Wandering Secrets

here’s a non-exhaustive list of what to take with you if you’re moving to Bratislava. As always, take the essentials and never take something…

The name Vlkolínec sounded like a folk tale to me. I’d heard it many times before, and every time the story was different. A wooden village in the Slovak Mala Fatra, a traditional Slovak village in the Velke Fatra, something to see, something not worth it. Not the first time it happens, and certainly not […]

-“Where do you live now?” -“Bratislava.” -“Is that in Russia?” Only a few people I’ve met know about Slovakia, or have heard of it. Slovaks go mental when they hear for the hundreth time “ah yeah, czechoslovaquia” or “Russia” or” Slovenia” being associated to their country. Guilty nº1: me. I didn’t know anything about Slovakia before […]

Today I want to dream. I want to dream about the Slovak soft hills, the bright green of the forest, the birds singing and the soft ring of the cattle’s bells. I want to dream that I’m not in the city, that I can hear something else than the tram passing and that I can […]

As I apparently often do in this blog, this post comes as a reaction to guidebooks and the visitors’ tendency to underestimate Slovakia. It’s terrifying how little the books actually say (or know?) about this country. Granted, I don’t know a lot more than the guidebooks. Just a little bit, learnt during my year around […]

Nothing better than an authentic story to tell us about how Easter is celebrated in Slovakia:                   ” Easter traditions in Slovaquia are a kind mix of the Christian religion and of a pagan celebration that celebrates the begining of the spring. Easter symbols, like decorated eggs, […]

The reactions to my last post got me thinking about how and what I’d written about Slovakia. I wasn’t trying to list negative aspects, nor was I saying that I didn’t like my life here. It was more a cry of wanderlust than a post about Slovakia. Confused?  Me too! We’ve been living in Bratislava […]

A grey, cold Sunday afternoon in Slovakia.   The feeling that the weekend has flown by.   The melancholy of having to say goodbye to a friend.   A bus that can’t take the usual road to Devin.   A bus driver that let us out in another village, 3 km away from the Devin ruins. […]