Surprise Visits! Updated with Photos

What an interesting day, full of surprises for us!

We met Maya this morning at the hotel and she brought her sister Zuzanna. We took a cab to the town square and walked around seeing several squares and major buildings including Hlavne namestie (square), St. Martin's Cathedral, Michael's Gate, Primate's (Pink)Palace (note from Paul: Monkeys do not live here), to name a few.

Napoleon and Mozart dropped by Bratislava for visits.

Maya indicated that Rudy Krupka called her last night asking if he could meet us today after 6:00 p.m. at the hotel.

Maya and Zuzanna left us around lunch time and we stopped at a Tapas restaurant that Zuzanna recommended.

We dropped Ida off at the hotel for a rest and Paul and I headed out for another trek. We walked along the Danube River to the Cathedral, then up the hill to the Bratislava Castle (under repairs), but great city views. Then we walked down to the town and way back UP to the Slavin monument, the burial ground of 6,500 Russian soldiers who died liberating Slovakia from the Nazis during WWII.

Walked back down and visited the President's Palace (makes 24 Sussex look rinky-dinky) then over to The Blue Church, blue walls and roof. The last hour was raining. We got soaked, but I learned my new raincoat works well. I was relatively dry, but my jeans were soaked from the feet up to the knees.

Ida figured out that Rudy is the son of Eduard Krupka, who is the son of Theodore Krupka, Ida's mother's brother. We headed down to the hotel lounge. I should remind you that the hotel is new and very quiet. Most of the staff knew we are Canadian and here to meet our Slovakian relatives. They brought Rose Marie Cabrun (nee Krupka - Rudy's cousin) and her husband (Pavol or Paul in English) in to meet us. Rose Marie and Rudy brought family photos to share with Ida. Rose Marie clearly was thrilled and overwhelmed to finally meet her Tante Ida.

They had as many questions about the two families as we did, and we were able to piece some of the puzzle together. They were aware that Gisella had 8 siblings, they knew of Aunts Helen and Jennie from a previous visit in the 70's, so Ida was able to provide more information. However, we seem to be missing two of the siblings. We have names, but no one seems to know what happended to them. It is clear that Marta will have more information and that Maya's father (Peter Vira) has been preparing things for Ida's visit as well.

Rose Marie indicated that they had lost track of the family after WWII. The Krupka family is German. Ida remembers both her mother (Gisela Krupka) and father (Anton Osvald) spoke German. After WWII, Theodore Krupka was taken away from Hniedzne to the Russian Gulag and never returned. They were able to confirm, with reliable eye witnesses, that he did die in the Gulag. Many German families were deported at that time and it probably wasn't safe to correspond or inquire about missing family members.

We thought it was appropriate to bring out the scrapbooks that I had made and share it with everyone and they were clearly impressed and pleased to see the North American Oswald family tree and photos that we had assembled.

Judie, that's how we found out that Marta was also very talented with sewing/hand stitching. We told them that you had made the cover and talked about your many talents. That's when Rose Marie indicated, with some surprise, that her sister, Marta shared the same interests!

We spent about three hours talking, Maya and Zuzanna interpreting for us, and finally said our good-byes around 9:30 p.m.

We took lots of family photos and I'll upload them as soon as I can!
I think there is a strong family resemblance of Rudy to Aunt Margaret and RoseMarie to Judie.

Our hosts are the Vira family - with the father Peter being the son of Maria Oswald, a sister of Ida's mother (Gisela).

Top Photo - Pavol, Paul, RoseMarie , Zuzanna, Rudy, Anne, Maya and Ida

Maya and Zuzanna will meet us tomorrow morning for the drive Hniedzne. We will stay with their family. Maya is giving up her room for us.

Here's a photo of Judie and Rose Marie, you may not be able to tell from the photos, but they do look alike, particularly around the eyes and colour of the eyes.