Just finished eating breakfast and am a little nervous. I haven't received any response from the letters I sent 6 weeks ago to all the Starčevićs in the village. I hope they show up at the church, as requested in the letter...
1130
YESSSSS!!
We met Ivana, our driver/tour gide - very nice - and she not only took us to Mrkopalj but she talked to the locals to try to find relatives still in town. The first person said the town is full of Starčevićs and we should head to Stari Bača, a café owned by Richard Starčević. This bistro is mentioned in the book, Running Away from Home, by the way. I think I'll suggest it to my book club to read for next month.
Back on topic. No one was at the church, which was closed, so we went to the café. After about 30 minutes or so, with me on ancestry.com, Ivana interpreting, and Richard on the phone saying "Amerikan...Beverly Hills," and the priest verifying records, we found some 2nd cousins. One was in the café already, Boris, and Marin, was called to come in from work and meet us. We took pictures and I gave them presents, of which they looked unimpressed - especially the chocolate turtles with TX pecans. I'm hoping they were shocked or maybe stoic.
All of a sudden, people started coming in to the Bistro to meet us and there was clapping and smiling and more "Beverly Hills" talk. It was great!
Marin gave me his email and asked me to email him "little letters" as he had to go back to the Municipality, where he worked.
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| Cousin Boris |
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| Cousin Marin |
Before the café, when we were at the church, we looked around at the grave stones. We found lots of Starčevićs and even some Kruljak, probably from David's ancestry. No one had received my letters. :(
After meeting the cousins, Marin of whom Ivana already knew from her recent purchase of some property in the village, she showed us the property and site of their future vacation home. The house next to it is for sale...hmm....
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| View from Ivana's build site |
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