June 16, 2012
I woke up rather early. The sun was bright coming through
the window and it was already very warm.
After I showered and dressed I sorted out the gifts I had brought for my
family. Soon, I could hear some
very loud (American) pop music outside of my window—turns out my room faced a
soccer field and they were getting ready for some sort of event.
We received breakfast tickets when we checked in to the
hotel, so we went to the breakfast room around 8:30. In Slovakia the continental breakfast consisted of
meats and cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, pastries. There were a few hot foods (hard cooked
eggs and sausage and some others I can’t remember), coffee, tea, juice. There was no toaster available, but you
could ask them to toast it for you.
I’m not much of a meat eater and don’t usually do cold-cuts for
breakfast, so I opted for the toasted bread and some yogurt, and coffee, lots
of coffee!
The family party (to celebrate baby A’s first birthday) was
schedule to start around 11:00 a.m.
Many of my Alzo relatives would be there along with some new cousins I
had not met during my previous trip in 2010 (including Renata’s brother, Joszef, who so resembles my father! Same eyes and same smile).
We had plenty of food and drink, and birthday cake. The food was served in various courses
throughout the day.
I took advantage of the opportunity
interview my cousin, Helena, who is the oldest of the clan. Thanks to my iPad, the Wi-Fi, and my
Evernote App, I was able to record snippets of the interview and type notes as
my cousin Renata translated Helena’s answers to the questions I asked. I learned some interesting things about
my Alzo ancestors and was able to obtain dates, and details about family
relationships that I can follow up with record searches. The family also brought some old
photographs that I planned to borrow and scan with the Flip-Pal mobile
scanner I brought along.
It was wonderful to visit with everyone, and we took many
pictures. [Out of respect for my
family’s privacy I am not posting any of the group photos here]. But I took this photo of the candle on our table. I was told that you are not supposed to blow out the candle, but let it go out on its own. It symbolizes the light of the family that always burns.
There was a wedding reception being
held at the hotel. We watched as
the bride and groom arrived and got to see a few traditional customs such as
the “kidnapping of the bride” and others.
We had hoped to watch the traditional Redovy (dollar dance) but we
waited until 1:00 a.m. and they were still not ready to start, so we finally decided
to call it a day.
4 comments:
I recently attended a family reunion and I really like your family's candle tradition. What a lovely thought.
diumerua 5
I am enjoying your Sojourn in Slovakia. Thanks for sharing.
What was in those empty bottles? It looks like a fruit liqueur. I'm just curious. And is that first photo of soup? It looks really good.
Amy,
It's Hruska - a liquor made from pear. It packs a punch but is so good. And, yes, it is chicken soup in the bowl. Sorry--I forgot to include captions under the photos!
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