Emily on Tram in Kosice

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here is the beer tram in the center of Kocise. Kerry and I have never been so happy to see this town after a trial to get the 80km from Fricovce to Kocise today.

The Folk Dancing (with Bride)

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Andrea, is on the right in her folk costume. This was her second outfit of the night. The slovak custom of dance with the bride had you place money in a bowl for her to have a dance with Andrea. Then after your dance (for about 1 minute), you hand her over to the next person and step away for a slice of cake.

You only get the bride’s cake if you dance with her. Couples dance together as shown here. The other three people were part of Andrea’s slovak dance group from Toronto.

Emily and Couple

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here are Andrea, Fraser and I in front of the Kasteil. It is a little dark to see the kastiel with the reception on the second floor.

bride and grandma (bubbi)

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here is Andrea with her sweet grandmother who is 89. Bubbi still lives in a small village 80km away from the wedding where she chops wood, washes clothes by hand, and makes all of her own food.

folk singers

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here are the folk singers and the band in action. They would take turns with the singing and then with a DJ. When they were not singing or being fed food and drinks from the wedding, they would all hang out together and sing for themselves.

The best is a little “eye yIE YIP” noise that they would call to each other while singing…almost like a yodel.

post plate break cleaning by groom

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

One of the slovak customs followed at the wedding reception was the breaking of the plate. Andrea and Fraser break a plate and then the guests try to keep Fraser from cleaning it up.

Supposedly this represents that he will be a good husband and always help Andrea. After this, Fraser carried Andrea up a flight of stairs to the reception for the party to begin.

the processional (to church)

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here is procession to the church with the Slovak hills in the background (facing towards Poprad, or west). You can just make out the church beyond the trees.

The folk singers and band led the procession behind the bride and groom with villagers lining the streets.

wedding cakes

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here is just a brief sampling of all the sweeties that were made for Andrea’s wedding. IN addition to mountains of slovak food, we had 3 wedding cakes to be eaten throughout the night plus all of these desserts.

When speaking with Andrea’s mother, I found out that all of these sweets were hand made by slovak woman as their second jobs. You provide material and what you want and they will make trays and trays of sweets.

Her mom was especially proud of the type and varieties of the cakes served.

market,kosice

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Here is the market in Kocise, live and in action. It was filled with the lovely women and men from the countryside that looked completely as you would expect Eastern European people to look. The scarf, a fluffy skirt, dark stockings, a lacy wrap around the front and a big sweater to keep warm.

On Friday morning, a market opened up in front of the Pension Platz on the Dominikanske, or church street. The street benches we had seen the night before lifted up into market tables and small awning were lowered. Very cool!

kastiel fricovce

Originally uploaded by snoosh.

Built in the early 16th century, the kastiel fricovce is a manor house set in the middle of the slovak hillside. The surrounding country looks like Switzerland, with a few less sheep and a few more trees.

We were happy to find the kastiel as we had extracted ourselves from the depths of a bus from Presov and ended up on the side of the street. Promises of the kastiel were 200m ahead. We walked up there and found wedding preparations in action.

Our room was a farmhouse, converted recently to guest rooms. We had a modern shower so this was helpful in getting ready for the wedding. Overall the lands of the kastiel were much smaller than I had anticipated but the church was much closer.