Thursday, June 8 – Vrsac
Apparently, there were a couple of fuzzy heads this morning, but I’ll never tell who – unless the price is right. The included breakfast today was a little one dimensional – or should I say three dimensional - meat, cheese, and eggs with a stack of white bread on the table. Until now breakfasts had included cereal, fruit, pastries, and a selection of breads and juices. They have a different eating style here.
Our goal for today is our main goal for the whole trip – Zichydorf. We left at 8:30 for our 9 a.m. meeting with Monsignor Eros Lajos (pronounced AIR ohsh LIE ohsh). Here he is with our guide, Stasa. He is the Hungarian priest resident in 
Jermenovci with responsibility for the several churches in the area. He was tickled pink that we would come all the way from North America to 
see him and his churches. He was just glowing.
With him was his cousin, a younger priest from Werschetz (Msgr Lajos is age 75). For an hour he addressed us and answered our questions, and
we toured the church, took pictures, and examined the beautifully embroidered vestments. From there we went to the cemetery. We found many headstones of interest, but, as Sorin had warned us, the cemetery is gradually being renewed as stones of the present inhabitants replace the old ones.
We had to break off our search after 11 as the Mayor had asked to see us any time after 10. Here he is with the local Serbian Orthodox priest and Msgr Lajos. We had a very excellent meeting in which he offered us any help that it was possible for him to provide within the resources that he had. He might not have all the answers or documents that we seek, but he would help us to 
find them as much as possible. He and we acknowledged that some unpleasant things had happened in the past, but that we should learn from our history so that it does not repeat itself and try to form new, mutually beneficial bonds of friendship for the future. This got us all thinking about some possibilities for when we get home.
Also present were the town’s cultural history representative, the Serbian Orthodox parish priest, and a lady who is translating the town history into English for posting on the town’s web site. After mutual presentations of gifts and some group photos, we were off for a snack and Msgr. Lajos’ home, or so we thought. We were treated to a lunch of several kinds of local sausages and cheeses, some biscuits, wonderful hot house tomatoes, and dainties. Oh, I almost for got the delicious Apricot brandy. I think he could have sold a few bottles of that to this group also. We presented him with a book and some cash form the ZVA and from the travel group. He presented us each with a CD of pictures of Zichydorf and Heiducica (Heidheschitz) churches and a CD of corrections and updates to the digital church book records for the ZVA.
We thought we were back on the tour, but we soon found that the good Monsignor had hijacked us. We had planned to hardly slow down for Heideschitz, but he took us to the small building that they were renovating into a new church. We were met by some of the parishioners, including the lady that looks after the town “castle,” the large house of a previous noble or wealthy man that they are renovating. From there we went to Duzine (Setschanfeld) where a couple of people had hoped to find some treasure, but the old lady that we questioned said that it was almost inaccessible and badly overgrown. Next stop – Vilika Greda (Georghausen/Gyorgyhaza) where 
we again had high hopes, but there is no cemetery there and most of the things we wanted to tke pictures of were gone. Msgr. Lajos had prepared another welcome for us by local parishioners who showed off their new, although small, church, seen above and at right. Again, snacks were on offer all around. Finally, we drove the Msgr. home and headed back through Zichydorf to Velika Gaj (pronounced Guy). We found the Serb cemetery after a hike down a long and muddy path. Meanwhile, Stasa had found a local who took him to the Catholic cemetery, but it was heavily overgrown and inaccessible. We 
then returned to Zichydorf to snap photos of some more headstones and do some rubbings. It is really kind of silly, to record all this info that is probably in the church books, but, you get so excited being there that you want to capture the moment and be sure that you don’t miss anything.
We returned to the hotel about 8 for a quiet night of blogging– at least for me.
Our goal for today is our main goal for the whole trip – Zichydorf. We left at 8:30 for our 9 a.m. meeting with Monsignor Eros Lajos (pronounced AIR ohsh LIE ohsh). Here he is with our guide, Stasa. He is the Hungarian priest resident in 
Jermenovci with responsibility for the several churches in the area. He was tickled pink that we would come all the way from North America to 
see him and his churches. He was just glowing.
With him was his cousin, a younger priest from Werschetz (Msgr Lajos is age 75). For an hour he addressed us and answered our questions, and
we toured the church, took pictures, and examined the beautifully embroidered vestments. From there we went to the cemetery. We found many headstones of interest, but, as Sorin had warned us, the cemetery is gradually being renewed as stones of the present inhabitants replace the old ones.
We had to break off our search after 11 as the Mayor had asked to see us any time after 10. Here he is with the local Serbian Orthodox priest and Msgr Lajos. We had a very excellent meeting in which he offered us any help that it was possible for him to provide within the resources that he had. He might not have all the answers or documents that we seek, but he would help us to 
find them as much as possible. He and we acknowledged that some unpleasant things had happened in the past, but that we should learn from our history so that it does not repeat itself and try to form new, mutually beneficial bonds of friendship for the future. This got us all thinking about some possibilities for when we get home.
Also present were the town’s cultural history representative, the Serbian Orthodox parish priest, and a lady who is translating the town history into English for posting on the town’s web site. After mutual presentations of gifts and some group photos, we were off for a snack and Msgr. Lajos’ home, or so we thought. We were treated to a lunch of several kinds of local sausages and cheeses, some biscuits, wonderful hot house tomatoes, and dainties. Oh, I almost for got the delicious Apricot brandy. I think he could have sold a few bottles of that to this group also. We presented him with a book and some cash form the ZVA and from the travel group. He presented us each with a CD of pictures of Zichydorf and Heiducica (Heidheschitz) churches and a CD of corrections and updates to the digital church book records for the ZVA.
We thought we were back on the tour, but we soon found that the good Monsignor had hijacked us. We had planned to hardly slow down for Heideschitz, but he took us to the small building that they were renovating into a new church. We were met by some of the parishioners, including the lady that looks after the town “castle,” the large house of a previous noble or wealthy man that they are renovating. From there we went to Duzine (Setschanfeld) where a couple of people had hoped to find some treasure, but the old lady that we questioned said that it was almost inaccessible and badly overgrown. Next stop – Vilika Greda (Georghausen/Gyorgyhaza) where 
we again had high hopes, but there is no cemetery there and most of the things we wanted to tke pictures of were gone. Msgr. Lajos had prepared another welcome for us by local parishioners who showed off their new, although small, church, seen above and at right. Again, snacks were on offer all around. Finally, we drove the Msgr. home and headed back through Zichydorf to Velika Gaj (pronounced Guy). We found the Serb cemetery after a hike down a long and muddy path. Meanwhile, Stasa had found a local who took him to the Catholic cemetery, but it was heavily overgrown and inaccessible. We 
then returned to Zichydorf to snap photos of some more headstones and do some rubbings. It is really kind of silly, to record all this info that is probably in the church books, but, you get so excited being there that you want to capture the moment and be sure that you don’t miss anything.We returned to the hotel about 8 for a quiet night of blogging– at least for me.
posted by Celeste | 12:11 PM
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