slovakia 2

20 December 2010
After a delicious plate of slop, last night we got so cold that we literally bombarded into a bar, any bar.

Again, people here smoke inside still. Besides the obvious throwbacks to the seventies, you gotta love being able to walk into a place where you can gaff while you sip. Like home. (I forget how liberal South Africa is to smoking...still)

It's weird to think Slovakia, over the past 70 years, has been four different countries. Imagine that. Imagine waking up throughout your life, and one decade from the next you're a completely new country.

Slovakia was originally Hungary. Then Hungary split, and Czechoslovakia was formed. During Nazi times, Slovakia was reinstated for a small period. Then back to Czechoslovakia. Then a gigantic split, of which we have Czech Republic and Slovakia today.

Tough times.

Anyway we got hammered, and not quite sure how we made it home - the Brit says he thinks we took a cab.

All I see around me are clothes thrown around our apartment (we were well kinky last night. How was that possible?), wine glasses and that Slovakian wine, and all sorts of night time detritus.

We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed up the hill.

Weaving through cobbled little alleys, steps, past steeples and under highways to get to the castle.

And this view:

It was quite extraordinary. Overlooking the old town.

Then, you suddenly turned two clicks to the left and saw something quite different.

A bustling, busy, insanely ugly city centre. Ah. Of course. Communism had to thrive somewhere, and it wasn't in a town built in the 1400s.

Fuck I love this.

There seems to be a giant watch tower built amongst the wreath of highways winding over the Danube River. I just loved the stark contrast of it all.

We both reckoned, in fact, we'd made a great decision to visit Slovakia. The day was crisp and blue, and even after all our drinks last night we'd hardly really spent much money at all.

As we walked under the flyover, a woman with a moustache pushed a door open and therein lay her bedroom. In a room in a bridge, basically. She was stirring a cup of slop, and watching us walk past her.

Slop and scenery. Would you get that anywhere else but in a country like Slovakia?

Then we went back to Vienna and got trapped there for two more days whilst a snow bomb sent shrapnel over Heathrow airport.

Happy New Year!