City or town life in Slovakia

We've talked about village life, so let's go to town life. NOT city life because a lot of people think a city is a place that has more than 100k (or more) people living in it, and some think that a city is from 10 million or 1 million so let's just say town life.

Today in Slovakia it's kind of the same in the town and the village, because a lot of people in the town live in actual houses or just a couple apartment and couple floor building, which is kind of the same as in the villages. The one thing that is left off are the really old houses... Although in the towns there are a lot of old houses, but almost every one is remade so they aren't really old houses. Maybe there are some, but not in the actual center of the town but at the side.

As I said, there are a lot of "remade" old houses in Slovakia, they aren't really remade, they are just renovated so they are not completely broken, but they remain with their old style and look... And the style is often really cool looking, especially because it was "hand made".

As you can see in this picture, there are a lot of beautiful houses, with cool looks. This picture is a picture of the capital, and let me tell you, the capital is filled with those beautiful houses, or at least the centre... But let's get to the "life" part of this blog post, shall we?

Most people in Slovakia (or I think it is like this) live in a town part, so not exactly in the center, but in an apartment aside the town, that is about usually a few kilometers away from the center. 

Compare to the lifestyle in the US, it's different. Except for the capital and the towns that are the main towns of Slovakia's 8 "areas",

there isn't a luxurious lifestyle for an actual Slovak town, like the one I live in (Martin), just opened its ONLY shopping centre in the town center. I know, it seems weird, but it's not like we have everything everywhere, but it's pretty relaxing to be in a small and a peaceful town, or at least that is my opinion. So life in Slovakia isn't obviously the same as the US, it's still a little behind, with less people in towns/cities and old houses, not that modern stuff and other...

In general, Slovakia is a type of country that is famous of I could say "Not for tomorrow but because yesterday", like it has a lot of culture that you just cannot put in one head, there is just a lot throughout the years and I feel like Slovakia should stay that way...

Check out my other blog: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

Time I will be posting (Please read)

This is just an information on when and how often I will be blogging. I know it could be boring, but if you are interested in my content please read this no matter what year it is.
So let's get into it:
At first, when I had no experience with blogging I was trying to post one blog post a day. However, the Slovak culture and IDO dancing is not infinite (although it would last me about 300 day if I knew more about it but I don't because I am thirteen years old). So I am planning to post less frequently, which would be about 2-4 times per week (depends on how much time I would have). Or I would just post the most I can, but don't ever ask me if I would post on for instance Saturday, because I don't know.



Thanks for the support!


Check out my other blog that I do with my mom: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

Slovak talent(s)

You know the show "[state] Got Talent"? This blog post is not about that! Sorry...

I don't really know a lot about this topic in our country but I am going to say what I know but first I will explain this topic:

In every country there are certain sports/activities and people are either good at it or bad at it. Over here, today, I will talk about the talents of sports and other activities that are presented in Slovakia successfully, the ones that a lot of people do etc. Maybe it will be the same/similar to other countries but maybe that is just random...

Hockey

I am not really talking about this because a lot of people play it because I don't believe that is correct but I know for a fact about the representation of the Slovaks on the NHL world championship.

Although this is not too popular, almost every Slovak knows that once we were the world champions! It was in year 2002. Back then it was great, and then around the start of the 2010s in kind of started to go down hill and by this day I don't have much hope... This is my personal opinion!

Piano

A lot of people in their lives have played the piano "professionally". I am a prat of that group, not anymore though... It was a great experience, but this activity is not a lifetime thing from my perspective. I know a lot of people that just play the piano at home with a lot of experience, just for fun but it is kind of "professional".

Olympics (and more)

Over the years we had a lot of medals, even the gold ones! In those sports are included cycling, fast walking (Olympic winner Matej Tóth) and a lot more! But the most famous in Slovakia that everybody knows about is the cycling, because it happened a lot of times! The "stars" name is Peter Sagan, and he is a world champion, and he got that "place" more than once!

Sorry for the shortness of this blog post for me it's late and I am in a hurry but will be posting more through-out this week so keep up!

Check out my other blog that's with my mom: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

Sorry I did not post (here's why)

Sorry I could not post anything on my blogs for the past week. I have been really sick and my ear has hurt and I had high temperatures but now I am OK so I will be posting as much as I possibly can very soon! So keep up!

My other blog: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

Village life in Slovakia

As I mentioned in some of my blog posts, Slovakia has very old culure, so we have some villages here, that are older than you might think.

In probably every country by now a lot of their villages have probably gone sort of more modern than they have before. Indeed that happened to Slovakia as well. But if you se avillage it is defenitely not going to be completely modern. There will probably be some houses that are just old and without an owner, just being there with nothing in it and nothing is happening with it. A lot of those houses are here in Slovakia, especially in those villages. Some might be just without an owner for a few years, so it is not that bad. But some have been just standing there for about 300 years! There can be also a lot of ruined houses, like this one:

That is right. A lot of old, wooden and small houses you could find in Slovakia. Especially if you are at  village in the mountains, because we have a ot of villages as well there.

But how do they actually live in those villages?

Well, as I mentioned before there are a lot of modern houses already over herein Slovakia, so it is like normal living. But some people still own and live in those old houses, they can be renovated but they are still very old and with wooden windows. If you usually see a house like that, there probaly live either a poor family or some good old Slovak grandparents? 

What do I mean by Slovak grandparents you might ask? Well, in this couple you can find obviously a woman (a grandma) and a man (grandpa). The grandma is usually very into the cooking the traditional foods in this situation, while the gandpa just does one of the older jobs, cause they still need to get some money, right? By the older jobs I mean like a job in the woods, or they are just basically retired, but even if they are older they still kind of do their I should say old job. 

A lot of older people have farms with animals like chickens ,sheep or goats. And usually they also have normal farming plants, because they know that good stuff (by that I mean home-made food). I am not saying that only the old houses have to have the farm, the newer ones can have it as well, or the house can just be renovated. 

As I mentioned not that long of a while ago, some people have farm animals. So what do they do with them? They obviously eat them or get the eggs from the chickens or something like that. Back in the day if a family killed their pig for example they used and ate the entire pig! Used the leather for something, made a soup with the bones, ate the meat, even the brain! There was no waste, so props to the "old style" people, do not stop with what you are oding if you are still doing it!

There is another variant of having a house in a village in Slovakia. You  somehow get a place, maybe like one of those super old houses and renovate them, and build more than that! So your house will be bigger and with the stuff that were still in there. Like one f my fathers friends has an old renovated house and it looks very modern, but the truth is inside. Their oven and heat kitchen related stuff like that are provided with their literal oven! So they make a fire under the SPORAK and put wood in it and they do their food on there. That to me is something so cool and I would defenitely love to keep those old style houses around me in my counry so I can be proud of it. Love your country!

Check out my other blog that I do with my mom: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

Slovak politics

As a 13 year-old I should not talk about this or say anything about anyone from the politic side since I don't obviously know much about it. But this is still my personal opinion from the few information I know about and I am going to introduce it to you.

I am not really going to talk about the different sides and stuff like throwing shade on that specific side or something I am just going to talk about the overall situation.


Slovak politics are all over the place, both bad and good, weird, sometimes questionable and full of secrets. And what I cannot not mention: they are unpredictable.
Why you might ask? Well, people like the media and other people as well were predicting that some politic sides have no chance to even get in the picture of winning, and today they are at the place where they are close to winning, which is crazy to me and probably to everybody else because before they got into the picture no one knew about them and all the sudden it was like BOOM! they were known all over Slovakia, even when it comes to kids my age.

We also have some people that everybody knows about, and they were in the picture for a long time! They are basically saying that they will help our county but they are the "leaders of the thieves"! So basically because of them people have to/want to move out of the country or they just hate it but still they get a lot of popularity since a lot of stupid people live on the Earth (I'm sorry, but everybody knows it is the truth. Especially when it comes to politics, sometimes people do not even care about who they vote for, but that can ruin their whole future if they make a wrong decision).

The president

As every country we have a president that gets elected every once in a while. In Slovakia we get a new president every 5 years. Over the years (since 1993 because that is the year the Czech-Slovakian republic was split into the Slovak republic and the Czech republic) there have been a few presidents, and of course they were both bad and good in different sorts of ways (like everything and everyone is), and our country I don't think at least got in a bad situation because of our president yet. As I mentioned earlier, I am not going to talk about the specific person, I will try to make this the most compatible with simpleness and comfortableness and not throwing trash on everyone - ess and other stuff so that will be it for today. Ask me anything if you have a question in the comments and hopefully you will visit my blog again soon! Also, check my other blog out:

Check out my other (new) blog: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

I'm starting a new blog with my MOM!

So, I am starting a new blog with my mom that is going to be about her as a stylist (because yes, she is a stylist) dressing me as a thirteen year old boy. So make sure to check it out, or stay tuned if there are not any blog posts yet instead of introduction. Hopefully you will like it, I think it is not something a lot of people write about so keep up with it, you will miss out otherwise! Click the link below for more information!



This is my mom:

Are you interested? Check out the very first blog for more information and also read another one (if at the time you are reading this there is one) as well here: https://mymomstylist.blogspot.sk

IDO Dancing part 2

Today, we are talking again about dancing. But today, I will show you (or I guess tell you), how it works on the actual dance floor. Of course, it's not the same every time because every time the dance floor is different than the other times, but I am going to try to make it simple.

DISCLAIMER: This is from my personal experience but it does not have to qualify for every Hip-Hop competition that there is. So let's get into it.

What is the dance floor?

So, what is the "dance floor"? Like you obviously know what it is, but it is a completely different thing when you are standing on it, the lights are going into your eyes and everyone is looking at you. Especially if you're dancing the solo category (or at least that is my personal opinion).
The dance floor can be anything for anyone, but what all dancers have in common in the dance floor talk is that it's a stressful place. Even someone that loves the dancing and has been through this stuff a thousand times gets the one millisecond full stress in your heart. And if you don't and are a dancer you are a freakin' artist!

But how does it actually work?

It goes both simply and confusingly. Let me break this down for you:

It can be simple on small championships but on those big ones. When you get to the competition as a dancer in every category you have a different number. So on those small competitions the moderator says the numbers that will dance at the moment while the rest stays in the back. But on those big championships there are multiple people spreading the people into groups which will preform together (solos and duos). When it comes to the groups they come individually or two at the same time (groups) and just one at a time for the big formations (you could not do two at any occasions since the formations have custom music).

The number

So, as I said before you have a number that kind of guides you when you will dance. You get it in a paper form and you have to have it on you while you dance. Most people put it on their thighs, calves or back, or if they dance with any props they can put it there.

How long does the dance last?

The time is really important (not that much for solos since you just probably do freestyle (dance the way you feel the music)) but it matters with all the other ones since you need to know how long of a choreography/song mix you need to make. So this is how much the choreography should last for:

• Solos: 1 minute
• Duos: 1 minute
• Groups: 2 minutes
• Formations: about 3 minutes (it's basically your own choreography and music so it does not matter if it's 2:46 min. long or 3:15 minutes long, it's okay if it's not like 2 or 5 minutes long)

How does this relate to IDO dancing?

It's more than you might think, this is how it works on every IDO competition (that I have been on).

IDO dancing

Today I am going to start blogging about the second side of this blog, which is about IDO dancing. If you don't like dancing and came here for the other content (Slovak culture), just go read another blog post this one is not for you, and the other ones about dancing will probably not be as well.
I am talking IDO since that is not featured in the USA. I have seen how dancing (or kind of seen) in the USA works from the show Dance Moms. Anyways, IDO dancing is featured completely differently than American dancing. Just to let you know, IDO means International Dance Organization that is featured in those countries:

• Canada
• Slovak & Czech Republic
• Germany
• Estonia
• Jamaica
• Belarus
• Poland
• England
• Australia
• and many other countries from around the world (but these are probably the most featured, or these were featured at least at the competition where I was at)

So what's happening?

The season starts in January, and a lot of different cups in your country are made and you have to qualify for at least 1 to go to the nationals. After you do the country nationals, if you get a high enough place in the finals (if you even get there), you can go to the European or I guess your continent's nationals. And if you get a high enough place in the finals, you can go to the world championships.

OK, but how does it really work?

We have different types of dancing competitions as well, but there are not 2 different dance styles featured in one group. So you either have for example disco, but not mixed with Hip-Hop so you don't have 2 types in 1 column. Until now, I have been only featured in the Hip-Hop and Street dance (which is usually on the same competition as Disco), so I am going to talk about that the most over here, at this blog. If you have any questions, write it as a comment, cause if I will write everything about IDO I would be dead by the time I finish.


Here are the categories you can go into:

• Solo (1 person)  
• Duo (2 people)
• Group (3-7 people)
• Formation (8-24 people)
• Rookie champ (beginners)
• Battles (a whole another chapter that I will explain later)

People get judged by the judges (obviously) in a form of numbers. In the finals, if a competitor gets a 1, it means the judge wants him on the 1st place (if they say 6, 6th place etc.). In the other rounds (semifinals, quarter finals etc.) they either say Yes or No (as if they want them in the next round or not.). People in the finals receive diplomas, medals and/or cups. If the championship is a cup, every person gets a diploma (the place they got doesn't matter). If the championship is a normal championship people get diplomas only if they make it into the finals.

People get sorted into their "locker rooms" as a crew, in a medium size into multiple crews, or in a bigger championship as a country.

There is not a specific number of judges (I think), but there are usually about from 6 to 8.

Slovakia in general (for new people)

So this is going to be just for the people that do not know anything about Slovakia, and want to know a bit about it so you aren't like what am I reading about again? This is going to be a short blog post, if you're not new just skip it. So this is Slovakia:

Middle Europe, pretty easy, huh? Yeah,, but still you cannot read about a blog that you don't know what is the topic of the blog about.

Slovakia is a northern country that gets big changes throughout the year, has a big historical background and is interesting in every single way imaginable (check on that in my blogs if you like this content). Anyways, Slovakia has a lot of topics to talk about since a lot of people don't know about this country. But we have made quite a lot changes in the world as well, like one of the most rich people in the world is from Slovakia (but more information in my upcoming blogs, I don't want to spoil...)

For more information ask me in the comments or check out my blog posts about the topic that interests you. If the topic isn't on this blog yet, either write something in the comments that you would like a blog post about that or just wait for it.

Hopefully you will like my blogs.

Slovak nature part 2

So, part 2 of Nature, today we are talking about animals of Slovakia.

This part of Slovakia's nature is also very colorful, since a lot of different types of animals live here. Some people might think that "smaller country, less animals, types of animals etc." (does not actually apply only to animals). But that is not true! There can be a lot of animals as long as they have some nature, it kind of matters how much but if it's just the smallest right amount it is fine, they just need a space without any electronical, people-included stuff. Animals just need their stuff. If they have it, there can be many more in a small space than you might think! So let's get into the actual topic now.

The actual topic

So animals. Slovak Republic. Yeah. Again, nothing exotic, but more interesting than you might think (just like every other thing about a different country for a person that lives on the other side of the world).

We have obviously a lot of forest animals, insects and other animals. We also do not have that many venomous animals (snakes, frogs etc.), but we have a lot of flowers that have kind of like a health upward (check that out if you haven't in my other blog post about nature). Quite a lot of endangered animals are also found in Slovakia the most famous probably being the "bob cat" or the "northern lynx", which is a cat like animal and there are only 12 species identified in the whole country.

You know the thing when nature makes things up that can mess it all up but also a life savior? That needs to happen everywhere otherwise nature is going to "kill itself". It usually does not happen, but it happened once in Slovakia, where a bunch of bugs reproduced and they destroyed an entire forest. Over-reproduction is the problem, and sometimes it can be a people's problem as well. I don't know if it happened anywhere in the world, but people can just somehow kill all the important animals that are keeping the natural balance in the forest and another animal (food of the important one) can destroy the whole forest in a few days after over-reproducting. Maybe the forest can look fine, but the trees or flowers are just empty, don't have any effects etc.

At home animals

Probably like anywhere in the world, dogs, cats, bunnies, farm animals but of course the change is in the weather, which we will talk about later. Everyday animals that make you happy everyday, but is there a specific, special one for Slovakia? I wish, but no.

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

Yeah I just threw a random quote here, what are you gonna do about it? :D

My animals.

I want to make this blog my own, so a part of the blog will maybe be from my personal life. Like for example a small part of this post: So we have ducks. Yes, I live in the middle of a town, and we have Indian runners (a duck type that cannot fly) in our garden.

And we also have two beautiful british gray kittens.

Take care of animals that need it! They have feelings and their lives too! Love them until you can.

Slovak nature

Every country belongs to a different climate, a type of country, and in every country we have different trees, nature, forests etc. So today, let's talk about Slovak nature, shall we?
Today, we will talk about the actual nature (forests etc.), next time we will talk about the animals, since I think this is a topic for more blog posts than just one.

So this is what's happening:

• In Slovakia we do not have many animals (like exotic ones), because we live in a colder, rainier and also more to the North or "higher up" climate

•   We have here a lot of different flowers, a lot of them being used for/with the health industry (one person made a book with a lot of them, including about 1000 examples)
• The majority of the "Karpaty" and the "High Tatras" are in Slovakia, so we have a lot of mountains. In the winter we ski, and in spring, summer and fall we hike. 
• There is scientific proof that Slovakia had a sea a lot of years into the past
• We have a lot of cultural monuments that are related to nature (for example a "rockfall" - a rock looking like a waterfall)
• There were a lot of mines so in the past we had a great situation when it comes to industry. We mined like bronze, a  bit of gold and other "fancy rocks".
• And many more things to say but i cannot name them all otherwise you would stop reading the list by the end of the next month

Food in Slovakia's nature

Fruits

I think that Slovakia isn't that great on the fruits. We have a lot of berries here, apples, and other fruits but everything exotic is from the other side of the world. And overtime you get bored of the foods from your country, so you have to buy the ones that are "chemical on top" from the chemical spray.

Sometimes you have no chance cause there is no way one day you don't want a banana or an orange, so you have no chance. But sometimes there is a problem with the food in the grocery stores. We have apples in here, but we still get them from Poland. I don't even know how I got here so I am just going to get back to the regular topic.

Vegetables

I do not know a lot of other countries, but I think we have no problem when it comes to vegetables. We have no problem with pumpkins, cucumbers, cauliflower or onions. So I think we have a pretty good situation with that. Although sometimes there might be the same problem with the groceries as with the fruits sometimes but that is still not anything with the nature topic so again, I should stop.

Mushrooms

All kinds of them. But like seriously. I haven't eaten them yet, cause I don't like them but I have seen a lot. From edible, through not edible to "toxic" mushrooms, Slovakia's got a lot of everything needed when it comes to mushrooms.

I know, this ain't really interesting information, but tomorrow coming prat two of this blog, and I will try to do it more interesting.

Slovak religion

In every country there is a type (or multiple types) of religion (or there are a lot of people without religion).

In certain countries there are many rules about religion, luckily, the Slovak Republic is not one of them. Even though we don't have the best politic situation in Slovakia, we are free when it comes to religion and other stuff. So basically everybody is welcome as long as you don't kill us.

Slovak religion is also very colorful. A lot of people don't even know what religion is, so they don't have one. But that brings me to a question:

What exactly is a religion?

Religion is easily said when a person believes in someone or something, or themselves, and they are seeing "it" as an "above us creature". So if you are christian, you believe in God (like me). Some people, like the buddhists see in this case the god as themselves.

Anyway, there are many ways to describe what a religion is, but not in a way to say it for all types of religion.

Every religion has their own symbols (like a special book, building, or the specific God and an actual symbol).

Slovak religion

Slovakia is a type of country that a lot of tourists live in, so there are a lot of religion types and a lot of people with different that you know they are different even by you looking at them.

From muslims to christians, christians are probably the most known and "celebrated".
Slovak religion is something to keep in mind since you do not have to take it here for granted.
But if you have one, you know what it is, or you don't but you just are a part of it but not taking it as something you should know a lot about - or just not really knowing too much about it (or at least from my perspective in Slovakia).
Some people can say also that they celebrate for example God, but still they do not go to church or read the bible. Maybe i am just too sure that being a part of a religion is something serious, but for a lot of people it's not since it's easy to just say "I am christian and I celebrate God" (for instance).

Christians

This is the one that I obviously know about the most, since I am a part of it. Yes, I am a christian, I celebrate God, the almighty God. But I do not want to be all like I love God he is the best because I know that not everyone would enjoy this. So I am just going to say that we have the Bible (book) and we go to a church.

The "not fully living" ones

What do I even mean by that? I mean that I think that the people that are like oh I ain't got any problems, I am so great and perfect (but no-one is). So if you do not have a priority or a higher above creature that is "more important" I should say you are basically not a good person. You need to understand a fact that they must have someone like that. (don't get offended if we have different opinions, that is something a lot of people have)

Anyways Christian, Hinduist or whatever or whoever you are love yourself (but not too much :D) and remember to have that good mood with you on the go so you can be always happy (like me now, writing this blog).

Sorry I did not post yesterday, I was busy with school, but at the weekend I have some interesting posts coming in so remember to check on it!

Slovak language

Every country speaks a certain language. In Slovakia we speak slovak. Not many people know this, but Slovak language is one of the hardest languages in the world!

Our language was created around the 1830s. The creator is called Ľudovít Štúr. He was a politician, news redactor and the codificator of the Slovak language, obviously (of course we spoke a language always but it was usually the "old slovak" until the actual slovak language from the 1830s).
Before all of this happened people spoke either:

• Hungarian
• or "Old slovak"

At the time there were a lot of bad sicknesses, so a lot of people did not survive after age about 40.

Ľudovít is the only one of him and his siblings who still lived after the age of 40.

He than dies in 1956 from "hurting himself":

• He goes on a trip for a mission
• He has a gun with him on his back
• It's cold outside
• In about the middle of the trip he has to jump over a cliff
• He jumps, slips and his gun gets "activated"
• He "shoots him self" in the leg
• After he gets hospitalized
• A few days later, his leg starts to get better
• But it is shorter
• They decide to stretch it, so it gets back to the original length
• When they do that, the "crack" from shooting opened again and he dies

The Slovak language that he made got remade over the years, (the version that he made was without the letter Y).

This part that was remade is the original slovak language (the simplest one) and the one from middle Slovakia, then there are many more "patoises" or just "special home-made Slovak languages" in different parts of Slovakia

Overall, our language is really difficult because you have to change every word with every person (he, she, it, I...) and every other word is specified because of that and many other things that make this language even more specific, also you read everything how it's written so that is why for example Americans mess it up  so bad usually - because they are used to something completely different (that is why learning another language that is not similar to yours is hard to learn, speak and read).

Sorry this blog post is short, I have a lot of school work but I still wanted to post so I tried at least something.

Slovakia's past

Slovakia has a past worth more than you might think. There are many written paragraphs about Slovakia ever since 7th century. That is when the first kingdom was created on today's Slovakia's land.

When there was another kingdom, "Cyril & Methodius" came here to Slovakia (at that time to The Great Moravian Empire) to spread God's words to the people. At that point, religion was written only into 3 languages (greek,latin and hebrew), so people at the time living in "Slovakia" didn't understand  anything  while "church time" because the pastors were from the French Kingdom and they were saying it in Latin (and people did not understand it). So Cyril and Methodius came with a new "alphabet" named "hlaholika" (overtime renamed to "cyrilika" after Cyril - one of their prentice remade it after they died). Overtime, hlaholika became a 4th "alphabet" that Christian religion could be spreaded with. So people became happy, praying to their God and understanding it.
That was a monumental thing for our country (and a lot of other countries because hlaholika is just a past version of today's russian and greek alphabet).

Castles

There are a lot of old castles in Slovakia. Some are destroyed, and some are still used (like the one in the capital - Bratislava). We also have the second biggest castle in Europe here: the Strečno castle (the Strechno castle):

But that does not hide the fact that a lot of old, interesting and cool castles are in Slovakia (and a lot of them):

And that is not even all of them!

A lot of those castles have been through different kings and queens, have different crazy pasts and has been through a lot of different wars, and you cannot even see some of them in a "usable" situation.

World War II

During the WWII Slovakia was an important country for Europe. Especially the town Martin. Here we made tanks to go on the war.
Until year 1943 Slovaks ad to join the German side to push the East side coming (Russians, Ukraines...).
Culture and industry was still growing during the WWII.
About 67 000 Slovak people died in concentration camps during the WWII .
4th of April 1945 Slovaks push Germans out of Slovakia - Czechoslovakian republic is reattached.

Traditional food in Slovakia

From sweets, through big "lunch or dinner" foods, to soups and salty foods every country has their own and every one is unique. Although, some are popular all around the world (like pizza or pasta from Italy etc.), some countries are completely not known with their "food culture". Like Slovakia. Nobody who hasn't been here knows what we have here. And let me tell you, it is interesting! But still, you probably haven't heard about for instance: "Bryndzove halushky".

Bryndzove halushky

Slovakia was a type of country that had those wooden houses and really interesting signs and stuff you knew they were from Slovakia when you saw them (or at the time it was like that). Today, a lot of the cool culture that has been around Slovakia is forgotten or unused. But some stuff never get forgotten. Like the food. In Slovakia, we have special foods like Bryndzove halushky.

Bryndzove halusky (spelled brin dso ve ha lush ky) is a top meal when it comes to Slovakia. Halushky are a special type of pasta and kind of pastry mix looking like a little asymmetric ball  (but a lot of them). They can be served with different toppings:

• sour cabbage
• but "bryndza" is the most famous

Bryndza is a type of sheep cheese. The Bryndzove halushky are served with the bryndza (could be also called Slovak sour cream). Then you can add on top for example fried onions and/or bacon and/or spring onion. Similar food that is a kind of a symbol of Slovak food as well is Pirohy.

Pirohy

They are similar to the Bryndzove halushky. They are a special pasta but you put the stuff in them. They can be mashed potatoes, bryndza or both. you put that in the piroh (singular to pirohy) while it is opened and then close it. You again can put also the spring onion, fried onion and bacon.

Soups

Goulash

Goulash is a traditional soup when it comes to Slovakia. Every real Slovak knows what it is.

It's made from meat (it can be different kinds), potatoes, some veggies and seasoning.

It's usually made in a large cauldron, where it stays for a couple of hours before served.

There can be believe it or not vegetarian kinds of goulash as well. Those are made from those "no meat but taste like meat" sausages and stuff like that, or just have like tofu or something in it.

Kapustnica

Kapustnica is another traditional soup. We usually have it as a part of our "special christmas evening meal" (more information in my previous blog post). 

This soup is kind of like goulash, but there is also sour cabbage added. So it is basically a sour soup with meat, sausages and potatoes. People like to cook it as well throughout the year, not like a "christmas dish" though.

There is a vegetarian version to this soup as well, but it is a bit different. It's called "Jucha".

But you don't spell it like that in english, in english you cannot write the right saying for this word. This soup has also sour cabbage, but instead of meat, sausages and potatoes, there are beans and pasta. Usually the pasta is like small balls.

I could do a single blog post about recipes to those deliciousnesses if you'd like to in the future.

Sweets

Slovak people are people that like their own sweets really good. They are most wafers with something or just a wafoury type of sweet, but we of course have candy as well (and a lot of kinds). For a small package we have a lot of goodness in Slovakia.
Wafer sweets like "horalky" or "delisa" chocolate and wafer bars are my favorite though. We also have a lot of other sweets like:

• Mata
• Lina
• Zlate (different types)
• Kashtany
• Minonky
• Doxy
• And others

I know this is kind of useless since you cannot get the taste, that is the important part. But here you have a video of a person trying some of the sweets and other Slovak food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqIz2OFG5FU

Slovak Holidays

Every country has it's own culture. Here we talk about Slovak culture. Let's start it with holidays, shall we? Today, we are talking about holidays like christmas, not about the "not working days" holidays. We can talk about that later... Anyways, like a lot of countries we celebrate:

• Christmas
• Easter
• New year's eve
• Valentine's day 
• and other holidays

But we don't celebrate:

• St. Patrick's day
• Thanksgiving
• Halloween
• And if you are from a different country than the USA there can be many more differences but let's stick to those for now.

Christmas

Like many people around the world, we celebrate Christmas. The magical day for kids that get presents. On 25th of December right? WRONG! We actually celebrate christmas in the evening of the 24th of December. We have a special dinner and then we go and open up our gifts. And we do not have Santa also. The gifts come from Jesus. Right. Santa does not bring gifts to everyone in the whole wide world. I know, shocking but that is how it is. 

At the special dinner we have usually a special food pick. So in Slovakia we kind of have Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time. Usually we have carp fish with potatoes or a potato salad. And a soup we call ''kapustnica'' which is a very good soup from mostly cabbage, a type of sausage, potatoes and beef.

Easter

If I remember correctly, americans celebrate easter by ''finding gifts''. In Slovakia, we come around our family and sometimes friends' houses (men) and women stay home and wait for the men that are basically ''armored'' with water and what I could call wood sticks. So women get splashed or whatever the technique is with water and then the men say a poem while beating women with the wooden sticks (not hard, it's pain-less).

Valentine's day

I haven't really experienced a full on Valentine's day experience, so I would just tell you stuff that is not true. But I know we do not celebrate cupid.

The one's that we don't celebrate

For example we do not have halloween also! I would love to experience it one day though. Walking around in a costume for free candy. We sometimes have a party but it is not like a straight up "holiday".

Thanksgiving is something that we all want to experience. It brings two of the best things in the world together: family and food. But we do not celebrate it.

I am not going to talk about mother's day and stuff like that, if you'd like to know about that write it in the comments. 

Introduction to my blogs

What is this about?

You know, a casual thirteen year old boy who wants to start a blog for people to read about something that they probably don't experience since they live in a different country (yes, it's actually not casual). By a different country I mean Slovakia (middle Europe). I am going to write about Slovak casual habits and manners. Also about IDO (Internation Dance Organization) since I don't think americans get involved with IDO dancing (if you are american, if not, oops). If you are interested in my content and you want to see more from my habits write it in the comments and maybe I will write about it but for now I don't promise anything.


Why?

If someone has the interest about getting to know about other people's or other country manners, stay here, this is a perfect place for you! I want people to know about this stuff, it can be interesting to read about other people's manners. If you don't like my blogs, comment it and say what's wrong. If you don't like my content, leave, I don't mind.



ATTENTION!

I am thirteen years old, and my english is yet not perfect AT ALL! If my blogs are not going to be perfect as they can be from other writers, please, give me some space to get used to blogging and maybe get a little bit better overtime. If my blogs will be more of a chit-chat than rather an information-giving blog I am sorry, I do not have any bits of experience with blogging, that is why this introduction is so unprofessional and maybe weird.

What?

I would love to write about my daily life as a person from Slovakia (again, something that you are not used to). Maybe things like:

• what holidays we do and don't celebrate, and how do we do it
• what is typical for this place  (weather, people, habits etc.)
• what I do as an IDO dancer in my daily life
• facts about our language and other stuff as well
• and many more random facts (since this is my first blog I do not know all the things I want to write about yet)

If you will be patient and nice enough to stick with me and my journey, thank you! I will do the best I can to keep you satisfied with my content. Sorry for the shortness and the grammar mistakes in advance for this blog and all the other ones in the future.