Slovakia

We go to Europe every summer. My husband has family here. Budapest, Hungary is our home base when we make our annual trek. His father, who I lovingly called “Dad” just passed away this year, and there’s an emptiness that permeates this year’s trip, knowing we won’t be paying him a visit in the little village of Tata which sits an hour north of Budapest. He was one of the most beautiful souls I had ever met, and I love and miss him dearly. My husband and his sense of loss is immense, and I think the gravity of his mourning is tangible. The pain he feels is something I must let him walk through, although if I could take it away from him somehow, I would. He just has to work through the pain. I feel helpless at times. There’s nothing I can do but take his hand into mine. Quietly be the source of strength that he has always been for me.

On these trips, we always visit another country in Europe. We spend time there. Get to know the culture. That’s 15 years of travels, so we have been to many countries on this continent. Now, we are visiting less traveled paths (for Americans). This year’s venture is Slovakia.

We are in a very old hotel rich with culture and history. It’s nestled in a green, lush valley with glorious mountains to the north-east of us. Sitting at my desk, I can see them clearly from the balcony.

Today, I woke up and had breakfast in a Michelin 3-star restaurant (in our hotel) while Geza was away climbing one of those mountain peaks. It’s his thing. He feels closest to God when he’s alone climbing. Long ago, when we lived in California, it was a ritual for him to climb. Living in Texas for the last 15 years has taken that from him, and I’m happy he’s communing with God, and I have time to walk about the village and immerse myself in its ways. There’s a local music festival in the town park across from the hotel that I plan to enjoy.

Yesterday, we spent the day bike riding along the foothills of the mountains. We rode through bustling villages, forests, mistakenly took paths that led to nowhere, only to turn around and find a new path. In the morning it was so hot I felt like a roasted chicken. By the afternoon, we got caught in a sudden downpour of epic proportions. We were suddenly freezing and could barely see through the deluge as we meandered our way back to our hotel. It was crazy, and I think I may have (okay, I DID) scream a few times as my shoes literally filled up with water, each stroke of the pedal creating a “slurrrp” as I pushed onward. We rode for a good 20 minutes like that, and while at that moment it certainly was not fun, it’s one of those things we will remember and laugh about forever.

There’s a lesson there.

That would have been the perfect wrap-up for this blog. The lesson thing, but there’s a fucking war going on over the border in Ukraine. On our way here, we witnessed police pulling over cars with more than one man in them, checking for draft dodgers. My husband told me Ukraine is drafting men up to the age of 50. Who wouldn’t want to bail from that? There’s a pushback from these practices of hunting down these men of peace, of fear, of sanity. Countries like Hungary and Poland. Yet here in Slovakia, they are toeing the line and allowing these men to forcibly be sent back to face persecution for not wanting to fight in a war they don’t want to die for.

I also want to say here that Facebook is an asshole. I’m unfortunately bound to them. It’s where all my followers are and it’s my social media platform. I tried posting a video yesterday about experiencing these thoughts of the war next door. Nothing political, I wasn’t taking anyone’s side, other than the side of sanity, as I am here. Facebook regulates everybody’s reels (short videos) and your audience reach. My videos usually get between 500-1k views, but yesterday’s video was completely restricted due to its subject matter, and got a whopping 50 views as of today. On TikTok, the same video got it’s usual 700 views on the first day. It’s complete and total censorship on the part of Facebook. It’s not the only time that Facebook has restricted my audience viewership. Being an ex-addict, I had a video on the Fentanyl crisis. They restricted that one. Don’t mention the word “rape” either. Their AI flags keywords and marks them as “low quality”, as if these subjects are substandard. That’s fucking wrong and it’s scary. Maybe I should switch platforms. Elon Musk took over Twitter, making it “X” and rid it of all the old censorship practices. That needs to happen more.

I write this while visiting a country ruled over by communism a few short decades ago.

There’s a lesson there.