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Published: July 27th 2010
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Plague column
in Banska Stiavnica I lied. I'm beginning to understand Slovakian. At least enough to catch the bits that are similar to English or French. There are enough that I can now tell when Marian us talking about his English-speaking (or French) Canadian tourist, and the odd other word here and there (allegory of Venus was one I caught today). I wonder if Rosetta Stone does Slovakian. Maybe I could pick up some more...
Today was spent wandering in and around Banska Stiavnica. Not far from my hotel was a memorial/prayer column , the plague column. Rather more Baroque than I'd thought it would be, but then, there was more than one wave of plague starting in the early 1300s, and finishing in the 1600s or perhaps even later, I'm not sure. I should really have asked. Ah well, maybe tomorrow! Also poked my head into St. Catherine's church, a cute (if Gothic can be cute) little church dating from the 15th century. Quite pretty.
We were struck today by the Monday Museum Curse, wherein one of the main mining museums (Banska Stiavnica owes most of its existence to mining in the area) was closed, as well as the Old Castle in town.
Old castle
in Banska Stiavnica Well, sort of. The Old Castle had been privately hired for the day by a group of Russian school kids. I got inside and snapped a few pics while Marian attempted to negotiate entry, but no luck.
We did have better luck with the geological museum, though, and while I admit that looking at rocks is pretty darn boring for most of us, I actually had a good time. I turned it into a sort of brain teaser, trying to remember my high school chemistry (each rock/mineral was labelled by chemical formula), and trying to translate mineral names from Slovakian to English (mostly add an 'e' to the end and you've got it - ie: Pyrit = Pyrite).
Next it was off to an "open air" mining museum, which was quite interesting... If only because you get to tour an old mine. You literally hike down into the mine and wander around (well, guided, of course) the old mine shafts. I seriously doubt you'd be able to do anything similar in Canada as everywhere I looked there were potential tripping hazards, and it was only due to the grace of the hard hats they made us wear that
Manor house
at Svaty Anton I didn't crack my head on several occasions. The "open air" part was a little off, though, as there weren't that many buildings to go into.
Also stopped at the New Castle in Banska Stiavnica - another space that could be made into a fabulous museum, given the money - although this one admittedly had more focus than yesterday's; the theme was fending off Turkish invasions. A peculiarity of a lot of Slovakian sites I've visited so far is that you have to wait for a guide. No choice. They hold tours every hour on the hour, or once every two hours, and this was no exception. A bit odd, but apparently there have been major problems with theft and such, so now people have to be escorted. A shame, really.
By the time we finished there, it was nearly 3, and definitely time for some lunch. Stopped at a roadside diner-ish thing on the shore of one of the mining lakes and had the potato pancake thing again, this time filled with... Liver. Yes, mother, I ate liver. Even knowing full well what it was. When in Slovakia... Wasn't bad, but not as good as the pork. And drank Kofola. Damn, I'm going to miss that stuff. It's a cola, somewhere between Coke or Pepsi and root beer, and it's fabulous.
Killed the rest of the day by visiting an old manor house at Sväty Anton. Seriously, I'm not impressed that my iPhone won't let me do some of the accents I need for proper Slovakian... Ah well... Moving on... It was fabulous. They have a number of the rooms decorated with 18th and 19th century furnishings and the collection of prints and photos collected by one of the previous owners lining the walls was just incredible. Could have spent ages there, but about 3/4 through the tour, we realise it was 6:15... and they closed at 6. Oops! Another quiet evening at the pension.
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