Uzhgorod, Castle, Museum of Folk Architecture, Church, Mountains, and Krasiya

Saturday: Woke up, Klara already had breakfast waiting for me - tea, fresh strawberries, sandwiches of homemade bread, butter, cheese, salami, and radishes. Misha Didik came with his car to take me to Uzhgorod, about 5 minutes away. We walked around town. The town is very picturesque. The center of the town is pedestrian only; the sidewalk lining the river is like a park. There is a certain kind of tree that grows there which lines the sidewalk; these are supposed to be the only remaining trees of this species in Europe. They give off a very fragrant aroma. Everyone walking in the town are well dressed and casual, not in a hurry. Very friendly. Misha gave me a tour of the city - we went to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Greek Catholic Cathedral. I saw the Jewish Synagogue which had once been turned into a theatre (where Mikola Silvasi sang), and has been converted back to a synagogue.

We toured the skansen, the Museum of Folk Architecture, where examples of old wooden buildings are preserved. These are considered national treasures. I have lots of photos; but in the old wooden church (which was built without any nails) I was forbidden from taking photos because of the possible damage light might do to the icons. We also toured the castle.

In town met Anatol Sokolov. He is married to Alla, daughter of Natalya, daughter of Elizabeth. He owns a pizza restaurant in Uzhgorod. He has a daughter Aileen and son.

We returned to Klara's house for lunch, where she had a feast waiting for us. Also there was Ivan, Elizabeth, her daughter Natalia, Marisa's daughter Maria, Irina's daughter Olga, Misha's wife Tatyana, his sister Tanya, Misha and Tanya's mother Marta. These were all girls I had seen for 40 years in old family photos, and now I got to see them in person.

(Olga and Natalya) 

(Elizabeth)

For the first course we had a variety of cold cuts: salami's, ham, a Ukrainian version of pancetta, home-made goat cheese. Also radish salad, cabbage salad, breaded pork cutlets (from a pig Marta raised and butchered)and fried chicken and bread.

The second course was chicken soup (from the chicken Ivan killed Friday), with kohlrabi and carrots from their garden, noodles from the store.

The third course was holubtsi and boiled potatoes. Followed by kolachi and a variety of cookies. I have never seen such a feast, even at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Everything was wonderful. Also wine, beer, and vodka.

After dinner, everyone sang. Folk songs, and some liturgical songs.

After hearing the folk songs, you could see where the melodies for our prostopinya came from.  I learned that the girls grandfather, Ivan Silvasi was an excellent musician, and played the violin in restaurants in Pittsburgh, when he was working in America.
Klara and Marta and the other girls were talking about someone,and I could only understand about half of what they were saying, but I kept catching the word "Hitler". I asked if they were talking about "Adolph Hitler", and they started laughing uncontrollably. They told me that they were talking about their father, Mikola Szilvasi, who had been a famous singer in the Transcarpathian National Chorus. They said that once, when he was a little boy, he was sitting on a horse, pretending to be an army officer and gave a Nazi salute saying "Hiel Hitler!". They said since then Mikola was known as "Hitler"!

By the time we were done eating it was 6pm, and I went to Marta's house to connect to the Internet. I still haven't been able to get the device I need to pick up Wi-Fi outside of Marta's house. Marta's granddaughter Natalya then took me with her and her 3 year old Anna to the "Notary" joke cafe. This is a comical restaurant with all kinds of paintings and gags in which Ukrainians make fun of themselves, some of their customs, and communism.

After having tea at the "Notary", we went to the Dravtsi church, the Greek Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, built in 1806. Klara was cleaning the church to prepare for Liturgy in the morning. Both she and Marta also sing in the choir, along with Bela Andrievich Vas'ko. When cleaning was done, we went back home to Klara's so she could force more chicken soup on me.

Sunday woke up and went to church, Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. I got to sit in the front with Ivan and the Djak's. The singing sounded really wonderful inside a small building; very good acoustics.

Martha (Bernadette Dillon) Palumbo had sent some money with me, and I gave part of it to the Church in Dravtsi; Father Banick read an announcement about Martha's donation to the congregation, let them know she was thinking about the Dravtsi people. After church, we got a ride home with Vasil Rusyn. In Soviet times, he was conductor of a musical ensemble. Very friendly man, and speaks good English.

Went back to Klara's for lunch after church. Joined by Marta, Misha, Elizabeth, Maria, Natalya, Olga, Ivan. We had fried pork, fried chicken, salads, potatoes, bread. Followed by chicken soup. Followed by stuffed cabbage. And wine. And vodka. And desert. Another feast. We had to eat quickly, so we could load into the cars and head to the mountains.

Pavel's family has a dacha in the mountains, at a ski resort. We got in the cars and headed north along the Uzh to Uzhok Pass. We went past the ruins of the Nevetski Castle; also a big monastery. Riding with Ukrianians is a whole other experience in itself. I think they try to see how close they can get to each other without an accident. Pasha was driving a couple of inches behind Misha; he told me not to worry because he had raced professionally before getting married.

We drove past one good sized newer home; I was told it was the home of a "contrabandist". He lived on one side of a mountain, on the other side was Slovakia. Since Slovakia was part of the European Union, this was used as a station to smuggle people and contraband into Europe.

We drove about 70 kilometers to reach the mountains. The mountains there are different  from what we are used to in western PA. We live among small hills, and as we go east the hills get bigger and bigger. Dravtsi is on flat land, and all the land around is flat, until you get right up to the mountains when it is a total change. Mountains just spring up in front of you, and they are very steep.
We transferred from our cars to some off-road vehicles which took us up the ski slopes to the cabin