Quick Recap of the Week So Far!

First off, sorry, no pictures today.  The camera lens is on the fritz again, so we took it back to the camera shop in Ružomberok today after school, and we hope they can fix it permanently this time!  

MONDAY:  Was a normal teaching day until after 7th hour, when we had a required staff meeting for the end of the semester.  It was only 2:30-4:30, so not too bad.  And we sat in the far back so Zuzka could translate from Slovak to English, which is always nice.  :-)  We played volleyball at our school that evening too.

TUESDAY:  Was also a normal teaching day, followed by our Slovak lesson, then my two adult gals in the evening.  We also did some fun skyping!

WEDNESDAY: Started with an all-school worship service at the church, first thing in the morning.  We got there a little earlier than most, so we had fun greeting all the kids as they came in, and Tim even put on his administrator hat for a while when some of the boys were throwing snowballs while waiting to come in.  :-)  It was rainy on the walk to the church, but we got a ride afterwards from Pat'ka, who also translated for us.  Zuzka had brought us an English Bible from school, and we sang several familiar hymns (including "Give me that old time religion" in Slovak!), so it was a much more participatory service for us than some other times.  :-)  In the afternoon, Tim taught a lesson while I had drama club.  The kids are learning and creating a new play (Pat'ka is writing the script) which is kind of a gender-reversed Snow White and the 7 Dwarves ---- this version is with a young prince, dastardly step-father, and Dwarfettes ---- due to the fact that we have many more females than males in Drama Club!!  :-)  Very funny and clever!  And as mentioned, we also made a quick trip to Ružomberok too.  

Tomorrow is our "Friday", since it's the last day of our school week.  (We get Friday off because of the end of the semester.)  We have a lot to do tomorrow at school - papers to grade and mark in the grade book, lesson plans to write, and getting ready for a long weekend.  Woot-woot!!  :-)   We've been working individually with each of our Speaker's Corner participants, so that has taken up a lot of time this week, coaching them for the regional competition. 

This week, we also found out about a few extra things coming up....

• I will be helping at the Basic School in a sort of teacher-coach role, as part of a big project (I think with government grant funds) to integrate English into content areas at the elementary level.  I will be working with the teachers in planning and teaching lessons for five classes per week.  I'm hearing rumors that the elementary teachers are all terrified at the thought of me coming into their classrooms, so I'm hoping to really put the first few teachers at ease so the word gets out I'm not an ogre!!  ;-)  

• Tim and I will be going along to the high school level regional English Olympics competition, we assume to help as interlocutors (like I did for the younger kids a couple weeks ago), a week from Monday, in, you guessed it, Žilina, our favorite city outside of Liptovsky Mikuláš!!  

• Tomorrow I get to substitute for the music teacher for one class!!  I haven't seen any sign of lesson plans yet, but I guess they figure I can "wing it" on this one.  LOL!!  

For our long weekend, we're heading to Bratislava for some heavy-duty "culture" --- the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra on Friday night, and an opera on Saturday night, both with the Fredells, who teach there.  We'll stay in Katie's flat, and we'll get to go to the English worship service Sunday morning.  :-)   So, hopefully news and photos will follow soon!!  

Names Day and Skiing

Thursday was the day all grades for the semester were due to be recorded in the electronic grade book, so I spent a lot of time on the computer screen when I wasn't teaching or subbing.  Tim and I had recently discussed another major difference in teaching here in Slovakia - no parent/teacher conference marathon nights at school!  Well, Thursday I also had one impromptu conference with a parent.  Let's just say that some Slovak parents are just as interested in their child's grades as some American parents are.  'Nuff said.  Since Thursday was also Tim's "Names Day" on the official Slovak birthday calendar, we brought a couple of containers of homemade fudge to share with the teachers.  The fudge was a big hit!  :-)  

Friday was definitely a TGIF kind of day after the long week, and we had a really fun time at volleyball.  We don't always have enough for two full teams, but this week there were 6 guys and 6 gals, so it was very even gender and ability distribution, and everybody played 'team' volleyball particularly well.  Fun!  

Slavka, our colleague who helped arrange our ski equipment rental when the kids were here, told us Friday at school that all the snow we've gotten this week has created the perfect conditions for cross-country skiing, so she suggested that we should go this weekend.  We took her advice, looked up bus schedules, and went to Zavažna Poruba for the morning.    :-)

On the walk up the hill from the bus stop (at the end of the line at the far end of the village), I asked another young man who had gotten off the bus with us to take a picture of the two of us together before our morning of skiing!  :-)

This same young man turned out to be working at the ski rental place, so he helped us get outfitted with our skis, boots, and poles.  And his English was super too!!  :-)  

Ready to get the skis on and hit the trail!  The day was forecast to be sunny, but it was still pretty cloudy in the morning.  Eventually we did get some sunshine later in the morning, but we never did have clear views of the High Tatras.    :-(

This one is for Steve Doeden, our cross-country-ski-racing friend!!  Tim is ready to roll, since we have so much beautiful new snow now.  Hopefully Iowa and Minnesota will get some snow soon too!!  :-)  

Since we were out for 3 hours this time, instead of only an hour with the kids, we went much farther on the trails.  They were all groomed trails in great shape.  This trail goes around the mountain to Ilanovo, so it was a bit more hilly than we expected.  Some skiers were really flying down some of these slopes --- we had to walk down some of the steeper hills (skis perpendicular to the slope) in order to avoid excessive uncontrolled speed and potential crashes!!   LOL!!  

The trails through the woods were really beautiful, and once we got up on this ridge, it was a bit flatter terrain.  It was really fun seeing another part of Poludnica.  (The mountain we climbed last fall with Katie --- we actually started in Zavažna Poruba that day and finished in Ilanovo, so we've been up & down, and now around the side of the mountain!!)  

These bright red rose hips were a pretty contrast to the snow along the trail.  

After skiing from about 9:00 a.m. until noon, we went up to the restaurant (chata) above the ski rental shop.  We warmed up with a light but delicious lunch there, and watched some world cup downhill skiing race on TV.  We didn't feel so badly about our "wipe-outs" earlier in the morning after watching a wild crash by one competitor.  :-)  Then we headed back down the hill to the bus stop and rode back to the L.M. station.  We took showers and got ready to head out again on another bus to Podbreziny, on the eastern edge of town, for a Names Day celebration for "Timotej"!  Since Zuzka's son, Timko, and Tim share the same name, and their special day was Thursday, she invited us over to their flat for the afternoon and supper.  The meal was scrumptious, and the four of us had a delightful time!!  (Zuzka's husband, Ivan, is posted in Hamburg, Germany now for his job, so we missed him.)  

Zuzka ordered a special "Names Day" cake from a bakery for Tim and Timo (aka Timko) - it was beautiful!!  

This was the inside of the cake that Zuzka ordered - delicious vanilla and fruit layers with jam filling - YUM!!  She sent some leftovers home for us too.   :-)  

After a full day, and all that physical activity skiing, (and crashing), we slept well last night.  HA!  It was pretty cold this morning walking to church and back, but the hot chai tea latte while listening to our online sermon back at our flat warmed us up again.  I've been doing several loads of laundry today to catch up from the week, and because we had so many "exercise" clothes Friday night and Saturday.  We enjoy quiet Sunday afternoons in our cozy little flat on these cold winter days.  :-)  It's still not as cold as a normal Iowa winter though.  Today at church people didn't stand around chatting as long as normal, and they mentioned it's about 10-below.  Of course that is centigrade, so really only in the teens fahrenheit --- not too bad really!!  Now if it ever gets lower than 20 below here, we'll agree that it's COLD!!   :-)  

Invitation to the Ball!

This is Radka, my Basic School colleague who led our school's group at the English Olympics last week.  After church Sunday, I had Tim get a picture, since I didn't get one of her on the day of the event.    :-)   She's a sweetheart!!  

I baked four batches of goodies Sunday afternoon and evening - spritz, fudge, scotcheroos, and chocolate chip cookies - and packed lovely boxes heaped with American treats to take to our IV.AP and V.AP classes on Monday.  Alas, I forgot to get a photo, but they looked so pretty, with the cookies all lined up in a typically "OCD" fashion - LOL!!  Our students were delighted by the surprise.  The cookie boxes were both "thank-you's" - to the IV's for the huge box of their mothers' and grandmothers' Slovak Christmas treats they gave us for when the kids were here - and to the V's for treating us royally at their stuškova.  

Last Friday, we were called up to the Headmistress' office for a special presentation of our tickets to the school ball which will be held in February.  Evidently it's quite the gala event of the year, with students, teachers, administrators, and others there.  It will be at the House of Culture, where the school anniversary celebration was held in the fall.  
We are really looking forward to it!!  

Tuesday morning before school, Tim played a short basketball game on a school teacher team, against the best school student team.  The teachers had only four players, but they still won the game.  I guess experience goes a long way on the basketball court!   :-)   

Monday night - school/church volleyball, Tuesday afternoon - Slovak lesson, Tuesday evening - English tutoring, so it has been a normal week for us.  Today there was a school Bible study which was changed to a time when I could attend for the first time, so Peter (the drummer who was at our party and who we saw in the concert on the square) translated for me - it was interesting and cool to study and share with colleagues!  

These are a few of my I.A4 kids (first-year students in the new 4-year program), after school in their changing room.  Each class is assigned a "cloak-room" for their coats, shoes and boots during the day, instead of lockers.
Anna, Vera, Zuzka, Michal, Philip, Jan, and Nastasia!  

More of the empty cloak-rooms.  All of the students are required to go immediately to this area and change out of their "outdoor" footwear, and put on shoes/slippers/Crocs/sandals that stay inside the school.  Sometimes it's interesting seeing the fun fashion choices on their feet!

Teachers also change into shoes at school.  It definitely keeps the classrooms and hallways cleaner at school, when people aren't tramping all over with mud or snow on their shoes!  I just leave one pair of shoes on the rack in the teacher cloak-room, in case I forget to bring shoes to match my outfit!  We definitely need to wear boots when we walk to school through the puddles and slush, and now through the snow again.  We got about 4" last night, so it's much better walking now.  

Interlocutor Day

Last week I was asked to help out the Basic School as an interlocutor at the English Olympics area competition.  First, I had to ask the definition of interlocutor - HA!!!  According to Webster:  "one who takes part in dialogue or conversation."  (They needed a native speaker for parts of the competition.)   So this Thursday, the elementary principal drove our two school winners, plus Radka (another teacher), and me to a school near the gym where we play volleyball on Friday nights, at 7:15 in the morning.  There were students there from all over the area, as well as other teachers to serve as judges.  What a fascinating day!  And it was really a joy getting to know Radka too - her English is super, and she's such a sweetie!!  

The testing/competition has six graded parts - written tests in grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension  - a listening comprehension test (it was my first job to read the listening examples out loud to each of the two levels of students competing, in my best and clearest English!) - and two spoken tests.  One is a picture description/story where they have to look at a photo then just make something up about it.  And the second oral task is a role-play, where they are given a "role" and have a conversation with the interlocutor -- me!  I didn't have to do any scoring, just keep the conversation going --- no problem for me - HA!  

After this group was done, I had a student take this photo for me - and I told this competitor that he would be seen all over America on our blog.   :-)   It was fun being the Mom or Dad in the dialogue with my "daughter" or "son" who wanted to forgo the traditional Easter family activities in favor of some new idea they had to come up with.  

The principal of the school handing out the awards to the top 3 winners.  In the role-play for this level, we were two friends planning a camping trip and discussing whether we should take along a third friend of ours, who I liked and the student didn't.  Some of the conversations were really funny.  

The winners for the "B" level --- these two girls and I had a long and interesting conversation out in the hall when I was between duties, and they were waiting to go in for their picture-story activity, one by one.  I even tried to do a little "recruiting" for our school, telling them how good it is, so when they decide on a secondary school, maybe they'll consider coming to EGJT.   :-)    

This gigantic banner was in one of the testing rooms - I'm sure it was on site at this event in 2010.  I took the picture especially for Lute, since he competed in cross country and now coaches the J.H. team at Wapsie Valley!!   :-)  
I wonder if the world championship will be back in Liptovsky Mikuláš again this year???   

This is a trophy case - also in the testing room - with their St. Mikuláš logo.  I asked, and they are sports trophies.  

When I got back to school afterwards, there was an email from the camera shop - our camera was repaired!!  So while Tim gave his extra English lessons, I took the bus over to Ružomberok and back to pick it up.  I haven't taken any photos yet, but the lens mechanism opens and closes smoothly again, so we should be good to go now!!  :-) 

Thursday night we both had students again, then we set the alarm extra early for our 7:00 a.m. extra class with the oktavas (they're the ones who don't have a native speaker for conversation, so they want extra coaching before the Maturita examinations.)  We played volleyball with the after-school student-teacher group again, but it may be a little much to play twice in one day on a regular basis.  We'll see.  Friday night was volleyball and basketball at the gym across town, and it was snowing as I walked to the grocery store afterwards and then back to our flat.  So peaceful and pretty!!  This has been a "lay-low" Saturday.  I have some goulash stewing, with deer meat from Katarina's family - it smells wonderful!  (It's Carol's recipe which she learned from her Slovak friends, so hopefully it's as authentic as it gets without making it outside over an open fire in a giant black kettle!!)

Slushy Mess!!

To be honest, this has been a quiet and mostly ordinary week, but just so people don't think we've dropped off the edge of the world, here's a shout-out to you faithful readers!!  THANKS for checking our blog!!  :-)  The temperatures have been hovering just above freezing during the day, so some of our snow is starting to melt, but it really is a slushy mess everywhere we have to walk.  We even found an alternate route (not the shortcut) to the Basic School for lunch, which avoids most puddles and deep slush piles!  My boots, unfortunately are not completely water-proof, I've discovered recently.  LOL!!  

Sunday night was filled with Skyping, which always makes us happy!!  Monday night is the new night for school/church volleyball.  Tuesday night I had fun with Eva and Tana at their English lesson.  And tonight we decided to NOT go anywhere because of the slush we'd have to walk through outside!  We're actually glad the forecast is for colder temperatures soon, so we can walk on solids instead of liquids - HAHAHA!!  

This week at school has been a little busier with extra subbing for classes.  Since five teachers are gone on the ski trip, and a couple other English teachers have been absent for a day (or three), we've all pitched in to cover classes as assigned.  (Remember, they don't hire substitute teachers here!)  It can be fun to meet new students, or to have extra time with a favorite class.  :-)  

Sorry about "no photos" yet again, but we hope that situation will be remedied soon.  Tuesday at school, Katarina did us a favor and telephoned the shop in Ružomberok that was a suggestion for camera repair.  She talked to them about our camera and found out their business hours for us.  So we took the train there after school, found the shop, left the camera to be repaired, checked around for some school supplies at several shops, had a relaxing cup of tea, got groceries at a store right by the train station (to save a trip through slush back in L.M.), then came back in time for my adult students.  It was a productive trip!  

Check back over the weekend - maybe there will be news on the camera by then!   :-)

Triple Double

DOUBLE the FUN with twice as much volleyball............

Friday was another busy day at school, but we were both done after 6th hour, which, because we start so early, is before lunch, about 1:00.  So on the walk back from lunch at the Basic School canteen (aka elementary school lunchroom), Tim and I stopped by our flat to change into volleyball clothes.  Our colleague who lent Tim the bicycle has been asking us for several weeks now to join her after-school group of students and teachers playing VB 2:00-4:00 on Fridays, so we decided to go this week.  It ended up being 3-on-3 most of the time, so we played the full width of the court, but only 2/3 the depth.  Still, it was a lot of running around, very active, and lots of fun.  But, I have to admit being pretty tired afterwards!  

However, Friday being our normal volleyball day, we went home for a few minutes to drop things off, then left again at 4:30 to walk to the other gym where we played from 5:00 to almost 7:00.  Double the volleyball - whew!!  It's kind of fun that the other players are starting to coach us too (mostly in sign language - HA!) - ie. to set the ball higher, for Tim to block at the net, for me to switch in at setter after the serve, etc.  They are really knowledgeable about the game and do things right - bump, set, spike every point!  

I decided to add a few rather random photos today.......this is the Slovak version of recycling bins.  They are sitting outside most every block of flats on the streets.  We separate our recyclables and bring them out to the bins.
Left to right: Yellow=plastic; Green=glass; Blue=paper; Silver=trash.  (None for tin cans - interesting!)

DOUBLE the BASKETBALL for Tim too.............

So I got a ride with Janka to HyperNova like usual, then walked home with a few groceries for my quiet evening by myself, while Tim played basketball and went to the pub with his regular crew.  We slept well after all that physical activity, that's for sure!

Tim had agreed to play basketball with some teachers and students on Saturday morning at 9:00......and then he found out later it was a tournament lasting until about 1:30!!  He played in 4 games during the tournament (and of course the teachers' team beat the 3 student and alumni teams that were there!!)  So it was more than double the basketball!!  From what the guys all tell me, he hasn't lost his magic shooting touch or his stellar passing skills, so they really enjoy having him on their team!   :-)  

O.K. another random pic - but it just makes us laugh.  Saturday morning we got up to very cold temperatures, and it had lightly snowed again overnight, but across the way, sure enough, there was laundry out on the lines off the balconies!  (Not unusual at all, even in the winter!!)   I don't really know if the clothes dry out when they freeze and
get snowed upon????   We use the drying racks inside during the winter,  just FYI!!  

DOUBLE DATE night with Katarina and Michael............

At lunch on Friday, Katarina mentioned that they were going to see "Les Miserables" at the movie theatre in Poprad Saturday night, and we were glad that it is here in Slovakia!  After some excited conversation, Katarina engineered some plans for us to join them on a double date!!   They refused to allow us to take the train to Poprad, and instead came over to pick us up by car.  (Katarina's mom sent along some bags of apples and other good things for us to eat - so sweet!!)  We went to supper at a nice restaurant at the mall (rustic decorations and good Slovak food!) before the movie.  The Slovak subtitles didn't bother us at all, and we thoroughly enjoyed the movie!  We talked about the music, the actors, the different scenes, and the powerful themes of the film all the way home.  Wow!!  And now the songs just keep rolling through our heads all the time.  It was a very special evening with two very special friends!!  

Saturday night dinner at the Poprad mall restaurant.

Our double-date companions, Michael and Katarina.  Unfortunately with the
camera not working, the i-touch doesn't take very clear indoor pictures
since it doesn't have a flash.  It's a pity this is so blurry.    :-(  

In Slovak, the title is "Beggars".  We received a very nice multi-page brochure!
We're SOOOOO excited that we got to see "Les Miserables" here in Slovakia in such a
beautiful movie theatre (really good sound system!), with such delightful friends!!  

We have had a quiet and typical Sunday - church, Sunday dinner put into the oven, listening to our online sermon, reading the DM Register online, and Tim's nap while I blog.  :-)    We are hoping to do a lot of skyping later, when everyone there gets home from church!   

Random pic #3 for today...... we check the temperatures before church each Sunday, to decide on how many layers of clothing to wear for our walk there and back, and for the unheated sanctuary.  Today it was single digits (Fahrenheit), so this is what I wore......turtleneck + sweater + blazer;   slip + lined wool skirt + thick thermal tights + warm white socks (they don't show since my boots stay on!);  also:  boots, long wool coat, scarf,  hat,  and gloves.  And it all stayed on all through church, except the gloves!!  No one takes off their coats at all, except for Tim, but he did get cold during the sermon today.   Oh, and he even wore a stocking cap for the walk instead of his cap!  Cold day!   But no worries if you're dressed for it.    :-)

Speaker's Corner

As anticipated, it was fun getting back to school on Tuesday and seeing everyone.  There were many wishes for all the best in the New Year, and an excitement for being together again.  Both Tuesday and Wednesday were busy, as every free minute was spent in preparation for Speaker's Corner, which was held today.

Today was long too -  "Speaker's Corner" is a school-wide public speaking competition (in English) with winners moving on to regionals.  They told us the American lectors are in charge of this activity.  Thank goodness for all my years of H.S. small-group music contest way back in the day, and Opus auditions more recently, so I had a good idea of how to organize for it.  (I actually started back in December with a lot of things.)  Making sign-up slips and posters, scheduling warm-up times and performance times, making judges' score sheets, creating score tally forms, etc. etc. etc. - it is a big job!  

It was really fun listening to the performances today.  The first round consisted of prepared speeches on topics the students had individually selected from a list of five choices given to them last month.  Some kids were incredibly well-organized and had done a good deal of research, while others tried to "wing it" based on their good English skills.  The top scorers after the first round came back for Round 2, where they were given a new topic and 15 minutes to prepare a new speech.  Again, it was interesting, because some of the better prepared Round 1 speakers had a tough time with the short turn-around time and were much worse in that format.  Others did indeed do a terrific job because they could just wing it well!!  LOL!!  The scores from the two rounds were equal, so we ended up with well-rounded winners.  Tim and I have a month to coach the kids, revamp their prepared speeches with them, and practice on the Round 2 format.  We are pretty excited, because we think some of the kids should compete very well on the next level.  We have 3 winners from the Junior and Intermediate levels (our limit), and 2 from the Senior level, since we only had two entries of older kids.  We'll get to spend a romantic Valentine's Day back in Žilina, this time taking our students to the regional Speaker's corner competition on Feb. 14th, and from the sounds of things, we'll probably be helping to judge the competition as well.  

Tuesday after school was our Slovak lesson, next I had my 2 lady students, and then it was school volleyball - fun as usual.  Wednesday after school we did some more errands - post office, grocery store, and seamstress, where we left my ball dress to be shortened.  (More on that another time!)  We both have students for English lessons tonight, and I'm getting some laundry done too.  It's good this has been a short week back at school as we get back into the swing of things again!  

Tim and Rivi reading the amazingly cool pop-up version of "The Wizard of Oz" that Deb sent
in her Christmas package!!

Back to School Tomorrow!

The past 3 days have flown by.  No pictures, sorry!  That's because we have hunkered down and written many Christmas greetings and thank-you's over the last weekend of vacation!  The kids brought some cards which I had purchased last year after Christmas (at 75% off!), so we are getting them ready to send in a box to the kids, for mailing from Ankeny, to save on international postage.  :-)   We caught up on sleep, did some reading, and spent a good half day running errands, which always takes longer on foot and in Slovak!  :-)  (For example, getting prints made of a photo for our cards, having our letter printed at a copy shop, and finally finding the right size sink stopper!!)   Unfortunately, our camera isn't functioning, and evidently there isn't any place in town to have it repaired, according to 3 different photo print shops.  Looks like we'll have to go to Ružomberok sometime to get it fixed, hopefully!  Meanwhile, we will use the I-touch for photos, but it doesn't have a flash.  

We had a special treat at church Sunday, as Ivan Mraz's women's ensemble performed three selections during the service.  They sounded beautiful!  We walked home with Ivan (we heard his university choir in December, and his wife, Eva is learning English with me) and had a nice conversation with him.  The women's group is taking a break now after Christmas, but if they start rehearsing again this spring, I may get to sing with them!  How cool is that?!?  

It will be fun to get back to school tomorrow and see everyone again.  We feel a little out of the loop after being with the kids for a week, and then on our own since then.  We're looking forward to hearing about Christmas break activities and news!  

Košice & Train Trip Home

In the morning on Friday, we enjoyed breakfast at our hotel, then headed out to see more sights in Košice.  We were disappointed because several buildings/museums were closed for renovations, so we didn't get to see them.  Hopefully we can go back sometime!

Our first destination was the Executioner's Bastion, a remnant of the enormous complex of walls and fortifications
which once surrounded Košice for defensive purposes.  

There was a really excellent film in English to begin our tour, with graphics showing the development of the town's
fortifications over the centuries.  Walls, moats, drawbridges, and bastions were layered on through the years for extra protection.   The rounded section at left is what we saw in the previous photo - a bastion protecting one of the main city gates.  

This museum is the Mikluš Prison.  In earlier times, it was two gothic houses with a pottery workshop, but in the 17th century it turned into a prison, as well as the Executioner's house.  Inside we visited 3 floors including the basement dungeon and torture chambers - pretty spooky!  There were also interesting archeological finds and many historical artifacts from the 1400's to 1700's, including an executioner's chair and swords.  

This is a view from a room inside the executioner's lodgings, which was actually part of the last
remaining gatehouse from the original battlements of the city walls.  

We didn't realize until this morning that the Calvinist church in the background is next to the museum (which is just left of the church), and the church was built right next to the city walls where the city gate used to be.  The museum was originally a guard house next to the city gate.  

Here is another view of the small St. Michael Chapel next to the enormous St. Elizabeth Cathedral.  

This is the Košice coat of arms - a statue in the park - with the cathedral in the background.

This is the entrance to the Underground Archaeology Museum, which was closed, unfortunately.  It looks like it would be really cool.  Evidently a subterranean series of tunnels and rooms was discovered in the 20th century, and excavations created this museum underneath part of the main square.  We went down a set of stairs to reach the gates, but it was all locked up.  Bummer.  There are also about a dozen places back up in the square with glass-covered viewing portals to look down into, but they were fogged over and difficult to see through.  Great idea though!

Our train left at 1:30, so we had a lovely ride through the countryside on the IC, or fast train.  There was a mix of sun and clouds, but the scenery was beautiful.  We shared a baguette sandwich from the train station and some fruit from the hotel for a lunch on the train, which we always enjoy.  We were seated across from one another, both in window seats, so we played a few games of "Spades" with cards and "Greed" with dice to pass the time!  

 We planned our trip so we could be back in time to play volleyball at 5:00.  It was a little drizzly and windy on our 1/2-hour walk to the gym, but not too cold.  When we arrived, everyone was disappointed because there were tarps, ladders, paint supplies, and dirt all over the gym floor - evidently the gym is in the process of being painted.  I am totally confident that back home, everyone would have taken one look and figured we simply couldn't play, but here in Slovakia, it was decided that everyone had come a long way to play, so we'd all just clean up the mess, move things out of the way, and play volleyball!!  Which we did!  Then when the guys started arriving later for basketball, they re-arranged the sidelines to make it safer for their game on the larger sized court.  It was a great example of a "Let's get 'er done" attitude by everyone!!  And a fun time was had by all.     :-)

And 2013 in Slovakia Begins.....

After staying up so late on New Year's Eve, we definitely slept in on New Year's Day.  It was strange to not turn on the TV at all for parades or football games!  We laid low all day, in fact we never left our flat!  It was a relaxing day for sure.  Tim read "The Sacred Acre", which was a Christmas gift from his mom, and I worked on the blog and loading photos from when the kids were here!  :-)   (Have I mentioned that we miss them already??)   

On the 2nd, we were very productive though!!  We headed out for errands in the morning, picking up a package at the post office (we had gotten a little postal pick-up form in our mailbox on the 31st - thanks to cousins Judith and Nancy!!)  We also got a few groceries, looked for a replacement light bulb that burned out, and searched for a sink stopper (we accidentally got the wrong size!)  A biggie for me was having an eyeglass shop fix my glasses - I had lost a screw (no smart-aleck comments, please), and we finally had success in the second shop.  Those all seem like insignificant errands, but it always takes a LOT more time to accomplish simple things, because we just don't know where to look or how to ask questions!  Oh well, we did get most of our "to-do" list done!   :-)

In the afternoon, I addressed all the Christmas card envelopes while Tim cleaned in the flat.  (Not really a fair division of labor I guess!!)  We also made last-minute plans for an overnight trip to Košice, in the eastern part of Slovakia.  It's the second-biggest city in Slovakia and very historic, and everyone says it's a "must-see" destination.  So we read up on the sights to see, checked train schedules, and made a hotel reservation online.  

Jan. 3 we got up and left on a 9:30 a.m. train - not too early!  The trip went well, and when we got to our hotel to ask if we could leave our suitcases prior to check-in time, our room was ready (this was before noon!) so we checked in early.  Super!!  We had packed sandwiches, fruit, and Alana's goodies she brought to us (LOVED the divinity!!), for lunch, so we were all ready to head out sight-seeing for the rest of the day.  

This was our first sight of Košice, on our way from the train station to our hotel.  

It's Jakab Palace, near the park across from the train station.  It's not open to visitors, but beautiful even
just from the street, walking by!  

And then we reached the main square, with St. Elizabeth Cathdral - WOW!!!  

St. Elizabeth Cathedral - the largest in Slovakia, and one of the most impressive Gothic cathedrals
in Europe, according to the guidebooks.  We would agree!!  

The interior is amazing with the Gothic vaulted ceilings.

The Christmas decorations were dwarfed by the height of the pillars and altar.

Alana will be happy to know that we climbed the tower on this cathedral too.   :-)
It was 60 meters high, and the views of the tiled roof were beautiful!  

This is the second, smaller spire of the cathedral, from part-way up the main tower staircase.

Looking down on the park below, with its musical fountains (which we'd love to come back
and see when they are up and running in warmer weather), and beyond to the National Theatre.

It was foggy, but the views of the streets below were still picturesque.  

Going up the spiral staircase, we had access to the bell tower.  I really wanted to ring them,
but we were afraid we might get arrested or banished or something!!   The woman who unlocked the door to the staircase for us only spoke Slovak and French, so we got our description of the tower in French!!
Oh, and BTW Lute, this tower's spiral staircase was much narrower and darker than St. Stephen's in Vienna,
the steps were lots steeper, and they were very worn, so footing was on uneven surfaces.   My shoulders were touching the walls on both sides simultaneously at some points.  The good news was, we were the only ones making the climb! You would have felt very claustrophobic!!

St. Urban's Tower, below in the square.  It was a bell tower that now houses a wax museum. 

Back down on the ground......this is the tower we climbed.  We got to go all the way to the top!  

This is one of several "Bell Trees" in the city parks on the square, which play tunes.
We heard "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" while we were there!!  :-)

Our walking tour of Košice continued with the beautiful buildings along the square, including the Seminary Church,
farthest on the left of the facing buildings.  

This is the old town hall, again along the main square.

This Baroque sculpture surrounded by statues, is the Plague Column of the Virgin Mary, since she is credited with ending the plague epidemic in the early 1700's.

There were a bunch of wooden huts along one boulevard portion of the square, leftovers of Christmas/New Year's Markets.  We had seen stands selling sweets called Trdelník in Liptovsky Mikuláš and Poprad, but we hadn't tried them.  I read that they are UNESCO protected products typical of Slovakia, so we decided to check it out.   Long strips of a sweet bread-like dough are wrapped around the wooden cylinders (at right) in a spiral, then they are placed in the oven at left to bake.  

The hollow cylinders of baked dough slide off the wooden cylinder, and they are rolled in cinnamon sugar
(or other flavors - chocolate perhaps in the other trays?)  They were literally steaming hot!

The Trdelník far exceeded our expectations!!  YUM YUM YUM!!!  Hot and delicious!!
(Oh and in Tim's other hand is a cup of hot Medovina - a honey/wine beverage of some sort that is offered at about every 3rd stand at the market!!  That helped warm us up on a cold winter day of sight-seeing!!)

This is the sign, so I'd remember what it was we ate.  LOL!!  

This is for Paul and Lute ---- It's Santa Claus made out of Legos!!  :-)

St. Elizabeth's Cathedral on the left, St. Michael chapel on the right.  (It's hard to tell perspective in the photo, but
the chapel is very near the cathedral and much smaller!)

We heard some beautiful music behind the chapel doors, but they were locked.  Boo!
Later, we did get to go inside for a look, just before a mass started.  

One of the quaint, tiny alley-ways off of the street near our hotel.  

A church spire through a gate in an alleyway.  

This building houses the East Slovak Museum, which we toured in the afternoon.  One section was for Natural History (rocks & minerals, birds & animals, etc.), one section was for Slovak culture (furniture, costumes, and other artifacts), and one section was for art through the centuries.  

There was also a special "Bethlehem" exhibit in the museum.

There were dozens of decorated, sparkly palaces, castles, and mansions

Each one had a nativity scene somewhere in the structure with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.  Some also had other various nativity figures of shepherds, angels, and wise men.  But every one had the Holy Family.

We are still puzzled by this whole exhibit --- was the Baby Jesus ever in a sparkling Slovak
palace???  We'll have to ask for an explanation of this phenomenon!!  :-)

There were some incredibly beautiful pieces of furniture.

We really enjoyed the Slovak history areas!

Some of the beautiful Slovak traditional costumes.

This room was full of neat displays!  It was kind of strange because I think we were the only people in the museum.  The lights were out in most of the rooms, and though a few had motion-activated sensors, most of the time we had to turn the lights on ourselves.  So I'd go into the next room, find the switch on the wall, turn on the lights, and then Tim would turn off the lights in the previous room and join me in the next one.  We figured we should leave it as we found it!  

After the museum closed, we went back to our hotel and used our vouchers for a free glass of wine at their bar.
Evidently Košice is in a prolific wine producing region, and this was very good.

We went out for a walk to a traditional Slovak restaurant, and it was snowing gently!
This is the Calvinist church down at the end of the street.  

The restaurant was decorated in many cute knick-knacks, and it was absolutely charming!  We got to watch the
beautiful snowfall out the window during dinner.  We had white wine this time,  and it was also great! 

We had a romantic walk back after dinner, through the real snowflakes falling, and under the snowflake lights above, with the Christmas tree in the square in the distance.  Some of the Christmas Market stands were even open.  

And that's it for Day #1 in Košice!   Tune in tomorrow for the next installment on Eastern Slovakia's largest city!   :-)