Rome to Bratislava: “Back to the future”

This article is a part 2 of Rome to Bratislava: one-way ticket?

So, when in 1992, Czechoslovakia passed into history, we couldn’t quite believe it. Was it real? Really? If so, why did that happen? Don’t they speak the same language, share the same history, have the same values and beliefs? I remember a dear family friend of ours, one evening at dinner, shaking her head and almost painfully regretting the time when everything seemed much easier to understand. That was a bolt from the blue: a divorce in the heart of the continent? All right, with just a handful of alimony hearings, civil, but still a divorce in an age when Europe was rapidly converging towards a much closer union. On the face of it, it didn’t make much sense, but what did we know? And, above all, what did I know?

From Rome to Bratislava

Fast-forward to April 2023. After a twelve-hour drive from Rome, I park my car in Bratislava’s city center. New parking regulations I was told, so beware! Eventually, I could find a free place next to Aupark’s shopping mall, and head to my flat, booked for the first two weeks. Restlessness (or madness) can take us a long way. I just didn’t know what to expect. I was on the cusp of changing my job, my city, and my daily routine only because I felt it was the right thing to do. While I still had time, legs, and brain.

I must say that Bratislava, and Slovakia in general, have surprised me in a way that I could not anticipate. Some random remarks: in Italy, one thing can be a huge, daily pain in the neck: traffic! Drivers here seem sane. They abide by the rules. They signal when turning left or right. If anyone wants to use the pedestrian lines, cars stop and let you cross the street unharmed. Even honking is something that you hear now and then. The city is cleaner, quieter, and way less crowded than Rome. Maybe eternity comes with a price tag attached to it. Or maybe the Austrians or the Slovaks themselves did a good job. I don’t know. But whatever the genesis, the fact remains: yours is a world built on rules. Ours is one built on the interpretation of the (same) rules.

Parking my car in Bratislava is another thing that warms my heart in the winter and cools it in the summer. Coming, as I did, from the very center of Rome, with its crazy traffic, pathologically low number of parking options, moronic regulations, and obscene fees, I was blown away when I discovered that you made the bold decision to build underground parking lots in so many different parts of Bratislava. We never thought about it! Brilliant!! After a lifetime of pirate parking and an unhealthy number of related tickets, I found peace here. I feel almost a primal, physical enjoyment when I take my “Saba” card, lift the bar, and enter “my” garage. But I am not sure that you can truly understand what I mean.

A brave new world

When I was a teenager I thought of Eastern Europe simply as a poorer, unhappy, and underdeveloped part of Europe. I took the then-existing geopolitical order as immutable. Little did I know that, in about 30 years, you would have accomplished nothing short of a miracle, throughout Eastern Europe. Of course, you have your fair share of problems and challenges, who doesn’t?

And yet, when people ask if I am still in the EU or the Eurozone. Or when they mistake Slovakia for Slovenia. Or when others confuse Bratislava for Breslau. Well, I feel as if I won a lottery ticket. I tend to mince my words and leave them all in their bubbles. Slovakia as the best-kept secret in Europe? That’s what I hear. May that long continue.

This article was brought to you by Marco Talia from the Bridge, specialist English language training centre providing high quality, professional English language courses for students with a variety of needs and goals.