King Charles III (source: AP/TASR)
Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia in which pessimism and negativity are absent.
Britain's king surprised students from eastern Slovakia
Back in late October, third-graders from the Secondary Vocational School of Electrical Engineering in Stropkov, a town in eastern Slovakia, decided to congratulate Britain's King Charles III on his 75th birthday.
They also expressed their admiration for his work for young people and his activities to protect the environment.
“To our great surprise, we found we had received a letter from Buckingham Palace after returning to school from the holidays,” they wrote on the school’s website.
They received a thank-you card featuring a picture of the king. It read: “I am enormously grateful to you for thinking of me on my 75th birthday and for sending me such a touching message.”
Wintering bustards set a record in Slovakia
Great bustards on Sysľovské Polia near Rusovce, a village on the south bank of the Danube near Bratislava. (source: SME - Marko Erd)
Austrian ornithologists have observed a record number of great bustards in the Slovak part of Trojmedzie, the point where the borders of three countries – Slovakia, Hungary and Austria – meet. They counted 580 great bustards there in mid January.
Such high numbers were last reported only in 1973, when there were 697 great bustards, and a year later, when 549 great bustards were recorded. Their numbers later declined rapidly, according to the Slovak Ornithological Society/BirdLife Slovakia organisation, but have recently started to recover.
Great bustards are among the heaviest flying animals in the world.
“Of course, we’re talking about the birds spending the winter here, as nearly all the bustards from Austria, western Hungary and Slovakia have flown here,” they wrote on Facebook, adding that the nesting population is smaller. Still, there are more nesting birds than in the past.
Ultra-rare car to be re-assembled in central Slovakia
The rear part of the rare high-performance Mercedes, which was preserved after being crash tested. (source: Archive of Marcel Kolenička)
A team at the Double Red Cars museum in Brezno, central Slovakia, plans to present one of the rarest modern cars in the world to visitors.
They are currently putting together parts of a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, a GT1 sports car made in the 1990s. Only 26 examples were made, including one that was used for crash testing, the MY Novohrad wrote on its website.
“Almost no one in the world knew there was a twenty-sixth car which they used for the aforementioned test,” said Marcel Kolenička, the owner of the museum, as quoted by the newspaper. “Basically, for homologation, one car has to be broken. The video from the crash test has been kept.”
The preserved parts, with scrapes and stickers from the crash tests, are now being assembled as part of the Phoenix project. They want to restore the car, using both the new and old parts. The latter will be kept in their original form and shape.
Five feel-good stories published by The Slovak Spectator to read:
Segedínsky guláš, a Slovak creamy sauerkraut stew, is surprisingly easy to make. Cook one with us.
Armenian Artur Gevorkyan has built up a company in Slovakia that specialises in powder metallurgy. Its strong position on the market is reflected in its continuously growing sales and list of customers.
Visitors are flocking to a new unofficial winter attraction near Tisovec, in central Slovakia – huge frozen waterfalls.
Natural spas in Kalameny in the Liptov region are bursting at the seams all year round. The parking lot is lined with registration numbers from all over the world.
Kofola, a company that produces soft drinks, has been using the same Christmas ad for more than 20 years. It has become part of Christmas in Slovakia, says the company’s co-owner, Jannis Samara.
Political meme of the week
(source: Zomri.online)
Caption: The full list of artists who take the culture minister seriously.
A meme published by the satirical website Zomri.online reacts to the almost universally negative response of Slovakia's artistic community to several recent steps taken by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová (SNS nominee), aimed especially against the LGBT+ community. These included a poll that appeared on the Culture Ministry Facebook page, asking people whether it should support cultural heritage sites or LGBT+-related events where “underage children are taught how to present themselves during sexual shows, and pride events, where half-naked people show up in squares”.
You can send me your tips on good news stories about Slovakia or funny memes at: radka.minarechova@spectator.sk. Thank you!
