August 16, 2014 – The Blata Villages, including Sviny

Spent a wonderful eight hours today exploring the Blata villages, starting in Sviny, my Trnka and Malecha ancestral village, which my great-great-grandparents left in the 1860s to come to America.

Sviny

(l-r) Jitka Sládková, Markéta Nestávalová, Marcel Nestával, Jitka Ševčíková, Marta Urbanová and František Nestával - my Czech relatives and tour guides for the day.

Lunch in the pub in Sviny - us and a table of foresters!

Dršťková polévka (tripe soup)

Borkovice, our second stop.

Mažice - stop #3

Zálší, stop #4, including a family run museum with some interesting kroje.

Klečaty - stop #5

This museum had a man's and a woman's kroje made by her for their wedding in the 1950s. There is a bit of fish scale embroidery on the woman's bodice.

Komárov, stop #6.

Obvious differences in the restored and un-restored houses!

Svinky, stop #7

Záluží, stop #8

Museum had puppets, kroje and painted furniture.

Sviny

Back where we started in Sviny, visiting a potter working with traditional hand painted designs - including blue trnka plums as part of the design on many. 

Then on the way back to Veseli stopped at a cemetery for victims of plague, and a rainbow finished off the trip!

Finished off the evening with a concert at the church in Veseli. Can I say it was a full day?