Slovakia and the Eastern Question...

Since Slovakia appears to be in my future, I've been reading up on the Ottoman Empire. I never quite grasped before just how big it was or how long it lasted. Reading about Central Europe in general really puts in perspective what it means to be able to live in cities without walls and the threat of invasion, and what a wonder it is that, tourists can wander from Ireland to Turkey as the mood takes them, flitting across old empires like birds hopping from fence to fence.

It's also been an education flicking through the LP Eastern Europe phrasebook (yes, I know Slovaks don't consider themselves Eastern European, but this one had more languages than the Central European one, and was the same price). I didn't quite realise just how close the Slavic languages were to each other, and how you can trace the story of the Slavs through the modern day spread of languages (not to mention the story of the Great Central European Vowel Shortage).

The Slovak chapter somewhat optimistically cites Slovak's "cosy position" as a base for learning the other Slavic languages, though I have to say the resources for learning Czech are vastly better. Still, I sense another love affair coming up...