Scribbling #5: New Year Shenanigans

New Year's Eve here is otherwise known as Silvester, named after Pope (or after he kicked the bucket: Saint) Silvester I. I'm not sure exactly what people did back in the 4th century AD to celebrate, but it would have probably been along the lines of conversation and food, which is what I experienced this year. The Wii hadn't been invented then, or Dutch Blitz. Or fireworks.

It would've really sucked to have lived in the 4th century AD.

With the clock nearly at midnight, we all went outside and walked up the street towards Zobor hill, in order to get a better view of the city. 12 am was struck and we beheld the Seige of Nitra, except with less Turks and fatalities. Colours filled the sky at a dazzling rate, with two-ers and three-ers exploding like nobody's business. And of course, since it was Slovakia and health and safety only applies here when someone actually gets recruited to fulfil that role, people were quite happily lighting them on the street, in their hands, aiming at their neighbour's house and generally not caring.

Slovaks love their fireworks, as opposed to the UK, where we merely like them and try not to get too excited by such things. For some reason we're very happy with sparklers, thankyou very much.

We flew Chinese lanterns (well, not actually FLY them. We didn't get on board of a massive one and floated our way to Prague or something. That would have been a daft idea. What were you thinking?) and then some more fireworks were lit by our Slovak compatriots. On the balcony.

Perfectly safe. Just don't set the garden or the dog on fire.