Sunday, December 18, 2005

A Few Pictures from Last Week

18 December, 2005. 6.15 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.

Here are a few pictures that I took last week in the Christmas Market in Trnava. The first is of a few of the booths where crafts, refreshments, and other goods can be purchased; and the second is of me with a few of the students from the 5N class at Obchodna Akademia. These girls will be graduating this year--they invited me and Brandon (the departing teacher) to join them in the square last Thursday afternoon. We drank medovina and tea.

I just returned from Partizanske tonight. I was visiting Mirka and her family there. Mirka is an English teacher at a grammar school there. Her husband made the best bryndzove halusky (the Slovak national dish) I've ever tasted! This dish consists of potato noodles smothered in goat cheese and topped with bacon (think gourmet maccaroni and cheese, although such a description hardly does it justice....). Partizanske is a nice little town of about 7,000 people. It used to be the centre of the the Bata Shoe Company in Slovakia, so the town is built around a huge old shoe factory. Today the factory is occupied by several different companies (some make shoes, others do not).

On Friday night I took a bus to Bratislava. Kristina met me at the bus station and we had a nice little talk. Her news was not nearly as terrible as I'd expected, although it was still disappointing. In any case, it looks like I might spend Christmas with her family and I'm very glad she had the courage to tell me what was on her mind. I spent Friday evening and Saturday afternoon in Jalka, a small village about 40 minutes from Bratislava. This is where Lubos lives. He has a nice house there and on Saturday we walked about 3 kms to an old flour mill which is now a museum. Saturday evening we went to the Christmas Market in Bratislava with his friends Dodo and Deniska (this couple spent their honeymoon, by the way, in Vancouver in 2002). It was a fun night--I tasted many new foods and drinks (I really must take a note pad next time and write down the names of these things). The Christmas Market in Bratislava is held in the main square and it is quite big.

I start teaching solo tommorow, so I should run home now and get prepared....

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi: How was your first day "solo" in English?
Your pictures of the market sure look like fun ! Enjoy yourself and get lots of pictures.
Oh ! We had more snow ! ! Will certainly be a White Chirstmas.
Take care....love MOM

11:13 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brendan!
Happy New Year! I can see from the photos that you are making many new (female) friends! Excellent!

Ben

4:25 a.m.  

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