Terchová

June 14, 2006 in General, Slovakia 2006 by xraystar | 4 comments

This is a super cute little town right in the Mala Ftara mountains. (I think I got that right) It´s about 35km from a city called žilina. žilina is apparently one of the hubs of Slovakian transport, as it is right on the borders of CR, Poland and Slovakia. We were really only in the town for lunch before we took the bus to this little púlace, but we intend on staying there for a few nights after here. From there, we hope to hike out to an abandoned castle. Apparently in žilina, the hotel astoria (their poshest place) is about 100CAD equivalent. We might just do that as a little treat.

This morning after coffee and this fantastic dish that is the local specialty, Simon and I started on our way to explore town, and heard some loud music and saw some dancing in the distance. We decided to explore what the fuss was all about, and happened upon this live band playing in the local schoolyard. We watched from the outskirts for a few minuites before a teacher approached us and told us to go in to watch if we would like. So, we did. All the school kids loved these guys, and were singing along. Simon and I coined the term “Folk Metal” for the genre of music. I was curious about the mini festival, so I approached what looked like a roadie (she certainly wasn´t a teacher) and asked if she spoke english. She and her friend immediately said no and ran to get someone who did.

We ended up chatting with two people, the man speaking more clearly and understanding more than the woman, and we got that there was a children´s festival on the 1st, and this was their celebration for it. The band´s name was Arsen and they are local. They have a show in Chicago some time in the fall I think. They were totally awesome! We took some pictures, and I got a quick video (thank God for a 1Gig card!).

The beer here is always less than a dollar. This is probably the biggest touristy area, and is thus expensive. Crazy,eh?

  1. moi’s avatar

    moi on June 14, 2006 at 3:37 pm

    What’s the local specialty dish, cook it for me here sometime? That festival experience sounds great.

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  2. char’s avatar

    char on June 15, 2006 at 1:25 am

    well, Simon and I figured it out over beers, it is so being cooked when I get home.

    Last night we had the garlic soup, which is another local/national specialty, and wow was it good!

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  3. Mir’s avatar

    Mir on June 15, 2006 at 1:15 pm

    Zilina is in my atlas, but Terchova isn’t. I’m not really surprised. Sounds great. Where’d you hear about the abandoned castle? From Lonely Planet or from locals?

    And just how is the language thing going? Is Slovak much like Czech?

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  4. vernondalhart’s avatar

    vernondalhart on June 16, 2006 at 2:05 am

    Slovak is pretty close to Čech… in all honesty, whenever talking to people here I’ve just been saying the few Čech phrases that I know, and it’s worked so far. Šár’s analogy is that it’s probably somewhat like the difference between highland Scottish and English… I mean, they’re sort of the same, but not exactly.

    As for the castle, while in Terchová Šár bought a book on hiking trails (of which I would love to come back for a few weeks to do), and this was one of the short, easy ones… that had castles. So how could we say no?

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