Sunday, November 2, 2008
Mirko's History of the Gorisek family
Mirko’s family history lesson.
Mirko Mihelic – Winemaker, owns a 16th century castle (1679) in Vinica on the Slovenian border with Croatia. The only room that remains in the castle is the chapel which is where he makes the wine. Two of the saints depicted in the wine cellar chapel are St. Martin (very big saint in Slovenia) and St. Katherine. His nephew, Ignac Strmec is the small boy on the 1961 pictures (along with Mirko). Ignac’s mother was a Mehlic, Mirko’s sister.
The relationships described here are those of our mother, Isabelle, and us.
Barbara is mom’s grandmother, our great grandmother (stella mama) and Franc is our great grandfather. Franc was a travelling salesman in Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Czech. He did well enough at selling to open a shop and inn and sold wood, arranging for shipping of it to Vinica, which at the time was a big business. He was the mayor of Vinica multiple times. He also loaned money although he wasn’t a banker. An economic crisis affected him and not everyone repaid the loans so his business suffered. He and Barbara had 8 daughters and 2 sons, one of which died as a child. Rudolf, the other son, died in 1939 and Mirko knew him personally. Ana (Oton’s mom), Katka and Barbara are the only ones who stayed in Slovenia, all the other sisters went to America, including our stella mama, Johanna, so he lost track of them. (Side note: the reason Mirko gave for going to America was “go with your stomach after the bread”) All the daughters married well so Franc needed large dowry’s which almost broke him. When he died he was poor and only had a housekeeper taking care of him. Rudolf was a large man and could have been the man Judy remembers seeing in a photograph.
Katka, Johanna’s sister, married a shady character, Victor. He took one of his children and left Vinica, never to be seen again.
Grandpa Gorisek was doing well as a business official in finance before he left Slovenia.
Oton’s sister (mom’s first cousin) was living up in Ljubljana and came down to Vinica for the holidays one year and died at 16. Only her mother, Ana, was able to come to the funeral because of money woes. She’s buried in Vinica.
Johanna’s sister, Barbara, married a teacher here in Vinica, Borstnik, whose brother was a great actor and every year an award for high achievement is presented to a person in the arts, called the Borstnik award.
Note: The above is all about Johanna’s father’s side of the family. The next part is about her mother Barbara’s side of the family which is where Mirko comes into play.
Barbara was one of 10 children, 9 of which were daughters (side note: large daughter population on both sides you’ll notice!). Barbara’s loan brother, Ive, is Mirko’s great grandfather. One of Johanna’s first cousins married a Vlasic, our cousins from Pittsburgh (who Mirko knows) are from this side. Vlasic’s first wife died and he married his niece from Marijo’s daughter. Mary Ann Vlasic is Mirko’s szynomic (niece) and his message to Mary Ann, and her siblings Isabelle and Eugene…come see Uncle Mirko!
Mirko’s grandfather, France (wife was Marijo) worked in America for 20 years and would come back to Slovenia every couple of years. Oton would argue with France about the English language – Oton learned it with his eye and France with his ear. France bought the castle and the surrounding fields in 1925 for $1,800. In Slovenia the oldest son inherits the farm, so that’s why Mirko has it (in Croatia all sons split the farm).
Then the wine came out and the history lesson was over, but the wine was good!!
Mirko Mihelic – Winemaker, owns a 16th century castle (1679) in Vinica on the Slovenian border with Croatia. The only room that remains in the castle is the chapel which is where he makes the wine. Two of the saints depicted in the wine cellar chapel are St. Martin (very big saint in Slovenia) and St. Katherine. His nephew, Ignac Strmec is the small boy on the 1961 pictures (along with Mirko). Ignac’s mother was a Mehlic, Mirko’s sister.
The relationships described here are those of our mother, Isabelle, and us.
Barbara is mom’s grandmother, our great grandmother (stella mama) and Franc is our great grandfather. Franc was a travelling salesman in Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Czech. He did well enough at selling to open a shop and inn and sold wood, arranging for shipping of it to Vinica, which at the time was a big business. He was the mayor of Vinica multiple times. He also loaned money although he wasn’t a banker. An economic crisis affected him and not everyone repaid the loans so his business suffered. He and Barbara had 8 daughters and 2 sons, one of which died as a child. Rudolf, the other son, died in 1939 and Mirko knew him personally. Ana (Oton’s mom), Katka and Barbara are the only ones who stayed in Slovenia, all the other sisters went to America, including our stella mama, Johanna, so he lost track of them. (Side note: the reason Mirko gave for going to America was “go with your stomach after the bread”) All the daughters married well so Franc needed large dowry’s which almost broke him. When he died he was poor and only had a housekeeper taking care of him. Rudolf was a large man and could have been the man Judy remembers seeing in a photograph.
Katka, Johanna’s sister, married a shady character, Victor. He took one of his children and left Vinica, never to be seen again.
Grandpa Gorisek was doing well as a business official in finance before he left Slovenia.
Oton’s sister (mom’s first cousin) was living up in Ljubljana and came down to Vinica for the holidays one year and died at 16. Only her mother, Ana, was able to come to the funeral because of money woes. She’s buried in Vinica.
Johanna’s sister, Barbara, married a teacher here in Vinica, Borstnik, whose brother was a great actor and every year an award for high achievement is presented to a person in the arts, called the Borstnik award.
Note: The above is all about Johanna’s father’s side of the family. The next part is about her mother Barbara’s side of the family which is where Mirko comes into play.
Barbara was one of 10 children, 9 of which were daughters (side note: large daughter population on both sides you’ll notice!). Barbara’s loan brother, Ive, is Mirko’s great grandfather. One of Johanna’s first cousins married a Vlasic, our cousins from Pittsburgh (who Mirko knows) are from this side. Vlasic’s first wife died and he married his niece from Marijo’s daughter. Mary Ann Vlasic is Mirko’s szynomic (niece) and his message to Mary Ann, and her siblings Isabelle and Eugene…come see Uncle Mirko!
Mirko’s grandfather, France (wife was Marijo) worked in America for 20 years and would come back to Slovenia every couple of years. Oton would argue with France about the English language – Oton learned it with his eye and France with his ear. France bought the castle and the surrounding fields in 1925 for $1,800. In Slovenia the oldest son inherits the farm, so that’s why Mirko has it (in Croatia all sons split the farm).
Then the wine came out and the history lesson was over, but the wine was good!!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
AC's Journal Entry 10, Thursday, 10/1/08
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Our leave taking day.
After enjoying our second breakfast at the pension and the last meal we shared, the 4 co-travelers headed back to LBJ to finish their shopping and to eat the long sought after gelato! Buzz and I took off for Skofja Loka and strolled through their old town, then headed to the airport for our trip to Zurich for a couple of days, then home. Sad to be leaving SLO and vow to come back to spend more leisure time there.
Biggest disappointments:
Dot – no gelato at the end of the walk
Judy – missed opportunity at Leskove
Clare – the gas fiasco and the last farm’s location and condition
Best: Mirko and the Srpcic’s and the time spent with them.
Favorite place stayed: Dregatus
Judy’s best: Mirko pointing to himself in one of the pictures from 1961 and saying: “That’s me!”
Best Quotes:
“You’ve been in America too long if you don’t drink wine.”
“Slovene’s are nice people…. hard working… smart…. love to sing.”
We added years to our lives with all our laughter
Mountains, mountains and more mountains!
We travelled well together, Our ROOTS were found, and the trip was a success!
Approximately 1600 KM or 800 miles on two tanks of gas….oops I mean diesel.
Our leave taking day.
After enjoying our second breakfast at the pension and the last meal we shared, the 4 co-travelers headed back to LBJ to finish their shopping and to eat the long sought after gelato! Buzz and I took off for Skofja Loka and strolled through their old town, then headed to the airport for our trip to Zurich for a couple of days, then home. Sad to be leaving SLO and vow to come back to spend more leisure time there.
Biggest disappointments:
Dot – no gelato at the end of the walk
Judy – missed opportunity at Leskove
Clare – the gas fiasco and the last farm’s location and condition
Best: Mirko and the Srpcic’s and the time spent with them.
Favorite place stayed: Dregatus
Judy’s best: Mirko pointing to himself in one of the pictures from 1961 and saying: “That’s me!”
Best Quotes:
“You’ve been in America too long if you don’t drink wine.”
“Slovene’s are nice people…. hard working… smart…. love to sing.”
We added years to our lives with all our laughter
Mountains, mountains and more mountains!
We travelled well together, Our ROOTS were found, and the trip was a success!
Approximately 1600 KM or 800 miles on two tanks of gas….oops I mean diesel.
AC's Journal Entry 9, Wednesday, 10/1/08
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
“And the days dwindle down…..to a precious few”
Tatiana, the inn keeper, served the best breakfast yet – fruit, cereal, eggs, croissants, rolls, meats and cheeses – all excellent. We drove into LBJ, parked and walked over to old town where we took a trolley car up the mountain to the castle sitting over the city. It was cold and rainy up there and the tower was already closed for the season, so once again we walked around a bit, took some pics and headed back to the trolley for the ride back down. Too bad the weather wasn’t great, the views were of the entire city were spread out before us. From there we went to the farmer’s market where everyone had lunch from market stands, we shopped for a bit and called Jure to see if he could meet up with us. I should point out that the original plan was for Jure to meet us early in the day and spend the entire day with us, but he got sick the day before so he chose to rest all day so he could join us for dinner at his parent’s house. He met up with us and, since Dot and Carol were now having apoplexy without their fix of gelato, he took us on a “10 minute” walk to get the “best homemade gelato in LBJ”. Well we walked, and we walked and we walked…. closer to 30 minutes. With the prize waiting at the end of the walk, Dot kept up with us!! But…..we get to the shop, Jure takes us inside and we see no gelato!!! He asked them about it and they said “we stop making it on October 1st, its too cold!” Oh no!! The ladies were not happy!! Too, too funny. Despite the lack of gelato, we had some very good pastries and then Jure, Judy, Bill and I took another “10 minute” walk (really about 20) over to get our cars. During that walk, Jure pointed out the Roman wall to us which was built around the city by the Romans and still has some standing sections. Picked up the others and, with Jure leading the way, headed to Stane and Jelena’s for our traditional Slovenian dishes. A potpourri of them were served. First we had an old fashioned Slovenian welcoming assortment, served on the porch, including bread, salt and nuts along with pear brandy, a Czech drink, wine brandy, and wine. Then into the dining room to share the meal consisting of dishes of: Pear with two types of cheese, Klobase with hardboiled egg, ham with hardboiled egg, prosciutto and melon and olives, grated horseradish (great with ham, but by itself very hot) with apple, tomatoes with peppers basil and dressing, cottage cheese pate with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil, delicious breads and wine (of course). We were surprised by the Italian influences with the prosciutto and melon and the way the tomatoes were served – both very Italian. For dessert, Stane made his 6 layer specialty consisting of poppy seeds, cottage cheese with sugar and egg (like mom used to make in her strudel sometimes), apple, and pastry dough. Can’t remember the name of it, but it was VERY good. After dinner we gave them all the goodies we had bought for them.
Jelena showed us pictures of their family through the years, some of which had Stane’s father on them (Dad’s 3rd cousin). What a great evening spent with long lost relatives. They were such gracious hosts and they were truly thrilled to spend time with us…as we were to spend time with them.
With hugs and kisses and promises to keep in touch, we headed home. This was our latest night of all, got back at 10:30, but so much fun, no one minded the late hour.
“And the days dwindle down…..to a precious few”
Tatiana, the inn keeper, served the best breakfast yet – fruit, cereal, eggs, croissants, rolls, meats and cheeses – all excellent. We drove into LBJ, parked and walked over to old town where we took a trolley car up the mountain to the castle sitting over the city. It was cold and rainy up there and the tower was already closed for the season, so once again we walked around a bit, took some pics and headed back to the trolley for the ride back down. Too bad the weather wasn’t great, the views were of the entire city were spread out before us. From there we went to the farmer’s market where everyone had lunch from market stands, we shopped for a bit and called Jure to see if he could meet up with us. I should point out that the original plan was for Jure to meet us early in the day and spend the entire day with us, but he got sick the day before so he chose to rest all day so he could join us for dinner at his parent’s house. He met up with us and, since Dot and Carol were now having apoplexy without their fix of gelato, he took us on a “10 minute” walk to get the “best homemade gelato in LBJ”. Well we walked, and we walked and we walked…. closer to 30 minutes. With the prize waiting at the end of the walk, Dot kept up with us!! But…..we get to the shop, Jure takes us inside and we see no gelato!!! He asked them about it and they said “we stop making it on October 1st, its too cold!” Oh no!! The ladies were not happy!! Too, too funny. Despite the lack of gelato, we had some very good pastries and then Jure, Judy, Bill and I took another “10 minute” walk (really about 20) over to get our cars. During that walk, Jure pointed out the Roman wall to us which was built around the city by the Romans and still has some standing sections. Picked up the others and, with Jure leading the way, headed to Stane and Jelena’s for our traditional Slovenian dishes. A potpourri of them were served. First we had an old fashioned Slovenian welcoming assortment, served on the porch, including bread, salt and nuts along with pear brandy, a Czech drink, wine brandy, and wine. Then into the dining room to share the meal consisting of dishes of: Pear with two types of cheese, Klobase with hardboiled egg, ham with hardboiled egg, prosciutto and melon and olives, grated horseradish (great with ham, but by itself very hot) with apple, tomatoes with peppers basil and dressing, cottage cheese pate with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil, delicious breads and wine (of course). We were surprised by the Italian influences with the prosciutto and melon and the way the tomatoes were served – both very Italian. For dessert, Stane made his 6 layer specialty consisting of poppy seeds, cottage cheese with sugar and egg (like mom used to make in her strudel sometimes), apple, and pastry dough. Can’t remember the name of it, but it was VERY good. After dinner we gave them all the goodies we had bought for them.
Jelena showed us pictures of their family through the years, some of which had Stane’s father on them (Dad’s 3rd cousin). What a great evening spent with long lost relatives. They were such gracious hosts and they were truly thrilled to spend time with us…as we were to spend time with them.
With hugs and kisses and promises to keep in touch, we headed home. This was our latest night of all, got back at 10:30, but so much fun, no one minded the late hour.
AC's Journal Entry 8, Tuesday, 9/30/08
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Time seems to be flying by all of a sudden, now that we only have a few days left.
Olga served a huge breakfast, one thing of note was her honey (I regret not buying some). After we ate we strolled around the property and took some pictures of the fantastic view. I had looked at the map the night before to see determine what location to put in Bella and since our location was the farm, she took us the most direct route which coincided with the map I had. Little did we know it was up and over several mountains with narrow roads but truly expansive vistas – the unfortunate part of it was it added hours to our commute so that didn’t go over very big in either car. We made it to Bohinj Lake, strolled around it a bit, took some pictures, had a cup of coffee (Dot and Carol were hoping for gelato, but they weren’t serving food yet) and hit the road again toward Bled.
Everyone had told us of the two lakes, Bohinj was the most beautiful and least touristy. It was beautiful but since we WERE tourists, we found it somewhat lacking in everything except the beauty, that’s why we didn’t spend much time there. Bled on the other hand is very built up and it too is beautiful. We both found parking places and had our only fast food in Slovenia which no one was very happy with. Guess all that home cooking we were used to spoiled us! Before lunch Buzz and I had stopped into a shop to buy Carly a gift. While he was paying I went outside and then went back in and when I re-entered, the young man there shook my hand, looked me right in the eye, and said “I’m honored to meet you”. HUH? Well, guess what? Buzz had told him about Oton and this man was extremely impressed. He was so sincere in his words, it took me by surprise. After that pleasant encounter and after lunch we headed down to the lake and found that to get to the island there are large gondolas with one rower per boat. All the rowers were lounging in their boats and they have the next one out system, so it wasn’t like they were all hounding us to use them. On the island we walked up the hill to the top (Dot is such a trooper!) and went in the museum where there was an exhibit of nativity scenes (read that Slovenia is the only country that has a dedication to Nativity scene art etc. and the Nativity scene is center stage in their homes). Nothing else to do on the island so we went back down to the boat and we were rowed over to shore, hit the head, and drove to find bee country (an article John had sent from the WSJ on the Slovenia bee country peaked my interest in visiting one particular bee keeper because he sold Nativity sets made of beeswax and since I collect them, I thought I’d buy one)
Found the small town called Begunje na Gorenjsekm at the foot of the Julian alps and proceeded to try to find the bee keeper based on the sparse directions in the article. The streets in this town are extremely narrow and as we were driving through a neighborhood (which was also the main road through town) we saw 2 men working in their yard, so I stopped to ask them for directions. The older man didn’t speak English, but his son did and while he was talking to me they motioned Judy to pull in their driveway. Dorothy showed them the article and asked him for directions to the town, and he said “here, you’re here” then we showed him the name of the beekeeper and he gave us directions. Meanwhile, the woman of the house looked out the window, saw Judy’s car in the driveway and came out with a plate of apple strudel to offer to them. Both men declined, but Judy took one then yelled over to me “I got a piece of strudel!” (sort of like a “nananana, I got a piece and you didn’t). By this time I had turned the car around so I stopped abruptly and yelled back “strudel!!!!” and the kind lady brought the plate over to us. You can bet your life all three of us in my car took a piece. We were absolutely stunned by the gesture. (Buzz tells this story somewhat differently…he thinks she was bringing it out for the men working and Judy said “is that strudel” to her, so what could she do…she offered it. That’s why he didn’t take a piece. But I like Judy’s interpretation better and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!)
Made it to the beekeepers, with one more stop for directions (no strudel at this one), and the son came over from the hives since he spoke English. They led us down to their basement shop and we all bought goodies made of beeswax. The nativity sets were way too large (too many pieces, I was looking for the three main figures only), plus the price was much higher than the journal quoted. BTW, the owners knew nothing of the article and were stunned by it, we were the first Americans to show up, so we gave them our copy of the article. We all bought what we wanted including honey and honey brandy. Some of the beeswax articles we bought we saw in LBJ the next day for 2.5 times the price!!!
Jelena meanwhile had been in contact with us regarding a place to stay so we turned Bella back on and headed to Zbila lake and the pension she had booked for us. A pension is a step up from the farms, full service, and of course a huge breakfast, but slightly higher in price (still cheap though). We checked in and everyone was happy with it, especially Dot since her room was on the first floor this time and she didn’t have to climb steps. The owner was a young lady with a baby on her hip who was extremely friendly (both her and the baby). She directed us to a restaurant on the lake for dinner so we walked down, but since it was late the lake wasn’t visible. We enjoyed the dinner and shared many laughs. Judy had ordered veal stew and they told her she had to have buckwheat mush with it so she ordered that too. It came with what she thought was apples and cinammon on it but with one bite she knew exactly what it was - minced lard. That ended that! Back to pension to bed.
Time seems to be flying by all of a sudden, now that we only have a few days left.
Olga served a huge breakfast, one thing of note was her honey (I regret not buying some). After we ate we strolled around the property and took some pictures of the fantastic view. I had looked at the map the night before to see determine what location to put in Bella and since our location was the farm, she took us the most direct route which coincided with the map I had. Little did we know it was up and over several mountains with narrow roads but truly expansive vistas – the unfortunate part of it was it added hours to our commute so that didn’t go over very big in either car. We made it to Bohinj Lake, strolled around it a bit, took some pictures, had a cup of coffee (Dot and Carol were hoping for gelato, but they weren’t serving food yet) and hit the road again toward Bled.
Everyone had told us of the two lakes, Bohinj was the most beautiful and least touristy. It was beautiful but since we WERE tourists, we found it somewhat lacking in everything except the beauty, that’s why we didn’t spend much time there. Bled on the other hand is very built up and it too is beautiful. We both found parking places and had our only fast food in Slovenia which no one was very happy with. Guess all that home cooking we were used to spoiled us! Before lunch Buzz and I had stopped into a shop to buy Carly a gift. While he was paying I went outside and then went back in and when I re-entered, the young man there shook my hand, looked me right in the eye, and said “I’m honored to meet you”. HUH? Well, guess what? Buzz had told him about Oton and this man was extremely impressed. He was so sincere in his words, it took me by surprise. After that pleasant encounter and after lunch we headed down to the lake and found that to get to the island there are large gondolas with one rower per boat. All the rowers were lounging in their boats and they have the next one out system, so it wasn’t like they were all hounding us to use them. On the island we walked up the hill to the top (Dot is such a trooper!) and went in the museum where there was an exhibit of nativity scenes (read that Slovenia is the only country that has a dedication to Nativity scene art etc. and the Nativity scene is center stage in their homes). Nothing else to do on the island so we went back down to the boat and we were rowed over to shore, hit the head, and drove to find bee country (an article John had sent from the WSJ on the Slovenia bee country peaked my interest in visiting one particular bee keeper because he sold Nativity sets made of beeswax and since I collect them, I thought I’d buy one)
Found the small town called Begunje na Gorenjsekm at the foot of the Julian alps and proceeded to try to find the bee keeper based on the sparse directions in the article. The streets in this town are extremely narrow and as we were driving through a neighborhood (which was also the main road through town) we saw 2 men working in their yard, so I stopped to ask them for directions. The older man didn’t speak English, but his son did and while he was talking to me they motioned Judy to pull in their driveway. Dorothy showed them the article and asked him for directions to the town, and he said “here, you’re here” then we showed him the name of the beekeeper and he gave us directions. Meanwhile, the woman of the house looked out the window, saw Judy’s car in the driveway and came out with a plate of apple strudel to offer to them. Both men declined, but Judy took one then yelled over to me “I got a piece of strudel!” (sort of like a “nananana, I got a piece and you didn’t). By this time I had turned the car around so I stopped abruptly and yelled back “strudel!!!!” and the kind lady brought the plate over to us. You can bet your life all three of us in my car took a piece. We were absolutely stunned by the gesture. (Buzz tells this story somewhat differently…he thinks she was bringing it out for the men working and Judy said “is that strudel” to her, so what could she do…she offered it. That’s why he didn’t take a piece. But I like Judy’s interpretation better and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!)
Made it to the beekeepers, with one more stop for directions (no strudel at this one), and the son came over from the hives since he spoke English. They led us down to their basement shop and we all bought goodies made of beeswax. The nativity sets were way too large (too many pieces, I was looking for the three main figures only), plus the price was much higher than the journal quoted. BTW, the owners knew nothing of the article and were stunned by it, we were the first Americans to show up, so we gave them our copy of the article. We all bought what we wanted including honey and honey brandy. Some of the beeswax articles we bought we saw in LBJ the next day for 2.5 times the price!!!
Jelena meanwhile had been in contact with us regarding a place to stay so we turned Bella back on and headed to Zbila lake and the pension she had booked for us. A pension is a step up from the farms, full service, and of course a huge breakfast, but slightly higher in price (still cheap though). We checked in and everyone was happy with it, especially Dot since her room was on the first floor this time and she didn’t have to climb steps. The owner was a young lady with a baby on her hip who was extremely friendly (both her and the baby). She directed us to a restaurant on the lake for dinner so we walked down, but since it was late the lake wasn’t visible. We enjoyed the dinner and shared many laughs. Judy had ordered veal stew and they told her she had to have buckwheat mush with it so she ordered that too. It came with what she thought was apples and cinammon on it but with one bite she knew exactly what it was - minced lard. That ended that! Back to pension to bed.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
AC's Journal Entry 7, Monday, 9/29/08
Monday, September 29, 2008
Vinica – history fact finding day followed by second tragedy of the trip!!
Had a potica breakfast and met up with Kirk and his son Blaz and headed to Vinica to Mirko’s house. He and his wife greeted us and as she made coffee to serve with her potica, he explained our history which I’ll describe in another journal entry. But suffice it to say here we found out some interesting facts and determined that Mirko is our third cousin on Grandma Johanna Malich’s side (our stella mama in Slovenian). So our ROOT finding trip was successful through both stella mama’s, a 4th cousin on Dad’s side and a 3rd cousin on Mom’s!!! Mirko brought out a bottle of wine and we continued our visit with some laughs all around. When Carol and Dot refused a glass of wine, Mirko told them they were in America too long if they didn’t drink wine….ah, its my Slovenian roots that make me such a lover of the grape…..who knew!! Especially since wine was not served much at 211. Mirko sent us on our way each with a bottle of his wine and a jar of his homemade honey (to be used in this year’s Christmas poticas!!!).
Dropped off Kirk and Blaz in Dragatus and turned on Bella to start on our way to our new farm which was northwest of Ljubljana (named LBJ by Dot). Found a 125 year old restaurant on the way where we stopped for lunch. Expensive at 8 Euro each but with soup, salad, etc. a full meal.
We were traveling on the road around LBJ with Judy following me (which had been successful all along). I looked in my mirror and said “Oh my God, Judy is getting off”. Apparently everyone in her car was admiring the scenery and when she looked back at the road they couldn’t decide which car was mine. They saw a silver car exit and decided to follow it. We were on a busy highway at rush hour with nowhere to pull over so we had no idea what to do. We thought maybe she had needed petro so we turned around and got off at the same exit where we sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes waiting to see if she’d come back. When we got off that exit we did notice that she could have gone straight to get back on the highway but of course we didn’t know that at the time. Plus there were multiple highways at this particular place so we weren’t sure which one she would have taken. (We all admitted we had planned terrible, relying solely on her following me. She knew nothing about where we were going, not the name of the place, the town, nada!!) Meanwhile, in my car we were all sick with worry. Dot wanted to go to the police but we realized they wouldn’t be able to do anything. So after throwing around many ideas we decided to go to the new place and see if by chance they called there (I had provided everyone with itineraries which had the names and phone numbers of the places we were staying. Judy had left her tour book at home but we weren’t sure if she also left the itinerary…..she did!!) Meanwhile, the address I used on Bella wasn’t accurate and we were lost. I turned on Jure’s cell phone (I hadn’t had it on because the battery was very low and he had just given me the charger the day before and I didn’t charge it yet) and there was a text “call me, my parents found your sisters.” We were ecstatic!!! Called him back and he told me the other car called his parents and they were driving them up. He then proceeded to give us directions to this farm (which was a very real farm) and off we set up, you guessed it, another mountain. We made it up to the top and found the right farm and disembarked. When we walked in they told us there had been a call for us and they were on the way!! Rejoice, rejoice. They showed us to our rooms, which were very nice but we had an instant dislike of the place. The entrance hall and stairway weren’t welcoming, the woman’s clothes were dirty, our rooms were 2 flights up, and it was in the middle of nowhere….definitely not what we wanted after the beautiful place in Dregatus. As we were choosing our rooms, we heard the other cars pull in and headed down to greet them with tears of gladness and relief. There story was: when they realized it wasn’t us at the exit, they got back on the main road but of course we were nowhere around (remember it was a multi-laned highway) so they made their way into LBJ and turned into an apartment complex which ended up being a dead end. Fully frustrated now, they saw a young woman, Valentine, walking and stopped her to explain there bizarre circumstances. Judy said “we’re lost”. She asked where they were going…Judy said: “we don’t know”. The girl clearly was confused by this scene. They told her they knew one person here in town and could she call them. She was able to get the number and called Stane who found out where their location and he told her to tell them he’d be over in less than 10 minutes. Miracles do happen!!! So Stane and Jelena drove their car over and Stane climbed in with Judy et al and they followed Jelena to our remote inn. After hugs and tears and gratitude showing were completed, I asked Jelena to find us another place to stay, which she readily agreed to do. We had found our angels in Slovenia!! The Srpcics departed and we headed into the dining room to eat. Olga greeted us with a small aperitif of some kind then served us a chicken dinner. It was good but none of us were really in a mood to enjoy it. Olga’s daughter spoke English so we told her we had decided the place was too remote and we’d be staying only one night. We sat around and talked the rest of the night and went up to our rooms to sleep. The day ended with us all together again so that was the most important thing.
Vinica – history fact finding day followed by second tragedy of the trip!!
Had a potica breakfast and met up with Kirk and his son Blaz and headed to Vinica to Mirko’s house. He and his wife greeted us and as she made coffee to serve with her potica, he explained our history which I’ll describe in another journal entry. But suffice it to say here we found out some interesting facts and determined that Mirko is our third cousin on Grandma Johanna Malich’s side (our stella mama in Slovenian). So our ROOT finding trip was successful through both stella mama’s, a 4th cousin on Dad’s side and a 3rd cousin on Mom’s!!! Mirko brought out a bottle of wine and we continued our visit with some laughs all around. When Carol and Dot refused a glass of wine, Mirko told them they were in America too long if they didn’t drink wine….ah, its my Slovenian roots that make me such a lover of the grape…..who knew!! Especially since wine was not served much at 211. Mirko sent us on our way each with a bottle of his wine and a jar of his homemade honey (to be used in this year’s Christmas poticas!!!).
Dropped off Kirk and Blaz in Dragatus and turned on Bella to start on our way to our new farm which was northwest of Ljubljana (named LBJ by Dot). Found a 125 year old restaurant on the way where we stopped for lunch. Expensive at 8 Euro each but with soup, salad, etc. a full meal.
We were traveling on the road around LBJ with Judy following me (which had been successful all along). I looked in my mirror and said “Oh my God, Judy is getting off”. Apparently everyone in her car was admiring the scenery and when she looked back at the road they couldn’t decide which car was mine. They saw a silver car exit and decided to follow it. We were on a busy highway at rush hour with nowhere to pull over so we had no idea what to do. We thought maybe she had needed petro so we turned around and got off at the same exit where we sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes waiting to see if she’d come back. When we got off that exit we did notice that she could have gone straight to get back on the highway but of course we didn’t know that at the time. Plus there were multiple highways at this particular place so we weren’t sure which one she would have taken. (We all admitted we had planned terrible, relying solely on her following me. She knew nothing about where we were going, not the name of the place, the town, nada!!) Meanwhile, in my car we were all sick with worry. Dot wanted to go to the police but we realized they wouldn’t be able to do anything. So after throwing around many ideas we decided to go to the new place and see if by chance they called there (I had provided everyone with itineraries which had the names and phone numbers of the places we were staying. Judy had left her tour book at home but we weren’t sure if she also left the itinerary…..she did!!) Meanwhile, the address I used on Bella wasn’t accurate and we were lost. I turned on Jure’s cell phone (I hadn’t had it on because the battery was very low and he had just given me the charger the day before and I didn’t charge it yet) and there was a text “call me, my parents found your sisters.” We were ecstatic!!! Called him back and he told me the other car called his parents and they were driving them up. He then proceeded to give us directions to this farm (which was a very real farm) and off we set up, you guessed it, another mountain. We made it up to the top and found the right farm and disembarked. When we walked in they told us there had been a call for us and they were on the way!! Rejoice, rejoice. They showed us to our rooms, which were very nice but we had an instant dislike of the place. The entrance hall and stairway weren’t welcoming, the woman’s clothes were dirty, our rooms were 2 flights up, and it was in the middle of nowhere….definitely not what we wanted after the beautiful place in Dregatus. As we were choosing our rooms, we heard the other cars pull in and headed down to greet them with tears of gladness and relief. There story was: when they realized it wasn’t us at the exit, they got back on the main road but of course we were nowhere around (remember it was a multi-laned highway) so they made their way into LBJ and turned into an apartment complex which ended up being a dead end. Fully frustrated now, they saw a young woman, Valentine, walking and stopped her to explain there bizarre circumstances. Judy said “we’re lost”. She asked where they were going…Judy said: “we don’t know”. The girl clearly was confused by this scene. They told her they knew one person here in town and could she call them. She was able to get the number and called Stane who found out where their location and he told her to tell them he’d be over in less than 10 minutes. Miracles do happen!!! So Stane and Jelena drove their car over and Stane climbed in with Judy et al and they followed Jelena to our remote inn. After hugs and tears and gratitude showing were completed, I asked Jelena to find us another place to stay, which she readily agreed to do. We had found our angels in Slovenia!! The Srpcics departed and we headed into the dining room to eat. Olga greeted us with a small aperitif of some kind then served us a chicken dinner. It was good but none of us were really in a mood to enjoy it. Olga’s daughter spoke English so we told her we had decided the place was too remote and we’d be staying only one night. We sat around and talked the rest of the night and went up to our rooms to sleep. The day ended with us all together again so that was the most important thing.
AC's Journal Entry 6, Sunday, 9/28/08
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Today we’re heading to Leskovec to meet Jure and his parents!
Went to mass at 8 a.m. then back for breakfast. While we were eating Buzz met up with the tennis pro (arranged the day before) and went down to the red clay courts to hit with him so he was in heaven!! Heaven quickly turned to hell when we got on the road and I put gas in a diesel engine…..OUCH. Dead car in the middle of the road!! Buzz and Bill (yes, the man who recently had open heart surgery) pushed the car around the corner and after much discussion, Judy, Bill and Buzz drove back to the gas station for help. After some time the folks around our car told an English speaking neighbor about us and he came over and told us the gas station wasn’t going to be able to help us, we needed the emergency road service. So he told me hop in, which I did, and he drove me to the emergency road shop in the same town. The door was open, the radio was playing but no one was there. We were going to wait, but I said maybe the gas station called them and they were at my car. Sure enough when we got back the car was on the tow truck. We thanked our good Samaritan (tried to give him some Euros for his trouble but he wouldn’t take them) and went back to the emergency place and waited while they drained the diesel fuel out of my car and gave me 10L of gas to the tune of 135 Euros….YIKES. we had been in touch with Jure by phone so he realized we’d be late…..and we were about 1.5 hours late. Met up with Jure and his parents, Jelena and Stane, in the middle of the town and they informed us Pepe Arh’s bar was already closed for the day and he was out picking grapes. During the 1.5 hours of waiting for us they had talked to Pepe’s wife who said her in-laws (now dead) had talked about the Americans coming for a visit, gone all around Leskovec researching what they could of the Arh family and took pictures in the cemetery of all the Arh’s grave and at this point, we’re not even sure we were related to Pepe or Roman who were both on the 1961 pictures because there are so many Arh’s in that area. We’re wondering if Mom and Dad ever actually found his relatives. So we bagged everything and went to eat at a nearby restaurant, the Paradise, which was anything but… wasn’t very good thus proving to us that all Slovenian cooks aren’t great cooks. We sat over dinner for ages just visiting with the Srpcics and getting to know each other (all at their treat) imbibing in the “best wine in all the world for your heart” according to Stane. We then parted ways and drove back to Dregatus. I should say that on the maps Dregatus, and Vinica for that matter, don’t look very far away. However, the road is up and down and all around mountains and it takes much longer to get to and from there than we had originally thought. One of the drawbacks of that area! We had planned to go to Vinica to tell Alex he didn’t have to interpret for us on Monday when we visited Mirko, and had decided to drop all off at the farm and Judy and I would head on down. However, when we got out of the cars, Rena called us over (our rooms were across the street and really I call it a farm because that’s what the tourist books call it but it was more a large B&B). She had made a beautiful potica for us which looked just like the ones on the brochures – round and high with powdered sugar on it. They invited us down into the wine bar under the restaurant which we hadn’t even noticed previously and Raymond sat with us and shared a bottle of Muscat, a sweet dessert wine, over potica. Since our plans were now in disarray regarding Alex, I went upstairs to see if they could call Mirko to tell him we’d be down earlier in the day with an interpreter. Rena’s daughter-in-law spoke beautiful English so she understood me well and they made the call. All was cool with Mirko so I went back to the wine cellar to finish my potica and Muscat before heading to bed. We all agreed the potica wasn’t as good as ours, it had something in it whose taste we couldn’t identify as well as raisons.
Today we’re heading to Leskovec to meet Jure and his parents!
Went to mass at 8 a.m. then back for breakfast. While we were eating Buzz met up with the tennis pro (arranged the day before) and went down to the red clay courts to hit with him so he was in heaven!! Heaven quickly turned to hell when we got on the road and I put gas in a diesel engine…..OUCH. Dead car in the middle of the road!! Buzz and Bill (yes, the man who recently had open heart surgery) pushed the car around the corner and after much discussion, Judy, Bill and Buzz drove back to the gas station for help. After some time the folks around our car told an English speaking neighbor about us and he came over and told us the gas station wasn’t going to be able to help us, we needed the emergency road service. So he told me hop in, which I did, and he drove me to the emergency road shop in the same town. The door was open, the radio was playing but no one was there. We were going to wait, but I said maybe the gas station called them and they were at my car. Sure enough when we got back the car was on the tow truck. We thanked our good Samaritan (tried to give him some Euros for his trouble but he wouldn’t take them) and went back to the emergency place and waited while they drained the diesel fuel out of my car and gave me 10L of gas to the tune of 135 Euros….YIKES. we had been in touch with Jure by phone so he realized we’d be late…..and we were about 1.5 hours late. Met up with Jure and his parents, Jelena and Stane, in the middle of the town and they informed us Pepe Arh’s bar was already closed for the day and he was out picking grapes. During the 1.5 hours of waiting for us they had talked to Pepe’s wife who said her in-laws (now dead) had talked about the Americans coming for a visit, gone all around Leskovec researching what they could of the Arh family and took pictures in the cemetery of all the Arh’s grave and at this point, we’re not even sure we were related to Pepe or Roman who were both on the 1961 pictures because there are so many Arh’s in that area. We’re wondering if Mom and Dad ever actually found his relatives. So we bagged everything and went to eat at a nearby restaurant, the Paradise, which was anything but… wasn’t very good thus proving to us that all Slovenian cooks aren’t great cooks. We sat over dinner for ages just visiting with the Srpcics and getting to know each other (all at their treat) imbibing in the “best wine in all the world for your heart” according to Stane. We then parted ways and drove back to Dregatus. I should say that on the maps Dregatus, and Vinica for that matter, don’t look very far away. However, the road is up and down and all around mountains and it takes much longer to get to and from there than we had originally thought. One of the drawbacks of that area! We had planned to go to Vinica to tell Alex he didn’t have to interpret for us on Monday when we visited Mirko, and had decided to drop all off at the farm and Judy and I would head on down. However, when we got out of the cars, Rena called us over (our rooms were across the street and really I call it a farm because that’s what the tourist books call it but it was more a large B&B). She had made a beautiful potica for us which looked just like the ones on the brochures – round and high with powdered sugar on it. They invited us down into the wine bar under the restaurant which we hadn’t even noticed previously and Raymond sat with us and shared a bottle of Muscat, a sweet dessert wine, over potica. Since our plans were now in disarray regarding Alex, I went upstairs to see if they could call Mirko to tell him we’d be down earlier in the day with an interpreter. Rena’s daughter-in-law spoke beautiful English so she understood me well and they made the call. All was cool with Mirko so I went back to the wine cellar to finish my potica and Muscat before heading to bed. We all agreed the potica wasn’t as good as ours, it had something in it whose taste we couldn’t identify as well as raisons.
AC's Journal Entry 5, Saturday, 9/27/08
Saturday, September 27, 2008
We were met at breakfast by Rena’s husband, Raymond, who came to show us the purchase documents of their house which was bought from Oton’s parents by Raymond’s grandfather. He didn’t speak much English but we were able to get by enough to understand what he was explaining and showing to us. One of the pictures he showed us from WWII showed Dregatus completely bombed.
We are definitely celebrities here. As we were leaving for the day to head down to Vinica, he came out and stopped a woman from Vinica who was arriving by car to ask if she knew any Gorisek’s. Unfortunately, she spoke no English either so all of a sudden he yells to another car with a woman driving away. He went over to talk to her and before we knew it she was out of her car willing to help, even though she wasn’t from Vinica. They came up with the name of a woman to help us but when they called her on the phone found out she was in the hospital. Oh well, dead end there. But they encouraged us to go down and ask so we started out marveling at how nice the Slovenians were!!!
Before we got in the car, Buzz invited this woman, Julijana, to come that night to the restaurant to have dinner or drinks with us. She declined dinner but said she might come for drinks….more on that much later.
After a brief mis-navigation on the part of me, not Bella, we made it to Vinica. Actually we had driven through it (during that drive Carol saw a sign for Oton’s museum but didn’t mention it at that time) and passed the border to Croatia. Since Vinica sits on the Kolpe river which is actually the border of the EU there’s a patrolled border crossing into Croatia. Some of us didn’t have our passports with us so we couldn’t venture across the border (which we really hadn’t planned on anyhow). After we turned around, Carol asked me if I had seen the museum sign. I hadn’t so we went back through the town, found the sign, and realized the museum was right on the main street. So we parked the car and ventured out finding Alex a bit down the street working in his yard with his mother in law and young daughter.
Carol, Dot and I went into a café (read bar) and I had a cup of coffee. Carol and Dot didn’t stay long and afterwards told me there were porn pictures on the wall by the bar. I never noticed them because I was attempting to ask the young female bartender and two men if they knew Gorisek or Malich. They tried to help me but sign language just wasn’t working (I think the girl could understand English but didn’t feel comfortable speaking it). So I left the bar and when I joined the others they had befriend Alex, who spoke perfect English (for his kindness, Judy gave him one of her Steelers bags) so since the museum was closed, he phoned the girl in charge of it and told us it would take awhile for her to arrive.
He joined us in the museum in which we spent a fair amount of time looking at everything …enough time for me to break one of the glass cases by leaning on it…..resulting in much laughter. Buzz left some euros with Metka, the docent of the museum, to cover the cost which they kept insisting was unnecessary. Alex then made arrangements to for us to meet Mirko Malich (who ended up being our 3rd cousin). He happens to be a wine maker in the town’s castle (told you I love this country) so this being the busiest weekend in entire country with every male out picking grapes he could only spare a short amount of time with us. Judy showed him the 1961 pictures she brought with her and he pointed to one of them and said “that’s me!”, then he pointed to the little boy on the photo and said “that’s my nephew Ignac Strmec who’s in the castle making wine”. This was one of the most exciting things said to us during the entire trip. To realize we were actually tracing our parents’ steps and talking to the same people they did some 40 odd years ago. WOW!!! Mirko also makes wine (red) in the cellar of his home, so he walked us up there to share some wine with us. His porch has a great view overlooking the river, with Croatia beyond it. He told us our grandmother had swum in that river as a young girl. Another WOW!! We then headed over to the castle where the white wine is made and the grapes were being processed in, of all places, the castle’s chapel, I love these people! Another taste, a lesson on how to really wish a traditional Slovenian toast (nostravya) with a wine glass (hold it by the stem, not the bowl to get a good TING). We left them to their work and stopped at a restaurant for some pizza. (Its hard to find restaurants in Slovenia, most cafes offer only coffee, drinks and maybe desserts.) While eating we met another nice couple (the woman asked me if I was related to so and so!) who showed us a town on the Slovenian map that our grandfather Gorisek was probably from. They too were very impressed that we were related to Oton (notice we’re using that bit of info everywhere we go!).
After lunch we headed back to the “farm” and took a nap before dinner….hmmm, could it have been the wine!! Went over to dinner which I thought was just ok (noodle soup, salad, beef with vegetable sauce, potatoes and, for dessert crepes with jelly). This farm has a huge restaurant and tour buses bring locals there for dinner and dancing. You don’t walk in off the street (unless you’re related to Oton, of course as we found out last night) for dinner but come by bus with all your friends or neighbors. The place was lively with Slovene music piped in and dancing and drinking, a lot of fun. The English teacher, Julji we met that morning came with her husband to share some wine with us and translated Oton’s poem that was on the napkin: “The wine if flowing, I’m happy, and you’re the cause (of my happiness)”. This was after much laughing over the translation provided to us from a nearby table which was “The wine is flowing, I’m happy and its your fault”. Julji also translated a Slovenian phrase from our childhood for me phonetic here: “Marishka koplanavich peelanich platula, capadaylish?” She translated (if I remember correctly): “Mary Smith (smith used as an example of a common Slovenian name) you drank without paying, why would you do that?” I told Julji that we had been hoping for potica so she promised us we’d have it before we left and she went off to talk to Rena about it. She came back and said that Rena had made it for dinner then a whole group had shown up for dinner on the wrong day so she gave it to them and we got the crepes. Of course we all thought she should have given them the crepes!!! After dinner Julji took us to her school for a tour and we arranged for her daughter to come on Monday to go to Mirko’s as our translator. She was very proud of her school but compared to a school in the US it was sparsely equipped. On the walk to her school we met 3 of her 8th grade students who, guess what?, were very impressed that we were related to Oton. It goes on and on!!
We were met at breakfast by Rena’s husband, Raymond, who came to show us the purchase documents of their house which was bought from Oton’s parents by Raymond’s grandfather. He didn’t speak much English but we were able to get by enough to understand what he was explaining and showing to us. One of the pictures he showed us from WWII showed Dregatus completely bombed.
We are definitely celebrities here. As we were leaving for the day to head down to Vinica, he came out and stopped a woman from Vinica who was arriving by car to ask if she knew any Gorisek’s. Unfortunately, she spoke no English either so all of a sudden he yells to another car with a woman driving away. He went over to talk to her and before we knew it she was out of her car willing to help, even though she wasn’t from Vinica. They came up with the name of a woman to help us but when they called her on the phone found out she was in the hospital. Oh well, dead end there. But they encouraged us to go down and ask so we started out marveling at how nice the Slovenians were!!!
Before we got in the car, Buzz invited this woman, Julijana, to come that night to the restaurant to have dinner or drinks with us. She declined dinner but said she might come for drinks….more on that much later.
After a brief mis-navigation on the part of me, not Bella, we made it to Vinica. Actually we had driven through it (during that drive Carol saw a sign for Oton’s museum but didn’t mention it at that time) and passed the border to Croatia. Since Vinica sits on the Kolpe river which is actually the border of the EU there’s a patrolled border crossing into Croatia. Some of us didn’t have our passports with us so we couldn’t venture across the border (which we really hadn’t planned on anyhow). After we turned around, Carol asked me if I had seen the museum sign. I hadn’t so we went back through the town, found the sign, and realized the museum was right on the main street. So we parked the car and ventured out finding Alex a bit down the street working in his yard with his mother in law and young daughter.
Carol, Dot and I went into a café (read bar) and I had a cup of coffee. Carol and Dot didn’t stay long and afterwards told me there were porn pictures on the wall by the bar. I never noticed them because I was attempting to ask the young female bartender and two men if they knew Gorisek or Malich. They tried to help me but sign language just wasn’t working (I think the girl could understand English but didn’t feel comfortable speaking it). So I left the bar and when I joined the others they had befriend Alex, who spoke perfect English (for his kindness, Judy gave him one of her Steelers bags) so since the museum was closed, he phoned the girl in charge of it and told us it would take awhile for her to arrive.
He joined us in the museum in which we spent a fair amount of time looking at everything …enough time for me to break one of the glass cases by leaning on it…..resulting in much laughter. Buzz left some euros with Metka, the docent of the museum, to cover the cost which they kept insisting was unnecessary. Alex then made arrangements to for us to meet Mirko Malich (who ended up being our 3rd cousin). He happens to be a wine maker in the town’s castle (told you I love this country) so this being the busiest weekend in entire country with every male out picking grapes he could only spare a short amount of time with us. Judy showed him the 1961 pictures she brought with her and he pointed to one of them and said “that’s me!”, then he pointed to the little boy on the photo and said “that’s my nephew Ignac Strmec who’s in the castle making wine”. This was one of the most exciting things said to us during the entire trip. To realize we were actually tracing our parents’ steps and talking to the same people they did some 40 odd years ago. WOW!!! Mirko also makes wine (red) in the cellar of his home, so he walked us up there to share some wine with us. His porch has a great view overlooking the river, with Croatia beyond it. He told us our grandmother had swum in that river as a young girl. Another WOW!! We then headed over to the castle where the white wine is made and the grapes were being processed in, of all places, the castle’s chapel, I love these people! Another taste, a lesson on how to really wish a traditional Slovenian toast (nostravya) with a wine glass (hold it by the stem, not the bowl to get a good TING). We left them to their work and stopped at a restaurant for some pizza. (Its hard to find restaurants in Slovenia, most cafes offer only coffee, drinks and maybe desserts.) While eating we met another nice couple (the woman asked me if I was related to so and so!) who showed us a town on the Slovenian map that our grandfather Gorisek was probably from. They too were very impressed that we were related to Oton (notice we’re using that bit of info everywhere we go!).
After lunch we headed back to the “farm” and took a nap before dinner….hmmm, could it have been the wine!! Went over to dinner which I thought was just ok (noodle soup, salad, beef with vegetable sauce, potatoes and, for dessert crepes with jelly). This farm has a huge restaurant and tour buses bring locals there for dinner and dancing. You don’t walk in off the street (unless you’re related to Oton, of course as we found out last night) for dinner but come by bus with all your friends or neighbors. The place was lively with Slovene music piped in and dancing and drinking, a lot of fun. The English teacher, Julji we met that morning came with her husband to share some wine with us and translated Oton’s poem that was on the napkin: “The wine if flowing, I’m happy, and you’re the cause (of my happiness)”. This was after much laughing over the translation provided to us from a nearby table which was “The wine is flowing, I’m happy and its your fault”. Julji also translated a Slovenian phrase from our childhood for me phonetic here: “Marishka koplanavich peelanich platula, capadaylish?” She translated (if I remember correctly): “Mary Smith (smith used as an example of a common Slovenian name) you drank without paying, why would you do that?” I told Julji that we had been hoping for potica so she promised us we’d have it before we left and she went off to talk to Rena about it. She came back and said that Rena had made it for dinner then a whole group had shown up for dinner on the wrong day so she gave it to them and we got the crepes. Of course we all thought she should have given them the crepes!!! After dinner Julji took us to her school for a tour and we arranged for her daughter to come on Monday to go to Mirko’s as our translator. She was very proud of her school but compared to a school in the US it was sparsely equipped. On the walk to her school we met 3 of her 8th grade students who, guess what?, were very impressed that we were related to Oton. It goes on and on!!
Friday, October 17, 2008
AC's Journal Entry 4, Friday, 9/26/08
Friday, September 26, 2008
Had our final breakfast at the Abram farm and paid our bill 150 Euros for 3 nights plus all breakfasts and dinners and wine, water, and cokes!!! Can you beat that?? Packed up the cars, bid farewells to farm and Italian friend, Ricardo (his wife drank too much wine the night before and was a bit under the weather) and drove for the last time DOWN the mountain.
Headed directly to Predjama Castle/Cave built into the side of mountain. Toured the castle and was able to walk up into the rock as far as we could offering great views of the valley below (although limited with just a small opening for Erasmus’ (the castle’s owner) safety while on the run). Truly an amazing structure complete with a chapel, a torture chamber, a prison, and a balcony over which the friar could watch the torture (what’s wrong with that picture?). We had lunch at the café on the grounds and encountered our first rude waiter (guess that occurs in all countries) treating us like we were the most stupid people he had ever waited on. I had grilled mushrooms with cheese but it was so overly salty it was ruined. From the castle we drove to the well known Postojna caves. Dot opted to stay in the car and the rest of us raced up the hill, at Carol’s urging, to make the 3 PM tour. Took a train about a mile into the bowels of the cave (sort of like a Disney ride, only the real thing) to start the tour. Our tour guide rushed very fast up a walkway to start his narrative – the rushing was half to get us ahead of the next group and half to warm us up since the cave was very cold, but we were worn out from that! He walked the group through a mile of cave, starting off over a bridge built by the Russians during the war. Words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of the caves, truly something to behold. The tour lasted an hour but by the time we got to the car it was 90 minutes. Dot read and took a little snooze while she waited for us.
We then put Bella to work to get us to Dregatus and our next farm. After several miscues (mine not Bella’s) and a traffic jam (our first) we made it in 3 hours. Without the miscues and traffic the trip probably would have been 2 hours. One miscue caused us to be driving on a dirt road literally through rows of corn. The thing about Slovenia is if you miss a turn its not like you can take the next turn and box it back to where you should be and with Judy following it was more difficult to correct errors. I know, making excuses for my errors!!!
The fun started when we arrived in Dregatus at the “farm” which isn’t really a farm at all but an inn with a restaurant located in the middle of a town (with a red clay tennis court, I might point out). As soon as we pulled up we were greeted by Rena in front of the place with hand gestures saying “sleep”. We said yes but then rubbed our bellies, saying “hungry”. Rena went and got her English-speaking daughter, Mika, who informed us we couldn’t eat there but would have to go to a restaurant. She explained further when we showed our confusion, the Rena only cooks by reservation and since we hadn’t told her we’d be there for dinner…..no dinner for you!!! However, things changed when we told Mika we were related to Oton Zupancic. All of a sudden Rena would make us a salad!! We were led into the Oton Zupancic room where pictures of Oton and his family lined the walls and his books on the room’s book shelves. They closed the door and we were expecting to be served a salad. First came the waitress for our drink order (can you guess what I ordered?) then came Rena, first with a huge platter of French fries, then came a salad, and then chicken with cheese and onion sauce over it, alas no dessert. Our first encounter of fame at the mention of Oton’s name. Unbelievable, but it wouldn’t be our last!!
While we were standing outside waiting to find out what our dinner fate would be, a young man began playing an accordion on the bar’s porch and everyone on the porch started singing along. Just like in our youth….Slovenian music…..all of us felt the urge to polka!! Then down the street comes the town drunk singing along and tripping the light fantastic. Judy caught sight of a person coming our way and thought it was Rena coming to show us our room and she waved at him with a big smile. I think he thought she wanted to dance!!! Got a good chuckle out of that.
After that great meal, Rena led us to our rooms which were the most beautiful of the trip and more than we expected. The heat in Carol and Dot’s room wasn’t working but Rena fixed it immediately. The rooms and baths were all very spacious. To bed!!
Had our final breakfast at the Abram farm and paid our bill 150 Euros for 3 nights plus all breakfasts and dinners and wine, water, and cokes!!! Can you beat that?? Packed up the cars, bid farewells to farm and Italian friend, Ricardo (his wife drank too much wine the night before and was a bit under the weather) and drove for the last time DOWN the mountain.
Headed directly to Predjama Castle/Cave built into the side of mountain. Toured the castle and was able to walk up into the rock as far as we could offering great views of the valley below (although limited with just a small opening for Erasmus’ (the castle’s owner) safety while on the run). Truly an amazing structure complete with a chapel, a torture chamber, a prison, and a balcony over which the friar could watch the torture (what’s wrong with that picture?). We had lunch at the café on the grounds and encountered our first rude waiter (guess that occurs in all countries) treating us like we were the most stupid people he had ever waited on. I had grilled mushrooms with cheese but it was so overly salty it was ruined. From the castle we drove to the well known Postojna caves. Dot opted to stay in the car and the rest of us raced up the hill, at Carol’s urging, to make the 3 PM tour. Took a train about a mile into the bowels of the cave (sort of like a Disney ride, only the real thing) to start the tour. Our tour guide rushed very fast up a walkway to start his narrative – the rushing was half to get us ahead of the next group and half to warm us up since the cave was very cold, but we were worn out from that! He walked the group through a mile of cave, starting off over a bridge built by the Russians during the war. Words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of the caves, truly something to behold. The tour lasted an hour but by the time we got to the car it was 90 minutes. Dot read and took a little snooze while she waited for us.
We then put Bella to work to get us to Dregatus and our next farm. After several miscues (mine not Bella’s) and a traffic jam (our first) we made it in 3 hours. Without the miscues and traffic the trip probably would have been 2 hours. One miscue caused us to be driving on a dirt road literally through rows of corn. The thing about Slovenia is if you miss a turn its not like you can take the next turn and box it back to where you should be and with Judy following it was more difficult to correct errors. I know, making excuses for my errors!!!
The fun started when we arrived in Dregatus at the “farm” which isn’t really a farm at all but an inn with a restaurant located in the middle of a town (with a red clay tennis court, I might point out). As soon as we pulled up we were greeted by Rena in front of the place with hand gestures saying “sleep”. We said yes but then rubbed our bellies, saying “hungry”. Rena went and got her English-speaking daughter, Mika, who informed us we couldn’t eat there but would have to go to a restaurant. She explained further when we showed our confusion, the Rena only cooks by reservation and since we hadn’t told her we’d be there for dinner…..no dinner for you!!! However, things changed when we told Mika we were related to Oton Zupancic. All of a sudden Rena would make us a salad!! We were led into the Oton Zupancic room where pictures of Oton and his family lined the walls and his books on the room’s book shelves. They closed the door and we were expecting to be served a salad. First came the waitress for our drink order (can you guess what I ordered?) then came Rena, first with a huge platter of French fries, then came a salad, and then chicken with cheese and onion sauce over it, alas no dessert. Our first encounter of fame at the mention of Oton’s name. Unbelievable, but it wouldn’t be our last!!
While we were standing outside waiting to find out what our dinner fate would be, a young man began playing an accordion on the bar’s porch and everyone on the porch started singing along. Just like in our youth….Slovenian music…..all of us felt the urge to polka!! Then down the street comes the town drunk singing along and tripping the light fantastic. Judy caught sight of a person coming our way and thought it was Rena coming to show us our room and she waved at him with a big smile. I think he thought she wanted to dance!!! Got a good chuckle out of that.
After that great meal, Rena led us to our rooms which were the most beautiful of the trip and more than we expected. The heat in Carol and Dot’s room wasn’t working but Rena fixed it immediately. The rooms and baths were all very spacious. To bed!!
AC's Journal Entry 4, Day 4, 9/25/08
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Since Bill had arrived with a cold, he opted to stay at the Farm today, foregoing joining us in our plans, so that he can get well quicker. We had breakfast at 9 then the 5 of us piled in one car to head to Piran. Went with Bella (formerly, Ms. GPS really named Isabelle after mom, but shortened to Bella) leading us with no miscues. Went along a road right beside the Adriatic sea so got some beautiful views of it, parked the car and walked first through small alleyways which were too hard for Dot to walk on so we changed our course and went back to walk along the water to the main square. In the main square there were a group of students and because of the slick surface, one would lay on their back and two would grab their arms and pull them. I told Dot we’d do that with her and that would surely help her walking, but she wasn’t game so we all stayed upright on our two feet. We did some shopping in the square (chocolates and salt) then had a light lunch of pizza followed by gelato which made Carol and Dot VERY happy. Walked around Piran some more and I put my feet in the Adriatic for the first time in my life (hopefully, not the last), and then we headed back to the car for the drive to Lipica to see the horses.
We arrived in Lipica in time for the 4 PM tour (lasted 45 minutes) after which we did some shopping in their store. During the tour we walked through the stables, petting some of the horses as we went, and saw one girl working out her horse. We were told only the males are trained to perform dressage, the females used only for breeding. Beautiful large horses with great heritage. This is the oldest and largest stud farm in the world. These horses were highlighted in the movie “Patten”.
Arrived back at Abram's for our last of Anita’s dinner consisting of chicken noodle soup, salad, roasted chicken with great mashed potatoes (probably LOADED with butter) and peas, cheese strudel for dessert (cheese strudel was always my favorite but Anita’s wasn’t as good as mom’s) and Judy, Bill and I shared another liter of wine.
Back to room by 8:30. Another great day on schedule with itinerary and sights planned to visit. Tomorrow – castle, caves and new farm.
Since Bill had arrived with a cold, he opted to stay at the Farm today, foregoing joining us in our plans, so that he can get well quicker. We had breakfast at 9 then the 5 of us piled in one car to head to Piran. Went with Bella (formerly, Ms. GPS really named Isabelle after mom, but shortened to Bella) leading us with no miscues. Went along a road right beside the Adriatic sea so got some beautiful views of it, parked the car and walked first through small alleyways which were too hard for Dot to walk on so we changed our course and went back to walk along the water to the main square. In the main square there were a group of students and because of the slick surface, one would lay on their back and two would grab their arms and pull them. I told Dot we’d do that with her and that would surely help her walking, but she wasn’t game so we all stayed upright on our two feet. We did some shopping in the square (chocolates and salt) then had a light lunch of pizza followed by gelato which made Carol and Dot VERY happy. Walked around Piran some more and I put my feet in the Adriatic for the first time in my life (hopefully, not the last), and then we headed back to the car for the drive to Lipica to see the horses.
We arrived in Lipica in time for the 4 PM tour (lasted 45 minutes) after which we did some shopping in their store. During the tour we walked through the stables, petting some of the horses as we went, and saw one girl working out her horse. We were told only the males are trained to perform dressage, the females used only for breeding. Beautiful large horses with great heritage. This is the oldest and largest stud farm in the world. These horses were highlighted in the movie “Patten”.
Arrived back at Abram's for our last of Anita’s dinner consisting of chicken noodle soup, salad, roasted chicken with great mashed potatoes (probably LOADED with butter) and peas, cheese strudel for dessert (cheese strudel was always my favorite but Anita’s wasn’t as good as mom’s) and Judy, Bill and I shared another liter of wine.
Back to room by 8:30. Another great day on schedule with itinerary and sights planned to visit. Tomorrow – castle, caves and new farm.
AC's Journal Entry 3, Day 3, 9/24/08
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Judy and Bill arrive. All plans are definitely working…well, except Buzz and I both overslept – we meant to get up early to shower before breakfast but since we were awake for so long last night – we overslept and got up at 8:55 just in time to meet Dot and Carol for breakfast at 9. So we showered after breakfast and got a later start than we had planned, but start we did and of course our start consisted of a ride DOWN the hill (better than going up in the dark but it still took 35 minutes and has 15 hairpin curves whether you’re going up or down.) BTW, we were assured by the son on the farm (who speaks English) that this road was the best and shortest route – YIKES!
We made it to Ljubljana with plans to meet Judy and Bill at the Hotel Slon for lunch at 1 (Mom and Dad had stayed there in 1961). We weren’t there 5 minutes when they walked in the door, tired but happy to be there, although Bill had quite a cold. We had a wonderful lunch with soup, salad, main course and drinks for 10 euro per person. My first glass of Slovenian wine was the cheapest drink, 1.5 euro for a healthy sized glass, cheaper than the water and coke the others had….I’m going to like this country!! We ate long and leisurely then walked through old town for awhile doing our first bit of shopping along the river at various vendors.
Left Ljubljana around 4:30 and headed back to farm – arriving at 6 PM in time for dinner at 7. Anita served bullet soup (like mom’s), salad, pork with spinach and broccoli strudel (but not in a pastry dough, more a bread type of dough), gnocchi, and apple upside down cake for dessert. Judy, Bill and I shared a liter of delicious red wine. Then we all sat and talked and laughed until about 9 then up to rooms. Judy and Bill were real troopers and I’m sure they’ll sleep well since they had no naps.
Something I forgot to mention…Mika is the bear’s name and there was mention of it in the farm’s description – OOPS. We took pictures of her in the morning and when we got home – she’s a big one. Also all meals are made from food produced on the farm. Breakfast included wonderful cheese, prosciutto, 2 types of sausage, butter, bread and scrambled eggs. Pounds are sure to accumulate! Judy and Bill could not believe the drive up the hill either. Tomorrow Piran and Lipica horses await. Forgot the biggest news of the day….Jure stopped into the Hotel Slon to meet us briefly and gave me an old cell phone of his so we can contact him on Sunday – he’s a real cutie.
Judy and Bill arrive. All plans are definitely working…well, except Buzz and I both overslept – we meant to get up early to shower before breakfast but since we were awake for so long last night – we overslept and got up at 8:55 just in time to meet Dot and Carol for breakfast at 9. So we showered after breakfast and got a later start than we had planned, but start we did and of course our start consisted of a ride DOWN the hill (better than going up in the dark but it still took 35 minutes and has 15 hairpin curves whether you’re going up or down.) BTW, we were assured by the son on the farm (who speaks English) that this road was the best and shortest route – YIKES!
We made it to Ljubljana with plans to meet Judy and Bill at the Hotel Slon for lunch at 1 (Mom and Dad had stayed there in 1961). We weren’t there 5 minutes when they walked in the door, tired but happy to be there, although Bill had quite a cold. We had a wonderful lunch with soup, salad, main course and drinks for 10 euro per person. My first glass of Slovenian wine was the cheapest drink, 1.5 euro for a healthy sized glass, cheaper than the water and coke the others had….I’m going to like this country!! We ate long and leisurely then walked through old town for awhile doing our first bit of shopping along the river at various vendors.
Left Ljubljana around 4:30 and headed back to farm – arriving at 6 PM in time for dinner at 7. Anita served bullet soup (like mom’s), salad, pork with spinach and broccoli strudel (but not in a pastry dough, more a bread type of dough), gnocchi, and apple upside down cake for dessert. Judy, Bill and I shared a liter of delicious red wine. Then we all sat and talked and laughed until about 9 then up to rooms. Judy and Bill were real troopers and I’m sure they’ll sleep well since they had no naps.
Something I forgot to mention…Mika is the bear’s name and there was mention of it in the farm’s description – OOPS. We took pictures of her in the morning and when we got home – she’s a big one. Also all meals are made from food produced on the farm. Breakfast included wonderful cheese, prosciutto, 2 types of sausage, butter, bread and scrambled eggs. Pounds are sure to accumulate! Judy and Bill could not believe the drive up the hill either. Tomorrow Piran and Lipica horses await. Forgot the biggest news of the day….Jure stopped into the Hotel Slon to meet us briefly and gave me an old cell phone of his so we can contact him on Sunday – he’s a real cutie.
AC's Journal Entry 2, Day 2, 9/23/08
Tuesday, September 23, 2008.
Flights were uneventful and we went through baggage claim in Ljubljana as if we were in a US city - no customs to go through there since we had a stop over in Zurich on the way. When we came through the door – where Dot and Carol were patiently waiting – a happy birthday chorus rang out to me. All 4 of us were thrilled that the first challenge of meeting up was a success. They were wondering what fate awaited them if we didn’t walk through that door!!
Our sojourn has begun!!
Our rental car is great – very roomy with enough passenger and luggage space. Dot’s luggage was lost in Paris but she was given a free overnight kit and the bag will be delivered to the Abram Tourist Farm, our first place to stay, tomorrow.
Thank God for the GPS. If we didn’t have it, our first night would never have ended successfully. I had used google maps to get directions to the first farm which showed route numbers dutifully written down. I gave the list to Carol and told her to keep GPS honest, but little did we know that Slovenia doesn’t mark its routes, so we wouldn’t have made it out of the airport, let alone to the farm. We did, but not without some miscues from our new friend, Ms. GPS – I’m sure we’ll come up with a name for her before trip’s end! She kept telling us to turn left on a multi lane highway which had no left turns, only exits like in the US. To keep her happy we got off an exit and followed her directions through 2 small neighborhoods, only to find we went in circles and ended up back on the highway going the same direction. “Recalculating” will definitely be THE word we’ll hear most often these next days in this car!! And, thank God for that one little word!! Everything went well for about the next 30 minutes – until we got off the highway. We drove down a hill on a two lane winding road for a few miles when Ms. GPS told us to turn right. There was a “no entry” sign but I foolishly put my trust totally in Ms. GPS and followed her instructions up a dirt road that soon turned into a dirt path. Everyone in the car was telling me to turn around (really yelling at me would be more accurate) but there wasn’t anywhere that was possible, so I kept going. They all insist Ms. GPS told us to turn right off a cliff but I honestly don’t remember that….denial?? Finally, there was space to turn around and since by then we felt it was our only alternative, turnaround we did. On the way back down this dirt path our trust in God was heartily renewed for our safety. (Note: when I get nervous I laugh, so I was hysterically laughing by this point, along with sweaty palms).
After we turned back on the main road and heard “recalculating” we thought we were ok. We were brought to another “turn right” and this one actually had a sign to Nanos where I knew the farm to be located. Joy filled the car, but quickly faded as we traversed up a steep mountain mile after mile after mile on a twisting, narrow road praying no one would be coming down since it seemed there wasn’t room for two cars to pass. Finally we saw a house and then met a lone soldier walking down the road who assured us we were on the right road. But after several more miles we weren’t so sure he was right – but trusty Ms. GPS kept telling us to continue so we did, which much laughter initiated by UB’s narrative. After more uphill driving and hairpin turns we saw our first sign to Abram’s – this time our shouts of joy were very heartfelt - and we continued – now along the top of the mountain. We came to the end and Ms. GPS told us we were there, but only a darkened house was in front of us. UB got out and read the sign and saw 2 people walking their dog and they told us to go left – the farm was right there….AND IT WAS!!! We were shown to our rooms and then we lugged our bags up 2 flights and settled in with no food other than Dot’s pretzels.
Buzz and I decided to go for a short walk and the two walkers we had met earlier were actually guests at the farm from Italy and they proceed to tell us that there was a very unusual pet here at Abram – a grizzly bear!!! With UB’s past experience with bears in CO, he didn’t even want to go back outside. Our Italian neighbors took us to show us the huge cage he was in, but he was sleeping so that thrill will have to wait until tomorrow. In bed by 10 – but writing this at 2:30 after tossing and turning – and Judy and Bill are now on their way!!! BTW, I don’t recall any literature mentioning the bear.
Dot’s best line said on the drive up the mountain: “I think we should stay here one night, not 3” with Carol’s retort “no wonder its only 18 euro a night” and UB’s “they should pay us the 18 euro if we make it up there”….tomorrow we’re going to see if there’s an alternative road that we can take up and down.
Flights were uneventful and we went through baggage claim in Ljubljana as if we were in a US city - no customs to go through there since we had a stop over in Zurich on the way. When we came through the door – where Dot and Carol were patiently waiting – a happy birthday chorus rang out to me. All 4 of us were thrilled that the first challenge of meeting up was a success. They were wondering what fate awaited them if we didn’t walk through that door!!
Our sojourn has begun!!
Our rental car is great – very roomy with enough passenger and luggage space. Dot’s luggage was lost in Paris but she was given a free overnight kit and the bag will be delivered to the Abram Tourist Farm, our first place to stay, tomorrow.
Thank God for the GPS. If we didn’t have it, our first night would never have ended successfully. I had used google maps to get directions to the first farm which showed route numbers dutifully written down. I gave the list to Carol and told her to keep GPS honest, but little did we know that Slovenia doesn’t mark its routes, so we wouldn’t have made it out of the airport, let alone to the farm. We did, but not without some miscues from our new friend, Ms. GPS – I’m sure we’ll come up with a name for her before trip’s end! She kept telling us to turn left on a multi lane highway which had no left turns, only exits like in the US. To keep her happy we got off an exit and followed her directions through 2 small neighborhoods, only to find we went in circles and ended up back on the highway going the same direction. “Recalculating” will definitely be THE word we’ll hear most often these next days in this car!! And, thank God for that one little word!! Everything went well for about the next 30 minutes – until we got off the highway. We drove down a hill on a two lane winding road for a few miles when Ms. GPS told us to turn right. There was a “no entry” sign but I foolishly put my trust totally in Ms. GPS and followed her instructions up a dirt road that soon turned into a dirt path. Everyone in the car was telling me to turn around (really yelling at me would be more accurate) but there wasn’t anywhere that was possible, so I kept going. They all insist Ms. GPS told us to turn right off a cliff but I honestly don’t remember that….denial?? Finally, there was space to turn around and since by then we felt it was our only alternative, turnaround we did. On the way back down this dirt path our trust in God was heartily renewed for our safety. (Note: when I get nervous I laugh, so I was hysterically laughing by this point, along with sweaty palms).
After we turned back on the main road and heard “recalculating” we thought we were ok. We were brought to another “turn right” and this one actually had a sign to Nanos where I knew the farm to be located. Joy filled the car, but quickly faded as we traversed up a steep mountain mile after mile after mile on a twisting, narrow road praying no one would be coming down since it seemed there wasn’t room for two cars to pass. Finally we saw a house and then met a lone soldier walking down the road who assured us we were on the right road. But after several more miles we weren’t so sure he was right – but trusty Ms. GPS kept telling us to continue so we did, which much laughter initiated by UB’s narrative. After more uphill driving and hairpin turns we saw our first sign to Abram’s – this time our shouts of joy were very heartfelt - and we continued – now along the top of the mountain. We came to the end and Ms. GPS told us we were there, but only a darkened house was in front of us. UB got out and read the sign and saw 2 people walking their dog and they told us to go left – the farm was right there….AND IT WAS!!! We were shown to our rooms and then we lugged our bags up 2 flights and settled in with no food other than Dot’s pretzels.
Buzz and I decided to go for a short walk and the two walkers we had met earlier were actually guests at the farm from Italy and they proceed to tell us that there was a very unusual pet here at Abram – a grizzly bear!!! With UB’s past experience with bears in CO, he didn’t even want to go back outside. Our Italian neighbors took us to show us the huge cage he was in, but he was sleeping so that thrill will have to wait until tomorrow. In bed by 10 – but writing this at 2:30 after tossing and turning – and Judy and Bill are now on their way!!! BTW, I don’t recall any literature mentioning the bear.
Dot’s best line said on the drive up the mountain: “I think we should stay here one night, not 3” with Carol’s retort “no wonder its only 18 euro a night” and UB’s “they should pay us the 18 euro if we make it up there”….tomorrow we’re going to see if there’s an alternative road that we can take up and down.
AC's Journal Entry 1, Day 1, 9/22/08
Rememberance
Of
Our 2008
Traditional
Slovenian Heritage
("ROOTS")
By Tour Director: Clare (AC)
Cast of Characters (in Arch birth order, of course):
Dot (80)
Carol (70)
Judy (66)
Bill (77)
Clare (63)
Buzz (60)
By Tour Director: Clare (AC)
Cast of Characters (in Arch birth order, of course):
Dot (80)
Carol (70)
Judy (66)
Bill (77)
Clare (63)
Buzz (60)
After a year of planning its finally come to fruition!!!! Our ROOTS tour. We had great success with Jure Srpcic’s help in discovering some of our roots from our Grandma Arch’s Srpcic line, but our challenge will be in finding the other lines. But WE’LL DO IT!!!
Our departure was 2008 style – no bon voyage on the plane’s tarmac, noone running onto the plane with forgotten items…Carly dropped us off curbside at Logan’s terminal E and we were on our way.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Map of our tour
I've tracked our tour on the Slovenia map and posted it here so you can follow the trip as you read my journal (which will be input soon!). Hopefully, if anyone decides to go to Slovenia in the future, this map will help them find our ancestor's birth places as well as some beautiful Slovenian sites.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112355476307078609969.000459657863ef92dc0b8&z=9
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112355476307078609969.000459657863ef92dc0b8&z=9
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