“The Slovaks are prouder of who they are. They belong to the European Union and to NATO. They are part of Europe. We’re in a real golden era for Slovak culture,” says Ben Pascoe, a Canadian who has lived in Slovakia for 20 years. He runs the cult Bratislava cafe and second-hand book store ‘Next Apache’.
Łukasz Grzesiczak: My friend from high school moved to Canada and I should think half the class envied him. Why did you, a Canadian, choose Bratislava?
Ben Pascoe: I found myself in Bratislava slightly by accident. I trained as a teacher, but in Ontario – where I studied – the situation in education was really tough; there were very few jobs, low pay, and strikes every five minutes. The opportunity came up to go to Prague to teach English and I decided to take it. But I didn’t last long there.
Why? Almost everyone in Poland loves Prague.
It’s a beautiful city, but huge. I found it overwhelming both in size and in the pace of life. On top of that, it’s full of tourists; you hear English there every day. I wanted to try something else. The language school where I was working also had a branch in Bratislava and they suggested I move there for the following year. I agreed.
What I immediately liked about Bratislava is that it is so small; you can get almost anywhere on foot. I have a car, but I don’t really use it. In a way, it’s also simpler that less is going on here. In Prague, you have 100 different options every
