Košice

Often the problem is that we know what works, but we are unable to get it to the people who need it.

said Iveta Reinicova-Nagiova of Pavel Joseph Shafarik University in Kosice.

She said the focus should be not only on treatment and new technology, but also on prevention, health literacy, and evidence-based approaches to changing behavior.

The prime ministers of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary will meet Irish Prime Minister Michal Martin in Bratislava on Thursday as part of the V4 Plus format, with Ireland currently holding the EU's rotating presidency.

I told my publisher, you know, "I, I'm kind of recentering the periphery.

I cannot be the author that starts their book launch in Bratislava." So we did go first to Košice and then Poprad, and only later on to the capital city.

But I, I, I thought that would be it.

Um, but there were conversations, uh, that people brought up about the present times.

Well, listen, I don't know what he had going on back home.

What I do know is that his off-season training was in Košice in Slovakia.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, you know, uh, there in previous years, uh, he's done different kinds of training in the off-season.

Street food is super popular these days.

Well, at least in Kosice.

Potatoes are basically your national vegetable.

Or is it cabbage? Get a food truck with a massive oven and a bunch of big spuds.

I sat on a flat rock near the shore, unwrapped a sandwich, and watched the water ripple.

The cost of living in the Tatras is significantly higher than in Bratislava or Kosice, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the mountain huts.

A simple meal here can cost you 10 or 15 euros, and a slice of cake might run you 7.

It is not cheap, but it is the price of being up here, far from the supply chains of the lowlands.

There's the captain right there.

So Nick Suzuki and, uh, Juraj Slafkovský, who's still in Košice, Slovakia.

Mm-hmm.

But Suzuki was back on the ice today.

After descending, I walked back towards the trailhead for Tereho Chada, a classic mountain hut that serves as a hub for multi-day treks across the ridge.

The path was busy with day hikers, many of them young students from Bratislava or Kosice, carrying large rucksacks and looking determined.

I stopped at Kredensek for a quick lunch, ordering a simple soup and a sandwich, and paid about 8 euros, which felt reasonable compared to the prices further up the mountain.

The contrast is stark.