Sorry it’s been awhile. I’ve been preoccupied. I’ll try to post more often to make up for the lost time. Starting January 1 of this year, Slovakia changed currencies from the Slovak crown, to the Euro. This was a change that I was very happy about. For starters, this made the numbers much lower on all items in the store. There was something that bothered me psychologically about paying 100 crowns for an item at the grocery store, even though it was about the equivalent of $5. Secondly, it’s easier for me to think between dollars and euros than dollars and crowns. Finally, the euro is colorful and comes in different sizes. It’s much more attractive than the plain Jane green of the dollar and the amount of the euros is represented by both the number in print and the actual size of the banknote and coin. However, there is one negative side to it for me. The euro has 1 and 2 euro coins. This means that people are constantly walking around with a lot of change in their pockets. I don’t like carrying around change but now I have to be more careful about it or I will lose a lot of money.
All stores and shops had to start listing their items first in the Slovak crown, and 
then in euros underneath last year. This was basically to get people used to the prices. The banks had also set the exchange rate at 30.126 crowns per euro permanently. Since people are still not completely used to the euro, stores must now list the prices in euros first, and crowns underneath. All countries that have the euro also get to feature 3 unique coins to their countries. Slovakia’s features Bratislava castle, the Slovak cross, and Mt. Krivan on their coins.
For Slovaks who travel to Austria often, the euro is very convenient. They no longer have to exchange money to go to shopping malls or outlets, or even to pay for parking at the airport in Vienna. For me it will also be good when I travel back to the States because I will get more dollars for my euros. Overall the transition seems to have gone smoothly and it is better for the country.
