Hi fellow online travelers! Tomorrow we head for Silesia, where we have made a wonderful contact with a professor, Pawel Jedrzejko, at the University of Silesia, who is very enthusiastic about helping in our mission to find a missing literary treasure. I'm looking forward to meeting and I hope working with him. This was exactly the kind of person we needed to connect to, and it's thanks to a lovely staff at the US Consulate in Krakow. On Thursday we headed south for the weekend and spent a lovely weekend in Zab, a small village in the Tatra mountains of Poland, about a three hour drive from Krakow. Byron wanted to write this one for you. So I give you LaDue "The View from Kafka's Head."
By Byron LaDue
We had given up on finding the sanatorium where Franz Kafka spent several months attempting to recover from tuberulosis. We didn't have much to go on. All we had was that Kafka had stayed at a sanatorium at Matliary in the Tatra mountains in Czechoslovakia. Kathi googled Matliary, but only a few references came up, nothing specific to the name or place today. There were Kafka references that related to Dora's story (this was the place Kafka met Klopstock, whose words "Who knows Dora knows what love means" are on Dora's tombstone.) There was also a picture of Kafka at Matliary. We have been staying on the Polish side of the Tatra mountains. Matliary would be on the Slovakian side. Ever since she saw them in the distance on our first trip to Poland in 2001, to research
Dora's life in Bedzin for her book, Kathi's wanted to go to the Tatra Mountains.
We are now at the base of the Tatras, about a three hour drive from Krakow, just outside the main town of Zakopane at a lovely hotel called Redyk in the village of Zab, the highest village in Poland, where you can see outside our window a lovely view of Polish farmland backed by mountains. Friday we visited the main village of Zakopane and found it to be a very popular tourist location for Polish families. There was a long line of traffic leading into the village offering a water park, river rafting, mountain trams, biking and a huge outdoor pedestrian alpine mall, Krupowki Street, several blocks long full of pedestrian traffic. There was a multitude of shops, street entertainers (including an actual dog-and-pony show) and a waffle and fruit treat which I couldn't resist.
We took a tram up into the foothills in the direction of our village, Zab, and then walked along an extensive row of vendors and rode back down the mountain on a chairlift. It was a lot of sightseeing, a lot of walking and a lot of tourists. Having done Zakopane on Friday we decided that on Saturday we would just "drive around." We took off around noon in our rented Hyundai Getz with a hazy destination of another mountain tram located on our tourist map.
Photo: One the road to Slovakia
Before we knew it we were driving from Poland into Slovakia, which is now a separate country from the Czech Republic. We found the small village where the tram was located, a place called Tatranska Lominca. I changed some Polish Zloty into Slovakian Crowns (different from Czech Crowns) and we had lunch at a roadside hotel to get our bearings.
Kara from Berlin, Germany
July 14, 2008 at 09:03 AM
Wow - I loved reading this blog today...I am hooked and am spell bound at the beauty of these mountains, ever so close to where we live, and I have never been. Thinking of you.
Big Hug,
Kara
Natanya from traveling the US and Asia
July 14, 2008 at 01:23 PM
Sounds like a great trip!
Maura from New York
July 14, 2008 at 02:22 PM
What a fabulous adventure. I'm not surprised the good luck gods are smiling on you two.
Steve Schlesinger from Escondido, CA
July 14, 2008 at 03:00 PM
Byron
Thanks for writing this great story.
A fantastic early part of day followed such a great serendipitous discovery!
-Steve
Trudi from Florida
July 14, 2008 at 05:08 PM
I'm loving it!
Karen Willis from Fincastle, Va., USA
July 15, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Wow! Byron & Kathi, what a wonderful tale. so happy for you.
And, what beautiful mountains.
Thanks.
Love keeping up with you two.
Love, Karen
Linda C from Huntington Beach, CA
July 15, 2008 at 03:12 AM
I was nearly in tears at the amazing story I was reading (and funny and sweet) -- full of adventure and adventuresome people -- and the MISSION -- and the lucky number!!!!! Yes -- amazed by it all, but also touched and inspired -- thanks for taking the time to write it all down for us and share those fabulous, beautiful and humorous photos -- wow- I know you are trying to close in on the story, but really, YOUR story is just as fascinating and I hope it goes on and on!
Jill Duttenhofer from San Diego, Ca
July 15, 2008 at 04:47 PM
Kathi-----I just found your blog today ! WOW ! what an adventure you are having All your good Tai Chi karma is following you along on this trip.
I miss your teaching at the YMCA !
Jill Duttenhofer
Alison from San Diego
July 15, 2008 at 09:29 PM
Kathi!
I'm really enjoying your journey!
It reminds me how great it is how, when you head into the unknown, life starts to reveal itself more clearly !
Alison
Patricia Andrews from San Diego
July 16, 2008 at 12:03 AM
WOW!!! Absolutely amazing story of a fantastic trip! The photos are stunning and breath taking! Keep on spell binding us with this great adventure!
Much love & peace...Namaste!
Kathy Dugle Goodman from University Heights, San Diego
July 16, 2008 at 05:12 AM
Kathi and Byron,
GREAT to read Byron's account! Right in keeping with all the other miraculous happenings that abound with this wonderful quest! Love the photos, love the writing!! Kathi, you look right in your element there - so beautiful! (you and the land) and LOVE Byron's foolin' around! What a wonderful trip you had!
Love,
Kathy
p.s. Just got back from a double Family Reunion. We need to have 3 cups o' tea & share stories!
Kim Nyhous from Brain Trust, California
July 16, 2008 at 02:20 PM
Amazing...really amazing...you have so much synchronicity on your side! Love the blogs and pix, keep 'em coming!
Dale Estey from NS Canada
July 16, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Although it would annoy (and possibly amuse) him, I'll propose that Franz smudged a 4 to leave a 108 - and the rest was up to you.
It's the kind of thing he'd do.
Penny from San Diego
July 16, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Enjoying the vicarious trip with you and will keep "on the edge of my chair" hoping you find more leads -- if not the Real things, Kafka's letters and notebooks!
Please tell Byron that he should come with a warning label!! I saw his tease photo and my legs turned to water!! I'll leave those beautiful mountains to you two!
Am enjoying your Tai Chi class -- probably will only take you a couple of months to get them back in order.
Best wishes! Penny
Priscilla from San Diego
July 17, 2008 at 06:38 PM
how amazing your journey is proving to be; how lucky you are with discoveries in your mission; how exciting to find what you are seeking when you have no clue where you are; and how well you are both telling the story.
best to you both, priscilla
Wiliam Diamant from Anna Maria Florida
July 17, 2008 at 11:05 PM
The cairn of rocks bearing a bronze memorial of Kafka's head with an inscription noting that this was the site of the sanitorium where Kafka stayed from 1920-1921. puzzles me. When was it put up? Who put it uyp?Early on he was not that well known--after the holocaust nobody behind the Iron Curtain would have done it. How come it isn't mentioned anywhere?
Since you are on a treasure hunt--- could it be that the memorial is a marker to point you to the treasure. Or is it a cover for the treasure cache and you just have to say "Open Sesame" (in Czech--or maybe deutsch.)and "Voila:" (in Czech--or maybe deutsch.) the bronze memorial opens up and gives the next clue.
I'm going to go back to Robert Louis Stevenson for more ways to decipher clues. YOU MAY BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!!!
Angie just walked in--so Goodbye
Nancy Bennett from Riverside,Ca
July 18, 2008 at 06:02 PM
Hello Traveling Friends!
We were so excited to read of your adventures and to see your smiling happy faces!! The stories have been wonderful and I can hear the passion of the experience in your words! We are enjoying summer and missing you both...Lily is taking swim lessons and waitng to dance with Uncle Byron and Aunt Kathi....tickle...tickle...tickle. Much love and safe travels!!
Nancy, Kim & Lily
Kathi Diamant from Krakow today, Prague tomorrow
July 21, 2008 at 08:30 PM
To the Father,
not to dampen your fun, but the memorial was put up in 2001.
By whom we do not know.
Another mystery, but only because we don't speak Slovakian. Or Czech. Whichever. Either. Or in this case, neither.
But, it is all there, written in bronze.
So now you know.
Much love to all, including Angie.
Kathi
John Sitar from San Diego, Ca.
July 29, 2008 at 04:17 AM
Great story and travelogue. Keep us informed about your treasure hunt!!!
Milan Richter from Slovakia
February 02, 2009 at 07:06 PM
Dear Ms. Diamant,
I read of course also your book on Dora - as I am a Kafka expert from Slovakia who has arranged the festival KAFKA'S MATLIARY since 2007 in the High Tatra area.
We would be happy to invite you to our festival which takes place the last week of May.
You can reach me at this email address:
milan.richter@gmail.com
Dr. Milan Richter, Slovakia
