In Search of the Past-A Slovenian History

Zaprice 7 in Kamnik

Side view of Zaprice 7

Zaprice 9 (Other pictures below)

The church of Mary Immaculate Conception

Sutna street...I LOVE THIS STREET

2 Slovenian older men complaining about life....

Slovenia flag

Walking on the street to Zale 4

Sale 4, side view

Sale 4 front view

Zale now 4, but was 3 pre WW2.

Relatives of the Rems...I met at Zale. The man is the Rem descendant. He was born at Zale 4 (now). His uncle lives in the house now, and he lives in Zale 3. His Uncle is older and doesn't speak any English, (and honestly one of the only people we have met that does not.). They said their names, but their language is so fast spoken, and so different than our (not ONE thing I have been saying for months is even CLOSE to how they pronounce things.). Anyway...we had a neat conversation I will detail in the written part at the bottom.

We are family...take 2!

Zale 4

Zale 3

Zale 4

Kregarjevo

River near Kregarjevo

More of river near Kregarjevo

Budnar museum

Budnar House

Bundar House

Budnar museum

Me hanging on the porch of the Budnar museum

Budnar museum

Budnar Museum

The next few are picture of the road up to Savenja Pec. This was a CRAZY drive. More in the blog post.

On the way to Sovinja Pec.

Arrival at Sovinja Pec 3.

Sovinja Pec property

Sovinja Pec 3-my favorite of the properties..very isolated.

Sovinja Pec 3 big house

Sovinja Pec 3

Property of Sovinja Pec 3

Bella Pec 6 Osredkar right on the little sign!! It was a fun ride as well, and high up in the mountain, but a little less isolated.

Drive to Bella Pec from Sovinja Pec

Bela Pec 6 house...people were out, more on that conversation in the blog portion. We were planning on a picture with the sign, but was unable due to all of the people outside of that house.

More of Bela Pec 6

Bela Pec 6 and a guy trying to talk to me-thinking I was from Canada.

The valley below Bela Pec 6.

Looking back at Bela Pec 6

These signs made me smile. In the middle of NO WHERE and no other signs, but someone took the time to pain these!

This house is actually right down the street from where we are staying, and part of the family houses: Brezje Nad Kamnikom 1, Stahovica.

Church where Franc and Maria are buried. It was an AMAZING cemetery. We have never seen anything quite like it. So amazingly well kept. MANY people there with the holiday. We left a letter for the family of Franc...(you pay for your cemetery plot monthly here..so if you stop paying for 7 years, they use it for someone else.). So, someone is paying rent. We put our letter in a ziplock bag, and are hoping that they reach out to me while we are here...fingers crossed!

This amazing cemetery at Zale.

More of the cemetery

Here it is! Franc and Maria!

A carved Jesus at the cemetery.

And this I thought was so cool...all the watering cans allowing them to water their plants.

This is Rudolf Maisters silhouette...and his house behind it.

Place to hook your dog while you go in!

The best pizza me and Anastiya have EVER tasted!!

Sutna street I am addicted to this street. Back in the day it was filled with artisans...I would have loved it!

Rudolf Maisters sillhoutte.

The big house at Sovinja Pec 3

Budnar museum

Zaprice 9 with the Zaprice castle in the background.

Zaprice 7

Inside the church of Mary immaculate conception

Lidija's (our local genealogist we met up with yesterdays dessert)

Sam and Anastiya's yummy dessert. I went to a store and bought a delicious vegan donut!

Beautiful tree at the cemetery

Church of Mary the Immaculate conception

This and the next picture are the date stamps of the Sutna houses.

Sutna house stamp.

Long lost sisters....Lidija and my daughters birthday are the same! So many small coincidences!

Ruins of Stair Grad

Sutna houses

Sutna

Church of Mary Immaculate conception

Zaprice Castle

Overlook of the Zaprice Castle

From Zaprice Castle overlooking Kamnik

Overlook from the castle.

On the grounds of Zaprice Castle

Navy flag of Kamnik

Authentic costume of Kamnik region

Inside museum at Zaprice Castle

Sign from Zale cemetery where Franc and Maria are buried.

Saturday April 8, 2023

We left our house on Wednesday at 11:00 AM to head for Pittsburgh airport. Storms were brewing and I was worried about a delay, but everything was right on time. We flew from Pittsburgh to Dulles in DC, to Zurich, Switzerland, into Ljubljana-with only hour long delays at each air port, which is nothing by the time you make it to your gate. I was drugged as always....and all went well. I can never remember any good people watching or anything....and Sam can't either. We arrived in Ljubljana at 9:00 AM (nearly 24 hours from when we left our house) after losing 8 hours in the air. So we spent a little time in Ljubliana taking pictures of the dragon bridge, stopping at the grocery store and we made it to our chalet at about 3:00. Our place was a little difficult to locate. It is 2 miles up the mountain, with lots of roads crossing. And let's talk about their roads HOLY COW. SMALL. Like so small the sensors go off from going down the road from the houses. AND yes, 2 cars sometimes come upon each other. I have NO EARTHLY IDEA who is supposed to stop and when and why and what that rule is...but people are going a million miles an hour and stopping at the drop of a hat. You slam on your breaks, someone goes and you proceed. BUT to say their streets are small in many areas is an understatement. This unnerves Sam. Since I am a crazy drive anyway, I have done most of the driving, and after today I think I have it mastered. Something about this crazy driving confirms, yes, I have Slovenian blood in me. Sam is hitting the fake break a million times, and he and Anastiya are holding their breath a lot...it is palpable. But I am now unphased. There is gesturing and yelling, of which no one takes to heart...that I also understand, and it is exactly how I drive in America. Confirmation number 1 I am Slovenian. :)

The gas station: This story is too much. So, we rented a car but you return the car on empty, so Sam had to get gas. We stopped....Sam gets out of the car, and he can't figure out how to open up the gas cap, it was found out to be pushed in...everything is diesel (most cars) and so there are different sizes of pumps if you have a pump or a car, which took him time to figure out...then you can't pay at the pump, and he walked into the gas station but you pay AFTER you pump your gas. Sam asked one guy about his credit card, and the guy behind him offered to help him....haha. He needed to get gas and go home. So, there was that debacle.

We found lots of vegan options at the grocery store...which was AWESOME. Came home unpacked...made dinner...and just relaxed.

Friday we went to Kamnik for the first time, visited Zaprice castle, and walked around Sutna...found 2 family houses we weren't even planning on. IT was at this point I realized how easy it was to get around Kamnik. Afterwards we met Lidija, someone that has been doing some local genealogy for me for about 6 months or so...she was great. We learned a lot about Kamnik.

The sculptures under the houses are telling of when the houses were last redone. You can see above the pictures I took of the Sutna houses. Chimneys are also a clue in Kamnik. More than one chimney tells of more people that needed to keep warm. The Sutna houses are both 1 chimney households.

So, 56 Sutna was done in 1844 with the initials Jz (Who owned the building) , and MV on 54 Sutna done in 1850.

Sutna was the heart of it all, with artisans everywhere. They all left and almost every store is closed. They are working hard on bringing it back. It is such a pretty little street. Our relatives at 54 and 56 Sutna lived nearly directly across from the church of Mary Immaculate Conception.

At the cemetery she taught us all about being buried in Kamnik. First, there was an arch way that said translated "Dead people teach us how to live"...I love that saying.

Some Kamnik cemetery facts: If you are illegitimate child or unbaptized you couldn't be buried in a church cemetery they would have to be on a wall. I mean, HOW ridiculous. This was brought about by someone in nobility at a year that Lidija told us, but I didn't write down. But I found it to be cruel and unjust. So the Dula (spelling?? Like a midwife) was given the rights to baptize a child if they were to die before a priest could get there OR if they were stillborn. Dulas were the only one that could do this, besides a priest.

To say Kamnik is catholic is an understatement. MANY houses have shrines outside of their houses with either Jesus or Mary. The churches were PACKED today with people carrying baskets to get their bread blessed...and there is seriously a church on every street corner. It is like Dollar Generals in America.

Rudolf Maister was the most famous person that lived in Kamnik. He is the reason that Maribor is still in tact and that Slovenia isn't broken up into smaller pieces. 23 November is a national Holiday for the country to celebrate Rudolf Maister.

Today we spent the day going to all of the local Kamnik houses. We have a few more to do in Podsreda...which we will do on Tuesday. We are shifting gears for a few days. ALL CREDIT HERE goes to my cousin Gary DelNero. He has been working endlessly on the Slovenian records that I certainly haven't had time to even look at. I am forever grateful for him sharing all that he had to go find these houses. So, Gary, I truly hope that you gain some insight from the pictures, and I hope in some small way I have helped you to understand further what all of your hard work has led you to!

Of all of the houses we went to today, Sovinja Pec and Bella Pec were my favorites. They were SOOOO very remote. All of the other houses were right in the hustle and bustle of happenings. Stores, and churches. But Sovinja Pec and Bela Pec are truly in the middle of the NO WHERE. ESPECIALLY Sovinja. I truly expected to love Bundar museum, but me, who cannot smell much of anything was completely overtaken by the smell of manure...it was REALLY strong. The building is only open on the weekends, which since this was a holiday they weren't open. There is a number to call for a special showing and I want to do that while we are here in hopes of seeing it, but it was NOT what I was thinking. The house is on a VERY narrow street with other houses all around it. I am not even sure what the manure was from because there weren't any animals. There were 2 small windows around the back on the second floor that I peaked into, and there were many displays. So, hopefully more on this later in the week!

It was also amazing to be able to meet some relatives of the Rems at Zale 3 and 4. There was a woman walking up the road...we saw her multiple times. I jumped out of the car and was taking pictures and she asked me what I was doing. I explained and she said her husband was born in that house!! So, I couldn't remember the exact person at the time that lived there...long story but paperwork was taken out of my suitcase and left behind...that allowed me to easily see things, along with maps and a few other items. So I was saying names that could be associated, she wasn't sure. Her husband came up the road and we were talking and it was a Rems!! He explained that he was born there, that the original owner, which I believe was Barthol owned the house but was an alcoholic and couldn't live on his own, so he lived with someone else in Zale 3 and they rented Zale 4 our. It was interesting.

And there are 2 things that strike both Sam and I about Slovenia. First, there aren't planes that fly overhead and everything is quiet and serene...and second, you don't see Slovenians walking around with their cell phones out.

We went to Pizza Napoli off of Sutna. They are highly recommended on Happy Cow (An app we always go to to find vegan food.). IT WAS DELICIOUS!! We will go back!! Other than my own pizza that I make...I am sick of American pizza for the most part...we rarely eat it. This pizza is something for me to work towards. DELICIOUS is an understatement. AND to have vegan cheese? Unheard of in our area of America!!!!

Tomorrow is our 18th Anniversary...so hard to believe...life goes by in the blink of an eye. So we are going to Triglav National Park....and Lake Bled for some pictures....and just enjoying each others company. As so many of you know wildlife photography is what Sam and I both love to do...these houses were out of my league...and I hope I was able to capture them in a way that allows everyone to feel like you are right there.

We miss everyone, and HAPPY EASTER!! We love you all!

Katie, Sam and Anastiya

In Search of the Past-A Slovenian History

When I get there-PINK

Saturday, April 8, 2023

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