yoy is a slovak version of something like 'oh man'. today i said it a lot, completely involuntarily, when i unexpectedly climbed a mountain in Devin, a town just beside Bratislava. i have never been that in awe before...i have only 10 minutes until i meet marek and roman so this will be a super-abridged version of what led me there, but i'll try to give a bit of background.
when i was wandering around vienna a couple days ago (doesn't that sound so f-ing cool to be able to casually say?), i felt extremely overwhelmed by the neoclassical splendour and just how *designed* and *magnificent* everything was. all i could think about were the photos chris had sent me of walking around the coast of ireland, how simple and beautiful the water and grass was, and i felt extremely landlocked and out of my league in such a splendid city. all day, i kept gazing at the mountains visible in the distance and wishing i had time to hike out to them and spend some time in the woods...but 6 hours in the city is hardly enough time for such endeavours.
today is my second day in bratislava; the city is small, and i saw much of it (along with the jewish museum - where i found a painting by leopold horowitz and a memorial to rabbi samuel horowitz who died in the holocaust) yesterday in a couple hours. today i wanted to take the bus out to devin castle, which i heard was pretty amazing. marek told me to wait for a sunny day, but i've always believed that castles are best seen in clouds, wind and cold, so i went anyway. the castle was indeed pretty great, and devin is an adorable little town. but the real moment was when, from the top of the castle, i noticed a road leading up a nearby mountain (hill, really, but not at all an anticlimactic hill). down from the mountain, i found that tiny little road and followed it straight up until i found myself in the middle of a slovak national nature reserve. next thing i knew, i was at the top - feet soaked by the long grass and eyes wide at the sight of the castle i had just stood on, far below me to the west. i sat for a long time, living up to my name (horowitz means man sitting on a mountain), repeating 'yoy' again and again, followed by 'holy fuck me, batman'. dude, i was mountain climbing in slovakia. everyone should come here.
1 comment:
Dear Sarah
This is Yigal blogging, your uncle whom you can barely remember, if at all. Its great to be young -enjoy.I am a critical son of a bitch - please tell your photographer to take pictures where one can occassionally (spelling?) see the face of the photographee in dimensions large enough to be recognizable. On another note, if you are at all interested in the Horowitz dynasty -go to Prague - almost all of the ancient synagogues seem to have been built by the horowitz family. Prague by the way in the opinion of many is much prettier than Vienna - Vienna reminded me of Hitler
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