Modra

Slovakia

“Are you a communist?”
“No I am an anti-fascist”
“For a long time?”
“Since I have understood fascism.”

Ernest Hemingway

We get an early start. Brno to Modra is only a few hours, but there is a restaurant in Modra called Wild Kitchen. Martin Plastiak spent 20 years working in some of the best kitchens in the US and has opened his own place in sleepy Modra. Wild Kitchen does not take reservations, so we need to get there before the lunch rush.

An easy drive, and Wild Kitchen can seat us without a wait. Fifteen minutes later, they are turning everyone away.

A tiny open kitchen serving mostly local food and wine. We order a bottle of 2024 Šimonovič Rizling rýnsky and work through the menu.

To start, Shell orders mǔsle fra diavola – mussels in a tomato broth with bread. I order the chobotnica, octopus in a cream seafood broth with garlic and bread.

For mains, Shell orders the pstruh s mrkvovým pyré – trout with carrot purée. I order the cestoviny so smotanovo-paradajkovou omáčkou a slaninou, a pasta dish with creamed tomato sauce and local bacon.

It is a slow, delicious lunch, and the wine makes me forget that people are waiting for a table.

Our apartment is only a block away from the restaurant. It is a renovated manor that is around 500 years old. Downstairs is the tasting room for the family vinárstvo; upstairs are three apartments.

We are invited down for a tasting and receive a wonderful history lesson on Slovakia, and for the first time in my life, I understand the roots of racism.

2025 Vinárstvo Ludvik Fetesca Regala ‘Pesecká Léánka’ – Modra, Slovakia

2024 Vinárstvo Ludvik Rizling Vlašský – Modra, Slovakia

2025 Vinárstvo Ludvik Veltlínske Zelené – Modra, Slovakia

2024 Vinárstvo Ludvik Pinot Gris – Modra, Slovakia.

Wine has been made in Slovakia for thousands of years, with vineyards passed down through generations. That continuity was broken in 1948, when Czechoslovakia’s head honcho at the time, Klement Gottwald, went all in on Communism — a swift coup d’état turned the country into a one-party dictatorship. Private property was abolished almost overnight — houses, livestock, crops, and wineries were all nationalized. Families who had worked the same land for generations lost it within months.

Gottwald called it a day in 1953, only to be replaced by Antonín Josef Novotný, a hardline Stalinist, and it got worse. Finally pushed out in 1968.

Alexander Dubček offered some hope, in what was called the ‘Prague Spring’; it started to look good for the impoverished Czechs. The Soviets would have none of it, and made sure he lasted only a year.

Gustáv Husák gave off the right Soviet vibes and was put in power. Reversing Dubček’s reforms and returned the country to total dictatorship and state control. He throttled the life out of the people until 1987.

Enter Miloš Jakeš, who saw the writing on the wall. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the people demanded change; his entire party resigned after the ‘Velvet Revolution’.

Forty years is long enough to leave its wounds. Families attempted to reclaim what was once theirs, but it just never plays out like the good old days. Slovaks know what it is to lose everything, to fight to get it back, and be happy with loose change.

And this is where our host started to lose our sympathy, but not entirely. There are no mosques in Slovakia, and no Africans or Arabs. The locals simply declare, we have lost so much; we have only just got it back, you are not welcome to what we have.

When the rest of the world sees Viktor Orbán ousted and a left leaning Péter Magyar take his place, we celebrate. Our host believes Slovaks look on with dread. They see Magyar as a dangerous leader; they look at Germany and France as examples of how immigration destroys a country’s culture.

Our host worries about young people not understanding what Slovaks have been through, their idealism about what immigration brings to these tiny communities. Young people do not carry the dread of losing a way of life and risking it all to welcome change into their lives.

Our hosts read on the Slovak public bears out in the numbers. There are no mosques in Slovakia. The census reveals 3000 Muslims, all from Turkey or the Balkans. There are no Arabs outside of a handful of expats and students. There are only a handful of Africans, all on temporary VISAS.

I shared several raised eyebrows with Shell during this conversation; this is so far removed from my worldview, but I will be honest, I can see the wounds this person carries, and I can see why she feels the way she does.

“One of the problems with religion is that it creates in-group loyalty and out-group hostility, even when members of one’s own group are behaving like psychopaths.”

Sam Harris

Ice cream for dinner.

Shell throws open the windows, and it starts to rain.