Arrival in the Evening
The cheerful young woman in the tourist office set me up with a
palatial
two-bedroom apartment in the heart of the old city.
Here is the living room, with the shutter drawn for some reason. Notice
the living room has two beds and a couch. There is a double bed in the
bedroom, and so help me another bed in the "room between the rooms",
which would be an entrance hall if the entrance weren't in the kitchen.
Later at night I looked
over the railing toward
the Danube.
There is a summer music festival going on on that stage-tent down there
in the park in front of the old opera house. Every Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday in July and August, there is a free show from that stage,
and sometimes others as well. The night I arrived it was a pleasant
large Jazz combo. Tonight it was an obnoxiously loud imitation of
Yanni-playing-opera. Ya pays yer money, and ya gets what comes.
Exploring the Town
The old town is small, laid back, and largely pedestrianized. The
architecture is dominated by Habsburg era buildings in pastel colors:
pale pinks, greens, blues, yellows.
This 1930's style art deco
building used to be a bank. Two pastel
Habsburg buildings flank it, palest green and blue.
The Dawn's Early Light
I woke up at dawn this morning, and took some pictures before I went
back to sleep.
There is the merest glimpse of the Danube byond the yellowish building.
Committing Holy Matrimony
This old public building can still be rented "by very rich people" for
weddings and such. A group in the courtyard was preparing for exactly
that.
The plaza outside has numerous benches, and is a public wireless
internet access area. I was so busy answering email that I missed my
intended photo of the happy couple making their getaway at the end of
the ceremony.
Sorry for
the flat light. You can see from the sky that light has been kind of
iffy here.
Light or not, this building and the spire behind it make a pretty
enough sight to show you. The spire sits atop one of the
gates to the old city. We are actually looking toward it from outside.
Old Bratislava is chock full of statues of people. Many of them
playfully posed. I plan on giving them their own posting when the time
comes.
This worker in the manhole is a real favorite with tourists. He might
be the most-photographed sight in town.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf