Kosice

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  Kosice, Slovakia
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Right after I say there are no festivals until June, I stumble across the next best thing - a national holiday - in Kosice, Slovakia. Monday, May 8, was "Victory Over Fascism Day" to celebrate when the Russians "liberated" Czechoslovakia from the Nazis. This meant that every store was closed, and a big stage set up in the center of town with bands and, um, performances, complete with an erotic dance by a bunch of women dressed in red and black latex. This kind of confused me because those were the colors of the Fascist government in Pink Floyd's "The Wall." But they would know fascism better than I ...

Kosice is nice, if a little sleepy, but three of the four days I was here are the slowest of the week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights). The town is in the more rural Eastern Slovakia, almost to the Ukrainian border. It is Slovakia's second largest city, but only has a population of about 240,000, and it seemed like many of them were college students or just a bit older

Ah, Bartenders

. It has a surprisingly large and pleasant main square - much nicer than Bratislava, complete with the typical 19th Century buildings, churches, and outdoor cafes (not 19th Century). It also has one of those fountains that shoot geysers at various changing heights, but what made this one different is that it was coordinated to the music being played and it was lit up with multi-colors at night. (Unfortunately, I think the amount of light overwhelmed whatever setting I was using on my camera.) And right next to it is possibly the ugliest church ever, and that is saying something. I mean, this thing visually repels the eye with a mix of gothic, renaissance, and baroque architecture, combined with a god-awful color scheme provided by stones of different shades of grey and brown in no discernible pattern.

As I said, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were pretty slow - a few younger kids sitting at cafés and bars chatting. As an aside, this is similar to my previous experiences in Eastern Europe. Only the young or older men go out late. I think (as in middle America) that all the thirty-somethings are married with children, and at home. They might go out with friends early on a Friday or Saturday, but that's it. That said, I met some interesting people, such as the girl at a bar who was so excited to use her English (she had been a nanny in Holland for a couple of years) that she approached me when she saw me reading an English-language based book

Anti-Fascist Dancers

. She was cute, if a little heavy (she is obscured in the picture), but, as usual, the bartenders were all hot, and opened up to try their English once I drew them out. I have to remember, though, to talk slower than I am used to, and enunciate better, in order to be understood. I can talk fast at home, so I am unsurprised to hear this request of me here.

But for all that, I had a blast Saturday night. After a rather heavy and questionable meal of Slovak-style pork with dumplings (which are more like sliced bread than what I call dumplings, and I was teased by the waitress when she found me tearing them with my hands rather than cutting them with a knife), I wandered around a couple bars trying what I took to calling "the Veetchas." That is an attempt to phonetically spell the suffix of all the various liquors distilled here. The most well-known is Slivovica, from plums, but there is also borovicka (juniper), malinovica (raspberry), ceresnovica (cherry), marhulovica (apricot), hruskovica (pear), and barackovica (peach). At some point, I met three women, one of whom spoke pretty good English, and she dragged me along to a couple of subterranean clubs. She had a much nicer grill than the girl in Bratislava; however, there was no separating her from the herd. Alas, I guess some things are universal in all countries.

Friendly Quasi-English Speakers

Finally, they like rock, punk and heavy metal in eastern Europe. I can't understand the words of the local tunes, but at least the soundtrack in bars, pubs and clubs is tolerable, instead of the incessant monotony of techno. Put another way, if I am going to chat-up for hours and make-out with a girl, but get nothing in the end, better it be to "the Slovak Rolling Stones" and Rob Zombie a Dutch synthesizer. I may have to check out a rock show before I go, except for I didn't bring a black t-shirt from a band like Sepulthura, so I would stand out like a sore thumb

By the way, Skype rocks. Free PC to PC calls anywhere in the world. And the cost to call someone in the U.S. from my laptop is $0.03 a minute instead of $0.99 and up from my cell phone. Whoo Hoo! Download it to your computers and I can bug you late night - just when you want to hear from me, I'm sure.

Next Stop: Bucharest, Romania

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I made a friend	Nice Fountain	Nice Square Part 1	Nice Square Part 2
Overwhelmed Camera	Subterreanean Club	World's Ugliest Church

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