Slovakia and Slovenia - erm - which is which?

Slovakia
Slovenia
Serbia
All three places start with the letter S and ends with the letters IA. The first two also start with the same four letters SLOV.

Slovakia has the middle letters AK.
Slovenia has the middle letters EN.
Servia has the middle letters ERB.

If you are confused, don't worry. The Slovaks themselves, on their website, admit that people often get confused by the first two on the list, Slovakia and Slovenia.

To simplify matters, Czechoslovakia divided in the 1990s, and the Eastern half became Slovakia, whose people, the Slovaks, speak a language similar to the Czech language and to Polish.

SLOVAKIA AND BRATISLAVA

Slovakia. Bratislava. White castle with corner towers.

The capital of Slovakia is Bratislava, which contains the letters av. Notice the a in the middle of both words, the country and the capital.

The western half of the country of Czechoslovakia is the one with the drinking glasses. The eastern half has wine and water. What kind of water? Waterfalls and spas.

Bratislava is dominated by the big square white castle with towers.

Useful websites:

Slovenia, however, was part of another dividing country, Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia is one sixth part of the old Yugoslavia, So Slovenia is smaller than Slovakia. 

Slovenia may be small but it's got a big dragon, the dragon bridge, and three more adjacent bridges, called the triple bridge. The one in the picture looks a bit angular like the top of an old English threepenny piece. 

Little Slovenia also has a little church on the little hill on the little island in a little lake, shown in the backdrop behind me in the picture.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.