Travel, 50+, Slovakia

Slovakia is many things to me. On the other hand, it's the second country I ever visited for leisure as fully organized and paid for by myself. On the other hand, it's one of the only three non-microstates that I have visited without a flight in or out (took the train and once walked out of the country). But on the other hand, it has always sort of ended up being on the way to somewhere else rather than a proper visit in its own right.

I'm not the only one who has ended up with this situation. It's a tough competition in the area. You have Vienna, you have Budapest, you have Czech Republic... All of them right there, vacuuming at least 80% of the tourism and Poland takes most of the rest of it. On top of that, most people I have talked to, who have visited Slovakia, have found the place boring at best. And, okay, if you compare Bratislava to Vienna, there is no genuine competition. It's like that boxing match between Joshua and that social media loudmouth just recently. Budapest has more to offer and so does Prague and, well, so does Warsaw and Kyiv, to be fair. While in a race of capitals, Bratislava ends up dead last, as a country, Slovakia fares much better.

Despite, I did have quite nice time in the capital. It's the historical first place where I accidentally crashed a wedding, as is my habit now. The celebrating locals did not mind a couple of foreigners joining in. Far cry from the Czech warmth (if you remember), the Slovaks were happy, smiley, warm and socially considerate. It's not only this one case, but through and through, my experience with Slovaks has been quite warm.

It was all fine and dandy until we were about to leave. Quaint, romantically decadent old town, Krtek, people pushing us to accept the fact that Bratislava is "for wine tourism", apparently... While I have never suckled on the junkie wiener, my travel buddy for the trip was a smoker. He had the urge to puff on the train station and, as it turns out, this is frowned upon. It, coincidentally, also happened that a large group of police officers were passing by the platforms.

I was doing crosswords and cracking cryptography messages, like a spy granny, at the time (a splendid way to kill time on the road, obviously). For a momentary brain cooler, I happened to pop my head out of that hole to see half a dozen police officers staring in my general direction, laughing. While a person with an extremely low self esteem would have gotten all red in the face and violent of thought (and maybe action), I was more like an inquisitive mellow hippie who had just dropped. I followed the eyes and noticed they were, in fact, staring at my travel buddy puffing a coffin nail away. Almost instantly, two police officers climbed up the stairs to the platform and approached. I leaned back and observed.

The arms of The Man approached and lashed out in a strict local. My friend did not speak it and soon enough they switched to English. They checked the passport and demanded a 20€, threatening they could charge 200€ or more. The guy was huffing and puffing and coughing cash. I listened to tales of the stamp-sized no smoking sign for hours after that. He fervently hates Slovakia, now. You will never guess which country I have suggested as the travel location to him ever since?

Besides the capital, I have visited random small towns. Mostly briefly on the way through, and there is nothing in particular to report. I did stop by with a camera at a town split in two after the establishment of Czechoslovakia. Old town belonging to Slovakia now and new town to Hungary. A place of great importance in its prime, a target of Ottoman aggression (with a sad river fort-ish to hint what was once there) and now a little display of what EU money buys with a plaque to advertise it.

The Judgment:
In my experience, the Slovaks have been a good fun every which way. Despite the somewhat distressed state of their country, they keep on being positive and friendly. You know, for the most part. The country itself has not (based on my internet searches and tales from traveling friends) yet revealed it's best bits to me. The UNESCOs, the Tatras and some other places. Financially, Slovakia has a fairly expensive capital and the less expensive other places (note: it's been years from my last visit). The food was good, the public transportation was tolerable and overall I was left with a positive leaning image.

Would I go again? Maybe. There are places and things I still want to see, if possible.