It is just a short visit to Slovakia, a country of five and half million people uncomfortably wedged between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. The country as its exists today was born in 1994, when without any fuss or fanfare (or so it seemed to the outside world) Slovakia decided that it didn’t want to be part of post-Communist Czechoslovakia but would rather go it alone. So that’s the official line. But our guide explained that it was the decision of a couple of politicians whereas if a referendum had been held, the popular consensus would have been to stay in the former Czechoslovakia together with its larger and much wealthier neighbour. 

Our only stop in Slovakia is in the country’s second largest city (after Bratislava, the capital), Kosice. The city is just a few kilometres from the Hungarian border and has a large Hungarian-speaking minority. The weather is cold and gloomy which seems to perfectly match the city’s atmosphere. Kosice in 2019 has a feel about it reminiscent of East-bloc cities before the collapse of the Soviet Union. There’s little traffic, a lot of shabby Communist-era buildings and at least in the old city centre few shops selling not much of anything. On the more positive side, there are a few grand art nouveau-style buildings dating from the time this part of the world was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a new railway station and new trams because Kosice will be the site of the upcoming World Ice Hockey championships 

From Kosice, we head through equally depressing Slovakian countryside and the contrast when we cross into much more affluent Hungary is stark