Population: roughly 550,000
Working my way up the Danube (Danuj in Slovakian) we reach Bratislava, capital of Slovak republic. I didn't have much time here (which was actually okay by me, again not one of my fave cities) so I didn't get to learn anything really about its history and I'd like to start by a brief overview that I'm looking up as I type. So (merci de Wikipedia):
Bratislava is known in German as Pressburg, it was the capital of the kingdom of hungary under the Hapsburgs from 1536-1783 when the Turks took over Hungary. In 1993 after the Velvet Divorce we got the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. Okay, moving on.
First off train ride Budapest to Bratislava- two and a half hours, went quickly, again mostly farmland but sometimes we passed this giant lake with mountains in the background which was pretty, pine trees lined it it reminded me of the lake in Harry Potter where Harry sees his stag across the way as he's trying to revive his godfather. Cities passed: Nove Zamky, Szob, then I stopped looking and read some French literature and did some typing. I've officially broken my headphones, they literally snapped, so my music jam sessions have come to an end, I also entered Slovakia with a whopping fifteen euros and fifty centimes which was almost enough to get by but not enough to buy the ticket to the Vienna airport, so I was forced to withdraw Slovak Konuts at the bus station (30 to 1 euro). So we get to Bratislava, its a pretty dead city it seems like, its bigger than Ljubljana but the buildings are nothing much , its a dreary day, the architecture is very simple no great statues and even when you walk down to the Danube theres not a whole lot to see although the river itself is of course pretty, most of the shops were closed I think because it's All Saint's Day but nonetheless not the greatest town to be a tourist in, and as you've seen from my brief history lesson Slovak history is dominated by the Hungarians and the Czechs and Austrians so the national sentiment is not a huge factor in memorials or great squares. I didn't take any pictures for the first three hours of being here and walking around because there really was nothing to take pictures of, high rise five to six story buildings and streets, pretty bland. Even the colors of the town (granted its not sunny out) seem dull. But with my map in hand I set out to make a tour of the area. So I saw a bunch of churches, all with those spires with the little bulb on the clock tower in oxidized copper and then a cross on top, St Elizabeth's nunnery with real live uns outside, although the actual nunnery was sort of hidden behind these old brick walls, the biggest church here St Martin's and inside it was very dark, not too amazing it had those long narrow stained glass windows again, the Old Town Hall and the square in front which had these funny statues of lifelike people in different positions, a guard type figure and then someone bending over a bench and someone looking around a corner with a camera in hand- very playful. There was also a Primate's palace which was a smaller building and I really have no idea what its significance is. My final stop was the synagogue, apparently Slovakia had a big Jewish population before the Holocaust and their synagogue is still intact, it was closed of course but even from the outside it was not striking in any fashion. I think it was granite but it was really boxy with straight lines, no carvings or symbols really, faded orangy red with big square pillars and big metal doors, no Jewish stars, nothing. and a wrought iron gate. There was also a Jewish museum which is supposed to be good and was on my list of things to see but when I got there I figured it would be closed on a Saturday- not only was it closed, it is closed indefinitely for repairs/reconstruction, the sign was in Slovak but it had the date September 8th- either it's been closed since then or was supposed to reopen then, either way not a good sign for a major museum of the capital city of the country. Greatness. But then I walked up up upto the Hrad Castle/Slovakia Castle- this one really does look like a castle combined with fortress walls high up on a hill, its a big square building with cloisters on the wings and lots of little connected houses behind it that might have been where everyone lived, all painted a nice goldenrod. Again the actual castle was undergoing major reconstruction so there was tons of scaffolding and you couldn't go in which was anoying, even though the grounds were prety you couldn'te get the proper feel of how the castle was supposed to look, but the view of the Danube was good. From the little sign outside I learned that the castle was originally built in 907, then under King Sigsimun in the 1200s it started to be baroque in fashion and they added this big tower, then it was the seat of the Hungarian kings for a while and under Maria Theresa (1740-80) it underwent major baroque renovations, then in burned down in 1811 and was only partially reconstructed in 1953 and they're still working on it. So it's unfortunate that the 907 castle isn't there and I'm not sure if they're rebuilding it in the baroque style or what, so its kind of new old history. Still, it was the best sight in town. Oh yeah, and on the other side of the Danube (its not like Budapest there's nothing to see on the other side its housing, I'm not even sure if its still part of Bratislava proper) there's this big observation tower they just put in with these steel ropes that connect to the main bridge crossing the river, its just like the tower in Montreal, kind of ugly and imposing but its THE thing to see on the skyline. As you walk down from the castle there's some "gates" that are significant and there's Michael's Gate over in Old Town which was the original only entry into the city over an old moat thats not there anymore, but they aren't really gates anymore there's been so much built around them houses and such that now they're just arched entryways that are part of other constructions and really don't look like anything even if they have cool stories. Michael's Gate had this plaque near it in the ground with a woman screaming, and it was dedicated to the first witch burnt in Bratislava in 1602 (apparently she wasn't a real witch she was just too pretty for her own good at the time..harsh). And the other funny thing was that I did walk through old town but the real "old town" must have been tiny because I kept seeing signs pointing this way and that saying old town, it was like I never entered it but was always inches away. And right near there very inconspicuously there were these metal squares in the ground like a tic tac toe board and you could jump on them and they chimed out and you could play songs with your feet- it was totally random but very fun. So after walking around a fairly dead city and not being impressed I returned to the hostel to write these little ditties, chat with friends, and prepare myself for waking up in the 4 o clock hour to catch a bus to the bus station to catch a bus to the Vienna airport to take a plane to Munich, then Marseille, then a final bus Marseille-Aix and be back to homebase!!! Excellent circle of eastern europe (fingers crossed it ends well tomorrow). Pics will be up soon.
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