The beginning of winter

Last weekend was a long weekend in Slovakia. Monday was the Day of Freedom and Democracy which is a national holiday. My flatmate and I were discussing the holiday and what it could mean. Freedom and Democracy, which freedom would be celebrated? Freedom from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, freedom from the Soviet Union, or freedom with Slovakia becoming its own nation state? I asked students what the day was for. They told me that it commemorates the day Communism left Czechoslovakia. This is not the same time as the Velvet Revolution. Communism left Czechoslovakia in 1989, I think, and then in 1993 the Velvet Revolution happened which separated Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (aka Slovakia). I asked if there were any special celebrations that happen, but they said no. The day is simply a state holiday and so everyone has the day off.

I was not sure what I would do for the weekend at first, but I was invited along on a trip and said yes. Last Friday, Jenny, Carol and myself boarded an IC train for Bratislava and were on our way for an enjoyable weekend. Jenny had plans to visit her sister in England who was there at the time and so she rode with Carol and I and then made her way to the airport. Carol had plans to go to Vienna, Austria and asked if I wanted to join her. I said OK and we made the plans. There is a Vincent van Gogh exhibit at the Albertina Museum until December 8, so we planned to go see it. We found out that some other lecturers were planning on going to the exhibit as well. We were able to meet up in Vienna and go to the exhibit all together. There were a lot of people there, and it was really warm in the exhibit. The paintings and sketches were amazing though. I recognized some of the paintings, but not all of them. On Sunday Carol, a lecturer based in Bratislava and myself went to an exhibit on Georges Barque who was a cubist painter. I do not think I had seen any of his paintings before, so it was very interesting to see his work.

Carol and I spent Sunday evening in Bratislava at the apartment of some of the lecturers, one of them was my roommate at orientation. We had dinner at the apartment of a friend of the girls there who works at the US Embassy. He, the Embassy employee had come to speak at my school about the new Visa program between the US and Slovakia, so we had met before but it was nice to chat again. Monday was a low key morning, Carol and i got our things ready for the trip back to Mikulas. We had lunch with a few of the lecturers in Bratislava and then caught our train. We got back to Mikulas around 4:30 and it was already dark like night. I looked out the window and commented on it raining. When Carol and I got off the train we realized it was not rain, but snow. We were surprised at that. By the next day we had about an inch of snow. Wednesday it rained though and the snow disappeared. However, it has been snowing again. There was some snow yesterday and it was cold, the high was -1 C and has been snowing all day today so far. The grass is still peaking through a little, but it makes the area look pretty. I am guessing the mountains have more snow on them, but I cannot see them so do not know for sure. They have been covered by clouds since yesterday afternoon. If the weather continues like this it brings hope of a good ski season.