Morning arrived early and we headed to our respective churches...some to the Catholic church in Bardejov, some to the Orthodox church in Becherov, and others to pray by themselves. I can only comment on the Orthodox church as that is where I attended. Denise, Deb and I made the short erie to Becherov attended Liturgy this morning. The service was beautiful and moved along quickly. Although a small church it is beautiful inside and out. It was exciting to see the new gold cupola and exterior painting they finished in time for their 90th anniversary. It is comforting to know that the monies donated by several parishioners at St Mary's in Minneapolis helped them achieve this goal.
We were greeted by Monika Pilko (Fr Jan's wife) and two children after the service and were treated to some lovely baked goods. We will return here on Thursday evening as the ladies of the parish wanted to provide us with a dinner.
After heading back to the pension, we quickly changed clothes and were on our way to Tichy Potok for an afternoon with a cultural twist. I have known the mayor of Tichy Potok for several years and each group I bring to Slovakia has the pleasure of visiting here. They go all out for us....we start out with a wonderful dinner (including Slivovice). Afterwards members of our group were able to try on and wear the village kroje (folk costumes). We headed to one of the oldest houses in the village which they have turned into a museum and small gift shop.
After that their singing and dancing group provided us with a reenactment of a Rusyn wedding celebration. We watched as the new bride was give her hat to wear which indicated that she is now a married woman. The women sang while the men danced and then it was time for dance lessons for our group. Everyone enjoyed the time spent here...especially me as it was a reunion with our foreign exchange student, Ivana Tomalova and her family.
We then headed back through the mountains to Bardejov with a stop at the local Tesco to pick up some grocery items and some clothing. Several of us managed to set off the alarms as we exited the store! The security guard came by and removed some of the electric tags and again we continued to set off the alarms! He finally just waved us though.
Once we arrived back at the pension our next door neighbor, Miro, came by to visit. He grew up in Stebnik and has been an invaluable interpreter and friend over the past several years. We gathered in the kitchen of the pension for some food and drinks and the end to a very good day!
So now on the technology part. You may have noticed there are not any photographs on this blog. I attempted to download my photos and an error message appeared saying there was a problem. I saw a few of them start to download before this message appeared. And yes...there WAS a problem. It erased all of my photos and videos from the day. ARGH! So hopefully someone from the group that was also taking photos will email me a select few and I can post them tomorrow.
In the morning we will be heading to our ancestral villages to hopefully find family, visit gravesites and visit with the villagers.
Until then....
We were greeted by Monika Pilko (Fr Jan's wife) and two children after the service and were treated to some lovely baked goods. We will return here on Thursday evening as the ladies of the parish wanted to provide us with a dinner.
After heading back to the pension, we quickly changed clothes and were on our way to Tichy Potok for an afternoon with a cultural twist. I have known the mayor of Tichy Potok for several years and each group I bring to Slovakia has the pleasure of visiting here. They go all out for us....we start out with a wonderful dinner (including Slivovice). Afterwards members of our group were able to try on and wear the village kroje (folk costumes). We headed to one of the oldest houses in the village which they have turned into a museum and small gift shop.
After that their singing and dancing group provided us with a reenactment of a Rusyn wedding celebration. We watched as the new bride was give her hat to wear which indicated that she is now a married woman. The women sang while the men danced and then it was time for dance lessons for our group. Everyone enjoyed the time spent here...especially me as it was a reunion with our foreign exchange student, Ivana Tomalova and her family.
We then headed back through the mountains to Bardejov with a stop at the local Tesco to pick up some grocery items and some clothing. Several of us managed to set off the alarms as we exited the store! The security guard came by and removed some of the electric tags and again we continued to set off the alarms! He finally just waved us though.
Once we arrived back at the pension our next door neighbor, Miro, came by to visit. He grew up in Stebnik and has been an invaluable interpreter and friend over the past several years. We gathered in the kitchen of the pension for some food and drinks and the end to a very good day!
So now on the technology part. You may have noticed there are not any photographs on this blog. I attempted to download my photos and an error message appeared saying there was a problem. I saw a few of them start to download before this message appeared. And yes...there WAS a problem. It erased all of my photos and videos from the day. ARGH! So hopefully someone from the group that was also taking photos will email me a select few and I can post them tomorrow.
In the morning we will be heading to our ancestral villages to hopefully find family, visit gravesites and visit with the villagers.
Until then....
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