Muflón in Banská Štiavnica

Slovokia

“We should approach the taking of life with a sense of humility and responsibility. The deer does not give itself to the hunter who seeks a trophy, but to the hunter who seeks sustenance and offers respect in return.”

Richard Nelson

A strange night of sleep. Strange dreams. Not nightmares, but uncomfortable and sinister. This is the feeling; I don’t remember the details.

We don’t go for a walk. I make some coffees, and we read.

At some point in adulthood, you have to reckon with your finances. I haven’t filed a tax return in five years, and I have no idea what my university debt actually is. Thinking about money is tedious at the best of times — and it’s made worse by the fact we don’t live in Australia.

So we outsourced the problem. For a not-small fee, an expert in expat financial planning took the responsibility out of my hands, and out of my head. A few video calls, a handful of documents passed over, and it all seemed simple enough. The conversation about future plans was an interesting exercise for someone who rarely thinks past their next book, next glass of wine, or next trip to the gym. Honestly, my future plans change every time I visit a scenic town — a townhouse in Bangsar one day, a small farm in Modra the next.

In the end, I spent three phone calls to call centers in Australia and a total of one hour and twenty-two minutes linking the ATO to the myGov app — all so I could find out my current student loan debt. If I could have outsourced that process for any fee, I would have.

Not a bad way to spend a morning in Banská Štiavnica.

“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.”

Alan Watts

We are out of coffee and decide on Stará škola. A cool vibe, a barking dog, and some decent coffee.

RuinBar burnt us badly yesterday. We have a tiny kitchenette in our apartment and decide that a late lunch made at home is preferred to rolling the dice at another well reviewed eatery in Banská Štiavnica.

There is a tiny lahôdkárstvo at the very bottom of the hill named Food Food. The range is small; the quality looks good. We buy some fusilli and a roasted tomato pesto to stir through. There is a whole range of local cured meats to choose from, all made from local game. The proprietor talks us through her products: cold smoked jeleň lesný, the local red deer, srnec lesný, the common roe deer.

What grabs my attention is the dry cured muflón, big horn sheep. Introduced a few hundred years ago for hunting, muflón is regarded as excellent eating. Shell is indifferent, so I grab some for the pasta and a bottle of wine for the afternoon.

We walk home; the weather is mild, and there is hardly a cloud in the sky. The perfect day for a glass of wine.

It will take a few hours for the wine to chill. Fortunately, our gracious host gifted us a bottle of NV Hamsik Winery Prosecco. I had the foresight to put the bottle in the fridge last night. In a wonderful coincidence, it is a little early for lunch, and Prosecco is the perfect apéritif.

We finish the Prosecco, and the wine is not chilled. I take a pilgrimage to the nearest wine retailer and acquire a previously chilled wine. 2024 Kinči Pesecká leánka Fetească regală – Rybník, Slovakia.

The afternoon moves along, and it is time for a late lunch.

I cook the pasta and open more wine. It turns out the wine in the fridge is red. Fortunately, red is perfect for the pasta.

2022 Vìnko Tomás Klimko Frankovka – Modra, Slovakia

We wind down the afternoon. Reading and chatting.