The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia

Bratislava is not only the capital of Slovakia, it is the economic center of the country and thus, the most likely location a foreigner will move to if coming to Slovakia. In these next few blogs, I’d like to provide some of my experiences in Bratislava along with some practical information about the different districts of the city for anyone who is curious or may be considering a move.

First, I’d like to share my thoughts about the city and why I developed an appreciation for living in Bratislava:

Over the years that I lived in Bratislava, my feelings changed about the city several times. Just when I thought I made up my mind about it, I would learn something or see something that would make me think differently.

On face value, Bratislava is not a particularly beautiful capital, such as Vienna or Prague. In fact, mainly due to large sections of the city built in socialist-realism architecture, it’s possible to say that parts of Bratislava are down right ugly. Adding to aesthetic factors, Bratislava is going through a massive construction boom at the moment and the city is changing drastically, literally year by year.

I moved to Bratislava in 2002 after I had lived in Vienna for a year, and at first I was not impressed. But here’s a lesson I learned almost as soon as I moved to Europe: don’t fall into the trap of comparing life in different places. Just don’t do it. How does Vienna compare to Bratislava? Or to life in Los Angeles? They don’t compare. They are totally different. Period. Accept that there are too many factors to spend your time contemplating, and move on. Life is so much simpler when you stop comparing.

My ambivalent feelings on Bratislava changed when I became fascinated with is its totally unique history. When I moved to Bratislava I made the assumption, wrongly, that the city’s Slovak majority population reflected the city of the past. Would you be surprised to know that 100 years ago Slovaks only made up 15% of the population of the city? The city census of 1910 recorded the population at 40% German, 40% Hungarian, and 15% Slovak. I was shocked. What a complete and total change in population! I looked at Bratislava with totally new eyes. What happened? Why were there so many Germans and Hungarians in Bratislava? Where did they go? Where can you still see reminders of the past in the city?

The answers to those questions are long and interesting, and include the city’s official name change in 1918 from Pressburg (also called Pozsony in Hungarian, and Prešporok in Slovak) to Bratislava. The point is, the city has layers from distinct periods in the past reminding us that you shouldn’t just take it at face value. Just in the past 100 years the city has been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, part of Czechoslovakia, through communist Czechoslovakia, and then the capital of the independent Slovak Republic. Dramatic changes that all left their influences.

Other things I appreciate about Bratislava is that fewer foreigners reside there than in other major capitals in Central Europe. I am one of those people who want to blend right in with the locals; I don’t like to stand out in a crowd. I appreciated that I didn’t hear English spoken on the main streets, like I had in Prague and Vienna, even though this meant I was on my own when I periodically needed assistance. Finding other English speakers is not difficult, however. Expat groups do exist. I never belonged to any but I heard about a few from time to time. I’m providing a link just to one.

I also appreciate Bratislava’s convenient location in Central Europe. When you’ve got a steady job and don’t have much free time to explore your surroundings, it’s great to have so many options for taking a day or weekend trip somewhere. Prague is 4-5 hours away, Budapest 2 1/2, and Vienna 1 hour away. I also took trips to Krakow, Munich, and many places in Austria.

Over all I can say that no place I have ever lived has had everything going for it. There are always positives and negatives. It’s always what you make of it. When I moved to Bratislava I had to go about creating my comfortable world, just as I had in other new cities I moved to over the years. I like to learn and ask questions and my curiosity encouraged me to look deeper at Bratislava than only what stands out. Personally, this made all the difference in me enjoying the city and realizing that the city is definitely worthy of the closer look.

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