Comfortable business: a furniture trader in the Polish town of Nowy Targ. Slovaks are attracted by the weak zloty

The twisting road across the Tatry mountains passes by ramshackle ski resorts and small villages before crossing from Poland into Slovakia, a new eastern member of the eurozone.

While much of central Europe has been plunged into crisis because of steep falls in local currencies, Slovakia – the only former Warsaw Pact state to have joined the euro – has been unaffected by currency swings.