It's almost three years to the day that I first visited Komarno in Slovakia - on the Danube bordering Hungary - and it has a very special meaning to me.
Remember I'm originally from Australia, right? Western Australia, in fact, where it never, never snows. That's the hint for why Komarno, Slovakia, has a special place in my memory.
In 2004, at the ripe old age of, well, nearly 30, I made my very first ever snowman in Komarno. My dear Slovak friend had been giving me advice for weeks, and I'd finally believed her that you did need a particular kind of snow, that "sticky" stuff that rolls up together easily. And when I reached a public park in Komarno on a quiet winter Sunday afternoon, I found a field full of sticky snow and rolled my own Slovak snowman.
I named him "Kommy", both in reference to his town of birth - the feature town of this week's article, Komarno - and to Slovakia's former mode of government. Well, at first I was just thinking of the town, and the obvious double reference took a bit longer to come, as my brain was a bit frozen. If you visit Komarno, look out for a melted pile of snowman somewhere towards the center. He's mine.
