You'll poke your eye out!

There are a lot of cultural differences between the United States and Slovakia.  I'm originally from the South and we love our sweet tea and plenty of ice in our drinks.  It amazes my wife that in the middle of winter, I still use lots of ice in my drink.

On my first trip to Slovakia (It is hard to believe it was over 14 years ago), I was shocked when everyone was drinking room temperature drinks.  I soon learned to ask for ice, and the waitress would add one cube of ice.  My wife would then ask for "lots of ice" and the waitress would come back with two cubes of ice.  Perhaps there is an ice shortage here that I do not know about.

Another small observation is that some Slovaks keep a spoon in their cup while they drink their coffee.  I keep telling my wife that she is going to poke her eye out with the spoon one day. Here is a short video that proves my point:


(here is the longer video that was produced as a school project in Nitra)

Even though I joke about the differences, there are so many things that I have learned from and appreciate about the Slovak culture that I'll write about in the future...I'll just need to remember to wear an eye patch when drinking coffee next time.