I don't know that I will ever be able to portray in words the crazy adventures that Marty and I experienced today. Just when I think that excitement cannot be topped, another day comes along that far exceeds the one previously. Today definitely takes the cake.
The morning started out simply enough. I was down in the lobby, attempting to get my photos to upload while Marty was still getting ready to come down for breakfast. I was concentrating on my computer when I heard the concierge call my name, Mrs. Geisler. I assumed that she was going to tell me that Mr. Geisler was on the phone, but no, she told me that Mr. Vincent Voytko was on the phone, and that he didn't speak any English, but that she would happily translate for me. Could he come by at 10:00 a.m. and take Marty and me to his house?
Let me explain briefly, here, that Vincent is married to my dad's first cousin, Eva. They live about 40 minutes from Kosice. I had written a letter and told Eva that Marty and I would be in town. Just prior to leaving, Eva had sent me an e-mail, telling me that she would not be here as she works in Austria, but that her husband and brother, George would love to meet me. But, (and here's the big problem) no one spoke English. And, believe me, I may know a few words of Slovak, but they would never get me very far in a conversation. So, I had been sitting in the lobby, wondering just what I should do, because I knew that they were anticipating a call from me, and I also knew that they did not speak English. I had thought about having Silvia translate for me, just when the concierge came over and called my name.
At that point, I realized that I was going to have to figure out some way of communication, so I asked Silvia if she would be willing to go with us, and she enthusiastically agreed. In the meantime, we decided to go along with our scheduled plans and just tell Vincent that we would meet them in the town of Slanske Nove Mesto.
Vincent really wanted us to visit his home, but since Silvia had scheduled evening plans, we knew that was not a possibility.
We headed off to the land of my shepherd relatives and we were amazed at the beauty of the towns. Kecerovce is inhabited by gypsies on the outskirts of town, but we were able to find the church and actually go inside. I cannot explain how awesome it was to stand in that church and realize that over 100 years ago, my relatives attended Mass there. We had driven through the town of Boliarov, where they had resided at the time. Silvia had spoken to the priest earlier, asking if he would help us locate some relatives, so we headed over to the rectory to meet with him.
The priest, who was dressed in a blue velour pant suit, was not very excited about us being there, but he relented and pulled out the church baptism records and let me look through them. I was searching for Aunt Lizzie's birth record and I can assure you that it is not written in that registry. The priest was being difficult with me, but finally let me look through the years from 1895 through 1908. No record of an Elizabeth born to a Hanchak. The priest kept pointing to his watch and saying, "TIme, Time". I thanked him, and gave him some euro for his efforts. At that moment he seemed shocked and stopped pointing at his watch. Silvia told me that she would not have given him any money since he was being so rude, but I told her that I hoped that he felt guilty for being so rude. He suddenly became very nice at that moment.
After leaving the rectory we headed up to the cemetery, but soon realized that we would not be having much luck there, either. If there were Hanchak's buried in that church plot, the headstones would have been very old and not readable. I realized that there was nothing to be done about that, so we headed out to Cervenica where Veronica Stofan, my mother's gr. grandmother was born.
Cervenica is much further than I had imagined it would have been, from Kecerovce. We had no luck there with the church or the priest, as he was on vacation. So, we headed up to the cemetery which overlooked the town, and had no luck finding any Stofan or Stoffa burials in that place. The graves did not appear to be well taken care of, and it was obvious that we would not be finding what I was looking for there either.
So, we headed off for Slanec and Slanske Nove Mesto to meet with the Takach relatives. We agreed that we would meet at the local church. We arrived first, and then a BMW SUV showed up with two men in it. They popped out of the car, and Silvia was able to ascertain that they were looking for me. A man in a bright orange shirt came right up to my face and began talking to me in Slovak. Sylvia translated and told me that he wanted to know who my grandmother was. I told him that my grandmother was Maria Takac. I mentioned that her younger sister was Veronica. (Veronica was this man's mother). Suddenly, he made the connection, and he squeezed me and the next thing I know he was kissing one cheek and the other, then he grabbed Marty and he was kissing his cheeks. He was just so excited! I had presumed that this man was George because Eva had told me that her brother George was interested in meeting me.
I began to ask a lot of questions and he said that he would be happy to answer everything. He would take me to the cemetery to find the graves of my gr. grandparents, and he would show me the house where all of the family had been born, which was in Slanske Nove Mesto, just about a block from the church. But, he said that he owned a restaurant and that he wanted us to have lunch with him. We agreed, and he asked us what we liked to eat, and we told him that Slovak food would be great. Silvia heard him ordering his staff to make all kinds of food and she just began to laugh. She told me that we were in for a real feast. It was at this point that I was told that this man's name was Stefan. He is another brother of Eva's. He was talking so fast and so much that poor Silvia just could not keep up with him to translate. She had to tell him to stop so that she could translate because she could not possibly remember everything that he was attempting to say to her. Marty and I just kept laughing at the ridiculousness of hearing a man rambling on and on in Slovak, with this young woman attempting to soak it all in to translate, and us completely out of the loop.
We went to the house where grandma would have lived as a little girl, and Marty took my picture in front of it. It has been renovated since my parents had seen it. Then, we headed up to the cemetery, which is in an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful spot. I was really awed at the beauty of this area. You can see the ruins of an old castle on a mountain in the distance, with rolling hills surrounding this entire area.
We were not having much luck finding any of the Takach graves, and the next thing I knew, Stefan was calling someone on his cell phone and hopping in his SUV to pick up someone who would know. When he came back, two women popped out of the car with him.
This is the moment that Marty says he will never forget as long as he lives. He was at one end of the cemetery, when suddenly he spotted a rather rotund, older woman, in a blue duster with grey Nike sweatpants, holding onto two metal canes, wheeling her way with record speed through that cemetery. She was obviously a woman on a mission and he wasn't getting in her way! The vision was absolutely hysterical. He was still laughing at it this evening, when he shared with me that he knows that this will go down on record as one of the absolutely funniest moments of his life. It was as if we were part of some type of crazy comedy.
After immediately identifying Andras Takac's grave, and then heading off to find his wife's grave, we were finally introduced to this woman, who's name was Yolanda. Her father was John, my grandmother's brother. Along with Yolanda was Regina, the grandaughter of Anna, another sister of my grandmother. Regina just kept smiling, and Yolanda was all sweaty from speeding through the cemetery at record speed. Each wanted us to come to their home for coffee, but we mentioned that Stefan had invited us to his restaurant for lunch.
Soon we were on our way, attempting to keep up with Stefan as he zipped his BMW towards the town of Secovce, where he owns a Penzion and restaurant. The facility was actually closed today, so we had a table to ourselves.
Everything was set for us and it was obvious that Stefan had given orders to his staff to have things ready. He wanted Sylvia and me to partake of pear whiskey drink in celebration. I mentioned that I did not drink, but suddenly had this small glass of clear liquid waiting for my lips. Stefan popped the entire amount in his mouth in one gulp, while Sylvia and I sipped the tiniest bit. Even at that, my mouth and throat immediately felt like they were on fire and I knew that I would not be able to drink another drop. Vincent and Stefan seemed to be a bit surprised, but not offended. Marty was not offered a drop since he would be driving, and Vincent did not partake of any either.
We enjoyed a fabulous meal of Haluski,one with cheese and one with cabbage and bacon, chicken soup, some type of chicken and corn in a very light sauce, with boiled potatoes and a scoop of rice, all beautifully presented. We were pretty well stuffed at this point, and needed to get Sylvia back to Kosice.
Suddenly, we were informed that George, Stefan's brother, was in our hotel in Kosice and that he was waiting to meet us. So, we no sooner returned to Kosice when Sylvia immediately began translating once again. George asked if she knew anyone who would translate that he could pay, and she told him that she would ask her husband, who was free, but that they would not take any money. So, Peter, her husband arrived in short time, and I could tell that he was a bit nervous, but in no time it was as if he knew us his entire life. He happily translated all that George had to tell us, which, let me way, was quite a bit. Peter spent more time telling us about George than he wanted to know about us.
George insisted that he take us out for a meal, so Peter was definitely recompensed for his time by a delicious meal, huge beer, and my dinner, since I had ordered a vegetable risotta with zucchini and cheese and it came loaded with green peppers. Of course, I wasn't touching that, so the restaurant boxed it up and we insisted that Peter take it home.
At the end of the day, we had bonded with two new friends, Sylvia and Peter, who without we would have been completely lost in translations, and were treated like royalty from the Takach relatives from Slanske Nove Mesto.
Tomorrow we plan to attend early mass at the cathedral in Old Town, then began our trip back to the western part of Slovakia. Don't know for certain that I will have internet at the next place, so don't be too disappointed if there is a day's lull in the posting.
