2019 Trip to Slovakia

Well our wonderful trip has come to an end. What started out as a big unknown has hopefully morphed into a joyful adventure with promises of more to come. As we packed our belongings this morning we reminisced about the past eleven days and what it has meant to each of us. For me it was reuniting with a cousin I haven't seen in years, spending time with dear friends/parishioners and making new acquaintances who hopefully will become lifelong friends. Our suitcases and hearts are full! Vlado who owns the pension has for the past ten years overseen the renovation of the castle that once was owned by the Rakoczy family. They were the landlords of our ancestors and from whom they escaped when they left their homeland to venture off for a better life. The castle was built in the 1300's but has been in ruin since the 1600's so you can only imagine what an undertaking this is. Vlado, rightfully so, is extremely proud of the efforts many people have and are making towards t...

Our last day in Slovakia had us returning to the villages for photographs of erbs (village coat of arms) visits to mayors, old cemeteries and vistas. Below the front and back of the church in Chmelova. Afterwards we had a lovely lunch at the Sabaraca Salas formerly known as Lesny Salas. Slavo met us there after his meetings in Poland and we ventured to the village of Jedlinka to see the wooden church there. Slavo found the woman in the village who holds the key to the church and she kindly let us in and told us a little of the history of the church. It originally was from Poland and was moved to this village. It is actually two small churches put together as one. Although photographs are not allowed she did let us take a few. After our late lunch we said our goodbyes to Slavo at the city hall. We headed back to the pension and packed our belongings...not an easy task when you are bringing back gift and souvenirs!!! We just finished our final get-toge...

This morning our group split apart for the first time and each of us went to churches that our grandparents and great-grandparents attended and were most likely baptized and/or married in. Walt and Karen went to Chmelova and Becherov while Nancy, Mary, Dianne and I went to Stebnik. We were warmly greeted by the priest and thanked for the monetary contributions St. Mary's sent to their parish for renovation of their belltower. Fr. Jan and Monika Pilko invited Walt, Karen and I for lunch while the rest chose to peruse more cemeteries. It's so much fun to see their two daughters growing up over the years. At 3:00 pm we met in the Karcma (bar) in Stebnik that my distant cousin and dear friend, Slavo Mlynar owns. He is also the starosta (mayor) of the village. My cousin Stefan Rusinak and his wife Olga were waiting for us with homemade loksha (think lefse) for all you Minnesota Scandinavians. Anna Tkacova joined us and brought my favorite, kreple. She know...

Today had us driving to the quaint village of Tichy Potok which means quiet stream. I've known Lubica Dzuganova Zdraveckova since about 2005. She's been the mayor there for 24 years. Lubica formed a folk group that performs skits about Rusyn life along with singing and dancing. It is usually the highlight of the trip and that remained so this time as well. After taking a wrong turn on an unmarked road under construction we arrived a little late. The detour took us along a beautiful route however. It's too bad the day was damp, rainy and cold as the colors are just about at their peak here in Eastern Slovakia and the sun shining on them would have made them glorious! We were greeted by Lubica and her husband Igor upon our arrival and she promptly began converting our trip participants into "village people" by dressing them up in the village kroje. These are costumes that are particular to their village as every village has their own kroje and varies from villa...

Today brought us exploring the cities of Kosice (2nd largest in the country) and Presov. My dear friend Michal Razus met us in Presov and we drove further then to Kosice. It is a city of beautiful cathedrals, parks and monuments. These are a few photos of St Elizabeth Cathedral. Lunch was at a cute restaurant that specializes in Halushky. Off to Presov we went. Since we were running short on time we headed straight to the Rusyn Museum where we were given a wonderful tour Beautiful icon made entirely of beads. Finally we joined Viki Krushko Marcinkova at Victoria's Restaurant. Their family has ties to Minneapolis and she and her sister acted as translators for me on prior tours. As usual we ended our evening in the pension kitchen rehashing the day's events, sharing a bottle of wine and talking about the schedule for tomorrow. Until then...

We are at that point of the trip when days are melding together...not sure what day it is...where we have been...what we have seen. The memory seems to fail me at this point of the trip. Thank goodness for photos to keep me on top of things...I think! Sorry for not posting yesterday...another exhausting day and went right to bed with full intentions of getting up early to create the post but...as you see that did not happen either. So to catch up...yesterday we spent the day exploring the city of Bardejov. We first explored the beautiful St Egidius Roman Catholic cathedral. Here are a few photos of the lovely square. After eating Eastern European food for several days we took a break and had pizza in the Centrum. Our next stop was the Icon Museum. Would love to post lots of photos but that is not the intention of the blog...however... the beautiful iconostas from the village of Zboj. After that we toured the Town Hall Museum which holds many a...