Slovakia’s Beautiful Countryside Sets the Stage for Rediscovery of Our Heritage
By Judith Northup-Bennett
16 September - 25 September 2011
visited places:
Bratislava - capital of Slovakia
Small Carpathians - renaissance fortress Red Stone castle, wine tasting, ceramic factory
Bojnice - visit of romantic Chateau Bojnice & count John Palfy's art collection
Čičmany - tiny, hidden village with painted wooden houses
Tatry mountains - beautiful Slovak mountains - walking tour & cable car trip
Levoča - medieval town & its St. Jacob Cathedral
Spiš region (Spiss castle) & Šariš region (Sabinov)
Prešov - 3rd largest city of Slovakia
Košice - pearl of eastern Slovakia - walking & enjoying great atmosphere
Banská Bystrica - former rich mining town - lovely, modern city with historical square
Bratislava - capital of Slovakia
Small Carpathians - renaissance fortress Red Stone castle, wine tasting, ceramic factory
Bojnice - visit of romantic Chateau Bojnice & count John Palfy's art collection
Čičmany - tiny, hidden village with painted wooden houses
Tatry mountains - beautiful Slovak mountains - walking tour & cable car trip
Levoča - medieval town & its St. Jacob Cathedral
Spiš region (Spiss castle) & Šariš region (Sabinov)
Prešov - 3rd largest city of Slovakia
Košice - pearl of eastern Slovakia - walking & enjoying great atmosphere
Banská Bystrica - former rich mining town - lovely, modern city with historical square
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When you go back to your heritage after a couple of generations, you don’t know what you’ll find. Will it be a strange land and culture? Or, will you feel at home in your ancestral land? For everyone on the 2011 Slovakia Heritage small-group tour this September, the answer was a surprising comfort level and feeling at home in Slovakia.
Everyone made contact with family members whether they were newly-discovered cousins, family they had met before, or relatives because the families were Kresnis (god parents) many years before. For all, the search to piece together the stories of their Slovak family trees and roots will continue.
“In the villages, they’re still living simply and family is very important,” said Dolores Pace of Newtown, CT, who spent an afternoon with her mother’s god parents’ family, and visited the small village of her grandparents. “The language is difficult. I thought I would pick it up better.”
The trip started in Bratislava where people were still out enjoying the street cafes and outdoor concerts without the summer tourist crowds. A day-trip to the nearby small Carpathian mountains brought us into wine country just in time to celebrate the harvest at the lively Pezinok-Modra wine festival. We mixed with Slovak townspeople and vendors eating klobasi at a long table for lunch, and sampled the new fresh wine called Burciak.
We marveled at the beautiful mild Fall weather and the ever-changing countryside which set the stage for our rediscovery of food, language, music, and customs we knew as children. Our past and family histories came alive. A trip to a Levoca market reminded Rudy Populis of Denver PA and Ben Onofrey of Ford City PA of their youthful pranks taking kohlrabi from farmers’ gardens. They said the farmers always planted extra for the youngsters who ate them raw from the garden on the way home from school. That night our group was treated to an appetizer of sliced raw, salted kohlrabi.
Rudy liked the small group tour which was able to be flexible for everyone’s interests. Taking advantage of a crystal clear day in the Tatry Mountains, he hiked with Peter Blazicek, our guide with Best Slovakia Tours Ltd, while the rest of the group explored the summit from the gondola.
An evening cooking session left us all better appreciating the hard work of our grandmothers to create the Slovak dishes we remembered. Everyone pitched in to cook Bryndzove Halusky from the peeling of the potatoes to the boiling of the dumplings. Our families will enjoy our new cooking skills.
Our travels took us into the Slovak heartland with non-tourist stops for Saris music and dinner in Sabinov, and in Presov where we visited the Sarisske Museum and met an energetic nun who runs a home for abused and homeless women and their families. Sister Maristella further inspired us by playing the age-old organ and singing at the 6pm mass at the 1347 Church of St. Nicholas.
Finishing the trip in Kosice and southern Slovakia, Janny Paul- Onofrey from Ford City, PA summed up her experience, “I had no expectations so everything was a wonderful surprise. There’s the old life and the new life and we saw how they come together. I really liked the generosity of the people and the food.
I brought food thinking I wouldn’t eat much of the food, but I liked it too much!”
For more information on the plans for the next small-group,
2012 Slovakia Heritage Tours contact Judith Northup-Bennett at 978-544-5144 or connectionswork4u@hotmail.com
Details will be available on our website by December 1, http://slovakiaheritage.wordpress.com
