Tourist visits Shawnee for golf

People may wonder how a man from Slovakia finds Shawnee as a vacation spot, but it’s simple — a local resident invited him to play a round of golf.
Igor Elias surprised several people in Colorado and Shawnee when he decided to take three months of vacation in Shawnee. He said people asked him if he really chose Shawnee when there are so many other places he could visit.
“Actually, yeah,” Elias said.
Elias said that for the past four years he has spent his winters in Breckenridge, Colo., as a professional ski instructor. He would spend his summers in Slovakia working in his family business, which is a tourism company that gives river tours.
Elias said he decided not to return to Colorado this winter and stayed in Slovakia to be a ski instructor. Shawnee resident Darrick Ellis wanted Elias to see Shawnee before going back to Slovakia. Elias is the ski instructor for Ellis’ two sons.
Once the invitation was made, Elias came to Shawnee in May.
“We started talking about golf, and I came to Shawnee to play golf,” Elias said, adding that he doesn’t have the opportunity to play golf in Slovakia. “I was really excited about an easygoing summer to play golf.”
Elias said he also has spent some of his time at Lake Texoma in southeast Oklahoma. He, along with Ellis and his family, go to the lake every weekend.
He will finish his summer vacation Aug. 4 when he flies back to Slovakia to prepare for the winter.
During his various winters in the United States, Elias has visited the East Coast, West Coast and the Midwest. He said he has seen several national parks and visited Las Vegas, San Diego, Florida and Wisconsin.
“I’ve seen quite a bit actually,” he said.
Elias said everything in the United States, such as roads and cars, appears much bigger than the same in Europe. In Slovakia, the roads are narrow and snake around corners, Elias said. The cars are much smaller and more compact than what he sees in America.
“You will not find a full-size truck in Slovakia,” he said, adding that a mid-size sedan like a Dodge Neon is a large car in Slovakia.
He said people in the United States are nice and relaxed, but there are a lot of “broken promises” here. Elias said people say they will call or meet him places, but the phone or meeting never happens.
Elias said Slovakia is a post-communist country. Slovakia broke away from communist rule to be a democratic country in 1989, he said.
“The old style of thinking still is in people’s head,” he said, referring to a communism style of government. “A lot of people do not understand private ownership.”
Elias said that under communist rule, everything was state-owned. He said Slovakians are jealous of people who have own their own businesses. People need to understand they have to work for things in order to privately own them, he said.
Elias plans to spend this winter in Slovakia to build his ski instructing business, but he will remember his time in the United States.
“I’ve had the best time in Breckenridge,” he said. “The ski resorts beat anything in Europe or Slovakia. I don’t want to go. I want to see my family, but it is hard to leave this easy life.”
Elias said he plans to spend at least the next couple of years in Slovakia, but he isn’t sure of what his future holds.
“For the past five years, I’ve never planned my life more than a half-year ahead,” he said. “We will just have to see.”
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Amanda Gire may be reached at amanda.gire@news-star.com or at 214-3934.