Around Slovakia

Bratislava
Boating season opens at Železná Studienka

Boating has returned to Bratislava's main recreation area in the Small Carpathians.
photo: SITA

BOATS are back on the water at the Železná Studienka recreation area after a 20-year absence.
Bratislava Deputy Mayor Mária Dyttertová and the director of the Mestské Lesy Bratislava local forestry company, Vladimír Kutka, officially opened a boat rental at one of the park's four man-made lakes on August 19, the TASR newswire wrote.
Boating season will last until the end of October. Visitors can rent one of five four-seat boats for Sk80 for 30 minutes during weekdays from 14:00 to 19:00 and during weekends from 12:00 to 20:00.
Next year the season will start on April 1.
Železná Studienka is one of the most popular recreation areas in Bratislava. It is located in the southern part of the protected area of Small Carpathians mountains.
The four man-made lakes were built on the Vydrica brook in 1846 to drive nine local mills.
The place was named after a local iron-water spring.
Locals built a spa there, but after chemical analyses in 1826 and 1857 showed that the water could not be considered mineral water, the spa eventually folded.


Madunice
Farmers make world's longest onion wreath

THE VILLAGE of Madunice now holds a world record that could bring a tear to your eye - or 10,000 of them.
Women from the village in Hlohovec district used 10,000 onions to create a 163-metre-long onion wreath. It earned them a place in the Guiness Book of World Records for the world's longest onion wreath.
They accomplished the feat at Madunice's 12th annual Onion Festival on August 19. The onions, weighing 2,800 kilograms, came from a local farm.
"We are growing onions on 10 hectares," Františka Hesková, the leader of the onion wreathing team, told the TASR newswire. "But there were years when we grew them on 60 hectares."
Onion, an inseparable part of Slovak cuisine, has made Madunice farmers famous across the country.
Madunice's first attempt at making the world's biggest onion wreath was at the festival two years ago.
They made a 150-metre long wreath, but they did not submit an official application for registration with the Guinness Book of World Records.
This year the locals succeeded after a representative of the Slovak Records agency, Igor Svítok, officially registered the record.


Sihla
Ox games draw thousands to Sihla

Carter Jaroslav Mucha from Brezno proved his skills as an expert oxen handler.
photo: TASR

NINE farmers, 4,000 visitors and a bunch of oxen gathered for an unusual competition based on traditional farming.
The Jarmo (Yoke) 2007 ox-cart races took place in the village of Sihla in the Banská Bystrica Region on August 18, the TASR newswire reported.
Carter Jozef Golian from the village of Vrchslatina, near Detva, won two out of the three disciplines: the traditional "furman" (carter) discipline (pulling logs towards a target as fast as possible), and a power disciple (pulling heavy logs as far as possible). The husbandry discipline was dominated by Jaroslav Mucha from Brezno, who demonstrated how well he could carry out agricultural activities such as ploughing and planting with the use of oxen.
This was the seventh year of the competition, which features a form of racing rare in both Slovakia and Europe as a whole.
The event also featured whip-cracking lessons, Hucul horse-riding, a folk-art fair and a carters' disco.
The event usually attracts participants from the nearby Horehronie (Upper Hron region) and the vicinity of Lom nad Rimavicou, where oxen are still often used in farming and forestry work.


Milhosť
Pony Express rides across Europe

A temporary pony express post office was open for business in Košice on August 16.
photo: SITA

A EUROPEAN tribute to the legendary Pony Express horseback mail service of the Wild West kicked off in Slovakia on August 16.
A Slovak mail rider started the European Pony Express at the Slovak-Hungarian border crossing in Milhosť.
He made a stop in Košice, where a temporary Pony Express post office was opened in the city centre.
The Slovak part of the European Pony Express route was 360 kilometres long.
About 40 riders and the same number of horses covered the territory. They switched every 20 kilometres.
The Slovak riders carried letters and greetings addressed to people all across Europe, and even in the United States.
Less than two days after the first rider started, the last Slovak rider handed the mail over to the first Czech rider.
The final Pony Express rider was expected to reach the final destination, the German town of Haren, on August 24.
The entire route was about 2,600 kilometres long, crossing through Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.
The European Pony Express commemorates the courageous Wild West post officers.
The organisers hope to one day connect the Baltic Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.

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