czech republic part 4: jindrichuv hradec

After our time with Uncle Joseph in Trebic, we headed by bus to Jindrichuv Hradec, which is where my mom grew up. My cousin Joseph (Jajik) on the left, met my mom and I at the bus station, and led us to where we were going to stay. My uncle Lubor (middle) was at the house to greet us. This house was originally willed to Lubor and my mom, and then my grandparents lived there in their later years. It now serves as a holiday home for Lubor and his daughter's family.

After a delicious lunch of soup and bread, we went for a walk around the town. I couldn't resist taking this picture of the the 15th parallel written in Mandarin (for Scott's benefit).

Below is a picture of the backyard of the house we stayed at, not a bad size, complete with an old water pump that still worked, and room for a garden (which everyone in Czech Republic has).

My mom and her brother Lubor had lots to talk about and I was content to listen in, occasionally interjecting with a "co/kdo je _____?" ("what/who is_____?") for the many Czech words I do not know, or have long since forgotten. This picture is also of the backyard, but from the opposite direction (the house that you see in the center, is the one in which we stayed).

I loved hearing my mom say to her brother, "Do you remember when..." and start to recount a story of their childhood. We went for a walk in the park where my mom often played as a child, my mom even showed me the very place where she broke her arm. She didn't want to tell her parents, but my grandfather, observant doctor that he was, noticed right away in how she was carrying her arm with her other hand.

Here is an old castle or chateau nearby the park. Close to this place was where my grandfather had buried some silver in order to keep it from being confiscated by the communist government.

I forget just what they are pointing at and talking about, but I just really liked this picture, it shows the reminiscing that continued for the duration of our walk. Even with the choppy, bare-bones conversations between my Uncle Lubor and I, I could still appreciate his humour and get to know him because I could understand so much more than I could say.

Inside the house was beautiful, totally renovated and cleaned up since my grandparents' passing, yet still including a lot of the old artwork, tapestries and furniture. I took a lot of pictures.

I loved the bright colours in this one! Thanks to my dad, my appreciation for not-too-detailed oil paintings are high. He used to say: if you want detail, take a picture, otherwise paint one.

We spent a lot of time poring over a thick old album that my grandfather put together. It was really interesting to get a glimpse or an idea of what his parents were like and what his childhood was like etc. This is a picture of my grandfather in his volunteer fireman's uniform, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because my brother Rob is one of those today!

Can you guess who this is? It's my mom! She still remembers that itchy dress and being walked to the painter's house by her grandmother I believe, and having to pose for what must have seemed like an eternity at the time. So worth it now! I can see a bit of Dana in this picture, can you?

czech republic part 3: brno

While we were in Trebic, we took a day trip to Brno, where my mom worked and went to university. Here is the church where my parents were married. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul located on Petrov Hill; a Gothic church rebuilt in the Baroque style during the 18th century, later partially reconstructed in the Neo-Gothic style, it has two characteristic towers (81 m high) since 1905; cathedral since 1777. You definitely get a sense of awe and a healthy dose of humiliy from the architecture and history of European cathedrals.

Here's a little information fact sheet on the university my mom went to, probably too small to read, but maybe you can zoom in (?) The Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry. She left the country in 1968 just short of finishing her Master's degree, but (bless her!) never looked back. My mom likes to live life in a "no regrets" way that I would love to emulate.

Here's a map of the place:

One of my cousins, Ivo, works at the university, but unfortunately we missed him because when we visited, he was vacationing in Mexico, we'll have to catch him next time!

I liked Brno and the stories my mom told...like about how she and her friend would receive 5 or 10 minutes notice from another friend to get ready to go see an opera because cheap tickets were only available at the very last minute...and also about the places my mom lived near the university, and the people she knew...she visited her old lab and talked with a former student's daughter who works there now. I loved the added insights into my mom's pre-Canadian life. As a mom myself now, I can appreciate that she had a life before my brothers and I came along!

czech republic part 2: trebic

First stop after Prague was to Trebic to visit my mom's oldest brother Joseph. Like my grandfather, he was a doctor and is retired now. He liked to hunt, collected knives and swords and had an impressive collection of antlers on his wall.

We had fun taking these!

See the sword on the right of this picture? He also showed us his pistols! Since that's one major difference between Canada and the USA, we were rather impressed and wondered what in the world he had them for.

There they are, brother and sister. It was funny to be able to relate to my mom not only as mother-daughter but mutually understand our lot in life as youngest children and only girls in our families of origin. I forgot we had this in common!

My uncle Joseph has four sons, only one of which had I met before. This is Pavel (Paul), he now works as an oncologist in London, England and is a member of the prestigious Royal Council of Physicians. He came to Canada when I was still in grade school (I forget how old I was), I just remember being a walking Engish dictionary for him, so I think it is safe to say I had something to do with his success in mastering English!

We went for a walk to the Jewish Quarter.

And so did these ducks.

My uncle took us on a tour of the Basilica (12th century) in Trebic. The basilica is a jewel of European medieval architecture. Its design represents a transition between the Romanesque style and the Gothic style. At some points in its history it was used as a market, beer cellar...even a stable to keep horses, until it was finally restored.

Here we are walking out with the guides, one of whom was just learning how to be a guide. She was from Mongolia and her Czech was great!

czech republic part 1: chilly prague spring

Well, for those of you who don't know, I got the chance to go to the Czech Republic for two weeks with my mom. I like to think of it as a 30th birthday present from my parents and Scott. I had never been to Europe, nor had I met many of my relatives before, so this was really special for me.

Here I am with my mom and Lukas (my mom's cousin's son...does that make him my second cousin?, I get confused with all those terms...). He graciously let us stay in his apartment whenever we were in Prague, which we returned to a few times between train rides to other relatives' houses.

Here I am with Jiri and Zorka (my mom's cousin). They helped us out start to finish, driving us around Prague, to and from the airport and even lending us their mobile phone for the duration of our trip.

We also needed them to hold our hands on the way to catch the subway, the escalator is fast and steep! On our first day, they showed us around some of the historical sites in Prague, a beautiful city even in gray, cold March when we were there.

Here's the Astronomical Clock (1891) located in the Old Town. My mom said that after the clock-maker finished building this, the powers that were took out his eyes so he could never build another one like it. Brutal!

My first Czech meal (potato pancake, roll and a sausage) almost 100% Czech except I opted for green tea instead of beer. Horrors! (I know dad...).

My parents have one of these types of carvings at their house, so I took a picture. I found myself distinguishing between what in my family life experience was distinctly "Czech" and what was just "us." I even made a list in my journal of random things that made the not just "us" list such as: changing into comfortable clothes (teplaki) when you get home from being out; picking mushrooms: blowing your nose as hard as you can and not just politely wiping it; Jesus, not Santa coming to give you gifts at Christmas...It's not strange or weird! It's just Czech!

Jiri works in restoring old artwork in historical Prague, so he knows a lot about the different types of artwork associated with each era. We had our own personal tour-guide, complete with an excellent sense of humour!

This is the ceiling in the St. Nicolas cathedral at Malostranske Namesti (1703). This is the largest of Prague's churches founded by the Jesuits. Particularly impressive is the dome fresco from Franz Palko, showing The Celebration of the Holy Trinity, filling the 70m high dome.

A view after crossing Charles Bridge.

A menacing statue against the blue sky...don't be fooled though, it was cold! I had to borrow a toque and gloves from Lukas.

This is Karlstein Castle (1348) which is about 30 km southwest of Prague. Jiri and Zorka drove us out to do some sightseeing. It became the place for safekeeping of the Czech coronation jewels, which were kept here, with the exception of several short-time breaks, for nearly 200 years.

Near Karlstein was the cemetary where my mom's uncle (Zorka's father) was buried. I had never been to a relative's grave before, it was a meaningful experience, these flowers were at the gravesite, so we picked a few and put them on his gravestone.

Also nearby is the house that my mom and Zorka inherited from their grandmother. She saw fit to give it to her only granddaughters as an inheritance, I thought this was rather amazing and forward-thinking for the time in which she lived. My mom often talks with fondness about this grandmother, she displayed a lot of wisdom in her life and had a joyful disposition, often able to smooth out the differences between people.

Zorka and my mom have long since sold this house. If I remember correctly it is near the birthplace of Martina Navratilova (the famous Czech tennis player).

big snowman and big news!

We got more snow! It only lasted a day so we had to take the opportunity to make a snowman, as (this time) the snow was actually sticky enough to roll and build a snowman. While Scott and I worked on the snowman (Scott made the bottom and middle, I just made the head), the kids fended for themselves at the little playground.

We couldn't and didn't let Eli wreck the snowman we were building so he had to satisfy that need by kicking the snow off some shrubs instead.

Here's Eli on the teeter-totter.

And Dana (the more cautious one) assessing the danger on the slide...

She did go down after all.

Voila! Our finished work--the best-looking (well most typical anyway) snowman I have ever made, not to mention the tallest (~six feet tall!). Scott and I had to both lift the middle section together to get it on its bottom section.

And Scott, the one who did the lion's share of the work:

The one on the left just received a full three-year scholarship to do a Master's degree in Modern Chinese Literature! We are really excited at this opportunity! Without the scholarship, we could not, would not consider doing this, but all is paid for! He even has an office on campus that he uses as his study space. Scott has been reading as much as he can as fast as he can as a result(yes, in Mandarin!), he has really jumped in with both feet!

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Since Scott has a study space on campus, we have decided to move to a slightly smaller place closer to Eli's school. Eli and Dana share a room now (since Thailand) and so a 2 bedroom is all we really need. It didn't take long to find a suitable one and now we are poised to move on May 1st.