Please Join Us to Hear about Jay Bartner’s Experience
A Walk Around Town:
A Personal Journey to Visit my Grandparents’ Homeland in Eastern Europe
Around 1915, each of my four grandparents came to America as teenagers. Alone, single and full of hope, they met, married, and raised families in the New York Metropolitan Area. Each left most of their relatives in Eastern Europe, never to see them again.
Why didn’t I ever hear stories about the life they left behind? My mother and father had traveled to Europe many times but never spoke a single word of wanting to visit their parents’ homeland. I shared their apathy for 67 years. Then, last year, I knew I had to go find my grandparents’ hometowns in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
Back in the 60’s and early 70’s, I backpacked around Europe. Did I still have it in me? Of course I did! Equipped with only a fourteen pound backpack, a frequent flyer plane ticket to Warsaw and the modern traveler’s tools of a smart phone and debit/credit card, I was confident I could fill in the details in transit.
I stayed in hostels and Airbnb’s. Hostel dorm rooms were magical fifty years ago. If I didn’t look in a mirror, just maybe, I could recapture my youthful backpacking experience. A hotel might provide a comfortable room but meeting people from around the world was a priority for me.
As it turned out, my three week trip was even better and far more meaningful than I ever could have expected.
