Blog | AuthenticSlovakia.com

Bratislava as an employment hub for the rest of Slovakia. Simple-minded people living in Záhorie region as a source of sarcastic jokes. Hardworking catholics in the harsh-climate northern Orava region. Hungarians in the south conspiring about regional autonomy while enjoying spicy goulash. Lazy Romas making noise and dirt in their isolated ghettos. Old grannies speaking weird language and the most beautiful girls in the world (of course) in Eastern Slovakia. Slovakia is so diverse. Creating a regional stereotype makes our lives much easier! Do you feel Slovaks are the most hospitable and friendly nation worldwide? No? We do! You lazy French, snobbish Swiss, capitalist American, drunken Russian! Be aware that we, Slovaks, like to keep prejucides – at national as well as at regional level.

Searching for the most scary abandoned places in Bratislava, we visited the largest ruin in the city - Rázsochy hospital. Massive project to build all-fit-in hospital has existed since 1980's, launching the construction in 1987. However, after 1989 the communist regime and its enthusiastic planning collapsed. For two decades, unfinished object serves only as a spooky monument. Permanently secured by safeguards with barking dogs and occasionally visited by paintball players, Rázsochy hospital remains one of the unexplored question marks of Bratislava hidden in the deep forest. On the 17th December, during the excursion for students of geography at Comenius University, we interviewed a nostalgic guard who made an excursion into the politics of recent decades for us, but not into the object itself. Challenge to explore indoor areas of this spooky construction remains our task for the next season.

Another elections took place in Slovakia again. This time municipal elections, the ones, which concern about us even more than the parlamentary ones. We are not satisfied how the townhall works (or better: does not work) here in Bratislava. Corruption seems to be practised on every-day basis: this might be seen on selling the municipal property, on building new skyscrapers at the places where most of the population does not want it etc. A change from the common people, common citizen is waiting. The results of these elections showed us though that the majority of the people still think rather in the terms of political colours than in the view what the individual persons had done before. We tried our best – we were at the elections.

Let’s go back to the past again – every season has its own uniqueness. The less you feel it in the city, the more in the village. Roots of our ancestors are there as well and we want to keep them alive. At the same time we prefer „home-made“ products for those from the hypermarkets.

Why should we always bend our backs just from behind the laptop screen? There is another, and we hope healthier way: plums picking. Yes, this is the first and the most necessary step to produce slivovica (read „slivovitsa“) or plum brandy („slivka“ means plum in Slovak), which ranks together with borovička among the most common and traditional in Slovakia. The picking comes at the end of summer or beginning of autumn.

After over a month (in October or November) of fermentation in a huge barrel the plums are ready to warm themselves up and to get burned. Some people risk this process of destilation at home (forbidden by law), we better use the official still-house. We have to wait and mend a fire for about 5 hours to reach some 20 liters of a divine 52% alcohol slivovica. Nazdravie!

Little Danube river looks like a jungle only 30 kilometres from Bratislava. But the rich wetland forests are suffering from garbage. That is the reason behing our decision to take part in the international voluntary project 72hours. One of the 300 voluntary projects all around Slovakia was to clean parts of the Little Danube river. On the 10th of October we organized a small group of friends willing to put their hands into muddy water and search for various kinds of rubbish: vintage-style computer screen, tyres, backpack, refrigerator, Chinese toys and much more. River full of souvenirs!