Flowers, Cheese and Hagelslag: Bratislava

Bratislava

I stayed at an interesting hostel in Bratislava. Actually, my hostel in Bratislava and the one Prague both had some similarities in certain respects, mostly to do with the crowd, I suppose and from that the atmosphere. But this one, Art Taurus, in Bratislava was a bit interesting, because it seemed as though there were a lot of older travellers, like families. The first night there was a Spanish group that was travelling with 4 young boys. And it was really irritating; it was as though none of them had any sense of how overpowering their presence in the hostel was. But it was a pretty nice hostel all the same, one of the few in which I didn't sleep in a bunk bed, (actually, perhaps the only one on this trip) It had a computer, darts, foosball table, beer and water for sale, a microwaves, tea, coffee, toaster etc. The only annoying thing was they had the fridge and sink sectioned off, so you always needed to get a member of staff to get your food or fill up the kettle for you.

I spent most of my evening in the hostel the first night I was there. I was tired, and still slightly sick, from Vienna. But the next day I got up bright and early to walk around the historical center before a walking tour at 11. The old town was pretty small, but I really liked the two main squares. Perfect to sit and read, people-watch and enjoy ice cream (or in my case, regrettably, a slushy -but it was made with real grapefruit juice) There was also a really cool bridge, not far from my hostel, which has a UFO restaurant on it, which is pretty cool looking.

I really enjoyed the free walking tour. Our guide was a Slovak girl from Bratislava, and I must say I like to have guides who are locals, it's very cool. It was also her first day, but I thought she did a really good job, even if she was a bit nervous, having to memorize 16 pages of script and all.

Bratislava has a history that is very much tied to Prague, because they were the two biggest cities in Czechoslovakia. So it was really cool getting this perspective of the history before going to Prague. One of the most interesting things I guess was that during the communist regime, they pretty much decided that Czechoslovakia should have one cultural city, and one modern city, they chose Bratislava to be the more modern city. This resulted in a highway being built straight through the old town, and 70% of the historical center being destroyed. Another interesting thing, about all these cities (Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, Prague) is that they were all at one point, part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but each with a different perspective, and they also all had the threat of the Ottomans, each to a different extent (Budapest being occupied by them)

So back to Bratislava. Other than having a very educational morning, I went up to the Bratislava Castle in the evening, which was lovely. I really liked the Castle, and apparently I was lucky, because it has been under restoration for over 200 years (and the grounds were still) but last year the castle was completed, and is now in pristine condition. The grounds are pretty big, and there was a wedding happening while I was there, but that was only part of the castle. I didn't go into the castle, which houses a museum, because the tour guide said that it has only one painting, and the 4 Euros would be better spent on beer.

And beer it was spent on! Well not beer, but a mojito. So, well rested from my night-in, I decided to join my fellow travellers for a drink at a local Cuban bar. I didn't particularly like this bar, as I don't dance Salsa (do they dance that in Cuba?). But, even though it was Cuban and served tiki drinks, out of everywhere I've been, it had the least amount of tourists there. This made it pretty fun. One of my fellow hostellers made quick friends with a few girls. Two of them were locals from Bratislava and the other a girl from Seattle, who was spending a month in Slovakia visiting her friend. We stayed with them for the rest of the night, and they brought us to another club afterwards. The music was pretty much awful, I don't think anything was more recent then 2002, but it was fun none-the-less. The American girl and I were waiting for our groups to say good-bye to newly made "friends" and got talking. It was really interesting to talk to another North American spending a long amount of time in Europe and really seeing the culture. Especially since she had spent most of her time in Central and Eastern Europe and I had spent it in Western Europe. Especially since emigration and multiculturalism are viewed very differently in both parts of Europe and North America. Some of the most intellectual conversations probably happen in the young hours of the morning.

The next day, I checked out early, did a bit of shopping, although I was disappointed to not be able to find a souvenir deck of cards. Then I walked all the way to the bus station, on the way looking ridiculous with my baggage when I exchanged money at a bank (and I needed to talk to three different people, one of them being a manager I am pretty sure, because the others couldn't speak English- a tad embarrassing) But ultimately I was very pleased I did, because in Prague they are notorious for ripping you off at exchange places.