|
|
gallagher Inner circle 1168 Posts |
We patched our tyres, packed our bags, and headed out of Berlin;
hoping for new faces, smiles,.. 'virgin Pitches', 'curiosös', cheap wine, ...and no soccer(!). The plan was,...Slovakia. Never been there,.. but they spend 'the Euro', ..and I've heard rumour of 'Halusky'(!). At first, we thought we would blitz thru the Czech Republic,.. Poland is playing in the World Cup (😒),.. but considering the mountains,.. we headed through Poland. Two days of flat lands, Breslau, Kattowitz, Krakau, we headed south into europe's 'Heart'. ,..the Tatra Tiger. The Carpathian mountains were visable, 50 miles from the boarder(!), ..on the Polish side! We kept heading east, in order to avoid them. We met up with the Orava river, and headed south, peacefully into the Slovakai. Our 'Slovakian' was worse then our Polish. (In Poland, folks often thought we were speaking Swahili.) Forget about English,.. it's spoken, ..but, more 'broken' then spoken! We stumbled and stuttered. In Dolny Kudin, we tried our first 'strike'. A crowd was easy(!), to get! ,..then we found out we were 'Fire Safty Zone'(!). Folks were wondering WHAT we were up to! We were politely moved, by the police,... but really friendly(!). 50 meters farther, the curiosös followed,.. we had a great audience! ...if we could only have spoken Slovakisch. We stumbled, mumbled, and bumbled. Spoke with a mouthfull of thumb-tacks(!...!). ..basically BLEW everything(!). But the folks were nice! They talked to us, in Slovakian,.. (we didn't understand a word!) smiled. ,..dropped. ,..and left with a smile. öK. The first words we heard: "feleecoastnost. fellacorsosty." öK. We played two more Shows.. It's sometimes GREAT (!) not understanding a language. I'm convinced not everything being said,.. was praise! Still: "Feleecoastnost. Fellacorsosty.",..we heard it all day. That evening, my first plate of Halusky! Potatoe Dumplings. After one plate full, I was convinced,.. the purpose of Life IS,....Halusky. You just can't HELP but feel good... And,...we'd earned enough to pay for the meal, ....$4.65(!). Ök. With mountains still in sight, we stayed on the river,.. We headed west on the Vah over to Zilina. Again,..happy curiosös,...smiles..."feleecoastnost. fellacorsosty!" Three Shows,..we came to terms with our short-comings,..the Language,.. and simply did what WE could do,.. what THEY could understand. Music. Song. Magic,...it's pretty universal. That night, over a plate of Halusky, we wondered,.. ..just how much gets LOST in the words! We back-tracked, and followed the Vah east; played Ruzomberok, Vazec, and Poprad. I'd never heard of ANY of these townes before(!). After seeing them,.. playing them,.. laughing in them,.. I wondered "Why?!..!" ,...such great places. ,..such nice people.. "feleecoastnost. fellacorsosty!" We slowly,..very slowly, started feeling comforatable with our 'speachlessness', and we asked a waiter, ..over a bowl of Hal.... "What does 'feleecoastnost' mean?" She then wrote the word for us: Velikodusnost. "Vel'korysosti!... Generous. The people are calling you,..generous." Those Haluskys tasted reeeeallly good. Generous. What a great description of what Street Performing is about,.. can be. Generous. Giving more then expected. That's kinda what Magic is all about, eh? ..the un-expected. Makes me smile. Got to run. Hope everybody's having a good one,.. keep tryin', gallagher |
D. Yoder Veteran user 376 Posts |
Thank you, Gallagher. The stories of your travels to strange and wonderful places are a wonderful way to begin my day.
|
Youri New user 26 Posts |
Well, what a journey.
Your post was very... Vel'korysosti! Hope you're well on the road |
gallagher Inner circle 1168 Posts |
Youri,..1-0. Congradulations.
Even here, in Presov(!), when the soccer is being played,.. the internet shuts down! Overloaded! It's hard keeping in touch, without going into hotels... Anyway. Doc Yoder, I wish you a good day! Thanks for reading. We've headed east, mountains and massive forests, to the south. The roads, other then the 'autobahns' are an adventure in themselves! At 18 mph, we're not allowed on the 'big roads'. But!,...we ARE not the slowest thing trying to stay between the trees! Tractors, with hay. Bicycles,..people on foot,..horses(!), we share the avenues with everybody here! The pedestrian-zones are pretty organized. Almost every day, the townes have been having big markets. 'Real' markets(!). I've never seen so many cherrys, plums, or black berrys! With the markets, our Slovakisch is improving... Peoples wanting your money,...have patience. The only other 'Corner Compagnions' we have had, are accordianists and violinists. All, very good! A surprising number of beggars,.. mainly Gypsy. Surprising, considering how poor the country is. Everybody watches the other guy's toes, though. No one has 'blown us away,.. or worked our crowds. Everybody changes Pitches... Often, 'other-brothers' watch,.smile,.. usually GIVE!. And everybody 'greets'. ....We really like this. We plan to head south to Kosice. I didn't know it, but all of these townes were at one time,..'German'(!). Sillein. Rosenberg. Deutschendorf. Presschau,,..where we are now. Kaschau = Kosice. Everyone spoke,..German. Then. öK,..rain today(!), we're "Free!". I'll try to find some faster internet, and send some fotos. Gotta be quick(!),.. England vs, Croatia tonight(!). The net here will crash! Have a good day. Keep looking, gallagher |
gallagher Inner circle 1168 Posts |
Dead tired,
but smilng: Greetings from Kosice! Speaking of tyres, someone STOLE(!) two of ours! Youri,...congradulations! I bet you had a mega crowd, to play for,...yesterday. 4-2. Good match. Back to the tyres. ,..yes. Back tyres... 😊 Kind of a funny story. As a Street Performer, I've come to know: It's not 'the Hats', it's the 'happenings'. Saturday night, someone stole two of our waggon tyres! That, in itself, is not sö funny.... We WERE sleeping in the waggon(!), that's where the smiles begin! Two rear tyres, of our trailer. Back axel,..right underneath our bed. Left-hand side,...right beneath my pillow. We didn't hear a thing! {Nö(!). We were both sober!} I couldn't believe it. ,..still can't. We went to the police, Sunday,..and reported the coup. Try to explain that(!), in Slovakisch! (*Free internet in Slovakisch Police Stations.) We managed. For what reason, I'm not sure. We are not insured for such adventures,.. The reason un-folded, as we were leaving the station. A Police Officer gave us the card, of "the best tyre-saleman in towne",... his brother. Some smiles are irrepressible. 😊 🙃 😆 Breakfast. Four days here, we've found the best café in towne. Hot black coffee. Halusky, with fresh black berry jam. To really appreciate it, you have to be 'tyred'. Twenty minutes sitting there, a guys comes up to us and starts 'talking'? 'selling'? 'bartering'?...? We had know idea what's going on. Our waiteress, who has come to 'understand us', like a sock; translates. "He's got two 'new' tyres for you." ,...it's not THAT small of a towne! öK. "No thanks. Breakfast first." Yesterday. Tyre-less, but full; we played 'Monday-market-less', in Kosice. Sometimes, we like less people,...more space. The 'slowness',..openness,..can be re-freshing. During,..during our three Shows, we were approached three times,.. about....."pneumatika". We started wondering,... which ones were our old ones! Last night, when we returned to our waggon, there were eight tyres,. four with rims(!),. lined up next to our waggon! All 'used', mind you,... but,. "Buskers can't be choose-y!" After playing yesterday,.. we spent the night,.. changing tyres. Work, especially heavy,...tyre-changing-work, ..goes amazingly easy(!), ...carried by the thought that: Total strangers gave us tyres. Magic in the World, has NOTHING to do with Magicians! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *. . . . . . . ö. . . . . . . . . We're heading north. Following the Hornad up to Presov, then we are going to try the moutains(!). "You only live once!" We hope to cross up into Poland next week. Peckny Denn! Gallagher |
Angela P New user Baden Baden, Germany 26 Posts |
A good read Gallagher. Thank you.
Are you coming our way this year? Where will you be driving next? Maybe we can meet? We will be visiting Hamburg and Rostock and Greifswald with our bus. We have summer holidays until early September. Keep writing. Angela |
gallagher Inner circle 1168 Posts |
🎶 For a fist-full of.....'bleeders'. 🎶
"Dzein dobry!" We crawled thru the Capathian mountains. Presov, Sabinov, Lipany,... then the hills took over(!). It was hard finding level ground! We were either sleeping with our feet too high(!), ...or rolling out of bed! (I've never heard a 'Busker-guru' address THIS problem!...!) In Circ, ten miles from the Polish boarder, we re-joined the Poprad,....rivers are holy. Flat,...'wet',..cool,... in this heat,...lots of folks to play for! We spent friday, saturday, and sunday here, putting Slovakisch, Polish, German, and English(!) thru 'the Busker's blender'. Somehow, with a smile,..and enough sweat, everybody seemed to undersand. And,...we were the only Show in towne(!). This morning, we decided to un-load our paper-money (€uros), before crossing the frontier, into 'Zloty-land'. While playing the Streets, we try living on our 'coins', ..and save 'the paper', for sh*tty times. As 'poor' as the Slovakians are, they contributed a good pile! {Monika thought: "They were hoping, with enough money, we'd leave!"} We took our shoe-box full, this morning to the bank. All separated and sorted,..5's, 10's, 20's,..€uros. 3 Ten dollar bills(!) and a twenty-er! We pushed our piles through the brass bars, to a polite lady at the bankery. ...gave her our Postbank-account number. ..and asked her to do her best. She didn't understand word, ...but smiled beautifully. "She knows we're leaving.", Monika said. She politely called to a non-smiling-man, who came over with authority. ,..and a little scanning maschine. One by one he fed the scanner our hard earned bread. Four out of five bills, he laid to his right, ..one of five, he tore a corner off(!), and stacked to his left. The dollars? They didn't even get a ride thru 'the maschine'! He held them up to the light, squeezed them a bit,... then,..tore their corners off. Every one,..."rippppp!". Finished, he left with an equally un-pleasant smile, ..and his maschine. The nice lady, smiled, said something in Slovakisch; ..ending with "...poliza.", ....handed us a receipt, ..with an official stamp. Monika checked our bank account, with her cell-fon. ,...nix. The smiling lady said: "Two days." ,...we worried about her smile, as we went looking for a breakfast hole. Not really sö hungery, we crossed over into Poland, and are enjoying croisants and coffee in Muszyna, in the moment. Hey(!), the internet works! The croisants are perfect!..! We fill 'fluid' with our Polish!..!..! , but we'll probably start missing the Halusky, 'round about mid-night. Poland. The mountains. We're going to try the smaller townes, before heading up to Warschau. Today, Muszyna. Beautifull place,..two rivers, at the base of some big mountain. It's still early, but there is a bustle in the air. AND,..foriegn language(!),..good sign. have a good day, gallagher p.s.: If a Slovakische-looking man, offers you a couple of ten-ners, ..minus their corners; I'd shy away your smile. Sorry. |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The side walk shuffle » » Velikodusnost. (6 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.06 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |