My 30th
7 February, 2006. 2.22 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.
I celebrated my 30th birthday last week. Twice, actually. Once in Bratislava, and then again this past Saturday in Trnava. Unfortunately with the flu and cold season in full swing, and it being a long weekend for educators, the turnout was not as large as I thought it might be. Nonetheless, nine people still turned out at La Dolce Vita Pizzeria (although I'd never met two of these people before!). After a nice evening of conversation and moderate wine drinking a few of us went to Planet 4 disco. As I feared, I ran into about half of the 5N class, all of whom made a point of coming by to say "hello." I suspect this will be one of my last visits to such an establishment (in fact, it has been years since I've been in one anyway).... It is tradition here to organise and pay for your own celebration, but on the other hand Slovaks are quite generous in their gift-giving. Although the food and drink at La Dolce Vita cost me almost 2,000 Sk (still, not very much in Canadian dollars!), I probably recieved at least that much in chocolate and wine as gifts!
On Wednesday (the actual day of my birthday), three students who live in my dorm (Monika, Gabi, and Barbora) surprised me when they knocked on my door in the evening to present me with a homemade birthday card and some chocolate--they also sang Happy Birthday! This was a very unexpected, but touching surprise.
It's snowing again in Trnava today, and I've been battling a minor cold since Friday....
I celebrated my 30th birthday last week. Twice, actually. Once in Bratislava, and then again this past Saturday in Trnava. Unfortunately with the flu and cold season in full swing, and it being a long weekend for educators, the turnout was not as large as I thought it might be. Nonetheless, nine people still turned out at La Dolce Vita Pizzeria (although I'd never met two of these people before!). After a nice evening of conversation and moderate wine drinking a few of us went to Planet 4 disco. As I feared, I ran into about half of the 5N class, all of whom made a point of coming by to say "hello." I suspect this will be one of my last visits to such an establishment (in fact, it has been years since I've been in one anyway).... It is tradition here to organise and pay for your own celebration, but on the other hand Slovaks are quite generous in their gift-giving. Although the food and drink at La Dolce Vita cost me almost 2,000 Sk (still, not very much in Canadian dollars!), I probably recieved at least that much in chocolate and wine as gifts!
On Wednesday (the actual day of my birthday), three students who live in my dorm (Monika, Gabi, and Barbora) surprised me when they knocked on my door in the evening to present me with a homemade birthday card and some chocolate--they also sang Happy Birthday! This was a very unexpected, but touching surprise.
It's snowing again in Trnava today, and I've been battling a minor cold since Friday....
Some of my guests at La Dolce Vita.
With Erika and Zuzanna at La Dolce Vita.
Some of my birthday gifts (minus the chocolate and alcohol already consumed).
posted by BFRE at 2:22 p.m.
2 Comments:
Wow, looks like you had a good time. You certainly got more gifts then you would have here!! They seem to have the right idea, booze and chocolate hmmmm. Anyway, happy birthday again...more later, Jean
aw dang, all these years and I never knew your birthday. Happy Belated Birthday, Brendan!
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