It’s Tuesday, and Bobbi’s home from Spain, and I’ve got just a few more days to go before I join her—yay!! Pickin’ up where I left off… Sunday morning I diddled around the small towns near Bratislava, making my way to Devin, where there used to be a killer castle on top of a stunning, vertical pokey-outy of rock, where the Danube and the Morova rivers meet. They found evidence of if having been fortified in the Old Stone Age, about 5000 BC, and various groups came and went, further building it up, then around 400 BC the Romans grabbed hold and it was just about the furthest outpost of the Limes Romanus defensive network of forts. Over the centuries it played an important role in the defense of the area, then in 1809 Napoleon’s army destroyed it. Merde! There were attempts by the owners to build it back, but mostly it went into decline until they decided to make it a National Treasure and start with the archeology. The view across the Danube into Austria is very nice—it’s right there, a few hundred yards away. During communism this area was a popular spot for those attempting to escape to the west… most didn’t make it. There’s a monument nearby to those who were shot and killed while attempting the swim.
Monday morning I bid farewell to Bratislava and made for the Slovakian Northwest interior. The first leg was 80km, through some beautiful countryside that is dominated by the Small Carpathian Mountains. They’re mountains, but….small. Passed by more very cool but crumbly middle ages castles, and made my way to my shoot in Trencin. Didn’t get to see much of the town, but it looks nice (hey, they have a big castle on top of a hill, whaddya know!). After Trencin it was onwards to Zilina, where my shoot had been cancelled but my hotel room hadn’t, so---what the hay, it’s only another 50km drive. Zilina is a cool old city (4th largest in Slovakia), on the Vah river, pretty close to Poland and the Czech Republic. The cool old town square from the 15th and 16th centuries has an arcade that runs all around the interior, and the buildings (other than the church) used to be houses for the burghers. Now it’s all shops and restaurants and an amazingly chill, cool bar called Jerry’s Bar, where the mojitos are as good as any I ever had in South Beach (the cuban cigar helped, of course). As I explored I found plaques on the walls like you see in Paris, honoring those who died in the struggle for the city during its liberation from the Nazis. There’s also a plaque on the wall of the Church of the Holy Trinity in the town square, honoring the sisters who risked their lives by hiding Jewish children during the war. I read that the Mayor during the Nazi occupation wasn’t nearly as kind, though. A priest himself, he was more than happy to let Zilina (again, very close to Poland) become a busy railroad transit point for Jews from all over Slovakia who were on their final trip to the extermination camps in Poland.
Anyway, today it’s Tuesday, and my shoot for this morning in Namestovo is cancelled (what a shock!), so I guess it’s time to begin the leisurely, 350km drive to Ceska Lipa, in the Czech Republic!
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