People under 40 never really witnessed any Soviet doctrine anymore. They grew up in capitalism. And if you are talking about commie blocks, like you said yourself, they exist in the West just as well. So do detached family home suburbs in post communist Europe btw.
PS: You are right though, Slovakia should do something about those paint schemes. They do look a bit gaudy.
You misunderstand my argument. My argument was not that Western Europe also has commie block type neighbhourhoods, my argument was that you lack to point out what it is that turned a part of Europe into “Eastern Europe” that has little in common with Moscow and much more with Vienna, just because it was forced into a geopolitic block for roughly 40 years, until almost 40 years ago.
But then, you also appear to believe that Dresden is Eastern Europe, so at least you are consistent. Could it be that you are confusing “Eastern European” with “post communist”. Those two things are not the same.
I am not Slovak, heck, I am not even with your expansive idea of “Eastern Europe” Eastern European. I also did not say that Slovaks are Western European. Calling them “Eastern European” is as ridiculous as calling them “Western European”.
Tell me, is Dresden also Eastern European and how about Vienna?
Does that look like “Eastern Europe” to you?
Wind power on see has vastly better energy reliability.
What do you prefer instead? Burning biomass, heavy use of mining for massively larger battery facilities, very destructive water reservoires with pumping stations, building large overcapacities of wind power on land, or even burning fossile fuels? Some other option?
Please tell us your choice.
Gamla Stan is beautiful, no the colours are not as surreal and exagerated in real life but it is a colourful place also in reality.
I did not say that I would consider those buildings in Petrzalka the height of all taste and beauty but the issue with it is not the colour of the buildings. It is the urban layout on ground level and the rundown horrendously car centric design. That is really dragging the area down. On the plus side, there is so much greenery even with all of that, that it is not looking grey there, certainly not during Spring-Autumn.
PS: Bratislava is west of Stockholm, has nothing to do with Orthodox Europe and Slovakia stopped being part of the East block almost as long ago as it was ever part of it.
Also, it helps not to reduce image saturation to zero and have the blocks somewhat decently maintained. A bit of paint makes also a huge difference:
https://bankfoto.info/zdjecia/petrzalka-3/ (Petrzalka, Bratislava)
Alterlaa is fantastic. Incredible resident retention as well. Lot’s of multigenerational residencies as well. They lower half has huge ass balconies, large enough for trees, bushes or even a small garden. They are also desigend to support all of that.
They have tons of spaces for all sorts of clubs, gyms and they all have sizeable swimming pools on top as well. Car free all around with nicely cared for park area in between everything, a mini shopping mall as part of the complex, a subway station on its own and direct access to a major cycling/walking trail …
I love that visualisation from the NYT article. What a fitting symbolism. Maybe it is just incompetence but that looks so much like a deliberate act. Block Congress from its view of the White House.
(source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/29/upshot/white-house-ballroom.html)
Are the windows/doors(?) at the lower front for real? That looks like the building version of the Homer car in from the Simpsons.
WMD trucks was it one of the previous times the US set the region on fire, wasn’t it?
Custom exception for goods below 150 EUR have been routinely, if not systematically abused by companies from abroad mislabeling orders larger than 150 EUR. Add to that, that because of outdated international agreements, shipping across half the world have to be facilitated at prices that are usually lower than shipping within a single EU member state. Those 3 EUR are merely bringing the shipping costs more in line with that and can help handling the huge additional costs that all that waste creates. And that in the near future there won’t be a customs exception below 150 EUR is something Chinese companies have really brought upon themselves. I know some consumers loved to evade customs but to think one is entitled to that is well, a choice.
You did not say before, that EU citizenship is no national citizenship (which it isn’t indeed), you said that EU citizenship does not exist, which is demonstratively false.
Article 20 TFEU
"1. Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship.
(a) the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States;
(b) the right to vote and to stand as candidates in elections to the European Parliament and in municipal elections in their Member State of residence, under the same conditions as nationals of that State;
(c ) the right to enjoy, in the territory of a third country in which the Member State of which they are nationals is not represented, the protection of the diplomatic and consular authorities of any Member State on the same conditions as the nationals of that State;
(d) the right to petition the European Parliament, to apply to the European Ombudsman, and to address the institutions and advisory bodies of the Union in any of the Treaty languages and to obtain a reply in the same language.
These rights shall be exercised in accordance with the conditions and limits defined by the Treaties and by the measures adopted thereunder."
Of course there is something like EU citizenship. Read the TEU and TFEU. It is conferring its own set of rights but is dependent on someone being a citizen of an EU member state. Hovever there are cases were people who are the one aren’t the other.
European here, I am fine with that.
Didn’t he manage to go all the way to Moscow?
You think that PT is awful. We heard that already. You are also refusing to communicate clearly, even after it being pointed out to you. Keep trolling. I am out.
But you are assuming the downvote is due to people wanting everyone to have the same opinion, not because you generally called PT as awful, no qualification of any kind. Maybe next time communicate in a clearer fashion.
That is a bit rich from someone who did not start the comment by saying, “I find public transport awful” but as a general truth “Its awful to go on public transport.”
Same goes for your line about how people spend a fortune, just to avoid PT, when in fact, many don’t spend a fortune on cars when they happen to live in places where PT is decent and useful. Almost as if not so much the inherent general awfulness of PT makes people choose going by car but when PT is in that specific place just not good, people do so.
That’s because the picture above is from Malmö. It is true that Sweden is more conservative in its painting schemes, you call it probably more tasteful. But I think it shows that it is a gradient.
I never experienced that “Soviet trauma” yet rather disagree on your analysis of Petrzalka. This patchwork colour style isn’t a function of soviet trauma, it is rather what those large commie block districts with long and tall buildings need it in order to break up the scale into something more humane. Both, horizontally and vertically. Modern blocks are not built like that, they are also generally not coloured like that. Different building typologies work better with different colouring schemes. And no, Panelaki are no failures, those are often pretty popular places to live actually, when properly maintained, also on the inside.
There are of course differences in styles in Sweden vs Slovakia among contemporary buildings. Sweden has some of the better modern architecture in Europe. Vienna for example, which is just across form Bratislava, has a lot of the worst looking (even though it has been massively shaped by Swedish urban planning). Bratislava is actually no worse than Vienna probably better looking (even if probably worse building qualityas such). Things are not as clear cut. These detached blocks here in Lund: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Malmö,+Schweden/@55.7167554,13.2314728,123a,35y,57.74h,60.1t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x465305a574c491ff:0xd3a905dfbd4888e5!8m2!3d55.604981!4d13.003822!16s%2Fm%2F011l894y?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQwMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
I find that style … servicable. It could be just as easily be in Bratislava or Vienna, or somewhere in Germany for that matter. In the same colour scheme too.
PS: examples of Luzhkov’s style and capitalist romanticism from Russia are pretty terrible, they don’t exist in Slovakia to my knowledge, Moscow is further away from Bratislava than Stockholm if I am not mistaken. Not just geographically.