Slovensko sa pripaja / Slovakia is connected

Chcela by som privitat aj slovenku polovicu rodiny a priatelov na nas blog, ktorym by sme vas chceli oboznamovat o nasich svadobnych pripravach. Svadba je naplanovana na buduci rok (dufam bud v poslednu sobotu v maji alebo prvu sobotu v juni), no chceli by sme tymto blogom priblizit obidva kontinenty. Mozte prispievat svoje napady a rady, my to radi privitame (miesto, hotely, restauracia, transportation....Hani urcite budes moj velky zdroj informacii). Kazdy vas napad a dotaz nam pomoze, kedze planovanie svadby cez ocean je trocha zlozitejsie, no moja maminka sa zatial nestrachuje. Na jazyku/reci nezalezi (ale ak mozte tak anglictina je vitana), ja sa budem co najviac snazit prekladat, i ked s mojim pracovnym vytazenim a skole (pre tych co nevedia - som opat v skole aby som mohla dorobit certificat na uctovnictvo - CPA) to moze byt obcas tazke.

Rada by som ukazala Americkej casti hosti nase krasne male Slovensko a mesta v okoli ako Praha a Vieden. Matus uz zacal postupne oboznamovat na blogu co sa da vidiet. Obidvaja sa tesime, kedze je to miesto kde sme sa zoznamili a chceli by sme to ukazat a priatelom spoza oceana.

Hey everyone, this note is to welcome my family and friends at home to this blog. I asked everyone for comments and suggestions how to make this wedding and trip over the ocean to my beatiful Slovakia work. I asked them if possible to post in English but I will try my best to translate in some spare time. I mean between times when I am not at work or school or studying.

Katarina

Bratislava! Capital of Slovakia

So far, Prague gets all the attention from people travelling to Central Europe. But as a few of you know, Bratislava really deserves more attention. A nice mix of old and new, where you can still see the remnants of communism without going into really hardcore Soviet-bloc countries like Romania or far eastern Poland. Bratislava was the western border of the iron curtain, and as such, it had a little more exposure than insulated cities and entire countries. When Kat was little, Radio Free Europe could be heard, broadcast from Vienna, which is a mere 85km 60km away. She was allowed to accompany her father on a trip to Germany at one point, when she was still very small, (she got lost looking at Barbie dolls, but I'll let her tell that story later) and TV signals could also be picked up from "western" Austria.

Having once been the a capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Bratislava has some fantastic older architecture, and some rather cutting-edge modern architecture, too. During the Communist occupation and control, however, utilitarian themes ruled, and thus we have Petrzalka, which succeeds in housing as many people as possible (4,410 per sq. Km!) in as little space as is necessary.

The New York Times seems to agree that Bratislava is in a unique place, straddling both the past and embracing the future. Since Slovakia is one of the next countries to adopt the Euro, it will be exciting to see how things will change over the next few decades. For those of us going next year, it may one of the last chances to see what Bratislava is 'really' like before it succumbs to the intense westernization of Prague.

Prague in the NY Times

Just to whet everyone's appetite for the traveling that is to come, I suggest checking out the article "36 Hours in Prague" on NYTimes.com. It's full of pictures and suggestions for things to do in grand old Praha.

Cool. Now I know how to make HTML tags on here, so I can embed links!

I should have started a blog years ago.

MK

Welcome

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our new blog on the web. I know, many of you are saying to yourselves, "It's about time! I figured Kraft would be one of the first to get a blog!" So, finally, here I am. Or rather, here WE are--this is going to be the central place for communicating about our upcoming wedding!

As of today, we're thinking the date for the wedding is either the last weekend of May or first weekend of June, 2008, in Slovakia. Probably Bratislava, but it may be in an outlying town somewhere close by.

This place will be for everyone who's invited to discuss logistics, talk about things to do, meet each other, make some plans, exchange email addresses, and generally plan for what will (hopefully) turn out to be one of the best vacations everyone has ever had.

In that spirit, welcome! We'll have lots more information for you in the upcoming months. PLEASE POST RESPONSES so we can start to get a feel for how many are coming, whose plans we've totally ruined, etc. :)

Love,

M&K

PS--for those of your who have RSS or XML feed readers in your browsers (yay lucky Mac users!) use the link below to syndicate this blog. Over the next couple of days, I'll figure out how to send out email alerts when new stuff comes up.