Nigel Marven (source: Facebook/Divoká príroda Slovenska)
Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia from which pessimism and negativity are absent.
Discover a hidden gem of Europe
Watching a brown bear from a distance of just 40 metres, fighting with a wood grouse or being completely covered by European ground squirrels – these are just a few images from the brand new documentary Wild Slovakia, showing the natural beauties of this country in the heart of Europe.
It was directed by Nigel Marven, a popular UK documentary maker who has more than 150 films under his belt and has worked with Sir David Attenborough. He has spent several months in Slovakia shooting exceptional scenes from Slovakia’s wild nature, as well as recording interviews with experts on nature protection, environmentalism and ecotourism.
“With its biodiversity, Slovakia, as a secret gem of Europe, can compete with exotic countries of the world,” reads the documentary’s official website. “There are 370 kinds of birds, 77 kinds of mammals, more than 2,000 kinds of plants, and 29 kinds of reptiles and amphibians.”
The documentary premiered on January 1 on the second TV channel of the public-service broadcaster RTVS, Dvojka. Viewers can watch it again when it is repeated on Dvojka on Sunday, January 7 just before noon, and also via the channel's online archive (with Slovak dubbing) (until January 7).
The most bizarre Google searches in Slovakia
Illustrative stock photo (source: Unsplash)
While Slovaks searched mostly for expressions like “How to vote” or “How did the referendum turn out?” through the Google search tool in 2023, a summary of the year's searches has also turned up some oddities.
The list, prepared for the eighth time by Visibility, an online marketing agency, shows that people searched for expressions like “How to find what I own” (1,000 searches through Google each month, on average), “Ghost on pregnancy test” (400 Google searches a month, on average) or “How to find out whether a criminal complaint has been submitted against me” (250 Google searches a month, on average).
Among the top 10 more bizarre searches were also expressions like “How to train parents”, “What should I have for dinner” and “I don’t know who I am”.
Slovak racewalking event ranked best in the world
The Dudinská Päťdesiatka racewalking event. (source: Slovenský atletický zväz - Milan Ďuroch)
The 2023 edition of the Dudinská Päťdesiatka, an annual racewalking competition held in March on the streets of Dudince, a town in southern Slovakia, has been ranked the best walking event in the world.
“It brings great satisfaction for everybody involved in the race’s preparation,” said race director Július Korčok, as quoted by the Atletika.sk website.
Dudince collected 10,537 points in the ranking for walking races included in the global calendar of the World Athletics organisation. This was exactly the same as the May team championships in Poděbrady, in the Czech Republic. The pedestrian rally in La Coruna, Spain, ranked third with 10,479 points.
Five feel-good stories published by The Slovak Spectator to read:
American actor Stanley Tucci tasted Slovak bacon.
Kyiv-born opera singer Vasyl Alekseev often blends different genres and gets the public engaged in his performances in the hope of making opera more appealing to the masses.
Daniela Ostatníková, the winner of this year’s ESET Science Award in the Outstanding Academic in Slovakia category, described for The Slovak Spectator the fascinating world of autism.
An unused school building in a village under the Low Tatras mountain has been turned into the fictional moon Pandora, as depicted in the hugely popular science fiction film Avatar.
A cement mixer with a wheelbarrow, a decorated Christmas tree with Christmas balls, leeches and frozen bird carcasses as food for snakes were among consignments sent via Slovakia’s post offices.
Political meme of the week
(source: Zomri.online)
Translation of the caption:
“The first president who would have a translator into Slovak.”
Satirical website Zomri.online lampoons a mooted presidential bid by Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Andrej Danko, who is known for his unintentionally comical Slovak neologisms and for routinely mangling the national language with non-standard syntax and grammar.
You can send me your tips on good news stories about Slovakia or funny memes at: radka.minarechova@spectator.sk. Thank you!
