spis, spisz, zips, szepes, scepusia ~ SK + PL

spis, spisz, zips, cips, zepus, szepes, scepus, scepusia => castle niedzica (nedeca, nedec, nisitz) in PL = castle dunajec at the dunajec river was till 1918 the northern border of austria-hungary (district slovakia). from the other river side are the ruins of the polish border castle czorsztyn.

castle niedzica (nedeca, nedec, nisitz) = castle dunajec

well, the very southern part of spis (zips) in eastern slovakia is my emotional home as my parents lived in einsiedel an der göllnitz (mnisek nad hnilcom) and i also know almost all surrounding villages / small towns like göllnitz (gelnica), schmöllnitz (smolnik), medzev, stos, levoca, kezmarok ... since 1918 is a small part (18 villages and only 195 km2) of spisz polish territory as the polish army occupied this part of slovakia. well, today probably noone in slovakia wants the area get back ... and the people out there probably are also fine beeing a part of poland, aren't they? 

you know what? i have never learned at school about that issue. it was probably not intended to teach s.th. which could harm the good neighborhood between socialist brother countries ... and few days later i've learned that even a part of slovak territory of orava in western slovakia was occupied and taken by poland, too. now i have some issues to talk about to my polish wife, you know? on the other hand, the czech republic (the bigger + stronger part of former czechoslovakia) got the polish area of tesin at the czech-polish border. nice outcome for czech republic + poland, stupid for slovakia ... 

in the east, slovakia lost a quite big territory called zakarpatska rus ('behind-carpathian russia') to soviet union (today's ukraine) and got some hungarian territory in the south after WWII. well, that's history ... should i tell you what i believe? as long as the people out there survived and can now live freely, it is not that important to which country, which nation and administartion they belong to and where they pay their taxes. most importand imho is, that they've survived and can live in peace from the other side of a former border ... it is the same for my german ancestors in slovakia + czech republic who could live in peace as germans for 700+ years (from approx. 1230 till the end of WWII in 1945). even if at some point in the furture all of us who survived the terror + expulsion of 1945-1948 will be assimilated by the slovak & czech nations, we have survived and continue to be here and to shape our nice world. TRUE OR NOT? 😄[probably similar to usa (australia / canada), where almost all immigrants after few generations become americans (australians / canadians), no matter of what origin. isn't it?]

the artificial lake czorsztyn (= zornstein) at dunajec river

castle niedzice (austria-hungary), dunajec river + castle czorsztyn (PL)

ruins of castle czorsztyn at the right river side

inside the castle niedzica (nedeca, nedec, nisitz) = castle dunajec

two of us

good bye, castle niedzica

good place, wrong time at the dunajec river ... almost nothing to eat out there 😓

dunajec river, the border between SK (right side) & PL (left side)

tri koruny (trzy korony), pieniny mountains - spis (spisz), view from SK to PL

the spis castle, photo by @fl_dronegraphy found here

zipser burg ~ spissky hrad ~ spis castle, eastern slovakia, SK

(source: microsoft's bing browser)

a village somewhere on our way from niedzica to zakopane (PL)

more pictures here.

funeral in eastern slovakia, SK

so sad, my youngest cousin roland is dead. he went from us after a short dread disease 😢😭😢

cemetery ('totengarten' as the locals say) in einsiedel an der göllnitz (mnisek nad hnilcom), 

region spis (zips) in the slovak ore mountains (slovenske rudohorie SK, ungarisches erzgebirge DE), which are part of the western carpathian mountains (karpaty), slovakia, SK

well, it was my 1st visit in slovakia this year. and for such a sad reason. although it was due to the mad corona regulations in SK for me not possible to come earlier, i would appreciate any other situation 😢.... well, funeral is one of the few exceptions, when not vaccinated people can come into the country without the mandatory 2 weeks in quarantine. there is 'only' a negative PCR test needed.

it is difficult to find any words which describe the pain caused by roland's sudden death ... so i will present only few pictures made...

 

the valley i love so much, my happy first view from the uhorna pass (999 m).

the first village is called uhorna today, the former german name was ahorn.

the lake uhorna is really cold all year long. it was buid for mining industry few hundred years ago on the creek schmöllnitzer bach named by the small nearby city of schmöllnitz (smolnik).

evangelic church in einsiedel an der göllnitz

'glück auf' means good luck and it was and is the ore miners' salute

einsiedel an der göllnitz was settled by german settlers in 1230.

in the 16th century became the majority of the inhabitants evangelic.

spitzenberg mountain and the CATHOLIC church in einsiedl an der göllnitz

spitznberg and the EVANGELIC church directly below the mountain in einsiedel / einsiedl

this picture is not ment as a joke as it would be not appropriate in this sad situation.
~~~
as the picture shows a cemetery and if i shoud sometimes look for a cemetery / funeral picture for some blogger-related reason i would probably find it in this google album first. the original 'message' was:

if someone pays enough, she would cry bitterly and grieve about his/her death at a funeral...

bratislava (pressburg)

mother + son

father + son

(very) few more pictures here.

RIP, dear ROLAND 💖

dear mother ...

well, my mother is quite ill (alzheimer disease) and thus i try to visit her in slovakia as often as possible ... thanks goodness, she lives at my youngest brother's place in bratislava now. it is not only much, much better for her than staying alone in kosice, but also easier for me to reach them from munich :-)
well, i'm trying to sort my thoughts and to say something to my mother, but i do not think she is ready to listen / understand it as she is still captured in a situation which broke her vital energy some 10 or 15 years ago. dear mother, why can't you stop crying about the past and start to look forward? there is so much life in front of you which you could enjoy, but you are still looking back and not willing to drop the past where it belongs. relationships sometimes break apart, so what? no matter how hard it is for you what happened, you can't change the past. but you could change your perspective, couldn't you?
 ... more coming soon or never ... please find a great guidance for help to alzheimer patients by vera f. birkenbihl in her 13 minutes video (in german) at the very end of this blog post

bratislava, danube river park

bratislava castle

you can't stop the time or ignore reality, dear mother ... avoiding pictures doesn't help either :)

old meets young; the youngest gruber => OLIVER

we have many muslim refugees in munich now, let's learn s.th. about their background

mikulassky cintorin is an old german cemetery in bratislava, SK

river danube, bratislava

welcome to eastern slovakia:

pictures from the ukrainian artist curej (churey / tschurej)

the ukrainian church in smolnik was built by tschernobyl / chernobyl refugees

schmöllnitz (smolnik) in the carpatian mountains (karpaty)

the evangelic church in smolnik (schmöllnitz) in the region spis (zips)

catholic church einsiedel / mnisek nad hnilcom ... anyway, my family was evangelic

R.I.P grandpa + grandma

back to my roots, the city of kosice / kassa / kaschau

bell tower (urbanova veza) is a museum today. i have never seen this chapel opened in my whole life because of reconstruction before, but now:

this tower used to be my home the first 19 years of my life :-)

our next visit in bratislava, december 2016:

 ice skating with viki

 the blue church

christmas market 

my sweety and the alchemyst know a lot about happiness, don't they?
btw, so true and so difficult to apply 😃

more slovakia pictures: here

vera f. birkenbihl - wie hilft man ganz einfach und wirkungsvoll alzheimer geplagten? anti-alzheinmer und anti-altenheimer hilfe :-)

i'm so sorry for so much disappointment + loneliness you have encountered in your old age, my dear mother ... it counts probably for big part of your today's problems (reference opinion: harvard longtime study what makes us healthe & happy)

eof