Excursion to Poprad

We got an early text this morning from our colleagues in Tisovec saying it had snowed all night in their mountain village, so the buses were cancelled.  Bummer!!  So we took a little later train to Poprad, and we will hope to see our friends again sometime after the New Year.  

We saw this HUGE nativity scene on the walk from the train station
to the Poprad city center.

It snowed the whole day while we were there.  Many food and beverage
vendors have tables set up nearby for customers.  Everyone was
really bundled up on a cold, snowy day!

This stage in the middle of the square had live entertainment throughout
the day.  The first group we heard was this awesome band --- reminds me
of the Boone and Ankeny muni bands!!  :-)

This is the church in the town square, and some of the crowd.

This group of girls was walking around singing
all day long -- hopefully they went inside to get
warmed up sometime!!

Tim eating an onion sandwich that the Rotary booth
people gave us for a donation.  There was hot tea too,
which was spiked with some kind of alcohol!

Three costumed characters on stilts were walking around all day.
We assume this is Father Christmas, who was giving candy out to
children all day.  They must have been really bundled up!

I don't know who these characters were, but the guy with
the shamrock hat wanted everyone to rub the buttons on
his cuff - I think for good luck!  (I did rub the buttons!)   :-)

There was so much variety in vendors' wares --- sheep wool here.

Bryndza (sheep) cheese here.  Many vendors were wearing folk costumes
appropriate to their merchandise and/or region.

There were lots of places to buy delicious smelling meats to eat!!  

This was my favorite food of the day!!  Bryndza cheese in some  pocket,
with tiny red berries in jam on top!!  :-)   We would try one of something,
and share it, but we went back and got a second one of these to share on
the walk back to the train station.  

This is the yummy cheese pocket!!  Mmmmm!!

These guys were playing wooden flutes to recorded music.
They seemed to be Indians (as in Native Americans??)

The next group of performers on the stage were girls in Slovak
costumes singing.

And then these boys performed some amazingly intricate dances.

This was a long program - they knew a lot of songs and dances - amazing!
I'd take every one of these guys for a show choir in the U.S.!!  :-)

There was a huge area fenced off where they were cutting up meat
with axes and huge knives, then cooking it.  

The axe-wielder!!

This was a beautiful wood-carved nativity scene.

There was a big group of young people parading around with
these signs.  Every now and then they would give somebody
a big hug.  They heard us talking in English, so then this guy
turned his sign around, and........

...... we got free hugs too!!  (And they were nice,
American-style hugs too!!)     :-)   

This stick impaled a single, spiral-cut potato, which was then
deep-fried so it was like one continuous spiral potato chip on a stick!  

This tower was behind the church in the square.

We walked over this canal right by the main street through town.