The Foreigner's Guide to Slovakia

Often times I am asked for some good ideas Americans can bring as gifts when going to Slovakia to visit relatives. I have also been asked for wedding gift ideas when attending a Slovak wedding, and once I was asked what would be a good souvenir to give a Slovak exchange student in the US who was leaving for home in a few weeks.

It’s difficult to advise people on what are good gifts. Everyone has their own ideas of what’s appropriate for their intended recipients. But for the sake of sharing my own thoughts on this, and some ideas that have worked (or not worked) in the past for gift giving things from America to my Slovak relatives, I thought I’d post.

And please, I’d love comments from people with suggestions of their own.

I for one am uncomfortable with bringing anything that is too patriotic so I never have brought anything with an American flag or overly patriotic slogans. A t-shirt or jersey from a sports team, something local to you or a famous professional team such as the New Jersey Devils could be appropriate I think, especially if recipients are sports fans. Ice hockey is popular in Slovakia and I’d say the vast majority of Slovaks could name several NHL teams, particularly since native Slovaks play for several teams, but baseball, basketball, and American football teams are almost totally unfamiliar to most Slovaks.

Books are good because they are flat, not too large (most of the time), and travel well. What kind of books? A book of beautiful photographs of famous national parks, or of sights in your region, or a pictorial history of your city, perhaps. With books, almost any idea is good if you know a topic that would be of interest for the recipient.

Small items like keychains and refrigerator magnets are a possibility, but quite honestly, I’ve never been to a kitchen in Slovakia that had magnets on the fridge (besides my mother-in-law who has an Arizona cactus on her fridge).

I have always liked to bring food items as gifts. Maybe it’s because I always find a way to bring back Slovak foods with me when I travel back to the US from Slovakia. What makes good food gifts? There’s always chocolate, of course. Chocolate is not exactly a rare commodity, but if there are famous local chocolatiers in your area, bring something with pretty packaging. For me in California, I brought Sees (founded in Los Angeles) and Ghirardelli (founded in San Francisco). Neither are quite “local” to me but both are popular brands in California.

I’ve brought special dried chili peppers from Mexico for my Slovak grandfather-in-law who loves spicy food. Garlic is grown close by me and all kinds of garlic products and foods are available for purchase. Next time I go want to bring him jalapeno pickled garlic. That sounds sufficiently exotic!

Here’s another interesting food idea: beef jerky. Since all Slovaks are familiar with Winnetou (as I wrote about in my previous post), what an opportunity to bring something that is familiar to Native Americans, such as dried meats, dried fruits or vegetables. I’ve tasted several and like the Pemmican brand of beef jerky. It even has an Indian on the packaging. Perhaps it’s a little cliché, but it could do.

For weddings, there’s nothing specific that I’d recommend. I was married in Slovakia and some of my Slovak friends bought us glass and table ware; things like small fancy bowls where you’d put nuts or small finger foods on a living room coffee table. We also received a blank photo album with a wedding motif for us to fill with our photos later on. That was nice and I did fill it with our photos. We also received a beautifully embroidered table cloth and some porcelain tea cups.

What else is good? Slovaks, let us know what your suggestions are too.

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