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.

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.