Nova Lhota - 16/05

Mainland Europe - Day 21
Prague --> Nova Lhota

Nova Lhota is a small town of about 500 people in the south east of the Czech Republic. It's very close to the Slovakian border and doesn't appear on either of the two maps we had of the Czech Republic. Luckily Google Maps is a little more detailed. Nova Lhota is also where my Grandfather was born and where quite a few of my relatives still live.

Whilst in Prague we enlisted the help of the hotel front desk to call my relos, so they'd know we'd be popping in. As the only Czech I know is "Ahoy, jak se mas", which is "Hello, how are you", I left most of the talking to our makeshift translator. By the end of the conversation we had the address Jirina, my mum's cousin's daughter, where we were likely to find someone who spoke English.

Jirina's home is in Velka nad Velickou, about 15 minutes from Nova Lhota. A bigger town of some 3000 people, but as it turns out still not big enough to have street names. The address we had was simply "590 Velka nad Velickou", a house number and a town. On our arrival we quickly realised that our task of finding 590 was going to be a lot more difficult then we first thought. Driving down the main street we saw "consecutive" house numbers like 43, 612, 256 and 491, ie no sensible order at all. After about 40 minutes and six unsuccessful English-to-Czech conversations we luckily stumbled a friend of Jirinas. A phone call was made and within 10 minutes Jirina arrived followed soon after by a friend/translator.

We had a drink and some dinner with Jirina before heading to Nova Lhota where we stayed for the next three nights with my mother's cousins Yan & Anieka. Being spoilt simply doesn't cover it, Yvonne and I were practically treated like royalty. Delicious food, lots of beer, home-made shivovice, family dinners at the kitchen table, it was perfect. Old photo albums emerged, as did the necessary English-to-Czech dictionaries.

Friday night was spent drinking way too much at a local pub with Jirina, Jarka and Natalie. Czech beer tastes great, but unfortunately doesn't make you immune to hangovers. On the Saturday we had a big family get together with my mum's three cousins Jan, Maria and Josef, their partners, and children, and grandchildren. Jan (Junior), Irena, and Karolina made things a lot easier acting as translators.

As always, time flies when you're having fun, and after another beautiful lunch on Sunday it was time to leave. Everyone came out again to see us off. It was a bit sad to come and go so quickly, three days really wasn't enough, but it has made me determined to visit again soon, hopefully with my mum too. Everyone made us feel so welcome, but I want to say a special thank you to Jan, Anieka and Jirina for taking such amazing care of us.