Slovakia Local Customs

  Jánošík country?
by GentleSpirit
 
  • Jánošík country?
      Jánošík country?
    by GentleSpirit
  • Zlaty Bazant - Restaurant sign
      Zlaty Bazant - Restaurant sign
    by HORSCHECK
  • Zlaty Bazant - Historic tram
      Zlaty Bazant - Historic tram
    by HORSCHECK
  • Twin city: Wuppertal
      Twin city: Wuppertal
    by HORSCHECK
  • Signpost in Kosice
      Signpost in Kosice
    by HORSCHECK
 

Most Viewed Local Customs in Slovakia

76.

Cuisine and Beverages   Bratislava

Cuisine and Beverages, Bratislava

 23 Reviews  On my trips to Slovakia I always tried some of the local beers. One of my favourite Slovak beers is the lager of Zlaty Bazant (Golden Pheasant). The brewery was founded in 1967 in Hurbanovo, and is... 

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77.

Culture and Regular Events   Bratislava

Culture and Regular Events, Bratislava

 16 Reviews  Bratislava Music Celebrations :) sounds stupid but in Slovak it is Bratislavske hudobne slavnosti and it is worth to see. There are many great musicians and good music every year in the end of... 

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78.

Behaviors   Bratislava

Behaviors, Bratislava

 13 Reviews  Hi, since I came here I noticed people from abroad like me may actually get confused by the Slovak language cause they say "Ano" to say Yes and "Nie" to say No. So sometimes they are replying to you... 

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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Commerce or smuggling?

by matcrazy1

I crossed Slovak borders many times - with Poland, Czech, Austria and Hungary (never with Ukraine). There were always large differences in prices between cheap Slovakia and expensive Austria and lower differences with other neighbouring countries. But the differences are lower and lower since, say 1990. My ranking of countries from the most expensive (I mean basic food/restaurants, transportation and accommodations):Austria,Hungary,Poland,Czech (except expensive Prague),Slovakia,Ukraine.The differences caused "local custom" on areas adjacent to the borders: doing shopping abroad or "travels to cheaper country". But except this world wide custom there is more "local custom" in Slovakia at least on Polish-Slovak border I noticed many times although rarely recently.Last time (2003) we were a little surprised to see two women speaking Polish walking on foot back to Poland (in Oravska...

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Soviet style architecture

by matcrazy1

Excuse me, it's not only Slovak local custom but rather post-Soviet world architectural remainder - a kind of specific architecture easy to find from River Laba on the West (former western border of Soviet imperium) to far Siberia on the East - hmm... more than a half of globe. IN CITIESArchitecture of cities on this part of the globe (including Slovakia) - outside historical oldtowns - is often very ugly. There are districts of never ending, huge, rectangular and often neglected apartment buildings, put one by one, each with hundreds of very small flats inside. There are flats/apartments, no stores or other businesses on ground floor there. There are seperate, heavy, 1-2 story and ugly buldings housing stores placed among usually at least 4-5 or 10 story buildings. Hmm... these districts may look nice only on pictures taken from far distance esp. when placed on green areas. Although...

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Street zoo :-)

by matcrazy1

I could find a lot of livestock: cattle (cows), pigs, chickens, sheep and goats in Slovak countryside. No trip to ZOO was needed to look at them :-). Cows and goats were usually tied with a string attached to the ground on a meadow enough far from a highway/street. But sometimes they and chickens/sheep as well were walking on a highway. Hmm... it's not so easy to find it in most of the Western Europe. Look at the goat I met in mountain village of Zuberec. Local families still often keep a few chickens, cows or goats mainly for their own need (milk or meat) especially in small, hidden, mountainous villages of northern Slovakia. Anyway, most of Slovak food is produced in bigger or smaller "food factories" and large farms (remainder of collective farms) nowadays.Under post WWII communist regime Slovak farmers were forced to join collective farms in which all land and equipment were jointly...

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And just one more picture of halusky

by Skipka

For those who couldn't try it here is the recipe how to make it: Take 400 g potatoes, 200 g smooth flour, 200 g coarse flour, 250 g of sheep cheese (bryndza is typical for Slovakia but you could try to melt feta cheese with milk cream and a bit of youghurt), 1 dl of cream, 100 g of smoked bacon. Wash the peeled potatoes, grate them, add smooth and coarse flour, salt, and make the dough for dumplings, which you throw into boiling salt water. Sieve boiled dumplings, rinse them with luke-warm water and mix it with some fat from the fried bacon. The warm dumplings are served with sheep cheese mixed with cream and sprinkled with bits of fried bacon. Bon appetite :))

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Embroideries

by Skipka

Talking about fabrics and clothes there are unique embroideries and according them you should distinguish the area even the particular place here. It is something similar like Scottish skirts :) where every pattern has its meaning. I think that being embroidered or so is better like being labeled :) or checked by codebar :)

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Special fabric

by Skipka

Well, this special fabric is called modrotlac in Slovakia and in the past it was handmade and then the big skirts of folklore clothes >:), nowadays you can buy it in shops like ULUV is. It is done with indigo of course...

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Wedding Traditions

by Vlasta

Our wedding traditions are very special. If you will have a possibility to be present at the wedding party in Slovakia, do it - it is great experience!As a first step there is "odobierka". Odobierka - that´s a Slovak tradition when the bridegroom comes to the bride´s house together with his family and "starejsi". Starejsi is usually a man who asks - in the name of the bridegroom - the bride´s parents and family to let their daughter get married and leave the house. It´s very nice tradition, it is very touching, and parents usually do a lot of crying while wedding songs are sung, music plays, and "their children" are kissing them goodbye. Then the young couple goes to the church and after it begin the real party, which runs often till 3:00 - 4:00 a.m.At midnight there is another nice tradition - the bride after midnight becomes a "real wife" and she must to give her flowers to another...

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Wine Heek ...

by Skipka

Heek :) wine regions are especialy in Western parts and Southern of the Slovakia of course. Very well known area is Sebechleby but also surrondings of Bratislava such as Modra, Pezinok etc .. in the early autumn u can experience traditional fiesta :) heek where u can try many delicious dishes special just for these areas including roasted duck or goose, lokse (special saulty pancakes) stuffed with goose livers and of course wine :) and beer but mostly wine :)) heek...enjoy the day heek :)

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Shoes off!

by Vlasta

I received very interesting question from VT traveller - he wanted to know if he should take off his shoes when invited to someone´s house / flat.The answer is - yes!We usually take them off - especially in winter or in rainy days. The host should offer to every guest some kind of slippers or they should stay barefoot or in socks.It can happens that your host will tell you to leave your boots on your legs. It depends on the habits.

Easter Traditions

by Vlasta

Easter is great Christian holiday and has its own magic, especially in villages, where is full of entertainment and a lot of joy.Our Easter start already on Thursday (Green Thursday). All women prepare the traditional sweets and decorate "kraslice". Kraslica is an eggshell with two small holes on the two sides of it. The egg inside has been blown out of the shell. We keep kraslice for a long time, even for several years. On Sunday people usually go to the church. On Monday there is very special tradition - that most of us - girls don´t like:We must wake up early in the morning and expect the first guys "kupaci". This guys usually sprinkle us with a bucket full of water and whip us with on legs with a whip made of willow rods, which looks like a plait of hair.(we poor girls!)In compensation we must treat them very nicely and offer them the cakes and brandy. (Who knows who from them will...

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Top 3 Hotels in Slovakia

Marrol's Hotel Bratislava  Bratislava

 4 Reviews and 271 Opinions  This is definitely a luxury hotel experience for much less than a luxury hotel price. At check in we... 

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Bristol Hotel  Kosice

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Grandhotel Stary Smokovec  Vysoke Tatry

 2 Reviews and 24 Opinions  A luxurious hotel right in one of the small towns under the peaks of Vysoke Tatry. The forest... 

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Questions and Answers

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Q:  I have to make a bank payment to SLovakia (to buy some coupons from the excellent outdoor adventure company 'Mutton', based in... 

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A: This should be IC, DIC, IC DPH (there are 'haseks' i.e. accents on the 'c', which this internet platform does not process) 

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