Tatralandia Water Park Resort

Tatralandia in Liptovsky Mikulas

I began to panic. I waited at the bottom of the water slide for my son and he did not come out. I had slid first and he was supposed to be right behind me. As the seconds started to pass, I became more and more worried.

I ran to the top of the stairs to see if he was still there but he was gone. I ran back downstairs pushing against the people walking up the stairs and finally saw him standing in the wadding pool on bottom.

Apparently, his mat got stuck and he had to scoot all the way down the slide. It took a while for my heart to calm down but the slides ended up being the best part of the day.  

My family and I went to the largest year-round water park in Slovakia this last week, Tatralandia, and we had a great time (other than those couple of seconds of panic). I thought that my son would not get back on any slides after that. But we tried them all and he ended up wanting to slide all day.

He especially liked a slide called the "Tornado." You ride a two person raft and it shoots you out into a funnel and then slowly slings you around and around until you drop out the bottom. My legs hurt at the end of the day from climbing the stairs to ride the "Tornado" with him so much.

The Tornado Water Slide

Tatralandia is located in Liptovsky Mikulas surrounded by the High Tatras (the largest mountain range in Slovakia). The pools are heated year-round and you can swim in the pools while there is snow just several feet from you. The snow was gone when we got there but you can still see the snow on the mountain tops surrounding the pools.

One of the outside pools with snow on the mountain tops

My daughter is just learning how to swim and usually does not like water parks for too long. But she is gaining confidence with her swimming and stayed in the pools for almost eight hours straight! She is now diving under the water which is a big deal when last year she was scared to get her face wet.

My daughter loved the kid pool

Starting to swim like a mermaid

Tatralandia has 14 pools (10 that are open year-round) with salt water and thermal water. The water is supposed to have healing effects on your body and respiratory system. My wife loved the thermal hot spring water.  

The warm indoor pools. Some had salt water.

This was the off-season so there were not very many people in the park. In the morning, a bus load of students from Poland arrived and were a little rowdy. One group of young boys tried to break in line for the rides so I decided to have fun messing with them by yelling at them in English.  

It is fun speaking very quick English to the kids as they just stare at you and get really quiet. Now, if only my own kids would get quiet when I talked to them in English!

Slovak Easter Traditions...Whips and Water

How do you make sure that the women in your country remain young, fit, and beautiful all year round?  Apparently, in Slovakia you whip them with a small stick and pour cold water on them.  

I love the culture of Slovakia and find many of its customs interesting and fun.  But this one is a little unusual even for me.

On the Monday after Easter, men try to catch women to whip them with a small willow branch (named a "korbáč" in Slovak) decorated with ribbons.  The men use the whips to hit the women on the legs when they catch them.   

But the fun doesn't stop there, the men are also obliged in some parts of Slovakia to pour cold water on the women or even throw the women in a stream.

And after all this, what do the men finally get?  A slap on the face?  A trip to the local jail?  No, the women will then give them a decorated egg (or chocolate egg for a young boy) or alcohol for the adults.

The Slovak Spectator writes in one article:

“Pouring with ice-cold water belongs to pre-Christian habits,” Nádaská explains. “We know, for example, that all Slavonic tribes used to keep this habit. Water from a brook or a river was always considered “water of life”, i.e. that various positive features were attributed to it. In Slovak fairy tales, this water was even able to bring people and other creatures back to life, and this Easter tradition is based on “magic of the similar”; which means that the cold water from a brook or river, when used by a boy or man to pour over a girl, passes on its good features when touching the skin. Thus, women were believed to be made fit, rejuvenated, nimble, beautiful – all characteristics women needed in their lives.”...

Whipping is a similar case, she added. Young willow osiers were always used in western Slovakia to make the special whip, or korbáč. Willow is the first tree to get fresh new “sap of life” in the spring, and in the same way as the water, the good features of the young osiers were meant to transmit to the body of a girl or woman.  

So watch out ladies. I have my stick and cup of cold water ready for you.  But then again I am a little slow and you could probably out run me.

Slovakia Just Voted a Fascists in Its Parliament

Members of the People's Party Our Slovakia group, led by Marian Kotleba (pictured), wear black uniforms reminiscent of Nazi-era collaborators. Photo: Reuters

On March 5th, Slovakia held elections and voted a fascists party into its parliament. According to Foreign Policy magazine:

For the first time in the country’s post-socialist history, an anti-minority party with openly neo-fascist links, People’s Party-Our Slovakia, received 8 percent of the vote to gain 14 of the 150 seats in parliament. Even close observers of Eastern European politics (a rather small group) did not expect such a strong showing for the party led by Marian Kotleba, who has proudly donned the uniform of the country’s wartime fascists and has referred to Roma citizens as “gypsy parasites.” Instead, the experts had expected big gains for the established far-right party, the Slovak National Party (SNS), which has been trying to capitalize on Europe’s refugee crisis by indulging in xenophobic rhetoric. It seems, however, that many voters preferred the more extreme version on offer.

The magazine goes on to say:

 The elections in Slovakia are not just a one-off. Rather, they are emblematic of a broader trend: the far right’s growing appeal in Europe’s youngest and most vulnerable democracies.

On Monday, after it had become known that a fascist party had won seats in parliament, the first public demonstration took place in Bratislava.  Over a thousand people walked through the streets in silent protest of the fascist party and what they stand for.

Bratislava Protest March (Source: TASR)

The Slovak Spectator, an English newspaper in Slovakia, writes:

But repairing the damage these elections have done to Slovakia’s fragile democracy will take more than marching in Bratislava’s most privileged neighbourhood. It will take a long-term, nationwide campaign against extremism that visits schools, dominates media and resonates on social networks. It will require the vocal participation of many disparate groups, from sexual minorities to the church, from Roma to Muslims to Jews to mainstream Slovaks, from Holocaust survivors to the children of anti-communist dissidents. And in the end it will take many times more than a thousand people, because the true target of this protest is not Kotleba’s rabble, but the bitter, hopeless, cynical people who elected them.

The Slovak Spectator writes in another article:

Available data shows that many of voters of Kotleba’s party are young people who have never exercised their right to vote before, manual labourers and former voters of Smer party which have been at the helm of government for eight of ten past years. Just 8 percent of Kotleba’s voters said they backed the ĽSNS because of the migration crisis.

“Kotleba’s party in parliament is result of chronic social and economic insecurity, lack of perspectives and chronic lack of integrating values in our society,” Zuzana Kusá, a sociologist with the Slovak Academy of Sciences told The Slovak Spectator. “This situation has no simple or quick solution.”

Slovakia: No Separation of Church and State

Last week, I had a great conversation with a pastor of a smaller denomination here in Slovakia.  It was exciting to see his passion for Christ and the Slovak people.  It was especially interesting to hear about the barriers that a smaller denomination has in Slovakia.

In Slovakia, the separation of church and state is much different than in the United States. The state financially supports the churches based on reported membership and also requires students to either take a religion class (Catholic or Lutheran) or an ethic class (for those that do not want their children taught religion in school).

Below is an interesting chart of the top churches in Slovakia in terms of membership and the state support they received in 2014.

 
The first column is the church name, followed by the number of members, number of pastors/priests and the amount of state support they received in 2014.

The top five churches in terms of membership are: Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed Christian and Orthodox.  As you can see, the majority of Slovaks are Catholic and the state gave the Roman Catholic church more than $22 million euros in that year (a large amount for such a small country).

As I understand it, these payments are partially designed to make up for the property confiscated from the churches during the communist era.  However, according to a study done in 2014, a majority of Slovaks support changes to the state support of churches.

Our tax accountant is working on our taxes now and this will be my first year paying Slovak taxes.  It will be interesting to see the amount of tax we will pay and how much this goes to support the various churches here in Slovakia.  I would much prefer to have my taxes lowered and instead give this additional amount to the church or charity that I prefer to support.

Slovakia Landscapes

For such a small country, Slovakia has some of the most beautiful landscapes that I have ever seen.   As you travel throughout this land, you will find over 200 castles and castle ruins, breathtaking mountains, ice caves, cathedrals and many mineral water or hot spring pools.

Here is one of my favorite short videos that highlights some of the amazing parts of the country.

You'll poke your eye out!

There are a lot of cultural differences between the United States and Slovakia.  I'm originally from the South and we love our sweet tea and plenty of ice in our drinks.  It amazes my wife that in the middle of winter, I still use lots of ice in my drink.

On my first trip to Slovakia (It is hard to believe it was over 14 years ago), I was shocked when everyone was drinking room temperature drinks.  I soon learned to ask for ice, and the waitress would add one cube of ice.  My wife would then ask for "lots of ice" and the waitress would come back with two cubes of ice.  Perhaps there is an ice shortage here that I do not know about.

Another small observation is that some Slovaks keep a spoon in their cup while they drink their coffee.  I keep telling my wife that she is going to poke her eye out with the spoon one day. Here is a short video that proves my point:


(here is the longer video that was produced as a school project in Nitra)

Even though I joke about the differences, there are so many things that I have learned from and appreciate about the Slovak culture that I'll write about in the future...I'll just need to remember to wear an eye patch when drinking coffee next time.

Christmas Trees and Three Kings Day

My mom would have said that 2016 will be an "unlucky" year for me.  Today is January 6th, and I still have my Christmas tree up! She loved the Christmas season but always made sure to take our tree down before New Years as she jokingly said that it is bad luck to have it up in January.

But today is the day that most Slovaks take down their Christmas tree.  Today is the day of Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day.

"And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel." (Matthew 2:6 NLT)

This passage is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2:1-12 which describes the visit of the magi or "wise men" to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem after he was born.  

Christians in Slovakia (and other Christians around the world) celebrate Three Kings Day on January 6th, which commemorates the visit of the magi to the Christ child and celebrates Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles.

There is a large community of Eastern Orthodox Christians in eastern Slovakia, and they celebrate Christmas Eve on January 6th and the birth of Jesus on January 7th rather than December 25th, the date of Jesus' birth according to the Gregorian calendar.  

Here in Slovakia the day is celebrated with worship services throughout the country, and this is the day that a lot of Slovaks take down their Christmas tree as the sign of the end of the Christmas season.  

I'm not sure if my 2016 will be unlucky...but it is nice to have a few more days to appreciate the beauty of our Christmas tree and to reflect on the true meaning of this season.  Now I have to go try to get the tree out of the house without getting sap on the couches and carpets!

Warm Hands (Snow in Europe vs South)

I'm sitting here looking out the window at the snow and notice something strange.  People are going about their daily lives. What?!  Are they crazy? Don't they realize there is snow on the ground!

Where I lived in America (Charlotte, NC), we seldom get snow, and when we do, there is total panic.  People will storm the stores buying up all the bread and milk that they can get their hands on.  I understand the bread in case your power goes out you can at least have sandwiches.  The milk I am not so sure about...possibly to make snow cream (fresh snow, milk and vanilla flavoring).

Schools close.  Businesses will either close or have a delayed start for the day.  And the local weatherman is on TV 24 hours a day.  In our defense, we get so little snow in the South that cities do not have the resources to handle it when it comes so it is safer to keep everyone home.

I've been impressed with our town here in Slovakia that they seem to keep the roads cleared pretty well.  Of course, it helps that we can walk the kids to school and walk to the grocery store if needed.

My wife always told me (as a joke) that when we lived in Charlotte that I was not allowed to wear gloves unless it snowed.  I can now wear gloves all the time here during the winter.  My hands are at least thankful for that.