Eurotrip: Bratislava

Bratislava, Slovakia ain't so bad!

In fact, we think it's kind of rad.

We saw a church of blue,

and a castle too!

And another country to our list did we add!

 

Yes, friends. That is the best limerick Angie and I were able to come up with during our day trip to Bratislava. (I think she made a better one in her post, though, but this was the best on the fly.) We are pretty much the most talented limerick writers in the world, huh? Anyway, we decided to day trip from Vienna rather than stop off during our train ride from Krakow. Neither of us expected much from this city, based on the "Why are you going there?" from people who knew the city... including one friend FROM the city. The hour train there was pleasant, but the train station was a little on the sketchy side. The sketchiness continued for most of our walk towards town, but we were determined to keep an open mind. Besides, it is never fair to judge a city based on what is near the train station, bus station, or airport.

After about a kilometer, we came across the presidential palace and the changing of the guards. This might have been the saddest guard changing I had ever seen as Angie and I were the only two people paying any attention. But it did afford us easy viewing access!

Next we went to the Monument for the Slovak Uprising.

After visiting the tourist office to get a proper map, we spent some time in Old Town Hall, which is a complex of buildings and home to the Maximilian fountain. Here we met a number of Americans who were taking a cruise down the Danube, and of course we made a few friends. There were quite a few sculptures in this area, and we had fun guessing if they were real or people dressed up as statues. Angie was surprised this guy was real!

Before visiting Bratislava, we knew we wanted to see two things: the Blue Church and the castle. The Blue Church, officially called St. Elizabeth's Church, is supposed to be a perfect example of the Art Deco style in sacral architecture. That may be true, but mainly I just thought it was really pretty.

Next we walked along the Danube, past about ten cruise boats docked along the shore, until we made it to St. Martin's Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1942. It was home to the coronation of 11 Hungarian kings and 8 queens, and it has a gold-plated replica of the Hungarian crown laid on a gilded cushion. Is it weird to say that it was cute? Sadly, it is a bit at risk because the Soviets built a giant New Bridge, now filled with traffic, that is compromising the foundation of the cathedral. Also in front of the Cathedral was a monument for the Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Our last stop was a hike up to the Castle, which sadly burned down in 1811 and now is bunch of reconstructed museum buildings. There were still fantastic views of the city and some ruins of the original castle which made the hike up worthwhile.

 

This picture provides a great view of the aforementioned New Bridge. On one bank, there is a restaurant on top of two angled posts that looks like the Starship Enterprise. The map pointed it out with the description "UFO."

I should mention that it is officially hot in these parts of Europe! No more coats for us. After climbing up to the castle, it was only fair that we needed a Slovakian beer to cool us down, and keep us company as we enjoyed the views.

Both Angie and I were very happy that we visited Bratislava. We joke that we are just racking up new countries so we can grow our "Visited Countries" list. In reality, I doubt I would ever visit Slovakia otherwise and it is nice to be able to see different cities when possible. My opinion is that Bratislava has the potential to be a big tourist destination - maybe a new version of Prague? There are clearly a number of tourists making their way through the city now. I think that to make this happen, the city will need to clean up a bit. There was graffiti everywhere and a grimey quality that seems easy enough to eliminate. It will be interesting to see what comes of this city!