#8- Mikuláš

Well I made it back to Bratislava safe and sound after my trip back to the States for Thanksgiving. My sleep schedule has been messed up ever since I got back here but I’m slowly getting back on Slovak time. It felt good to be home for a couple weeks, back to normal life, back to the comfort zone. But I missed my wife a lot while I was home also. So I felt an even bigger relief when I made it back to the airport where Deni picked me up in Vienna. The first thing she made me aware of was the next holiday I could look forward to, Mikulaš.


Mikulaš is on December 6. It is the day in Slovakia where Mikulas, whom we call Santa, brings children candy for when they wake up in the morning. The story goes that the children have to clean their shoes at night before going to bed. Then if they have been good, Mikulas puts their favorite candies in the shoes. If they have been bad, he puts coal there. It’s of course very similar to what Santa putting candy or coal in stockings in America, except Mikulas does not come on Christmas at all. Christmas is held on December 24 instead of the 25^th and the presents are not brought by Mikulas. They are brought by Jesus. Another difference is that they don’t open the presents in the morning. They open them in the evening instead. It’s very interesting.

So on the morning of December 6, I woke up and almost immediately went to the kitchen because I was starving. After grabbing some soda out of the refrigerator, I set it down on the table and was surprised to see a nice little Christmas tree with a ton of chocolate underneath! Under the tree were several of my favorite chocolate bars, along with a big chocolate Mikulas and some other Slovak chocolates and candies. Best of all, there were two tickets to the Ministry of Sound party (House dance party) that is coming here this month. I never cleaned my shoes but I must have been a good boy this year.

Later on in the evening, we drove down to the city center where the annual Christmas festival is held. From late November until December 23, loads of people head down to the market where one can meet with friends and family, eat a number of foods, and drink hot wine or rum punch. So we met with a few of Deni’s friends and packed ourselves like sardines into the cans that were the crowds of people. The food was so good, and so cheap. Deni and I shared a couple ciganska sandwiches (see #4-Devin) with mustard, and had some klobasa (sausage). They also had a lot of other foods that we did not partake in. After this week, we will have about 2 weeks of holiday from work, so we’ll probably end up going back there again. I’m personally not much of a fan of that many people in one place, but I just might have to go back because of the food.