Driving through Slovakia

The new face of Eastern Europe is that it is part of the Euro zone. The last time I crossed from Hungary into Slovakia, which was in 2005, there were border crossings to be dealt with. No more. An even bigger change is that Slovakia is now on the Euro. That is a surprise. When I was here last there was a lot of speculation about why Slovakia would want to become an independent nation. Not that there was much animosity between the Czech Republic and Slovakia—there wasn’t. The separation of Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union was called the Velvet Revolution, and the two halves of Czechoslovakia shared a similar if not exactly common language. They were not historically one country though. Czechoslovakia was created in the aftermath of WWI, and did not represent a united vision of two people striving for one nation. To make matters worse, all the resources flowed through Prague, so there was a sense of less control over their own destiny on the Slovak side of the fence.

When Slovakia split off a couple of years after the Soviet it was called the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia had less resources at the time and yet it appears that they had more ambition. Their GDP has been amongst the best in Europe in recent years, and they made the hard changes that they had to make in order to become part of the Euro zone. The Czech republic, on the other hand, has struggled with worker productivity and not been willing to do what it takes. Driving across Slovakia reminded me of Serbia. Well cultivated land (Wikipedia says 40% of the total land in Slovakia is under cultivation), neat houses and farms, and while towns do not look wealthy, they do look well tended. We stopped at a ski resort for lunch and the lifts were open, the restaurant was packed with people, and there was an air of prosperity. Not to mention the best apple streudel that we had all trip.