searching for a grave in eastern slovakia, SK

well, it was a sad reason for my visit in slovakia this early april .... my youngest brother + me went to einsiedel an der göllnitz (mnisek nad hnilcom) to find a place for my mother's grave ... but yes, it is the traditional cycle of life, isnt it? young people come, old people  go ...

the cold + rainy + snowy weather and my sad mood somehow directed my focus on ugly / destroyed / industrial stuff / ruins / death / false values (like the nasty communist propaganda in my old 1st class schoolbook) and the like ... a strange different perspective, isn't it? anyway, it did not last forever 😇

on the road. we've just crossed the hill over the stoss spa to enter 'our' göllnitz river valley

schmöllnitz (smolnik) as seen from the chapel. 

small orthodox church built by ukrainian chernobyl nuclear catastrophy refugees

the old tobacco factory 'tabacka' from 1872 is empty today ~ schmöllnitz

the former guest house pauker between schmöllnitz and einsiedel

the evangelic church in einsiedel an der göllnitz

the forest cemetery (called totengarten by the locals) bellow the spitzberg mountain

the catholic church in einsiedel an der göllnitz (mnisek nad hnilcom)

cout of arms of the zips region

beergarden in göllnitz

the yellow church is in schmöllnitz (smolnik) from the northern snowy side of the stoss mountain,

the white one in metzenseifen (medzev).

gypsy colony in jasov

gypsies in jasov

the krasna horka castle from the south side of the hill over stoss

zvolen (= altsohl in german), central slovakia

the altsohl castle in zvolen was build by the hungarian king 

lajos I. nagy (louis I. of hungary / ludwig der große) in the years 1370–1382

castle in bratislava (pressburg was the original german name) in western slovakia

two of us, my father and me 🍻

it's easter time, you know?

my almost 50 years old 1st class schoolbook 💾

my no. 1 poem about a violet (veilchen / fialka) i still remember today meets communist propaganda

communist propaganda ...

the karpatenblatt is the german minority's publication in slovakia

all of us, maybe xmas 2016? or 2016?

more sad pictures here.

slovakia 2017

i have been many times in slovakia this year, you know? well, my mother is ill and this time i took care of her for one week. why? because my youngest brother and his wife, who take care of her all year, were 2 weeks on holidays in turkey ...

liptovska tepla

we have had many stops this time:

• bratislava ~ my brothers place. the funny stuff was that when i came the 
• dubnica ~ we met my cousin vierka for a lunch
• ruzomberok (rosenberg)
• lucky / kalemeny / liptovska tepla ~ i took a bath and filled up all bottles i had in the local thermal and healing spring in kalameny. let's hope it helped a lot ...
• einsiedel (mnisek nad hnilcom) - my mothers birth place and her sister's house was our 'base camp'. yes, we have met relatives, walked a lot in the village, cemetery, i met all my friends in the village pub (and wifi hotspot) each night ...
• spitzenberg mountain (703 m) ~ i've managed to climb up the spiky landmark for the very first time. i went alone as my mother have been up there in august during the yearly spitzenberg tour with music and goulash and she prefered to stay with her elder sister ....  i have seen many, many mushrooms and a deer in the forest. the mushrooms were much more photogenic than mr. deer
• schmöllnitz (smolnik) ~ my cousin renate lives here and we have visited the orthodox catholic church built by the victims of the chernobyl nuclear catastrophy (ukraine) who were moved to eastern slovakia
• lake uhorna ~ the ice cold artificial lake built by the mining industry some 200 - 300 years ago. anyway, i swum three times there. my dears, we have had end of september ... and water temperature about 13-14 degrees celsius. of course, we have also walked with my mother around the lake + drunk some tee / coffee or had lunch in the nearby restaurant.
• göllnitz (gelnica) ~ in the center of the göllnitz valley we have visited the eldest sister of my mother and an aunt of mine
• kaschau (kassa, cassovia, kosice) ~ my birth city and a place where we visited a doctor with my mother this time and of course my father, who still lives in kosice 
• bratislava again
• melk abbey in austria ~ we enjoyed to take a break from driving in this beautiful benedictine monastery 
• anger (bavaria) ~ small but nice

bridge SNP over the river danube in bratislava

my mother loves to go out in order to drink a coffee and to eat some cake - an easy to provide joy :o)

bratislava castle

ruzomberok (rosenberg)

thermal and healing spring in kalameny

countryside in liptov area of north slovakia

einsiedel (mnisek nad hnilcom) below the spitzenberg mountain was our final destination

inside the catholic church

watch out, spitzenberg - i'm coming up :-)

einsiedel as seen from the cross at the top of the spitzenberg mountain

deer goulash with family 

orthodox church built by ukrainian tschernobyl victims in schmöllnitz (smolnik)

lake uhorna

the block where i spent my childhood in kaschau (kosice). 

good-bye, dear mother ... i think i see you again soon

kosice / kassa /  cassovia / kaschau

R.I.P dear grandparents, uncle, aunts

more pictures here

eof