#6- Halloween

Hey there. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. Unfortunately they don’t really celebrate Halloween here in Slovakia. I found that a couple clubs were having Halloween parties with mask contests, and some of the stores sell fake plastic pumpkins, but that’s pretty much the extent that they celebrate. November 1, or All Saints Day is a much bigger event for Slovaks. On this day everyone goes to the cemetery to visit loved ones and they put flowers on the graves. It’s not a celebration at all actually. It’s really considered to be a very sad day. And to make it worse, it’s filled with traffic everywhere you go because everyone is traveling to other towns and cities where their loved ones were buried.

But anyway, I was driving a long in the smartie on Thursday afternoon, and I heard an advertisement for Palace Cinemas. They were having a special scary movie night in celebration of Halloween. And the best part about it was that all movies after 10:00 pm on Friday only cost 1 euro! They had movies starting as late as 2:00 am.

We didn’t like the choice of scary movies they had that night so we decided to go to Max Payne instead. I had mixed feelings about whether to see it or not, so since the prices was so cheap, we just went for it. So the first interesting thing about the theatre that night, was there was a small party in the lobby. They had a live DJ blazing some electronic dance music and the place was extremely crowded. I almost didn’t want to see the movie anymore because I wanted to stay out in the lobby. The second interesting thing to note is that they have a bar in the lobby if you feel like drinking. Or you can buy the Slovak beer, Zlatý Bažant, at the concession stand. This isn’t just something for Halloween by the way. But particularly that night, I think they made all their money on alcohol considering the ticket prices were so low.

The third and most interesting thing about that night was that I have never gone to the movies and seen drunk people. But there were plenty of them that night. People were drunk before the movie even started. Some of them were even obnoxious, but fortunately, once the movie started, everyone calmed down. I thought it was hilarious though. It’s a sight I don’t think I’ll see back at home. Max Payne was extremely disappointing but at least it didn’t cost much. But as the movie ended and we walked back out into the lobby, I enjoyed listening to some more music before going home.

I’ve still got a lot to catch up on from the past few months, so stay tuned!