Should I start in a positive way or with a bit of frustration? Ok, frustration sells (it's enough to look at the political scene and you will understand what I mean but more on this topic later).
I have never understood Slovaks' obsession with making sure windows and doors are shut. In the case of doors don't forget to lock them, too. It's a basic rule of hygiene to ventilate the space where someone lives. The stairway of a block of flats is part of the environment where people live and in many cases it's where all sorts of odours are collected from those produced by smokers inside their flats to that of pets and their food. Add to this some traditional fried foods on the Sunday lunch menu and you can imagine....how vital opening a window becomes.
But for some strange reason I have found myself part of a very small minority who loves onion but does not want to carry it with them wherever they go in the form of “scent of onion fried in a lot of oil/pork fat” on their jackets. But I'm a woman on a mission: I will keep opening the windows in the stairwell! And I will also continue to keep knocking on the toilet door, since many Slovaks still haven't learnt to do so just in case the lock is broken.