I'm blogging this from a luxurious, stupidly inexpensive hotel room in Bratislava, Slovakia. My boyfriend, Antoine, and I have cime for a mini-break, having traveled over here with our friend Adriana (www.mediainfluencer.net). Adriana is from Bratislava, and she and Antoine first met here in 1991, when they were both working in the Prime Minister's office.
Upon arrival tonight, I promptly burst into tears. There is something distinctly unsettling and heartwrenching about being in a former Communist country, and imagining (after years of chats about it with Adriana, who lived through it) exactly how awful it was. I sobbed silently into Antoine's shoulder in the backseat of the car we got into town (a priest friend of Adriana's family picked us up), as he and Adriana marvelled over all the new shops and improved look of the place. "This is victory, honey," Antoine whispered. All I could feel was fury and sadness at what came before it.
I'm over that now - for now. Our hotel is a building seized by the Communists years ago, and given back to the family who owned it in 1991. It's lovely, but the toiletries are hotel basic. Antoine's eyes widened when he saw how many miniature shampoos I pack, but that's all I've packed: Bratislava is full of cheaper high end skincare products, and I plan to stock up on them. I'm told that Vichy stuff is particularly plentiful and inexpensive here, so if you have any recommendations from that line, please say so in the comments.
Something tells me the tears you shed in retrospective empathy for the oppressed will do more for your complexion over time than any amount of Vichy product. I'm bowled over by the image of the Iowa girl mourning the suffering of Bratislavians under communism even as the Bratislavians in the car with her enthuse over the miraculous progress that has occurred at street level. The whole of the world's conscience and optimism seems to have been riding in that taxicab! What a wonderful place to be, and thank you for letting us take the ride with you. Have a wonderful trip, Jack.
Posted by: Hill | October 30, 2005 at 10:50 PM