SLOVAKIA


   Have you ever wondered about this cross on the flag? Pretty strange detail for such a little religious country, like its Czech neighbor... In fact this emblem has always been representing the Slovak State in Hungarian and Austro Hungarian Empire, and shows 2 mountains in Slovakia, Tatra, Fatra, and formerly Slovak Matra (now in Hungary), overhung by a cross of Lorraine (interesting detail) without religious connotation.

 I would like to share my amazemant about what shocked me the most for day in Bratislava. While travelling before in Eastern Europe, I had already found that consumerism in many cities was even stronger than in Western Europe. And I had a striking example of it in Bratislava.
I waited my couchsurfing host in a mall that had opened just one month ago, next to her job. Without paying attention, it was just 2 modern buildings, well designed.

 

 

   I started to be suspicious when I found a map of it, then I realized its huge size when I went in seeking of a bottle of water (the cheapest was 0,50€ in a supermarket), and lost myself. The endless alleys were strewn by shops I had already seen in Paris, Lisboa, Berlin, Milan, it seemed like all the brands of Europe I had seen were met in this mall, even some French ones that I had never seen abroad.

 And I will have the same reflection than my colleague had in Prague: globalization has expanded so far that I hear the same american music llike in shops in France, but also prices are the same! Which is hard to believe when you know that Slovak minimum wage is 300 € and the inflation has doubled since it adopted euro, in 2009.

 

                                            Some people told me it was made for tourist, and I'm asking: why the malls there are always full of local people? And why to go shopping in Bratislava to buy the same products found at home, at the same price?

I opte for the theory of leisure spending, I don't know if this exist but it's a fact:

when they have free time (especially during the hollydays), people set aside time and money to go SHOPPING, as a specific leisure like reading or go to swim... This would explain the existence of malls, saving precious time avoiding people rushing from one place to another. When you know that there are at least 3 other malls in this small capital, and that the centrum is already full of the same shops, it's pretty frightening....

 Situated along the Danube, this cosumption monster is surrounded by fashionn bars and restaurant. Neverthless, we still have the choice to settle in the green area in front of it, and enjoy simple things of life, like Sophie and Claudio:                                                                                                         

 

 

 

The bus drove away, my final stop will be Batislava. The advantage of going away by bus is that we intensely live the departure: we pass along every familiar landscape, then we don't know everything by heart, and at the end we don't discern anymore the names, regions nor the country.

I passed through this city in the Est of France where I was some months ago. And what seems to have occured an eternity ago comes back to me in one second: that's also the opportunity to make time travels.
Then, there are the characters of the bus, and with the trip starts a sociological study for 24 hours. Two african people are talking behind me. I don't know their language but there are many french words in it. I'm deducing that those words don't exist in their language, and express specific things from life in France, and based on this principle it's very interesting to pay attention to their discussion. The word "clochard" (homeless) for example, doesn't exist in their language...
I always wonder why the other travelers are on the bus, what they're going to do, why in those countries. Some of them seem to carry their whole llife, some others didn't bring anything.
The fact is I don't really like to spend 24 hours in a bus, but I appreciate to be able to dive into a book, or listen to music with attention. Some people spend  all this time staring at the window, I guess they are great thinkers, otherwise they must find the journey very long!

In the bus there are Polish, Slovak, French, African, Hungarian people. With my neighbor, a lovely hungarian women, I start to talk a language that we can only practice while travelling: the essential exchange, the expression of as many things as possible with a minimum of words. This language is spoken between people who don't have a common language to communicate, yes, it's possible. The travel really started.
I look out the window, I don't recognize nothing anymore, I smile.

Here you will be able to follow Balkans trip, which will be illustrated with music, pictures and videos about the travel itself and all the things I'll be discovering.
If everything goes as I expect, I will set a foot in all of those countries,(exepted Romania that I already know):