'graduation' 2016

I've taught some of these kids for three years, others for two, and some for just a few months. No matter what, I'm sad to see them all go. I'm proud of them and all they've accomplished at their ages.

My school has come a long way in five years. We started with just a few kids, and now we're bursting at the seams. So I'm proud of the school as much as I'm proud of the kids.

Slovakia: kosice

I love late spring. The weather is usually pretty good, there is green on the trees, and flowers are blooming. I also love this time of year because there are more holidays, and more holidays mean more time to travel. Long weekends are the best. I feel a lot more justified in leaving Ukraine when I have a long weekend.

I chose Kosice, Slovakia as a destination because I found cheap flights, and was able to meet up with a friend. According to Wikipedia, it is the second largest city in Slovakia. I'd never heard of it before booking the flights, but since I know very little about Slovakia in general that didn't surprise me.

My flight to Kosice, Slovakia left at 0400, which meant that my taxi was at 0200. (At that hour there is no traffic, and I knew I didn't need to be at the airport two hours early.) This meant I started packing around 0100. I know that's totally last minute, but it's how I usually do things. These times meant I didn't go to sleep, as there was no point. The flight was only an hour and a half, so I didn't sleep much there either. Basically, by the time I arrived in Kosice, I was completely knackered, and was still going to be up all day.

The airport in Kosice is small. Very small. It is the kind of airport that doesn't have a whole lot of flights, so it is dead most of the time. The arrivals hallway was dark after I exited baggage claim.

The sun wasn't up, and inside was dark. I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, this airport had free wifi.

I figured out there was a public bus into the city center, and thought it would be coming along around 0500. I figured wrong. It actually came at 0620. Thankfully it wasn't that cold, and the stop had a bench to sit on and was somewhat covered. Apparently I was the only one who didn't know the first bus comes at 0620, because about five minutes ahead of time, at least 15 people seemed to appear out of nowhere to catch the bus. They weren't travelers like me, so maybe they just lived out in the area and this was how they got to work?

The ride into the city was only about 15 minutes, I love fast rides like this. The bus dropped me off at the train/bus station, which was where I met up with Bo. He'd been on trains for a while, and had only arrived a bit earlier. It turned out that if I had taken a bus from the airport at 0500 I would've been waiting for him at the train station.

Bo and I walked into the old city center, which is pretty small. The whole city felt small, even though it had more than 100,000 people. We crossed the city center, which is basically a big church in the middle of an even bigger, stretched out diamond shaped platz. Very picturesque.

At that point, the sun was up, but it was still very early, and no one else was around. I took advantage and took photos, of course. The church wasn't yet open to visitors, we knew we would come back soon enough. We walked all the way to one end of the oval, just to see what was there, and because we needed to kill some time.

We found a statue for the peace marathon, which appears to have been run here regularly for a number of years. I don't know if it still takes place. There was a long wall, on which was inscribed the name of every winner of the race, along with the year, and where that runner was from. I really liked the variety of winning countries.

Our next sight was a random street sculpture. Well, not really a sculpture. Call it a modern art installation, It was a collection of keys, over 80,000 of them. They'd been grouped together in letter shapes, spelling out revoluce. The sculpture was made in 2010, by a czech artist, and made with donated keys. Very cool.

This street was split with a long parkway in the middle. Trees lined the parkway on either side, and there were benches along the way. Lovely. This is definitely a city for relaxing, there is no need to hurry around. There aren't that many specific sights to see. If we'd had one day longer we might've spent a couple hours sitting on one of these benches, reading.

We went to our booked accomodaton, which was not yet ready for us. Not surprising, considering checkout wasn't until nearly noon. We arranged with the landlord to meet back there in a couple hours.

We kept walking, and found a small church. Well, not big not small. I wasn't sure what kind of church it was, but as soon as I saw the iconostasis I put on a headscarf, just in case. What confused me was that there were pews as well, and I'm not used to seeing those in an Orthodox Church. It turned out to be a Greek Catholic church, so in my mind it was a mix of Christian and Orthodox in terms of decoration, if that makes sense. One of these days I'll sit down and read/learn the smaller differences between the various Orthodox churches around the world.

We followed a side street until we found a local farmers market. Fresh produce and flowers. Very cute. We both wanted some of the produce, but didn't want to carry it around. Not far from the market we found a small cafe that seemed a perfect place to spend an hour chatting, killing time until we could check in. It was a local cafe, the kind of place people go to have a quick coffee and perhaps a pastry of some kind. No booths, just tall tables and chairs. It was nice to relax.

We went back to our accomodation at the arranged time, and were able to check in. Sortof. The previous guests had left, so it wasn't totally clean, but we were able to drop off our bags, which was really all we wanted.

Back in the old town square, we found a stella called the Immaculata. According to my travel app it is a memorial to the victims of the plague. Sometimes I forget that the disease swept through much of Europe and killed so many people.

Since this was a holiday weekend, we could see some sort of stage being set up on the platz, just behind the plague memorial. Also in this area of the platz was a fountain with all the astrological signs. I found mine, and had Bo take a photo of me sitting there.

By this point the church was open to the public. We could see setup happening for a wedding, and guests were milling about outside.

Inside the church the photographer was taking shots of the whole thing. I loved the stained glass, and most of the decoration.

We opted to climb up the bell tower, paying 1.5 euro to do so. The staircase is very narrow, with a tight spiral. You get very cosy with anyone going the opposite way up or down the stairs. While going up there were a few places to step out of the staircase, into the bell area. Some of those bells are huge!

At the top we stepped onto a viewing platform that gave us lovely views over the entire city.

Back down on the platz, we spent a few minutes watching a big fountain set to music. There were a couple kids playing in the edge of the fountain too. The water was cold!

At the end of the platz we found a Tesco, and bought a few items, drinks in particular.

After Tesco we decided it was time for dinner. It wasn't really dinnertime, but we were hungry, so why not? We chose a place on the platz, with traditional Slovak food. Touristy, big portions, decent food.

As we turned around and walked toward the other end of the platz Bo noticed a lot of people dressed in traditional clothing, heading in the same direction we were. After we passed the church we saw why. There was a stage set up, and benches for the audience. Some of the benches were already filled, mostly with groups of friends or families.

This was when we remembered that it was a holiday weekend. Kosice was celebrating May Day. We watched four or five songs worth of traditional dancing, with different groups in different outfits doing each dance.

We went back to our flat, and figured out we could connect a keyboard to the big screen tv in the living room. We used internet to stream a movie I'd seen before. Apparently I was tired, as I fell asleep five minutes in! Ooops.

The next morning we slept in because we could. It was probably close to noon by the time we got out of the flat.

Our first sight of the day was what we called the Sister City Tree. Apparently Kosice has sister city relationships with cities around the world, as there were many branches listing distances to various cities around the world.

Across the intersection was a WW2 memorial, not terribly big. On another side of this intersection was another WW2 memorial, this one dedicated to Russian soldiers. (I think. I'm guessing this because of all the Russian names I saw.) There were a lot of pink and purple flowers, everything looked very pretty.

Eventually we wound our way back to the city center platz, stopping to take more photos of the church. There was a small landscaped area on one side of the church, very pretty. Very charming.

At this point we decided to try to find the tourist information office, stopping for ice cream and water along the way. I get distracted easily :)

The first place that called itself tourist information definitely wasn't the official place. This was a place that sold souvenirs, but also wanted you to sign up for their tours. We didn't.

We managed to find the official tourist information office, which wasn't marked nearly as well as it should have been. The lady gave us a nice map of both the city, and the entire region. She also gave us a couple ideas for day trips, and how to get to each place. I bought a few postcards there :)

Our next couple stops were for 'modern art.' One was an alley decorated with umbrellas, very cute and colourful. Another was a giant painted wooden shoes. We'd seen at least one other of these shoes in different places around the city, each was painted differently.

Next to the shoe was an archway entrance with a door leading to stairs. I saw a few people go in, and wondered where the stairs led. It turned out to be the old city hall. I was really surprised to find something so nice, it wasn't all the noticeable from the entrance.

The old city hall is well set up for a visit. There are signs describing what each room was used for, in Slovak and English. Some of the rooms were quite fancy. I exercised patience to get a couple photos without people in them. Entrance was free to the old city hall, yahoo!!

We managed to find the old Orthodox Synagogue, which unfortunately didn't look very good. The padlock on the door was rusted, and the steps in front were crumbling away. I took photos of the inscriptions and asked a friend to translate for me, very very sad. It turns out that there was a good size Jewish population in the area before WW2, but they were mostly deported, and very few returned. Judging from the condition of the synagogue, there was no active Jewish community anymore.

We walked back through the small park to the train/bus station to figure out timing for the next day. We figured out trains left regularly, so we weren't worried.

We had dinner at a local restaurant a bit away from the city center. Again, traditional Slovak food. The menu was huge!

This time we streamed one of my favourite movies, Hoosiers. I stayed away, repeating all the good lines, of course.

The next day we had breakfast in the flat, but that didn't stop us from stopping at a place that said it had pie on the menu. That turned out to be only somewhat accurate. I was not particularly impressed with the pie, but the tea was good. The choices available were cheesecake, carrot cake, coconut pie, and one other. Meh. When I hear the word pie, I want fruit pie, or meat pie.

Oh well.

Read the next post for what we did in both Presov and Bardejov.

When we came back from Presov we had sushi for dinner. Not great, not awful, but good nonetheless. I grew up in Indiana, so I don't have high expectations for sushi.

When we came back from Bardejov the next day we ended up going to the sushi place for food again, only this time we got it to go.

I caught a bus to the airport (which only comes every couple of hours!!) which was not open. Well, that's not quite true. The front hall was unlocked, but lights were off, and no one was there. I was really surprised at this, since it was less than two hours until my flight.

Fortunately, desk workers came in time for me to check in, go through security and passport control, and board my plane.

The end of another great trip. I need to see more of Slovakia. (I need to see more of everywhere!)

Slovakia: Presov and Bardejov

We took our time getting going for the day, starting with breakfast in the flat, then more food in a cafe that said it had the best pie in town. (If this was the best pie in town then I do not have high hopes for the rest of the city.)

By the time we got to the train station we realized we wouldn't get any further than Presov for the day. Oh well.

The train ended up stopping at one station and all the guests asked to get off. We didn't know what was going on, but when everyone else got off the train, we figured we should just follow along. Then we all hopped on a bus, which took us a bit further. Then we all hopped onto an old school train that took us the last bit.
The rides were very scenic, I loved the fields with bright yellow flowers. Gorgeous.

We figured out how to get from the train station up to the main street, passing a lovely wall mural along the way. Before leaving the station we made sure to check what time to catch trains back to Kosice.

We followed the main street in the direction of the city center square, with a walk down a side street to an Orthodox church. This church was surrounded by a locked fence, we didn't see a way in.

The main street took us to the city center square, stopping at St John the Baptist church. This one was very tall, on the skinny street. Inside the decor was nice, not overwhelming. I think it was a Greek Catholic church.

In the middle of the old town square was a church, and on one side of the church was a small landscaped park area. In the middle of this park area was a square column dedicated as a WW2 memorial. It was surrounded by colourful flowers, very pretty.

When I talk about an old town square I should point out that this one is like that of Kosice, in that it is a squashed oval rather than a square.

We went into the church in the middle of the platz, it seemed like the one place we shouldn't miss. I expected more than I got. The outside of the church was big, and not as impressive as many churches I've seen in Europe. The inside also felt really big, and not as decorate as it could've been. Most of the decoration was near the front, with a lovely, big, organ up high on the back wall. Since the church was made of stone, it was rather chilly.

Near the church was a small chocolate shop; somehow I managed to exercise some willpower and didn't buy anything. Also near the church was a small souvenir shop, where I found postcards and a magnet. I saw one postcard with a picture of a church that I hadn't seen on a travel app, so I asked the lady where it was in town. She showed me on a city map, yay!

Our next stop was a pizza place for 1 euro slices for lunch. Cheap, adequate. We could've eaten more, but didn't want to sit around for long. Since we'd gotten such a late start to the day we had only about four hours to explore the city.

We managed to find the Orthodox synagogue and realized we'd arrived too late to visit. I don't know if it is an active synagogue anymore, but the museum on the property is only open for limited hours. 1100-1500 a few days a week. Darnit. Even if we'd gotten going earlier in the day, we would not have been able to visit the synagogue museum and make it to another city. The timing of everything didn't work out. Argh.

A bit more wandering took us to a big fountain with another memorial. This one looked like a typical big Soviet memorial, but I don't really know. Behind this memorial was a big, boring, official state looking building. Who knows.

At that point we looked at our watches, and realized how much time we had left before getting back to the train station. I asked Bo if he was interested in walking to Kalvaria, the random place I'd seen in the photo in the souvenir shop. He said yes, so we started walking in that direction.

It took us longer to get there than we expected, but it was worth it. Kalvaria is a monastery/convent, on a small hill. To get to the top of the hill we walked on a path that took us past the stations of the cross, very pretty. At the top there is a small chapel, with a view over the entire city. The view wasn't stunning, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I have no idea why this isn't listed on a travel app.

We made our way back down, and went in the direction that would take us back to the train station. Along the way we discovered an old, outdoor, concrete velodrome. Awesome!! We saw people riding on the track in the middle, and wondered when the banked part of the track was last used for an official race/competition.

When we entered the velodrome area, we didn't realize that the gate we used wasn't always open. When we tried to exit, the gate was locked.

Ooops. It was an adventure to figure out how to get back to the street! Good times.

The train that took us back to Kosice was the same train the whole way. We didn't have to switch to a bus or another train, phew.

The next morning we check out of the flat by leaving the key in a potted plant. (Since we left at 0745, and didn't want to wake the landlord, we'd arranged this the night before.)

We dropped our bags at a luggage storage room in the train station. So cheap, and convenient. I wish that sort of thing was available around the world.

We caught another train to Presov, again with switching to a bus then back to a train. I was really glad we'd realized this would happen the day before, as taking a later train from Kosice would've caused us to miss our connection in Presov.

We made our connection in Presov, the train took us to Bardejov. Bardejov is a small town, with a Unesco designated city center.

It wasn't difficult to figure out where to go from the train station to get to the city center of Bardejov. We walked a couple blocks down the street, and almost immediately saw the old city walls.

The area we entered had a couple of the old bastions, they were labeled and named. The labeling included information about the history of the walls and the bastions. I took photos of the plaques, and figured I would read and learn later.

We took a couple small streets and wound our way to the old town square. Yet another old city square that isn't actually a square. One end was rather pointy, not squared off. This platz was REALLY photogenic.

I took my photos, then we followed a couple more side streets to churches. The churches weren't open, but the exteriors were photogenic as well. I got the impression that many tourists don't leave the old town square, as the town was really quiet. There weren't many people on the streets.

We went back to the platz, I found a shop with postcards and magnets. With that chore out of the way, we decided to visit the church.

Since Bardejov is Unesco designated, there was an entrance fee for the church. Argh. I opted not to pay the fee for photos when we entered, but ended up paying as we walked out after I decided to take a few photos. There was an additional fee to climb the bell tower, we paid to do that as well. Why not?

The church was similar to that in Presov, but there was more decoration and colour. Plus, the pews had some carving on the ends, which I really liked. This was another church with a large organ on the back wall.

It took us a while to find the stairs to the bell tower, as they were located behind a closed door. There was no sign for these stairs, we ended up asking the ticket ladies where to go. Why isn't there a sign?

At the top of the steep spiral stairs we emerged onto a viewing platform with open views in all directions. The view over the platz was very pretty, and we were able to see mountains/hill surrounding the city in all directions. The weather was great, so the views went for miles and miles. The entry fee we paid wasnt used for cleaning the bell tower, as there was bird poop everywhere. In one corner I almost stepped on a couple of dead birds, their bodies hadn't been removed. Ick. There were flies on the railings on all four sides of the tower.

We opted to grab lunch on the go from a baguette place on the square.

Our next sight was a synagogue. Well, sortof. We used the map on one of my travel apps, it turned out to be marked wrong. The synagogue most definitely was not located correctly. We walked a couple blocks past where the map said, and all around the area. The synagogue was not there.

I decided to turn on roaming data on my phone and google it. Thankfully, google knew what I was talking about and had the correct location. It turned out to be fairly close by, only a 10 minute walk, but nowhere near where the travel app had said it was.

When we got to the synagogue, or at least the correct address, we were really confused. What stood in front of us was definitely NOT a synagogue. We went in the building, and found a hardware store. A HARDWARE STORE!!! We read the plaques on the front of the building, which gave some of the history of the building, and were shocked.

It had indeed been a synagogue. Key word: was. The Jewish community of Bardejov had been completely decimated during WW2, there is no longer an active Jewish community in the city.

There were several thousand before the war, nearly all of them were deported, and very few returned afterward. Because there was no one left to prevent such things from happening, the former synagogue is now a hardware store. AWFUL.

Down the block and around the corner we found the Holocaust Memorial. As this event in history is a very difficult one for many people, such memorials around the world have extra security. When we arrived, it wasn't open. Fortunately, we arrived just a couple minutes before it opened for the afternoon.

The guard arrived and opened the gate, we were able to look around and appreciate what we were seeing. One wall is a list of Jews in the area who were deported. Above the names was the phrase 'everyone has a name' (or something along those lines,) three languages: Hebrew, English, and Slovak.

On another side of the memorial is a set of old train tracks, representing the train cars that took so many people away, many of whom never returned. Above the tracks was the phrase 'never again,' also in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Slovak.
In another section is a set of plaques describing the Jewish history of the area, and some notable names. Really really interesting reading and learning, though very intense and depressing at the same time. The bit of information that haunted me most: there are no Jews left in the city, despite a robust population before the war.

A few minutes after we left the memorial it began to rain. Fortunately, we were on our way back to the train station. We ducked into a supermarket for snacks, and got back to the train station in good time.

The first train took us back to Presov, where we caught another train back to Kosice.