It started with a walk in the Carpathian Mountains from my living room sofa.  Late one night, I typed “Muran Lehota, Slovakia” into Google maps.  Having recently discovered the many cool features of Google maps, I had been meaning to check out the village that my Grandma Pauline had once quizzed me on how to spell.  Muranska Lehota first appeared as a pink raindrop upon a green and sparse landscape.   A closer zoom showed a lonely highway.  Another click revealed a long access road leading to a village of two streets.  With a swipe of my finger, I found myself in the village via “street view”.  I started a virtual stroll down the street and a house caught my eye.  It resembled a house in a photo I had scanned to digital format at a family reunion.  The story is that Grandma Pauline had snapped that picture of house 29 in 1981 during her first and only visit to her parents’ village.  I pulled up my electronic copy of the photo, and except for a new roof and peeling stucco, it was a perfect match with the house on Google maps.

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