Mon 12.Jul.2010
Bratislava, Slovakia
Well, I liked Bratislava last year, so much that I lingered more than
three weeks here. A relaxing vacation from travel, as it were.
I assume I don't need to introduce the city. If you want refreshing,
scroll down to Bratislava in the index, which you get to by the link at
the bottom of this page. It's OK - I'll wait here for you.
The shiny new mall, home to one of the city's more useful net connections at the Net Cafe coffee bar.
Also has a pretty good fast food court, a huge supermarket,
several ice cream stands, a computer stuff store, and what looks for
all the world like an Apple Store, which I didn't think Apple has in
any of the ex-communist countries. It say "authorized reseller"; maybe
that is a legal distinction or something,
Home sweet apartment, with the morning sun shining through the shutters.
Day Trip Time
These three pictueres are from last Thursday in Vienna.
No street in Bratislava looks as big.-city as Mariahilferstraße, the most useful shopping drag in Wien.
Vienna's trendiest construction zone has opened for you.
That's what it says. Must be some kind of Viennese in joke.
Two trollybus lines run past my apartment. I never rode either of them when I was here last year.
It is a bit of a hike to a stop in either direction. I finally tried it yeasterday, and where did the bus go?
Bratislava Castle
Last year, Bratislavsky Hrad was all encrusted with green scaffolding, looking like a very old cheese.
This year it all but sparkles up on its hill top above the Danube.
Hehe. Look what you can see as you approach from the bus stop: one of Europe's reall jarring public structures.
This is not a major castle in anybody's book, but it does do flashy gates pretty well.
The old grounds are now parks, playgrounds, a restaurant... pretty
tasteful public space, and no entrance fee for the main areas.
And of course, a view over the Danube plain. This picture looks toward
Vienna, through a substantial wind farm. On a clear enough day, you
might be able to see across to the other side, where Wien sits at the
easternmost toes of the alps. Bratislava Castle sits on the westernmost
toe, more or less, of the Carpathians.
There is the Danube itself down there.
Our Old Buddy, The New Bridge
I don't think there is any way short of Photoshop to
make the New Bridge look beautiful. Comical, yes, but no way beautiful.
Framing it through the castle trees is as close as I ever expect to
come.
In the 1970's when the New Bridge was built, the villages on the south
side of the Danube were cleared and replaced with a vast soulless
housing project. My guidebook says that a quarter of the city's
population lives there, and that it has the highest suicide rate in the
city. I overheard somebody
telling his companion yesterday at the castle, that in Communist times,
the city authorities picked a pissing contest of sorts with Brno, the capital city of Moravia. They brought in huge numbers of people to make Bratislava bigger and more exciting than Brno.
Unconfirmed overheard folklore folks - you heard it here first.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf