Slovakia Part I

I wrote in detail about attending the European Route 66 Festival on the Oklahoma Route 66 Association website. Check that out here! This picks up as the festival ended.

We had a ‘roadie dinner’ the last night of the festival at a pub a block away from the event. Samantha and I joined friends new and old for a traditional Czech meal, beer, laughter, and Route 66 fellowship. It was a rejuvenating transition to the second half of our trip, which involved the exploration of the neighboring country, Slovakia.

Slovakia has a population of about 5.4 million, roughly the same as South Carolina, and a size of about 49,000 square miles, making it 3/4 the size of Oklahoma. The land has a long history of trading hands between empires; it achieved full independence in 1993 when Czechoslovakia was dissolved. All over the country, there are remnants from the Soviet era…it wasn’t all that long ago, after all. But it’s a remarkable, beautiful country that was so welcoming to us. That starts with Marián, our host.

I first met Marián in 2019, shortly after I was first elected President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association. He is the developer of Route 66 Navigation, a well-regarded GPS turn-by-turn app for Route 66 travelers. He has also created a passport, manages the largest Route 66 group on Facebook, and more. I began meeting with him every time he drove through Tulsa and we became friends. When he offered to take Samantha and me on a trip through his home country during our visit, we enthusiastically said yes.

Marián and his family live in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We spent a night there right after the festival, where we enjoyed a walk through the city with him, his wife Irina, several of their children, and our friends Terri Ryburn and Debyjo Ericksen from Illinois. Marián reminds me of myself…a lot, actually. He is eager to share his knowledge, from pointing out the largest Volkswagen plant in the world to recommending us to be silent as we walked through Michael’s Gate; the legend says it could curse you to a lifetime of unhappiness if you speak while crossing through it. He was a teenager when communist rule ended and he brought that perspective to many discussions. I love visiting grocery stores in foreign lands, so imagine my interest when we stopped in a still-operating potraviny from that era.

Irina welcomed us by serving a traditional kolache, which was delicious! After getting settled, we walked for quite a while through the city, seeing the historic center and the Danube River. There were statues commemorating victories in World War II, artistic installations decrying Russia’s incursion to nearby Ukraine, beautiful architecture, even a cannonball lodged in a wall from Napoleon’s time. I was excited to see the Blue Church of St. Elizabeth, built in the early 1900s. It’s a gorgeous Art Nouveau building nestled in a neighborhood in the city’s Old Town district. The city itself is not very large, mostly due to being so close to Vienna and Budapest. It has a population very similar to Tulsa, actually!

On Tuesday, our friends Terri and Debyjo headed back to America. Samantha and I said farewell to Bratislava as Marián took us towards the center of the country. We followed the Danube River, crisscrossing into Hungary a few times throughout the day. Again, his knowledge seemed unending as we explored the landscape, drove through small villages, and stopped along the river. Slovakia has a Highway 66, and some time back there was a branding campaign to tie it to our Route 66; that was fun to see! We marveled at the massive Basilica of Esztergom over the Hungarian border. When Marián learned of my love for old bridges, he took us by an old pony truss bridge near the town of Tupá and said its American style of construction is extremely rare there. I, of course, was enamored!

We ended that first day at Marián’s farmhouse, deep in the Slovakian countryside. He bought the place a few years ago and has been restoring it bit by bit; it’s clearly a labor of love and he is very connected to the land there. We cooked Špekáčky (small, fat sausages tied to many Slovakian childhoods) over a campfire and told stories while the neighbor’s dog Jimmy lay nearby, hoping to be included (which of course he was.)

The sounds of the forest around us was grounding, tying the three of us to childhood memories even though we all spent them far apart. I think, overall, that’s what I came away with. Our histories are different, sure, but at the end of the day we’re actually quite similar. There’s so much more to say, but we’ll get into that in Part II.

For Part II of our travels through Slovakia, check that out here.