Ilona Seifert and her sister in Abbazia

On a family holiday in Abbazia during the 1920s. My sister and I are in the front row in white clothes. The whole extended family went down to Abbazia at the same time. We traveled by train. It was a long journey, which took almost a whole day, and we had to change trains at Fiume, not easy with our large amounts of luggage. In Abbazia, we lived in the Breiner Hotel, a strictly kosher hotel. I remember that the meat table and the meat section were set with red covers, and the milk table and section with nice blue tablecloths. You could eat either meat or milk-based meals, but the two parts were kept separated. The Breiner was the only kosher hotel in Abbazia, so all our Jewish acquaintances also went there. The family all went together, my mother and the two of us (and of course the Fräulein - since she worked all year, it was natural that we wouldn't leave to go on holiday without her!). My mother's younger sister with her two sons also went, as did our grandparents, and, I think, others as well. There were always lots of children in Abbazia, as well as acquaintances, relatives and neighbors. Everybody knew everybody else. There was also always a rabbi who spent his summer holiday there, because the place was kosher enough, even for him. He conducted a religious service every Sabbath, as there was a synagogue there, too. I must have been around 15 when we went to Abbazia for the last time.