Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Le Colonial. You'll soon feel like the king
of eastern Slovakia.
Day 7 Return to Bratislava
From Ko s ice the return trip to Bratislava
will take the better part of a day (7-8 hr.),
so start early. From Poprad and the High
Tatras to Bratislava, it's about a 5- to 6-
hour drive, depending on traffic. By
train, it can take equally long or longer,
depending on the type of train.
SLOVAKIA TODAY
At press time, Slovakia was in the midst of another gut-wrenching lurch in govern-
ment, this time from a moderate coalition of centrist parties to a more nationalist,
pro-Slovak grouping. And that's how it's been since independence in 1993, with coali-
tions of nationalists being voted in and then tossed out in turn in favor of more cen-
trist coalitions favoring the European Union and Slovakia's international obligations,
and so on, and so on. The new government has the country's more liberal students
and intellectuals hanging their heads in shame, but maybe it's fitting for a young
nation still finding its feet that the natural yearnings for a strong national identity
would play such a prominent role in politics.
The good news is that the shuffling and reshuffling of ministerial seats has not hurt
the country economically or culturally. Slovakia is making the most of its entry into
the European Union in 2004, and the government has adopted a host of far-sighted
economic measures, including a 19% flat income tax, that has led to boom in foreign
investment. The economy is now one of the fastest growing in Europe.
A LOOK AT THE PAST
Slovakia is one Europe's youngest countries, dating only from January 1, 1993, and
the amicable dissolution of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics.
While many on both sides at the time regretted the split, for Slovaks it represented a
chance to realize a long-held ambition of forming an independent state. Slovak his-
tory goes back about 1,200 years, but for the entire time—save for a few years during
World War II when the Slovaks were allowed a quasi-independent puppet state by the
Germans—they were ruled by others.
The Hungarians first conquered the territory of modern Slovakia before the first
millennium and ruled over the Slovaks for nearly 1,000 years, until the end of World
War I. Slovakia was known on maps from the period simply as “Upper Hungary,” and
indeed Bratislava even served as the capital of Hungary during the Turkish occupation
in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Hungarians suppressed Slovak culture and lan-
guage, and the Slovaks were only one of a number of ethnic minorities sharing the ter-
ritory. The end of World War I saw the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and
provided the Slovaks with a chance to split from Hungary and form an independent
state with the Czechs.
The Slovaks profited greatly from the 70-year existence of Czechoslovakia, but there
was also a bitter undercurrent of resentment against the authorities in Prague and a fes-
tering Slovak inferiority complex. It was only the collapse of Communism in 1989 that
first opened the door to the possibility of a separate Slovak state. In 1992, with national
politicians in Slovakia calling loudly for independence and Czech leaders fearful of the
drag a poorer Slovakia would have on the national budget, the split was sealed and
Czechoslovakia was finished. The years since independence have brought both ups and
downs. Poor political leadership initially hurt the Slovaks in their bid to join the Euro-
pean Union and NATO, but they eventually achieved both goals.
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