East Side Story

Slovakia is in the geographical center of Europe, and Slovak web sites refer to its location as "Central Europe." But I am struck at how frequently Americans still refer to it as an "Eastern European" nation. Here's a map of Europe, showing Slovakia in red, squarely in the center of Europe:

Rick Steeves' 2007 Best of Eastern Europe covers Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Austria, countries which are all in Central Europe. Fodor's most recent (2003) Eastern and Central Europe includes all of those countries, along with Bulgaria and Romania, which are farther east. The Lonely Planet Phrasebook for Central Europe (2007) covers Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. Rail Europe, the North American distributor of many popular train passes, has a "European East Pass" for Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, and the Czech Republic, all in central Europe.

I suspect that many of us still remember references to the "Eastern bloc" satellite states of the Soviet Union, East Berlin, and East Germany, before the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall in 1989. So we came to think of "eastern" as a political designation, even though it is not accurate as a geographic one. And part of the interest in recent years in visiting these countries comes from our interest in seeing how they have made the transition to democracy in the 17 years since the fall of the Soviet Union. I wonder how long it will take for us to modify our language to reflect geography.

On a side note, I wonder if Rick Steeves had a bad experience in Bratislava and how long ago. In his guidebook, he says "I've listed no hotels in Bratislava; beds are better in nearby Vienna and Budapest." (p. 177) In his DVD collection, his disk for "Eastern Europe" includes segments on Prague, Poland, Budapest, Slovenia, Croatia, and even Bulgaria -- but not a word about Slovakia or Bratislava. I'll have to write to him after I see for myself!

On another side note, I suspect most Americans could not name all the countries on that map, above. But then, I wonder how many Europeans (or Americans!) could identify all 50 U.S. states on a map without help.