The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia

I’ve always loved decorated Easter eggs. Usually at home in California my mom would buy one of those egg coloring kits where you dropped tablets into a glass of vinegar, or something like that, and once we colored the eggs a solid color, we’d put stickers on them or draw a design with crayons. That’s great fun for kids. But later on I learned that painting and decorating eggs could be an art form.

When I was in high school, my best friend at the time, who was of Ukrainian descent, brought traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs to school one day for something like a show and tell. Ukrainian style pysanky – decorated eggs, are absolutely gorgeous.

When I moved to Slovakia I found kraslice, the Slovak version. Painted and decorated eggs is a tradition in many cultures. For sure the Slavs do extraordinary work. In addition to Ukraine and Russia as examples of fine work, I’ve seen Polish and Czech eggs that were outstanding as well.

As I mentioned in the souvenir blog, I carried cartons of kraslice back home to the US with me over the years. I just couldn’t resist buying them. All the work of blowing out the contents and creating intricate designs. Some eggs are even decorated by using a drill and hollowing out portions of the shell. I happily took up the challenge of carrying such fragile goods because it was worth it to me. I gave many of them to my mom and to Slovak-American friends of mine, and kept a bunch of them for myself, of course.

The photos are of a few eggs from my collection.

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