Bratislava, Slovak Republic

National Theater, Bratislava

Today, we're going to be in 3 capitals: Budapest, Bratislava in Slovakia, and finally Prague in the Czech Republic. Slovakia has about 5.4 Million inhabitants and is about twice the size of New Hampshire in area. It was the capital of the Austria-Hungary Empire from 1536 to 1860. In 1918, it became part of Czechoslovakia, though the Slovak and Czech portion were separated during the Nazi occupation from 1938 to 1945. In 1993, after communism, Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic. Slovakia became part of the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2009. An interesting thing happened when they went to the Euro. People started spending more money largely because they lost a feeling for what items cost. 30 Crowns were equal to one Euro, but an item that they might have considered expensive, felt much cheaper when expressed in Euros. Sort of what it like when we hear temperatures in Celsius, when we think in Fahrenheit. There are about 600,000 people in the capital which has low unemployment, largely because so many foreign firms have established offices here. The national unemployment rate is 14%, the lowest of our trip. We toured the old town area with its National Theater, City Hall and St. Martin's Cathedral where the kings were crowned. An interesting story which contrasts with the Jewish stories in Budapest. Here during the Nazi era, the government actually paid 500 DM for every Jew that the Germans removed from the city. We viewed the Jewish memorial here, right next to a wall with a picture of the former synagogue. The Nazi's hadn't torn the synagogue down, but the Soviets did - to make room for a new bridge across the Danube. While here we had a traditional Slovak lunch of Beef Svickova with dumplings - the dumplings looked like bread and in fact, that's what they were made of.

Holocost Memorial and St. Marten's Cathedral

Our guide, Michael, told of living in a Panelak, a Soviet built apartment house. Each apartment has two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and living room all fit into about 650 square feet. The Soviets gave you an apartment (after a suitable wait), but after living there for 20 years, you could purchase the apartment for $2000. Today, those apartments go for about $80,000. Many of the apartment buildings are being insulated and painted in bright colors, not quite as drab as the old grey concrete.

We traveled for another five hours in the afternoon. The Czech Republic is about the size of South Carolina and has 10 million residents, 1.3 M of which live in the capital, Prague, the city of spires. Prague is known for drinking more beer per capita than any other city in the world. Michael told us that while beer has been brewed for several thousand years, it was the monks who perfected the recipe. Why? Because during fasts, they could still drink up to 5 liters of beer a day, their liquid bread.