All Star Weekend

Last weekend was the Slovakia Basketball League All Star game. All players in the league are eligible to be voted on to the team and the players who receive the most votes from the fans in each position are picked. It's East vs West. The East team is picked from the teams in the eastern half Slovakia and the West, while you get the idea.

The whole production was great. They had it all: cheerleaders, pop singers, dunk contest, 3 point shoot out. It was so entertaining. All the players on both teams did a dance for the crowd during the last time out! So funny watching those boys try to do choreographed dance. Everyone had a good laugh with it!

The coaches and Slovakians take the actual game more serious than the All Star game in the States. They really view it as a way to prove which half of Slovakia is the best in basketball. Most Slovakian players play on a team in the city they grew up in or is the next closest town to theirs. They represent hard for their team unlike in the states where players rarely play in the state they grew up in and are often traded multiple times in their career.

The West (Yemi's team) won in a land slide! Yemi played really well. They gave the MVP title to someone on the East team which made no sense to us. How do you give MVP to the team that lost? The definition of most valuable player must have been lost in translation.

European Christmas Markets

Enjoying some Gluhwein

This weekend we could not make it to Budapest. We thought Yemi might have a two days off in a row but no such luck. We went to Vienna and to the Christmas market in Bratislava instead. It was a great chance to get a taste of two different countries take on vendor food and drink. In Bratislava we drank Medovina a hot, honey white wine, and pork with coleslaw sandwiches. In Vienna we had Gluhwein, hot spiced red wine, and GREAT sausage/hot dog type snack. We also checked out the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Actually the palace visit was the goal of our trip but we ran into the christmas markets when trying to find parking.

The Bratislava Christmas market:

Some nice English speaking girls selling Medovina. It is a hot, really sweet, white wine.

These are the Vienna pictures:

The Schonbrunn Palace. There was another Christmas market outside this area. Vienna is unique in that it had several different Christmas markets in the same city. We didn't get to take the tour because it was so busy but we will go back to check it out soon.
These girls were around 14 and drinking the Gluhwein. This is a hot spiced red wine. The Austrian drinking age resembles that of most of Europe if your old enough to order and pay then your old enough to drink!
Mmm this food was so good! They stuff their bratwurst into actual buns not what we call hot dog buns at home but more like rolls filled with cheese and ketchup. We opted out on the hot mustard and in the other hand is peanuts hot off the pan with sugar, toffee, and cinnamon.

Where No REALLY means Yes

I just had to share something that has made me smile every since I figured it out. In the Slovak language yes is ano[ah-no] and no is nie[knee]. Of course ano and nie were two of the first words we learned. Interestingly enough learning a word and recognizing it in audible conversation are two totally different concepts to master.

In the dental office I would often hear other dentists telling the assistants no no no when the interpreted body language led me to believe the dentist wanted them to continue whatever action with this no no no. Initially I thought maybe it is a cultural thing I don't understand yet, like maybe telling people no meant an exaggerated yes, a stretch I know but I felt too embarrassed to ask. That is until a couple days ago some one told me no no no. I am dense sometimes so it took a long 30 seconds for me to make the connection. No in slovak is short for yes. They leave out the ah in ano, it's like saying yea. I will give you an update when I start using no for yes but as of now I'm just trying to rewire my brain and wrap my head around the perceived anomaly of no means yes literally.

We are heading to Budapest, Hungary this weekend! I will post pics of the Hungarian adventure ASAP when we get back.