Obisovce! Eastern, eastern Slovakia!

I arrived in the beautiful village of Obivisce Friday evening. Rebecca and Daniel, the pastor for whom she is volunteering this year, met my train at the Kysak platform. She lives only about a kilometer from the train station, and in fact, her village of 400 people has its own train station as well.

Throughout my short stay in the villages of Eastern Slovakia, I could not help but think of my home town, (essentially a village) Veblen.





I took the tour of Obisovce Friday morning, and probably annoyed my tour guide with incessant, "That's just like Veblen!" comments. It did seem eerily familiar, however: both the structure of the village and the small town, waving and greeting everyone habits, I fell back into.

We hiked on Saturday. It was a challenging hike, for me! (We don't generally get a lot of hiking done in Bethesda.) But my co-hikers had no trouble scaling the steepest parts of the hill. The view from the top was amazing.

I was surprised by how unsettling a slower paced lifestyle was to me. I am so used to the regimented, fast moving city lifestyle, I was a little anxious by the relaxation. During the week, I am used to long office days and something going on almost every night. Even my weekends are usually packed; there's just so much to do all the time in a city. Not so, in the villages, both that of my youth and my most recent travels. However, I did appreciate the downtime and the generosity of my guests.