The next day we were up early to make our way to our next destination, Banská Bystrica. Trent had managed to find a local website for train travel and had figured out how to get us there, so lucky to have this guy as my travel buddy! After a bus and two train rides, including a manic sprint between our two connecting trains due to a delay, we arrived in Banska Bystrica and were greeted at the train station by our Air BnB host. She had insisted upon picking us up from the station and transporting us to our apartment. She was the sweetest host we have had to date, she welcomed us to the apartment with a block of Toblerone and a bottle of bubbles because it was our honeymoon, and also proceeded to give us some great tips for things to do and where to eat in local area.
Since it was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived in Banska Bystrica, we took a couple of hours to settle ourselves in before heading down to the Old Town to have a look around and try out one of our hosts recommendations for dinner. The Old Town area of Banska Bystrica was quite a pleasant surprise, it was very well maintained and had the nicest of all the town squares that we have seen to date. We spent an hour or so wandering around acquainting ourselves with the town and admiring its beautiful architecture, before heading off to the restaurant that we were recommended for what was a lovely meal.
The next morning we headed back down to the main train station, about a 15min walk from our apartment. Trent had heard about a unique church located in a nearby town that he was interested in visiting and, as he so often does, he had figured out the local train timetable to get us there and back. Purchasing our two train tickets we were again amazed by how cheap Slovakian transport is – the whole trip cost us less than 2€ in total! Obviously paying this much for transport we were not on the fanciest train in the world, and none of the trains were ever on time, but when you’re travelling without a strict schedule none of that really matters, so just under an hour later we arrived in the small village of Hronsek, our destination for the morning. Exiting the train we found a sign with a small map of the village and directions to the church, however we had not gone more than a couple of blocks when we stumbled across another impressive structure, a 14th Century Castle. At first glance the castle appeared to be well preserved but abandoned, however upon closer inspection we discovered that there was a dwelling located inside the castles fortification walls, and a sign saying that the castle is now a privately owned residence – we thought this was pretty awesome, imagine how cool it would be living in your own 14th Century Castle! It would certainly make for a great Air BnB listing! Even though the outside of the Castle was most likely private property, there was no gate so we had a wander around the outside and took some photos before moving on, again bound for the local church.
A few hundred meters down the road we found the Hronsek Church, the original reason for our visit. The Hronsek Church (a Protestant Church), built in 1725, is unique because it is made entirely out of wood. Not a single nail or other metal element were allowed to be used in its construction because of the constraints placed upon the Protestant Religion in the Kingdom of Hungry by the Hapsburg Empire. Before 1681 Protestants faced persecution inside of the Hungarian Kingdom and were not allowed to build any churches in which they could practice their faith, however, due to increasing civil unrest and the constant threat of invasion from other empires, in 1861 the Hapsburg Emperor Leopold I determined that concessions to the Protestant population were necessary to maintain their loyalty. These concessions allowed for the building of one Protestant church per region and alongside the complete absence of metal, the church also had to be constructed in under one year, have no tower, and be located outside of the city walls with no direct entrance from the street. All of these constraints combined together to form a very unique looking church, its style is a combination of many different cultures but at first glance is most reminiscent of Scandinavian architecture. We later found out that the Scandinavian influence is due to the fact that the majority of the Protestant builders, who returned to Slovakia following the 1681 concessions, had been working previously as boat builders in the Nordic countries.
We wandered around the outside of the church, marveling at the craftsmanship that would have been required to create such a structure without using a single nail. Around the back of the church we found an entrance door, and inside was a little old lady sitting down beside a table containing a portable radio and a few pamphlets. When she spotted us she started speaking to us in Slovak but quickly figured out, due to our confused looks, that we only spoke English. With this revelation she thrust a pamphlet towards us and then turned around and started pressing buttons on the portable radio, a few seconds later an English audio guide began playing and the old lady turned back to us and smiled widely. We sat down for a couple of minutes listing to the voice on the CD explain the history, construction, and elements inside of the church before taking a quick look around. On the way out we left a generous donation for the old lady who was lovely and had been most helpful. The Hronsek Wooden Church is one of only five of its kind left and was definitely worth going out of our way to visit.
After our morning of exploring we were a bit thirsty so we headed to a local café for a coffee before meandering back to the local station to catch the train back to Banska Bistrica. Our first port of call upon our return was a bite to eat at a little fast food joint, another one of our host’s recommendations. It’s fair to say she knows a bit about local cuisine because the food was again delicious! After our lunch we wandered back through the square and on wards to the courtyard outside of the Slovak National Uprising Museum. The Museum is a memorial to the Slovak Uprising against the Nazi Occupations forces during the Second World War, however it also contains an open air display of heavy artillery and machines used during the war which is what we (Trent) came to see. While Trent wandered around between the tanks, planes, trains, and guns, satisfying his inner child, I managed to find a few interesting info boards on Jewish History in Slovakia so we both ended up quite satisfied with our experience.
By the time we finished studying our way around the courtyard of the museum we were both feeling a bit exhausted from the intense summer heat, with no water insight and nothing of substance left to do for the day, we decided to head back to the only cool place we knew, our air-conditioned apartment to chill out for the rest of the afternoon. We chilled out and had a couple of drinks, and by the time dinner time rolled around I didn’t really feel like going out for dinner, so Trent decided to walk down into town and find something he could bring back for us to eat. This turned into quite the adventure as he could only find one takeaway place that was open and they didn’t have any menu that was in English, nor anyone behind the counter who spoke it. Luckily he knew just enough Slovak words to find a very helpful local customer who spoke English and could translate the menu and order for him. He then managed to find a taxi that could bring him quickly back to our apartment so the Pizza didn’t get cold – what a champion!
TWO TRAVEL AS ONE 