Sunday, September 30, 2012

Church Bus Tour

Reader alert:   This is a LONG post today.  (Lute, you will probably be skipping this one.  LOL!!)  If you need a good bedtime blog to put you to sleep, this travelogue might fill the bill!  At least there are lots of pictures to keep your attention.   :-)      

The alarm was set for 5:00 a.m. - UGH - but at the end of the day, it was well worth the early wake-up call!!  I had made sandwiches for us and for Carol the night before, so we quickly showered, packed lunches in our backpack, and got ready to walk to church by 5:35.  The pastor (who also teaches religion classes at school) had asked a student to come along and translate for us.  Lucy and her mom sat across the aisle from us on the bus all day, and she was awesome at helping us to get something out of the tours!  

On our walk to meet the bus, it was still pitch dark, so we were treated to a beautiful array of stars and a full moon in the pre-dawn sky.  Since we left so early, we also brought breakfast along to eat in the bus.  We had sweet rolls, bananas, and a thermos of hot tea, which was nice on a cool fall morning.  The sunrise out the bus window was gorgeous, and it was amazing seeing views of God's creation slowly take shape out of night's shadows.

Krivan - this mountain peak's distinctive shape makes it
the most well-known in Slovakia -- it's on coins!  It was
beautiful seeing its silhouette just before dawn.

Sunrise over Slovakia!

The mountains changed color in the early morning lighting

A lake with morning mist rising over it


A view from the bus window overlooking the valley

Villages far below as we took hairpin turns up the side of a mountain


The tour was of many historic Lutheran churches in the region.  Our first stop was in Štítnik, a couple of hours to the east and south.  The town of Štítnik dates back to the 10th century, and the Gothic church begun in the 1400's was originally Catholic.  The interior is covered in layers of frescoes, and the church has been declared a national cultural treasure.  The choir sang a beautiful a cappella SATB piece from the 1600's in several of the churches.  I'm still unable to upload any videos - sorry!  

This is the Catholic church in Štítnik, which we didn't go inside,
but it's like an island in the middle of the road, with traffic going one
direction on either side of it!  

This is the Lutheran Church in Štítnik

Notice two organs - a bigger, newer Baroque organ from 1776, and up above it,
a smaller organ built in 1492 which is the oldest in Slovakia.

The mountains in this region were rich with many minerals used
as pigments for the detailed frescoes covering the walls.

Painted pews for the important townspeople

The town well outside the church

To be perfectly honest, we aren't certain of the names of all the churches and towns we visited because there were so many, and because everything was being translated from Slovak!  The churches were all very old by American standards, but they represented many architectural styles and were in various conditions depending on funds available for restoration.  In each location, a local pastor greeted us and spoke about the church's history and significance.  This area was heavily Lutheran during and after the Reformation. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing and learning about all the churches.  

Typical Lutheran church in Slovakia - can't remember where?   :-(

This one is for Tom Meyer ---- we saw a John Deere!!  :-)

This church was another really old one, still in use today.

I just thought this was a pretty scene out the balcony window

The church was at the highest point of a hill above the village

A view from the front of the church

These bachelor buttons were just so pretty by an old rusted iron fence!

At one village, the pastor and others from the church treated us to dessert cakes and beverages in the hall where they now worship.  (The church needs renovations, and it is up a steep hill that is dangerous for walking in the winter.)  There were pots of coffee and hot water for tea, bottles of water and Kofola (Slovak version of cola), and a wonderful assortment of yummy cakes, strudel, cookies, and some amazing savory bite-sized buns.  And two bottles of Slivovica with a tray of shot glasses.  After everyone had eaten dessert with the non-alcoholic beverages, the tray was passed around to everyone, and hearty "na zdravie"'s were heard all around.  (That's "to your health".)  Empty glasses are returned to the tray, then they're all refilled and the tray is passed around again.  Evidently the alcohol content is high enough to kill any germs, because no one ever gets sick we are told.  LOL!  Tim was offered a second helping and he made the mistake of saying "uh no", but of course "ano" means "yes" in Slovak.  When he realized his mistake and still tried to refuse, he was told that he had to have a second, or he'd walk crooked.  The other leg needed to be filled up as well, so he could walk straight.  :-)  Anyway, it was a definite cultural shift for us to be drinking shots in a church hall with pastors, but it was really a fun time.  The pastor was even disappointed that there was still one bottle untouched when we left!  I should also clarify that these shot glasses were more like mini-shot glasses, and smaller than those used in the USA.  

This is the only picture I got of Lucia - our wonderful student translator!


This church had a wooden ceiling, all painted in blues

This is the bell tower uphill from the church - bell towers
were often "stand-alone" structures

One of our group impishly ringing the biggest bell!

View from up in the bell tower.

Tim thought these flowers and the stone wall were photo-worthy!

This is one of the figures of the giant sundial way up a hill in a meadow
above the bell tower - in the middle of nowhere!! 

Too bad it was cloudy when we visited the sundial.  

This is the top end of the covered staircase leading up the hill to the church

The sign showing the path to the sundial ---
literally "sun clock" in Slovak

"Na sdravie"  --- with the tray of slivovica glasses

After another church stop, we had about a 1/2-hour drive, so we ate our lunch of sandwiches and apples.  Carol had brought along some Polish caramels and chocolates, and we brought a package of cookies to share, so we had lots of snacks off and on during the bus rides too.  :-)   It was so fun being with this group of people - just like our old church choir at Augustana, these folks have so much fun being together, laughing, talking, and enjoying fellowship!  

The Lutheran Church in Lukovištia - the domed tops are
typical of most churches in Slovakia.  There is always a steeple with
a similar dome in every village!

This was the ceiling of the church - all detailed paintings on each panel.

This is also typical of most altars we've seen - with columns on the sides
and a painting in the middle

Another Baroque organ

Lukovištia is also the hometown of this famous Slovak poet.
We visited his museum after seeing the church.
Our last stop was in a larger town, where the bus parked, and we took a walking tour to see several different churches from the outside, only going inside the last one.  Afterwards, the pastor and his wife, our translator Lucia and her mother, Carol, Tim, and I, stopped but a small cafe for hot beverages before arriving back at the bus for our ride home again.  

Walking tour of churches in the last town..... #1

This was the top of the spire on the previous church - I'm not sure
about the significance of a rooster on top??


Church #2

This picture keeps coming back to mind, absolutely haunting me.  It is an enormous
Jewish synagogue, which has fallen into ruins.  There is also a beautiful synagogue in L.M., but
there are basically no Jews left in Slovakia after the Holocaust.  A horrible reminder of evil.

The last church we visited

The gate into the church courtyard



I took this picture to show how all the pews are in all the churches, including ours.
There are handy-dandy racks for the worship books to sit on, and pegs below for purses!

This picture was taken in the church courtyard, with the empty
Jewish synagogue in the distance.  

This bas-relief sculpture was on a bland, gray, box-like communist era
building - typical socialist propaganda artwork.  

When we got on the bus, lo and behold, that second bottle of Slivovica from earlier in the day appeared with one little shot glass.  Our friendly server brought the bottle and glass around to each of us for another round or two as we got rolling!  Can you imagine Dave Swenson doing that on a choir tour bus with Everett Johnson as the director back at Augustana??  That's not how it was when we went up to St. Olaf on the bus for the choir festival many years ago!  LOL!!  Originally we thought we'd be back in Liptovsy Mikuláš by around 5 or 6, but it ended up being after 9:00 p.m.!  It was a wonderful day!!  


Saturday, September 29, 2012

Anniversary Favours

In yesterday's blog, I forgot to include a picture of the little favours that we received as we walked in the door to the anniversary celebration program.    They are about 4 or 5 inches top to bottom, and will make great Christmas tree ornaments!  I don't know who made them, but they are just darling!  


Today was our bus tour of churches east and south of Liptovsky Mikuláš.  It was wonderful, but the blog report will have to wait until tomorrow because we are really tired, and it's late. Sorry!  We took lots of pics - super day - about 15 hours on and off the bus!   :-)   

Friday, September 28, 2012

School Anniversary Celebration

Well, this has been another amazing day!  First off, we got to sleep in this morning, which is always a good thing.  :-)  We had a relaxing morning - eating breakfast, enjoying a cup of hot chai tea latte, and reading the Des Moines Register online.  We did make a trip to the store quickly before getting ready for the big anniversary celebration.  

All the teachers and students were to meet at the church at 12:30, and the students were all gathering in groups with their class teachers.  We were greeted and ushered into a reception room with just teachers, administrators, pastors, and dignitaries, which we didn't even know about.  The table was set beautifully with many kinds of fancy and delicious sandwiches and desserts.  Everything was really fancy and elegant.  Tim wore a sport coat and tie, and I wore a "church dress" and sweater, but we were both a little under-dressed!  Almost everyone, men and women alike, was wearing suits.  Even most of the students were dressed up really nicely.  

Chocolate cake castle at the pre-church service reception.  

The array of food for the dignitaries and staff before church.  

The service was pretty much a regular church service, with the sermon addressing the school's calling as a Christian institution.  One of our English department colleagues, Zuska, sat just behind us and translated, which was awesome to actually understand the message!  

School administrators and clergy entering the service

The bishop and pastors during the service

The postlude being played by the organist in the balcony.

After the service, we had about 40 minutes before the program at the city Cultural Center, so we walked over with our English department head, Katka.  She suggested that we stop at a small cafe just around the corner for some hot chocolate on the way.  Two other teachers joined us too, so it was fun.  The hot chocolate was really different --- extremely rich and thick.  It was seriously like eating a melted chocolate bar with a spoon!!  Thankfully, we ordered a "small", because just a little was a great plenty!!  YUM!!  
The Cultural Center auditorium was a beautiful venue, and it was packed - we figure around 400 people, with some kids standing in the aisles.  The program was delightful, with many groups of students performing, a couple of introductory speeches, flower presentations to former administrators (some of the most enormous bouquets I've ever seen!), videos, and a praise band of students.  There were skits, dances, songs, and it was remarkably well done from start to finish.  We were impressed!!  We sat with Carol and Arden Haug, as a little Global Mission group.  :-)  

This class of young students had neat choreography to recorded music,
spelling different things with their boxes.


Sorry it's a little blurry - this is how the boxes ended up,
ESS for Evanjelicá Spojená Škola


Several of the dancers were our students!  

They did a lovely job with the choreography!

Very nice!!  

These little ones were absolutely adorable and so energetic!

The final song was with the praise band, with all the performers
singing together on "Mighty to Save" - how awesome and moving
to hear this praise song lifted up in English and Slovak here!!  

Then after the program, there was a reception for just the school staff and dignitaries from the church, town, and region.  Just picture the most fancy wedding reception you've ever attended, and make it fancier ---- that's what this was like!!  It was elegant and sumptuous beyond belief.  We started with some formal presentations of certificates and flowers - we never did get all the translations for that, but it was impressive.  Then everyone got beverages for a few toasts, and finally we started on the amazing food array.  One end of the room had a hot food buffet - schnitzels, sausages, sauerkraut, vegetables, bread, Hungarian goulash, to name a few.  The other area had incredible choices of salads, cheese trays, cold meats, fresh fruit cups, and desserts like you cannot believe.  Beautiful cakes and other fancy creations were delightful to behold and delicious to taste!  The beverages were served already poured in appropriate glassware of every size and shape - red and white wines, champagne in flutes, slivovica type drinks in small stemmed glasses, etc.  We felt like royalty.  It was fun sharing the celebration with our colleagues, and we really enjoyed spending some time with Arden again since we hadn't seen him since our first week in Bratislava.  

The beverage table, ready for the toasts.

The salads, cold hors d'oeuvres, and desserts table



Another view of the cold foods table.  
Tim, Carol, Arden, Michelle at the reception

Pat'ka, the Deputy Headmistress who was  in charge of the program,
  and Jana, the Headmistress - super leaders of our school!

Pat'ka and Jana

Enjoying the reception!

Zuzka, one of our wonderful English colleagues!  


We finally left the reception at about 6:30 because Arden's train left for Bratislava at 7:23, and we stopped by our flat so he could use our wireless to check his email before he left.  We walked him to the train station, said good-bye, and then stopped by Carol's briefly.  We will leave bright and early tomorrow morning on a bus tour of articulated wooden churches in eastern Slovakia, with the pastor and others from our church.  It will be another new adventure, I'm sure!!