The closest two capital cities in Europe, Bratislava and Vienna are only around 45km apart so it only took us an hour to arrive this morning. Very cruisy compared to the multiple-hour train rides we had been used to by now!
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| The start if the tour, near the centre of the Old Town |
After navigating our way to the hostel we relaxed for a little in our top floor private 3-bed room (cheap prices convinced us to get some privacy for once!). James found us a free tour that was starting up just after midday so we headed off to this, finding the main square of the town and meeting up with the guide there. A brief discussion of the history of Slovakia and Bratislava and we were off touring through the Old Town. Like others, the Old Town in Bratislava was very pretty and featured quite a number of Baroque buildings and quaint cobblestown walkways and squares. Given the small size of the city, it did not take long to walk around and see many of the sights.
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A number of these scultpures popped
up around the Old Town |
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| Yen, James and I in one of the centre squares of the Old Town |
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| More Old Town quaint..ness |
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| Bratislava Castle from afar |
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| 'The Blue Church' |
So, after finishing up we went in search of some Slovakian cuisine with two friends we had made, one from Italy and the other New Zealand. Finding a large authentic pub, we all crowded inside and cosied up in the warmth. Opening the menu we were greeted wyouith a couple of things. First, you simply cannot argue with 0.5L of proper good beer for 0.90euro cents. Second, there were some very funny order descriptions for food. For example, some were listed as "the cheap student", whilst the best was "what to order to impress your girlfriend". Grabbing a beer, we then decided on the local delicacy; potato dumplings (very small, similar to gnocci) covered in sheeps cheese and diced bacon. It was delicious and worked very well with beer; but then so does everything!
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| Yen in front of the Bratislava Castle lit up at night |
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| One of the fantastic views; showing the 'UFO bridge' |
Walking outside into the cold again was a sharp slap in the face! Wrapping up, we decided to walk up to the castle and see what the view was like. A short walk, wandering up through some fairly poorly lit and crumbling stairs (which no doubt in Australia would probably have resulted in the whole castle being shut whilst it was repaired – not here!), we made it to the grounds at the top. It was deifnately quite cool up here and there were certainly just as cool views. Though, saying that it was a little dissapointing that the Castle was closed due to renovations. Can't get them all I guess!
The next day we decided to check out a couple of things missed on the walking tour. The first was a small novelty, the national radio station building which took the form of a reverse pyramid which was pretty cool to see. Following this we made our way up the many, many steps climbing up the nearby high terrain to the Slovak Soviet memorial. This place reminded me of the Shrine of Remembrance with its laf arge orthogonal landscaped spaces in front of a vastly scaled central shrine. Unlike in Melbourne however, this memorial towered over the city and presented views that stretched far into the distance.
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| The Slovak Soviet Memorial |
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| Yen demonstrating the scale of the memorial complex |
As it began to get dark we heeded advice we had received earlier from the tour guide and went to the large shopping centre on the banks of the river that ran through the city. The reccomendation was to walk through to the area at the back which would provide great views across the river to the castle and surrounds.It didn't dissapoint and produced some great shots.
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| The shopping centre, 'Gherkin' copy |
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| James with a pretty lit up embankment and river |
Rounding up the day, we head back to the hostel just in time for the free blues gig that the hostel was hosting that night. With a couple of 1.30euro beers, we sat back and took in the great free music – a nice relaxing end to yet another exhausting day!
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