Spis, Part 2

The next morning, Kyle wanted breakfast, and Jana’s parents generously offered to provide one. I left Kyle’s pillowcase on his doorstep with a note in red ink reading, ‘If you want to see your pillow again, be ready by 7:45. P.S. This is written in your pillow’s blood.’ He was and he got his pillow back before heading over to Jana’s family’s apartment. There, they had a nice spread of hard sausage, rolls, cheese, etc. Neil and I are persuaded to eat, so I eat a roll and some tea. They bring out the cake again for Kyle, and he has 2 pieces.

            This is our day to see Spis, and we see some amazing sites. First, we take a short [Edited to add that Neil objects to the word ‘short’] hike up the hillside and take a tour through an ice cave, where cold air created beautiful formations of ice in the mountain millions of years old. It used to be used by shepherds before becoming an attraction. The Slovaks used to train their Olympic skaters in there.

            We then visit the little town of Lavoca, which is very charming, with the church with the world’s largest wooden altar, and a communist memorial, 1300 year-old walls from the Tartar invasion, and the ‘cage of shame’ where they used to place criminals so the townspeople could mock and throw things at them. We stop for a Kofola, and Jana’s family offers to buy Kyle ice cream.

            We drive to a nearby place for lunch, to see how busy it is, and find it overrun by tourists. So, we decide to go to Spis Castle now.

            Spis Castle is an amazing site, even from a great distance. Initially started by the Celts, it was used by the Holy Roman Empire, etc., before a large fire left it pretty much not operational. The castle complex is very impressive, with some rooms even outfitted to show what they would have looked like, including the torture chamber. We saw the ancient crapper, and narrow stone stairway, and some sword fighting reinactors. The view from there was very nice, and there was a horse design on the hill that was based on a Celtic coin design. There were 2 guys on the hill coming up that were selling souvenirs, all of which were “perfect.” Jana bought a “perfect” horse and Neil bought a “perfect” glass. It was also here that Jana’s mother bought Kyle ice cream.

            We went to lunch at a pizza place (I:cheese, Neil: corn and olive).

            We went back to Jana’s family’s briefly and then headed to take a mini-hike up to the cliff. That was pretty breathtaking. And Neil got teased about his fear of heights. And we wanted him to spin through the fields singing, “The Hills are Alive.”

            We went back to the Penzion to freshen up a bit, then went into town via bus with George and Jana, who pointed out the points of interest in Spisska Nova Ves: St. James (with the tallest steeple in Slovakia), the town hall, the theater, the evangelical church, the Soviet war memorial, etc.). We had dinner, at which all of us but Jana got pirohy, then went to a local place for dessert. Jana and I shared a strawberry panna cotta. During dessert, she looked over and asked, “What kind of bug is that?” Neil said, “It’s a hummingbird.” Jana replied, “We don’t have hummingbirds.” “You do now,” said Neil.

            We hung out for awhile reminiscing (like, ‘Remember the time we decided to go possum hunting?’), then took a taxi back to the Penzion.

            Today, we spent most of the day driving to Prague with George and Neil in a rented car. Jana had to go to Budapest for school. We had driven through some beautiful mountainous country. It’s rare that the road trip game you get to play is ‘Spot the Castle.’