František Nestával, a Malecha relativeHe added two earlier generations to the Malecha information I had (going back now to a generation before 1720) and I added many branches to the direct line he had been tracing. In their free time, he and his four sons are gradually restoring the ruins of the family homestead in Sviny retrieved from the Communists in an 11 year struggle after the Velvet Revolution. The Communists had given the barn on the property to the village to use as a fire hall, and the community was reluctant to give it back, but they finally sold it back to him for one crown (5 cents). I have a standing invitation to come back in 3 or 4 years after the renovation is completed to stay with his family on the family homestead, with anyone I choose to bring along. He and his parents were evicted from the property when he was 5 years old, and he has promised his 80+ year old mother that she can sleep there "one more time."
(P.S. Both he and his mother were thrilled to get albums of old family photos from Minnesota!)
More on the Trnka and Malecha Villages
Link to Malecha Family Photos from Jitka (Nestávalová) Ševčíková
My guide and I visited four more villages today after this meeting. Much more information and photos of locations in family history, but no new living relatives in the other lines.
More on the Hanzl and Toman Villages
Got to Strakonice at 5:30. Took a walk to orient myself to the town and find the bus station for tomorrow's trip back to Prague. This is the most immersed I've been yet in the Czech language. There are no accomodations for English or German speakers anywhere I've seen (except one restaurant menu at the musuem). Was glad to have checked out the lay of the land before doing this trip with all my luggage tomorrow. Called the woman with the newborn, who is a bagpipe player, and arranged to meet tomorrow morning at the castle museum on her way to a doctor's appointment.
Strakonice has its own brewery and my beer guidebook had some recommendations. The signature brew is called "Strakonice Dudak", named after the Czech word for bagpiper, so I for sure had to try that one. A page from another travel guide listed the best place to experience this local brew, a "rough and ready pub". I was wondering how difficult it would be to find and realized that it was actually the place I'm staying in!!! (All the Czech names start to look the same after a long day.) So, I figured this would be a handy place to have dinner. Sat down, ordered a "Dudak" and realized that not only had I forgotten to review my list of "bar food" I might order, but that no one else in the place had any food! It seemed I was destined to have a liquid, vegan diet (with no dumplings) for the first time since I've arrived. After the second of the three recommended varieties, it became clear that I had better not try the third one and that it was a good thing I only had to find my way back upstairs! Used my notepad to write "Kolik?" (Costs?) and the waiter wrote the amount of my tab, so we both completed the transaction happily.
The internet station in the pension was open after "dinner", and now that I know that I need to switch from a Czech to an English keyboard set up for my passwords to be recognized, was able to sign on and try my typing skills while happily buzzed.
More on Strakonice
The Bagpipe Exhibit in Strakonice
Blata Kroje (Folk costumes from Blata region)
Czech cabinetmaking
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