Trnava: Slovakia's big hit with Israeli tourists

from the latest on Caribbean cruises to kosher safaris pilgrimages to Jewish Eastern Europe and award-winning wines and international cuisine in sundrenched Tel Aviv sit back and enjoy the trip with the travel edition of the Jerusalem Post podcast hello David hello Mark it's a while since we've were together in Slovakia it was according to the listeners probably about 68 weeks yes it about a minute ago we we just said goodbye to all of the lovely lovely folk in the capital of Slovakia Bratislava and we headed sort of East northeastwards into a whole new region did you enjoy Bratislava I did did you I did I did and if our listeners want to enjoy it they need to go back three or four episodes Maybe and hear all about Bratislava but we're moving on we've come to the region it's a cresant shaped region sort of north to south and it curves around Bratislava and it's called the Tava region I'm glad you said that cuz I would have butchered it and said tar we the truth is before we ever come on air we try practicing the names and everybody around bursts out laughing when they hear our pathetic efforts it's a very interesting region in the but there are no major cities here yes I think we during our trip here are going to visit three or four cities almost town like Village like to some extent right and each of them has a different story to tell a different experience and you and I might be doing some interesting naked experiences yet again I'm hoping not together this time and not with a hundred other people I've Got a Feeling we might be but we might be getting rather I don't want to say dirty at the time I'll say dirty and sweaty does not sound good I think we are getting muddy and sweaty but more on that in a few minutes and as well as the fun we will look into some of the history of the region which used to be quite a Jewish region in each of the Cities we go to I think there is a Jewish story to tell and of course that's something that we will tell which is I guess you can say our unique selling points here on the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition that we take you places all around the world but that we are really looking to also fill in some of the Jewish story tell you where maybe you can get kosher food and anything that a good Jerusalem Post reader would be interested in while mocking each other yes we mock each other a lot before we uh mock each other now should we get on with a quiz question I don't see why not did you prepare one I tried let's see if you succeed it's a question about car manufacturing and I'm not an expert on it some of our listeners in America may not actually be able to purchase these Brands okay so it's not General Motors and not Chevrolet and so on there is a car factory in Tava and it manufactures two specific types of car two brands of car I'm going to give you three brands David you have to guess which one isn't manufactured here okay and they're all French M even though we're not in France okay Renault perso or citran I used to be a motor racing driver but I'm all [Music] right this is Mark Gordon from the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod atgmailcom so I think it's caramel and um chocolate oh hello David it would be nice if that packet would have been shared between the two of us well you dropped your half no would you like that last morsel I will I'll have the last Morel have the last bit it's all right cuz we bought two more so in my hand is what feels like a wafer it's a hot day so the inside is kind of smooshy melted and it's a very light brown while David's trying that you can hear him chomping I will tell you where we are we are in the beautiful city of Pani in the Tava region and Pani is famous as a spart town what's that got to do with what you were eating what I was eating apparently is a spa wafer although I bet if we take it to the spa they'll probably tell us no eating it in the spa yes I'm sure so anyway we have been wandering around this beautiful delightful small City with two ladies who are acting as our guides one of whom is the representative of tourism in the town and one of whom is a representative of tourism in the region so first of all let's just get a quick introduction if we can to the region my name is Karina ralova I am a representative of Tava Regional touris on board it's a region of first of all region of water because it's lying on the biggest reservoir of the water in Central Europe second is that is a region of the honey it is a region of healing water region of wine and the region of really nice People Like Us is situated on the western part of Slovakia it's the most developed part of Slovakia close to to the P Chan is capital of the region called TVA we will visit it together and all the region is famous for the history of so that's as far as the region now let's talk about the city my name is tanaa I'm the director of the regional tourist board Resort Pani and we are in Pani City it's well known for uh the healing termal mineral water and the healing mat we have the biggest pass here in Slovakia in p chani and we are the city of the relaxing of the nice culture and for every generation we'll find something to do here our listeners at the Jerusalem Post always hope that we can find some Jewish link to where we've been is there anything Jewish about pish J of course Jewish Heritage is very strong here because of the founder and the biggest developer of the pan spa and the town is lud winter it's a Hungarian Jewish interpreter this is the name which is very connected to the P CH as a Jewish name and of course a lot of very nice architecture buildings and Architectural Heritage was built by very famous Slovak Jewish architect we're going to experience some of the treatments for ourselves but for now maybe we should talk about what else this city has to offer for the visitors the City offers also the beautiful Parks directly in the city center we have a huge city park when you are going through the bridge visiting the spa Island and also the spa island has a wonderful Park and also going through this park is also part of your relaxation and it's also like a treatment which you can do and also through the Pani is coming River V and we have the water reservo Sala and you can do a lot of water sports there the water Sky paddle paddle boarding Graf yes and so on what is interesting about the city pan is that we call it sometimes small China because a lot of people is biking here it's very nice flat routs for the biking for the families for the kids David and I were in Bratislava this morning and you can hear that podcast by going back a few episodes how easy is it to get from Bratislava or even from Israel to the Tava region 30 minutes from Bratislava to Capital City Tava and uh within 1 hour you are here in a p chani highway driving also the train connection or bus connections are really good because on this western part of Slovakia everything is developed and connection is really very fine how you can enter the region of course the International Airport uh in Vienna is very close in P chani you can be within 2 hours from the Vienna highway driving or by train in region itself within one and half power you can be from the Vienna Airport another international airport is in Bratislava and here in P Chan town we have own small International Airport and we are now flying operating the flights from the tel AV directly to P chani each Wednesday for whole season until the uh end of the November in terms of the visitors to this region and to Pani number one if I remember rightly are the Czechs number two are Germans and guess who's number three Israelis we just finished uh a tour of a wonderful Museum it's in four buildings it's a history museum and it brought a tear to both marks and my eyes and that's because it's a museum that tells the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of Slovakia the head of the sered Holocaust Museum is Dr Martin coock he's been our guide how easy is it for you from a guiding perspective to tell the story because for a lot of people when they're telling the story of a historic figure from the 1300s its ancient history it doesn't really impact on today directly but what you're doing is really something that is living from my point of view it's not so easy because we are talking about the faith and about the life of the people who some of them are still alive and for us it's very important to remember the past but not only to remember but based on the stories of the Holocaust Survivor to tell especially to the Young Generation but not only because we not only the museum but also the educational center what's happened and how it happened during the time of the World War II and the Holocaust about the whole process because not only that is important what happened but also it's very important to let them know how it happened to be very careful if there are some things nowadays which are going that direction I don't want to say which are the same but which are going that direction because the Holocaust also did not start with the killing it was the process and for us is very important to show them the whole process to be aware and careful in their life the museum is wonderfully curated it's reasonably modern but gives that authentic feel why was it built here in sered this place was a former labor and later concentration camp there were three bigger camps in the territory of the Slovakia that time Slovak state State one in novaki then in VI and the third one in seret the buildings in novaki and VI are not exist anymore so we have only one authentic place in Slovakia which is in this connection with Holocaust so that's the most important that we built and created the museum in the AU IC buildings where people suffered during the war the history of the Slovak Republic during World War II under President tiso is horrific full of anti-Semitism full of support for the Germans and a lot of people will say the slovaks they hate the Jews why would anybody come here how do you feel curating Museum in Slovakia telling the story of the Holocaust in Slovakia before the war Slovakia was part of the czechoslovak Republic and if we are talking with the survivors we are also talking with their life before the war and they mainly say that they had a beautiful life here in Czechoslovakia they even did not think what might happen in this country so you right Czechoslovakia was divided here on this territory was a Slovak State the president of the Slovak state was Yosef Tio a Roman Catholic priest and the politics of the Slovak state was very strong anti-semitic and of course the government cooperated and collaborated with the Nazi Germany the anti-jewish legislation in Slovakia was according to what they said in the news and you can find it in a newspaper more strict than the anti-jewish legislation in Nazi Germany the life of the Jewish population here in Slovakia during the period of the World War II was really very difficult and very bad because the whole legislation was said that all of them they need to be deported from this country and we know what was their fate later majority of them were killed was this predominantly in in terms of the camp German run German managed or was it more locally run until 1944 it's very difficult to say that there was a big German impact because the Slovak government thems was very anti-jewish with a very strong anti-jewish legislation they did not need Germans for what they did here in Slovakia so the first wave of deportation which started in March 25 of March 1942 was in a hand of slovaks and during that time the first period or wave of deportation almost 58,000 Jews from the whole territory were deported in 57 transports to two places first was aitz and the second was Lublin district with a camp maidan and extermination camps sobur and belet and almost all of these people were killed then the second wave of deportation was after the Slovak National Uprising which broke out on 29 of August 1944 that time German cames to the territory of Slovakia they established the only camp in the whole territory of Slovakia the concentration camp in ser and all Jews which were not killed on the place where they C caught them they brought them them to seret majority of them let's say 97% and from seret they were deported on the very beginning to aitz beer Cano and killed there but again that time it was also a cooperation with Nazis and the Slovak government so it was not only in the hand of the Nazis but it was a cooperation still you work for the Slovak National Museum which means that you you are a government employee are you going to get fired if somebody from the government hears this interview and here is you saying that it sounds like the majority of what was done here was done by slovaks I'm also a member of FAA the international Holocaust remembrance Alliance where I'm representing Slovakia since 2005 so I know something about the situation all around the world if you asking me this question here in Slovakia you write we are under the ministry of culture then under the Slovak National Museum the Museum of Jewish culture but I'm very proud that I can speak about the history how it really happened nobody is pushing on me to change something something on the narrative or hide something which means that we can do freely our job ultimately David and I are here to talk about travel and tourism how do our listeners come and appreciate this Museum if you want to come to visit the Holocaust Museum we are open daily from Sunday to Friday we are close on Shabbat and you can find find the Museum on the website of the Slovak National Museum but you can also follow us on Facebook the website for the Slovak national museum is very simple SN M.K Dr Martin coock thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us and our listeners and for curating such a important and wonderful Museum I thank you for coming mark from a a tourist perspective let's talk about this Museum because we we didn't get into some of the details about the way that it's curated about what it looks like for a visitor so it's in the actual Barracks where the people lived it feels like a museum the whole thing feels like a museum it follows a process it tells a story as as you go along each one of the buildings has a different story and and I I think it's one of those museums and and we talk about it that you can spend hours and hour in move from exhibit to exhibit with a guide it's great on your own it's probably also great it gives that feel but without it doesn't depress you it it educates you and I think it's a a wonderful Museum right and it's also one one of the highlights for me is that it also talks about survivors it tells their stories as well as those of of the victims and not just the survivors but also those slovaks those people that helped those survivors and gave them Life by protecting after the break let's do something a little bit more [Music] cheery Israel is the startup Nation the scaleup nation the Unicorn country join me Mayan Hoffman Jerusalem Post Deputy CEO strategy and Innovation and me zachie Hennessy the J post business and Tech and Innovation correspondent for our analysis of the most critical Israeli Tech innovation today in each episode of inside Israeli Innovation we'll highlight a new tech Trend discuss the latest Innovation news and interview at least one of Israel's most promising companies so if you like to know what's on The Cutting Edge then this Jerusalem Post show is for you listen to inside Israel Innovation on Apple Spotify Google podcast or wherever you get your podcast so we leave sered and we return to pisch something that connects the two of them as was mentioned ear earlier uh Ludi Vinter was the founder of the spa he was deported from P Jani eventually to terasing but along the way he spent time in the camp in sered so we're back in this charming town which is our Hub and we're going to be seeing various parts of the region but just a little bit more information about Pani or PS chani I I cannot pronounce it the second way it's not only about Spar and the lovely Town Center but we also discovered it has a rich cultural [Music] heritage and today if you visit there are uh performances of theater but those are in Slovak however there's also Opera here fine Jazz they even have a jazz festival week and a lot of other performances throughout the town Mark how's your body chubby what do you think you would like to do in the spa because we've just been handed couple of vouchers and we've got the chance to head into this very very fine SP so first of all do you know what type of treatments they have there's definitely M and definitely sulfur probably the opportunity to wrap ourselves in something called dip out s in something and there's also Salt Cave and I I think if I remember rightly I also watched a video about this there's about 60 different treatments and they are aimed at people with skin issues with breathing issues basically any area of Health that you are concerned about they can work on and um the ISM people that we introduced you to earlier were telling us that a lot of scientific Studies have been done and point to the beneficial nature of these treatments anyway should we just head off there with our vouchers and see what I believe they have selected for us to do I did see earlier a sign for a wine day there I'm just wondering is it wine therapy and and can I use my voucher for that uh all I'm going to say is I suggest you don't wear any clothing that uh you don't want to get too smelly no no don't say don't wear no clothing we're not going there well let's [Music] see hello my name is Claudia mova now we are in Spa Pani in Spa Island in Irma we offer here six kind of procedure Pani are well known for healing power of mat and Healing Springs do you know what David and I are going to be doing for our treatment today we will go to mat poool we based here separately men and woman because we are basing naked no what yes it's separately men and women because there is not good take their swimsuit because of sulfuric water and it can damage your swimsuit so because of that you are naked yes David yes sir David I told you about this yet again you and I are going to be naked together somewhere what is the smell that we can fill down the corridor is it eggs from breakfast in the hotel no no this is absolutely no eggs but this is sulfur water so this smell like eggs a little B but this healing water a guest can bad in that but also they can drink that water because it's good for stomach and when David and I go out later our people were going to be standing next to us going they do that for you and me anyway so no difference there thank you very much indeed Claudia and also to your colleague Lucy who's with us as well and I guess it's time for us to undress Tava fact file Slovakia has six international airports Bratislava and kushit are the biggest and there is also Pani in the Tava region poad in the high tatas silat in central Slovakia and gelina Bratislava is a destination for Ryan Air whiz and smart wings as well as a number of Charter Airlines PCH has direct flights from Tel Aviv plus charter flights to Cyprus turkey and Egypt to Nava is around 40 mi from Vienna which opens up access to the US Canada Israel France Dubai Istanbul and most major international airports you can reach Bratislava from Vienna in under 1 hour by Road rail or even a slightly slower boat trip up the danu you can also reach the Tava region from Vienna Airport in under 90 minutes by Road or rail for those wishing to take a rest from The Busy City Life P chani has a major Spa offering numerous treat ments the Anana Health Spa hotels are the biggest spa resort in Slovakia in Tava there is a holiday in and there's a number of cozy boutique hotels across the Tava region $100 will buy you 91 as of July 2023 Slovakia has a continental climate with Four Seasons summers are hot getting to an average 30 C or 86 F Winters are cold cloudy and humid the average winter daily temperature is -2° C or 28 F in Tava the summers are warm the winters are very cold and snow and it's partly cloudy year round lovers of jazz can enjoy good food and great music at La mus in pi chani Tava is home to the synagoga cafe a beautifully restored Orthodox synagogue smaller n has a meteor where you can enjoy tasting sessions a visitor experience and an excellent Cafe vegetarian and vegan restaurant in Slovakia can be found on the happy cow website so as is usually the case Mark is the the guinea pig and I get to hold the microphone so can you just explain where we are Mark we're in a basement pool at the spa it looks filthy but that's because it's a mud pool there's two or three people here we have to be silent so I'm whispering but I'm about to get into the mud pool and then on the floor of the pool is loads of mud that I'm supposed to cover my body in but not my face because I'm too beautiful okay Mark you go down and I'll ask you some questions and then I'll join you in the pool be careful it might be a bit slippy so Mark is now descending into the pool and is going to come around the corner because he had to go downstairs to take him away from the microphone he's pulling faces he's looking a bit distressed the smell is not that bad there's generally the smell of sulfur around but it's it's fine and now we're going to pass the microphone to Mark who is in the process of turning around and sitting on a step at the edge of the pool the floor is just completely covered with mud it's kind of like being at the sea but it's just a lot ickier underneath and I've got hands full of mud which I'm about to put all over myself it's lovely and warm though and it doesn't smell half as bad as the sulfur pool so we were in the mirror pool which I think is basically sulfur and you sit in there for 10 minutes it's 39° it's a very pleasant uh warmth but now it's time for me to join Mark in the mud so we'll talk later but I think we should finish this little bit with a song because everybody else has left the room but we can do it a little bit quietly and the song of course is I want to break free I want to bre mud mud glorious mud nothing quite like it for boiling my blood so follow me follow down to the hollow let them wallow in glorious mud well it was very odd being silent for that long and I smell a bit eggy now so maybe I will sulfur in silence oh my gosh that's what you were figuring out the sort of hour half an hour afterwards when we had to lie down wrapped up in towels and blankets it was very different to Spas I've been to before this is a proper traditional Spa you feel the sort of medical environment a little bit and I thought the staff were excellent they were friendly we had got an interview with a last minute request people were smiling lots of cups of water along the way I feel young yeah I feel like I did when I went in except a bit more sulfur smelly no I'm I'm relaxed I feel my skin and my pores are very clean and cleansed oh I guess there's only one way to go into the break and that is David I can see something that's um left over from The Spar because buddy you're a boy make a big noise playing in the street going to be a big man Sunday you've got mud on your face big disgrace kicking your can all over the place singing p p chny chny p p [Music] we've now headed away from Pani into the countryside to a town which has seen better days but it's a town that is also trying to remember its past particularly its Jewish past by restoring the main synagogue that was in this town we are in the town of vava and we are standing inside the synagogue the structure as a whole seems to be intact the roof and the design is there but it's clearly a construction or preservation site who owns this synagogue and what is the project here this is Mr luir Bosak he is working on a cultural Department of the municipality he is taking care also of this very nice project about synagogue now synagogue is happily because all the synagogue belongs to now to the city they bought half of it from the private owners and the uh city is now really working on the Reconstruction they prepare the project and they are trying to GA the money to make a fantastic reconstruction for the Monumental play or for the for the cultural center the synagogue is 140 years old this year but the community began before that what are the roots of this community how did it start the roots are coming to the 17th century when first Jewish were coming from Moravia from ersi Broad and they started to establish Community here they were still growing and in the end of the 19th century this synagogue was built the community was on his Peak you mentioned the peak here how many Jews were living in this town during the peak how many synagogues were there number of inhabitant in general was 4,000 and the Jewish Community from this number was 1,000 200 so it was a large number with the developing of P they started to move to another cities to larg City more to the P CH the number was decreasing here and before the second World War II it was 600 we are at World War II now what happened to the community here the story is the same as in each Slovak during the Slovak State during the second world war in 1942 start to be deportation also from here but fortunately some of them escaped or were hidden also with the local inhabitants here we've read some of the people that left before the war were Rabbi Kim sonnenfeld who became the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and another prominent Rabbi Rabbi Yak wi unfortunately was amongst those that was deported in 1942 this has a also a connection to the katam s if you go back to the podcast we did from Bratislava you'll hear about his burial place and the fact that he was trying to spread Orthodoxy around this part of Europe in the face of the reform movement in the 1800s and the was one of the centers where his students were active a large number of synagogues were destroyed during World War II and in the Communist era afterwards how did this synagogue survive it was never planned to destroy uh even during the World War II or during the communism regime end of the communism regime it's uh really interesting because in 1985 they wanted to start with the renovation of the synagogue they put it into our cultural heritage of the state it belongs to the Heritage and they would like to start with the but they didn't manage it because Revolution came and all this plan was failed and start the restitution process so as part of the restitution process what we have learned is that this area actually belonged to a textile Factory just around the corner and during the war the synagogue was being used to store Furniture which helped it to survive but then after the war the textile Factory was using this as a stor room which also helped its survival but the owners of the textile Factory wanted to tear down this synagogue and completely repurpose it the Communists one time prevented it and the second time the city hall has prevented it by purchasing the part of the land that belonged to the textile Factory now the entire site is in the of the city council and that is why it will be saved and hopefully we'll have cultural events in this place and it will also serve as a memorial to the community that was if I'm lucky enough to be touring this beautiful region and I come to this town can I walk into the synagogue and visit it or do I need to make an appointment or is it just going past from outside from outside the building is really and from outside guided tours are coming here and you can stop here and tell about the architecture but it's closed because of reconstruction processes inside but in the city hall you can ask him and if some Jewish Community is coming here or they are coming to visit families or the they want to just see and have like a small praying here they can ask and they will open it so the best way is to look for the Vera City web website and that way you can arrange a group if you can we want to say a very big thank you to you and municipality as far as Mark and I are concerned we think it's very important that these types of buildings are protected and as long as their use afterwards is respectful and there is memory it keeps alive what was once here so thank you I really pleased and he also wants to preserve because the Jewish Community here in V verb was a really strong part of the history they really live together here in uh with another inhabitant so of course also like a memory of this uh history thank [Music] you so I'm going to open the house of Bones but uh look at your head because it's really small the door usually it's really hard to open you can enter the house of bones but watch your head hi I'm Anish valentova welcome to Tava uh we are now at the house of Bones and now I'm going to explain you the history of this really dark place you are looking at 14,000 human bones these are here because we had really really small symmetry in the Middle Ages so there was basically no place to bury other people so when somebody died they just took the bones and they used to store them in this house of Bones over there you can see a skeleton he was found here like you can see him and it's really strange because it looks like a grave but what is a grave doing in a huge house of Bones there is a something like a mystery we can't really solve for now but we hope that the historical research will find some answers if you look at the bones you can see mostly femur this is because of their strength and durability and you can't see many sculls because they are from more parts and they fall apart first Mark at this stage you and I should probably have a quick chat because we haven't actually introduced anybody yet to the city of Tava which is the same name as the region of Tava thoughts so far on what we've seen it feels like one of those traditional central European towns big squares lots of churches a really really beautiful city but like Slovakia that we've seen so far interspersed with little bits of communist architecture you're listening to the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Ed find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp or mail us at Mark davidp pod gmail.com David and I are now sitting in a very very beautiful building in the center of Tava it has been restored 7 eight years ago it was the Orthodox synagogue and now maybe controversially it is a cafe called synagoga Anna can you tell us a little bit about the synagoga cafe it's a nice place for cultural events so it's not just a cafe but it's also a place when people can meet they can organize cultural things so there is always this H special spirit this is not the only synagogue we have across the street you can see the other synagogue there is a center of Contemporary Arts and it was the synagoga status quo an in the past so you can see we had two communities one Orthodox community and one reformed Community we have always had these uh Jewish Community from the Middle Ages till the second world war nowadays unfortunately we don't have many Jewish families here and none of the synagogues are is working so Jews go to Bratislava but you can see still the architecture at least just looking around this building and as regular listeners to the podcast will know I'm no architecture expert but as Mark said it's been beautifully refurbished the ceiling is a magnificent mix of Blues and I guess salmon colored there are circles with various shapes within there are obviously large stars of David there are chandeliers hanging low which if not original are probably very reminiscent of the original the supporting pillars all around are there to see the ladies gallery has been restored in all of its original Beauty and what's perhaps interesting and controversial is that at the front of the synagogue is still the Aron Kesh which is the Ark in which the Torah Scrolls were kept there are some Jewish people who think maybe it's not a good idea to use a synagogue for some other purpose whether it's cultural whether it's cafe or anything else what do you think I personally think that it's a great idea to have a coffee in here and also a place for cultural events because it's always better to have a cafe than a ruins are you able to elaborate a little on the history of the Jews in the city when they came how long they were living here for and obviously where they all disappeared to we know we have proofs that the TRS have been here from the very beginning from the Middle Ages that they've been here they had even their own mayor their own system they lived kind of separately from the rest of the town but they lived very close to the town and to the center of the town which is quite strange we when we compare it to the other towns for example with prag or some other European uh towns and then it happened in 15th century the tragic event it wasn't actually true but there was a murder of Catholic child and people from Jewish Community were evicted uh 14 of them were burned and they were forbidden to enter the town from this time on and then they could return in 18th century and the synagogues were built in the 19th century when the community was really prosperous we had many famous rabis clever men and the importance of Tava just grew with the clever rabis then during the second world war there were some uh people were trying to stop the deportations because we had important Jews and they were afraid that if the Jews are going to be deported the city will just burrp and they succeed so actually in the first deportations they Wen deported but then they didn't succeed once more so unfortunately they've been all deported after the second World War there was a community they were in the synagogues but then it was slowly disappearing we've talked about the synagogue we've talked about the bones of uh people who weren't Jewish under the cathedral what else would you say people are going to see if they spend a day two three days in Tava we've never mentioned the churches which is quite funny because Tava is well known as a little Rome and it's really famous name for T so we have 11 churches then we have two synagogues we have one Protestant church and we have many many monasteries and I would say that this religious spirit is still alive it's not just the churches what makes from Tava the little Rome Tava was also the center of religious life something like real small Vatican for uh Kingdom of Hungary so people can visit the Basilica they can see their epitaphs and their two Crypts next to the Basilica some of the crypts in the town are possible to visit so this is also really nice thing to do inava and then I've never mentioned the most interesting part for families with kids we have special barok prison cells two of them are well preserved with original Engravings from 18th century which is something really really unique and for children it's something they will never forget but also for the adults there is also a beautiful wine seller where you can taste some a special local brand honey wine and you can just cool there in these hot days so if you want to come to Tava get rid of the kids show them a few dead bodies and throw them in a prison cell this is clearly the place to come how do you then organize a tour around this city and find out more about it if you type on Google local t or something like that you will certainly find many informations personally I do the tours especially for children and then for adults with these honey white ttings there's also a center for touristic informations they're also offering uh some kind of Tours it's really easy to get these informations we've absolutely loved our time with you you are a font of information but you're also incredibly fun to be with and I get why you like doing this the work with the kids how do people get hold of you yourself you can just type on Google Tava tours or tours of Tava and I'm on the third place I think there is a whole website with the offer and you can choose whatever fits you and I'm Anna valentova you're going to find the name on the website and if you come and there's not a heatwave on Anna will wear a costume yeah that's true I have a beautiful medieval costume that's really said that I was wearing the costume today but especially if you come with kids it's really nice to see the original costume which is really good taken care of Anna in her costume will be featuring across social media at Mark [Music] davidp baited breath a mark yes I have to admit when I saw we were coming here I was very very excited it's always a treat to finish off one of our trips drunk with alcohol exactly we're not going to get drunk because we still have an interview to do but we're very excited and we're doing a type of alcohol we haven't done before what is it David that was me having a shave oh yes I was going to say we are in smalla nit a village in the Tava region and we are at the vellina me both Factory complex Visitor Center it is not only a place that produces meat and in a minute we're going to find out everything else they produce it is a stunningly beautiful landscaped Sunny happy place to be and in fact our host that we're about to interview has on a t-shirt that says Don't Worry Be Happy David yes stop with the jokes and behive yourself oh dear me our host is pavl klach who together with a couple of friends Envision this place really I guess you'd say as a four five-year-old child when this was your hobby tell us about your childhood and bees I started keep the bees when I was a child it was 1984 me with my brother bought first Hive of the Beast with this starts our sweet business it's not just sweets is it it's gone from sweets to honey and meat now we don't produce just honey but we produce uh honey wine or meat which is wine make from honey together with this we produce honey beer and honey cider and many other products as well when somebody comes here what's the experience what do they see what can they do visitors can visit our be Garden which is full of the FL covers trees and be monuments they can visit our coffee with all kinds of our Meats of our beer of cake of coffee and so on and they can taste our products and they can buy it in our shop here can the visitors go and see how you make the meat yes we organize trip Factory trip where we show what we do and how we do while we're sitting here interviewing a number of very very yummy looking cakes have turned up behind those I can see some beer glasses there are one two I can't do math there there are seven glasses that that have been brought out oh oh my God it carries on seven that's seven plus that's 13 glasses have been brought out six of the glasses have already been filled with the Mead and here we also have the beers and for the driver orange juice juice it's juice from special fruit here in Slovakia which is named retnik it's a small yellow orange [Music] [Music] Berry it's time for the tasting so what have you got for us first of all pav we will start with fruit honey wine which we make from honey and black curant fruit it smells a bit stronger than Wine like brandy or like s vza pavl is treating this honey wine exactly the same way you would expect an afficianado of Grape Wine to behave so he's swilling it around in his glass far more expertly than I am yes uh the tasting of Honey wine is very similar how it taste Grape Wine so we use similar glasses we can uh smell the honey wine uh we can judge the color clearance of the honey wine and then we can drink that's the good bit Cheers Cheers Chin Chin oh that's lovely it's not too sweet but you can definitely tastes the sweetness I've got to have another sip to decide what it tastes of do you know before we started this I was already confused and I started sniffing the microphone I would never say it had honey in it is it wrong if we're tasting that we don't spit it out it's okay to taste it and drink it of course of course you can you might remember when we were in Poland in a place called konia at a certain point we turned off our microphones and said we'll be back in half an hour we're going to do that right now we're going to taste some of the different wines and and beers that are on the table in front of us there are I don't know how many and we'll report back in a little bit and we've got the cake [Music] oh [Laughter] Mark you're just going to make noises aren't you oh my goodness what a wonderful wonderful way to end the podcast so what do you think we've tried now six different wines six different me wines yeah me wines and we've had two Honeys two Honeys two beers David two beers say two beers and we've got one beer left oh it's pour in Pavo is not letting us stop but I'm being very impressed because for this we love him pav is driving so he is having the tiniest tiniest tiniest just to do the decent thing and so he can explain the flavors to us so pavl tell us about the last beer that we are going to taste now this beer is dark beer brot where is the biggest part of the honey M this is a much darker beer let me have a smell it's more yeasty something we learned from Pavo which I never knew before is you know when you want to get a good sniff of wine and so you sort of move the wine around the glass to let the Aromas come to the Top If You're tasting beer that you can or should do exactly the same thing so how does it smell now after you I know I'm still sniffing the mic you're sniffing the mic for sound effect purposes do you know it' smell I can't hear you oh yeah sorry now I'm talking to my glass and sniffing the microphone will I edit that or keep it in I'll keep it in definitely it do you know it smells more like the Mead than any of the others this is closer in a way to the Mead than the other beers it is something between meat and beer so what I smell here I'm always the weak partner when it comes to smelling things and tasting things despite having the biggest nose thank you very much indeed I smell yeast the best thing about this David doesn't like to drink too much beer so every one of these tastes he's had he's had one Sip and poured it into my glass so I'm watching him waiting for him to finish it's not that I like you I'm interested in you David it's that glass you're like my little doggy who's watching me while I'm eating my dinner hoping either some scraps will fall to the floor or I'll give some just to add that the cake that came with oh do do not slurp where are your manners just to add that the cake that came with is just fabulous yes yours is like sugar on a plate toffee there is no way I am going to be sleeping tonight because I'm going to be jumping off the roofs of buildings and and and just singing and whatever from the sugar rush but this is I'm going to make the sloping noise again cuz this one's really nice David there's a bee on your head I'll behave to use your term again did I ever tell you I was born well I was born in a hospital but my first house was on Beehive Lane if we're talking about being born the gentleman who runs this place by the name of pavl two of his daughters work here and I believe altogether another four of them sometimes come and help out how many kids have you and your wife got we have seven kids how can anybody have seven children uh it's easy would you like a diagram there when you drink honey wine it's very easy so you would say if anybody wants to have children come here and buy some bottles of wine honey wine is aphrod I'm just stunned ins Sil I don't think I can follow that up no I I would just like to say thank you I love this this is brilliant the beer as well as the the whole restaurant Cafe shop tour I highly recommend it and another reason to visit this Village is just up the hill on the other side of meadow and I should say that the name of the beer is Meadow beer is a phenomenal castle that you can also visit when you come to the Village if people want to know more do you have a websites that they can look at details people from uh whole world can come to see us and we have a program for them in English the name of website is china. SK and for those of you that need to spell it it is VC l oov i n a dosk and by the way that means honey wine pavl thank you so much this has been fascinating thank you for keeping our driver sober she didn't drink any alcohol at all and just like to you and your family keep doing an amazing job thank you very much you are welcome and thank you for your visit [Music] so this is actually a kind of bizarre end to our trip that waiting desperately to throw us out of this restaurant we're in a chatau actually we're back in Vera or the edge of verb on our way back to PS chani and we've been listening to Greek music which has been played by one of our hosts here in the region so it's it's kind of surreal thing and to be honest Mark and I have had probably a little bit too much to drink and now they're playing electronic music which I think is a way of clearing us out the restaurant only the DJs amongst us will be listening to this right time for thank yous I'd like to thank everybody who's been with us who keeps giving us this card to put in front of us that says you are here in tanav after two days here we're near P CH I can say p CH first of all the formal thank yous go to experience the tadaa region which is I guess one of the brands of the tadaa regional tourism board we also say thank you to Tava region and to psjn Resort more important than all of those thank yous are the thank yous that we have to make and I really honestly believe that on this occasion the hugs and the smiles and the eye contact that we've had I don't want to say are better than everybody else but it's been across the board yeah no I I think people here have been lovely a few more quick thank yous though to taana and Katarina who have followed us around to make sure we don't embarrass ourselves and filming us right now yes still filming us so we have to say nice things to Jack from wellsh travel and to Golan who linked us up with the people at the Tava region without him we wouldn't be here and to all of the fabulous guides most of whom youve heard during this podcast also there were one or two people who are shy which is always the case who don't come on to the microphones but everywhere everywhere it's been Smiles it's been eye contact which is so important it's been informative and it's been warm I would say if you're in Vienna go to Bratislava and while you're there in Bratislava go the extra 45 minutes and come to this region because the spa the history the food the people are all with meeting and eating meeting and eating no eat the food not the people obviously oh it's another one I'm going to leave in in the final edit in addition there's something we haven't done but maybe if we ask very nicely it'll happen at some point in the future if it's still running every summer the local tourism Authority puts on a steam train that takes you through the region they put on theater during the train journey and and then you stop get out and experience the various destinations along the routes that's something else to think about this area as we heard has direct flights seasonally in the summer straight into P CH straight into the center of the region and also as Mark said Vienna is just a couple of hours away whether it's by vehicle or by train and Bratislava less than an hour so folks that's the thank you to everybody and it really is heartfelt now it's time for our requests we would like if you possibly can if you haven't already to hit the Subscribe button or the follow button we're available if you tell your friends on Spotify on Apple podcasts Google and basically every other podcast provider or if you go on jpost.com podcast travel hyen Edition or just go on jpost.com podcast there's a range of options and not just the but the news podcast the technology podcast have a listen they're all worth it so we've said subscribe five star rating would be great right to review because the more reviews you write the higher up the listing we go the more people will find out about us and if you enjoyed this Edition go back three or four editions and hear all about Bratislava as well and we've got another 60 plus episodes probably almost 70 by now for you to listen to so those of you that are still with us and haven't Switched Off deleted or whatever we have the answers to the quiz question in the Tava region there is a car factory and it manufactures cars which one of these brands does it not manufacture and the question was PUO citon or Renault and the answer is David no the answer is not David yeah they don't manufacture cars called David they don't man manufacture David's that was my mummy in 1966 yes and she tried to tend it back to the manufacturer and didn't get a refund the answer is Rena car the factory is a PUO Citroen Factory because they're kind of sister companies yes apparently as well as opal now oh we are extremely happy because we've had the most amazing long weekend in a fabulous destination try it out for yourselves and join us in a couple of weeks time for the next edition of the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition goodbye farewell [Music]