Poor rich Saudi's

Spa in Piestany, august 2006

The muslim population in Slovakia is less than one percent, and seeing a veiled woman on the streets of Bratislava is a rare thing. This makes visiting the spa town of Piestany a unique experience in Slovakia. The friendly and clean streets of the touristic centre are dominated with fountains (celebrating the natural healing water of the wells in Piestany) and arabic looking people. On the terraces elderly men in djellaba's play chess in the shade and fat ladies wearing coulourfull headsarfs push their babycarriages past the shopwindows. "Poor rich Saudi's!" Suzka, a university teacher in the nearby Trnava, cries out. "They live in this terrible hot country and from the aircondition they all suffer from reuma. So they come here to heal, because it is cheap here for them." Like most Slovak women she has a great figure from working in her own garden and growing her own vegetables. She has never visited the spa.