Conference excursion

July 27, 2007 Wednesday

Took my constitutional around the town. It’s still the same. There was a farmers’ market this morning. All 4 stalls of it. They were selling potatoes, onions, cucumbers, cabbages, cauliflower, pale green peppers carrots, tomatoes and watermelon.

There was also a sweet baby.

There are a few stores around the square. It is quite strange - their windows look OK, but inside every one looks like a thrift store.

After lunch was the conference excursion. We all loaded onto two buses and set off for the Pieniny national forest for a river raft trip.

We were merrily on our way when there was a loud crash. It sounded like someone’s computer had fallen out of the overhead shelf. No – the driver had taken off his side mirror on a tree. After a short distance we stopped. We all assumed that the mirror had somehow caused a problem, but no – the engine was overheating. The 2^nd bus stopped with us. The driver changed some belts and we all loaded on again. A short time later our bus stopped. We couldn’t continue. Bus 2 waved as they went by. We waited for a replacement. We all went to a field across the street and took a group picture to commemorate this event.

Another bus arrived and off we went again. It was beginning to be a little late but always troupers we all loaded onto the rafts. They are 4 long skinny boats tied together. The boatmen put a plank across the back and seat 4 people – a plank is put in front of them and 4 more people get on, and so forth. It was important to them to have Chuck in the middle.

The raft that you see on the river had started from the Polish side, further upstream.

Our boatman had a line of patter somewhat reminiscent of Disneyland. It was translated by one of the conference organizers. Originally, these people took logs down the river to the black sea. When this became a national park they had to switch to tourists.

We had a fine time boating along. This is a very gentle raft ride with lots of lovely scenery. We saw 3 of the 6 black storks that nest in the park.


You could volunteer to help pole the boat. (During a particularly calm stretch.)

At the end of the ride we had a picnic at a pavilion in the woods.

First, they honored the best student talk with induction into the local group.

He was given a scroll and a hat like the boatmen wear.

Dinner started with “Slovakian caviar” (smaltz with lots of paprika), cheeses and bread. Next we had dumplings with sheep’s cheese and bacon renderings. The main course was goulash. We all had a glass of local white lightning while on the boat (with larger portions to the ones who said that they were “very afraid.” We then started the dinner with a toast of the white lightning and then switched to draft beer that had been cooled in the river.

Back on the bus for the ride home. Chuck slept the whole way. (Even snored.) We got back at 11 and went straight to bed. He says that he was up working on the computer, but I slept through it.