Slovakia

Thursday, June 1- We traveled by early morning train from Prague to Ostrava, CZ where we picked up a rental car. From Ostrava we drove to a museum of historical buildings in Rožnov pad Radhostem. Here we visited a village that was typical of the Wallachsian group of people from this area. We then drove on to Dolny Kubin to meet our relatives. We arrived at the home of Iveta and Leonard Bobcek and their children Ninka and Motchko. They live near the village of Veličniá, which is the town where my grandmother lived before emigrating to America and also close to Zabrež from where my grandfather came.


Their home is beautifully situated in the hills with many views of the mountains in the Low Tatras. Luckily, the weather was relatively clear when we arrived, so we were able to get a few pictures of the mountains. Others of Ivetas family (Maria nee Labda, her husband Joseph Kovachik, Maria´s brother Pavol Labda and his wife Milká) joined us after dinner and we shared many stories about family members. Fortunately, Iveta is an English teacher in the elementary school, so we had a very good translator.

Friday, June 2 – Members of the Strapec family came by today to take us on a trip to a cave and into the High Tatras. We joined Joseph and Erica Strapec and his mother Maria (nee Farbak, relatives of my grandfather´s half-brother and perhaps related to my grandfather directly) on the trip. The caves were among the most beautiful we have seen with many spectacular stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and sheets.. The High Tatras were unfortunately not visible due to rain and clouds, but we had a nice trip nonetheless. On returning home, we stopped by Joseph´s home to visit his sons and a niece who had just returned from working in GB. We then went to Joseph´s uncle (Andrej Farbak´s) home to visit with more Farbak relatives. The language barrier was a bit higher here, but luckily a neighbor who runs a local language school was able to translate.

Saturday, June 3 – We traveled with Iveta and Leonard to visit the Orava Castle and then on the Orava Museum of wooden houses in Zuberec. The castle was very interesting, with good decorations and a very good guide, who fortunately was able to give descriptions in English as well as Slovak. Sue and I felt that this castle was even more impressive and well-preserved than the more famous Prague castle. After seeing the castle, we drove to the village of wooden houses in in Zuberec. There we viewed houses that had been transported from Veličniá (home of my grandmother) and Zabrež (home of my grandfather). Iveta told us that the house of a peasant farmer was much like the house where her grandmother had lived and was probably like the house where my grandmother was born. We also saw the Catholic church from Zabrež, the town where my grandfather Farbak was born. All in all, it was very interesting to get a sense of our family roots. After traveling around Lake Orava, we returned to Dolny Kubin for dinner with the family of Iveta, including her Aunt Mildred and Uncle Pavol, her mom and dad, and her sister Tanya with husband Duchan and daughter Sashka.

Sunday, June 4 – Today we dug more deeply into family roots. Iveta´s mother took us into the village of Veličniá where we visited the church that both my grandmother and grandfather had attended. We are sure that my grandmother attended this church, but less sure of my grandfather. It was a very attractive church that had been built in 1779 after Emperor Joseph II allowed more freedom for Protestants to build churches. We saw the baptismal font where she was probably christened and sat in the pew that had been a family favorite for many generations.

We then walked down the street to the site of the house where she had been born. The current house on the site was built in 1963, replacing the original house which may have been over one hundred years old at that time. The current resident and person who rebuilt the house was a nephew of my grandmother, Milan Labda, 74 years old. He had been a forestry worker and later a steel worker before retiring. His father Jan was my grandmother´s brother. They had owned a little land and basically did subsistence farming, raising vegetables and animals for their own use, probably the life that my grandmother had left.

We next traveled over the Orava River to the village of Zabrež to visit what we think was my grandfather´s birth home. Maria Farbak had told Maria Labda that this house was her childhood home and had been in the Cutka family for several generations, so we assume that it was the home that the two half-brothers had left to come to America. It is now quite run-down, but has a very pleasant site next to a brook. Perhaps we can come back and use it as a summer home.

We also want to comment on the great hospitality that we´ve received here. You can´t enter someone´s house without being offered a drink, usually Slivovits or something stronger, and something to eat. We´ve eaten wonderful foods, including Halušky - Slovak gnocchi with cream/cheese sauce and bacon, Kapusnitsa - Sauerkraut soup, served here with potatoes or noodles, but very similar to what we grew up with at Christmas time, and wonderful home-made desserts.