On the last part of our trip, we made it into Slovakia to visit my dad's brother and his family. Here is a picture of their house. Albert said that although I would probably like Czech Republic a lot, he bet that I would like Slovakia more because it has mountains readily accessible to those interested in hiking.
On our first day, we walked to this old castle. Can you imagine having a castle in your neighbourhood? I loved that we could just walk there from my uncle's house! And the history of it! Read on!
Majestic and romantic ruins of the Strečno castle are a dominant above the Váh river and are standing high on the hill as a symbol of feudal power in the region of middle Považie. The castle has been in ruins for three centuries, but it still belongs among the best known castles in Slovakia. Although the recorded history of the castle started in the half of 14th century, the first settlement at the castle hill is much older. In early Iron Age up to late Roman Age there was a settlement of the Púchov culture and in the 9th century there was not only a Slav residence but probably it was also the oldest fort. Artifacts of the settlement from early Stone Age - a copper pick axe was found on the Zvonica hill, Slav tumuli was found in the area of Dedová and a fort was located at Bašta hill from 15th century.
Unfortunately we could not enter into it and explore further, it had not yet opened for the season. I enjoyed this sign and thought...so it's not just the Chinese who have funny signs! I like the part where it tells visitors "not to leap over the castle walls". Excellent advice.
Here's a view of it from further away, on another day.
We were on our way to visit this old fort, which was a short hike up a good hill:
And here's the view from up there.
Here's my mom with her favourite childhood candy bar, Horalky (or also Tatranky) or which are chocolate-dipped wafers. Light and not too sweet. Mom has the best smile!
My cousins Kubo (left) and Juro (right). Kubo is finishing up a civil engineering degree and Juro has a year to go or so in his Information Technology degree. They were very friendly, polite and accomodating, and their English was great which meant I could get to know them better, faster.
I also got to meet Martin, my youngest cousin (also probably my tallest)! He was in the hospital while we were there getting treatment for what they think might be psoriasis. He was in good spirits under the circumstances. He is just graduating from highschool and planning on studying Information Technology as well.
Below is a picture of my Aunt Lubka with my Uncle Jirka. She is gorgeous and looks more like my uncle's daughter than his wife! (Just don't tell him that!). She is 13 years younger than him though. I enjoyed our evenings together talking and looking at photographs. My uncle is a great storyteller. I liked hearing about his membership in O.S.A., a members only association invented by himself and a few friends to get exercise, go hiking and goof off together once a week. I love that idea!
When my dad and Albert went to Europe together some years back, they got this portrait done of my dad in Vienna I believe. It is framed outside my cousins' room, so they see their smiling Uncle Otto greeting them every morning. I really like the expression my dad has in this picture, pensive and warm.
And then, before we knew it, it was our last evening together. Here's an impromptu group shot that my mom took. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again too and having them meet Scott and Eli and Dana sometime.
So that concludes my trip! I'm finally done blogging about it, but I'll never recover from the experience. I'm a cousin, a niece, as well as a daughter, sister, aunt, wife and mom. It's new and special for me to experience belonging to an extended family. I don't just belong to a little Czech island in Western Canada consisting of my family of origin! I have a clan!
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How wonderful to meet relatives and be relieved that they are people you would choose to have for relatives if you had that choice! I won't dare ask them, but I hope they feel the same about me.
Scott's dad was worried that our kids are "too healthy", here they are having juiceboxes with their friends on Dana's birthday of all occasions! He hopes to remedy the situation when we head back to Canada for a visit in late June! But we hope yogurt remains as Dana's all-time favourite food.
We made fruit kebabs for our mid-morning snack! Not only visually appealing, but very tasty!
Of course we had cake too! It was absolutely huge and brought over by a friend. (I don't have an oven yet in my new place! We did a lot of eating, washing hands, playing, (repeat). Following Chinese tradition, we had cake first, then pizza.
Eli approved of the cake, as you can see.
"Put the nose on the Elmo" was a game we tried to play. It was the adults that humoured me and joined in because the kids were not too into it. The kids liked watching their parents play and helping their moms or dads get the nose in the right spot though though.
Let's not forget the presents! By this time Dana was fading and thinking: "When are you all going home so I can have my nap?" I was thinking that right along with her!
