carnival.

And this is the Harvest Festival in Martin, Slovakia.

A Week in Martin

As I wake up this morning, hearing the gentle rain, I wonder how many rainy days we had this past week and begin thinking of all the things Gary and I have done this past week:

Last Friday night we had Larry and Brenda (from Vancouver, OR on their 2nd year here) for dinner. It had been raining most of the day.

Saturday: It’s still raining, so we have a rather lazy day with Gary working on chicken for broth and a chicken noodle soup. Brenda came by to retrieve her passport. Emily hears us talking and comes to ask if we wanted to get to and do needlecraft. That develops into a “happening.” We begin at our place with chicken noodle soup, homemade pita bread and chicken with the dumplings Brenda’s grandmother made from Brenda and Larry and a raspberry/apple pie freshly made by Emily. After dinner, Gary and Larry go to Larry’s flat to watch a DVD on the Bethlehem Star. Brenda does some cross stitch while Emily and I crochet.

Sunday: Early in the morning I hear it raining again. It is not raining when we go to church with Daniel. Daniel is a Scandinavian who is here for the med school. After church we go with him to have some coffee. On the way, we meet a friend of Daniel’s who is also from Sweden. He and Daniel have some “catching up” to do so he is naturally invited to accompany us for some coffee. His parents are from Iran and we learned some things about Iran and the different kinds of people living there.

When Daniel’s friend leaves, we go to the only restaurant open for a good Sunday dinner. Here he tells us that he is going back home because the he was not able to get the money for his med school. He is a firm Christian believer and feels that this is just not the time for him to study medicine. His plans are now to return to Sweden and study German for three years. (He had studied German before.) Then he believes he can go to Vienna to study medicine in German. Because the classes will be in the local language, there will be no tuition.

We walk around after that and then go to our flat to look at some maps. Daniel shows us where he has lived with his Norwegian parents in Sweden. Then he shows us some good places to visit, if we are able to go to Norway. He tells us that Christopherson is not a common name and that they were boat builders. Boat building was done outside Oslo so we may be able to find something there about Gary’s mother’s paternal family.
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At 16,00 we go back to the church for a small band concert. There were five people: one played many stringed instruments including a banjo, one played alto and soprano saxophone, one got marvelous percussion sounds from a bongo-like drum and the wooden box he was sitting on. I thought he had a recording of brushes on a snare drum, but it all came from his “box.” The leader of the group played a guitar, but he also used his mouth as an instrument and could make two different notes at the same time! The fifth person of the group recited poetry. We could not tell if she was speaking Slovak or Hungarian, but the sound of her poetry and the music was very pleasant to the ear. They also included Tomaš, playing his harmonica a very interesting concert.

I ended up the day trying my voice in the church’s choir. It is led by Maria, Pastor Jan’s wife. Maybe 20 people were there, including both pastors.

Monday: The class day is made up of a ten minute opening that includes prayer. Then there are five 45 minute classes, separated by 10 minute breaks. The first period, I meet with a fourth grade teacher to plan what will be taught this week. Second period is with a second grade class. We practice introductions. Then I have two periods off in which I can work on fourth grade plans. Fifth period is the other second grade. I return to the flat to have lunch and at 13,00 I’m back to work with the third grade teachers. The rest of the day is free.

Tuesday: I begin with a third period class. I get there a little early and I am invited to the circle and to say a prayer. In the third grade we are comparing numbers. At 10,40 and 11,35 I teach geography in the fourth grade classes. That afternoon, I get my hair fixed at a salon. On the way back, I meet Bohdon who is with his young son. He casually mentions that the next day is a holiday, St Mary’s Day he believes. It is a national holiday. Is it a school day? He does not think so, but he really does not know. Luckily, as I come to the gymnasium, I meet three other teachers and ask them. Yes tomorrow is a free day.

Wednesday: When I tell Gary about the free day, he thinks we should go somewhere outside Martin and explore. We decide on Ružomberok. We could get to it by bus, maybe an hour with the other stops. We need to catch it at 9,45. However, when we get there, we discover that it was not the bus stop across from the train station, but the one across from the farmers market. So we cross the street and see where the train will take us. We decide on Trenčin. It is where the castle is that we saw as we were going from Bratislava and we stopped for a break in 2009

We walked through a very nice park, under a main road and find ourselves in the “old town.” It is just below the castle. It was steep walking to get to the castle, but well worth it. Unfortunately, we don’t walk as fast as the Slovaks do and we missed the guided tour through the palace. So we took our time going down, taking pictures as we went. We then looked to see what was opened for a bite to eat and found very little opened. We passed a couple of churches and found ourselves in another square with a running fountain and a synagogue. We knew it was no longer a place of worship, but an art gallery. It is closed today, being a national holiday. We did find a place with good pizza and another museum. Then we caught the train to It was a good day. (We rode through some rain, but did not get any on us the whole day.)

Thursday: Thursdays begin with two third grade number lessons. The next two periods are in the fourth grade with geography lessons. I go back to the flat to help Gary get ready for the weekend in Drienca, Sk. near the Tatras. So I buy some more time on our phones and finish the laundry, while he has a meeting with the school psychologist and a medical dr. who is interested in starting a group for alcoholics here at the school. (Interestingly this doctor wants nothing to do with God or a Higher power. We’ll see how it goes.) His friend is here at 16,00 and off they go.

So goes a week here in Martin, Slovakia for Gary and Jeannine.

Poprod Adventure

When we got off the train in Poprad, we did not know where to go so we just picked a direction and went. With a little help from a person at a hotel desk, we found our way to an information office. Before we follow the directions to the “our” pension, we find a museum. It had some interesting exhibits including some of a Neanderthal camp discovered in the area. Very little in English so we did not take as long as we usually do in a museum.



On the way to the pension, we passed by a large mural that was done in small tile. It was commemorating the Russian “liberation” from the Germans at the end of World War II. From what our tour book says, it is one of the few about this event, which are still standing in Slovakia. You never know when and where you will find a piece of art like this.

That afternoon we found the bus to Spissky to see the castle there. This is one of the five largest castles in Europe. You can see it for miles. It is a long walk up to the castle, but well worth it. We were able to get an audio tour of the castle, including legends, in English. They each cost 10€, which was returned to us after we returned them.


The castle’s first walls were built in the twelfth century. From that time through the fourteenth century, owners kept adding to it. It is truly one of our favorite places that we have visited. This is definitely an example of pictures far exceeding words.



Sunday is a day when few places of businesses are opened. Luckily a few food places are.
That was the morning we had gyros for breakfast. As we were eating, we noticed that we could see the tips of the Tatras. I thought Gary got a relatively good picture of them.


The one other place we wished to see was “Old Town Poprod.” We had a couple of people help us get there. When we got there, we were able to get into the old church, (something we were not able to do with the other two churches in Poprod that were in our tour book.) The guide did not speak English, but had a good description of the inside. The rest of the town which we walked through had many picturesque houses that are dwellings.


Before getting on the train to return home, we visited an interesting building that had displays of art. The building, for us, was very interesting, much more than the modern art that was in it. One of the last pictures we took was in a construction area that was fenced off from the public, but it sure looked like a wagon of possibly some nomad Roma family.