Ahoj všetci!
Slovakia is the second stop on my whistlestop tour of eastern europe. I'm taking advantage of the Hotel Kyjev's free internet while my friends nurse their hangovers and sleep off breakfast.
So Bratislava has a very Moscow vibe to it, in the sense that you can gaze out of any window and just smell the remains of Communism. It has the same kinda drab, grey, depressing feel to it, which the shite weather isn't doing any favours. It feels like the former Eastern block that everyone kind of forgot about, then remembered it existed before promptly forgetting about it again.
I'm starting to feel that time is being wasted on computers while having exotic ex-communist holidays, so I'll finish this boring as hell entry by telling you that the hotel cashier has just started having a mad argument in English with some guy checking in. Like, passers by stop and watch kind of argument. Apparently the new guy hasn't paid his 50 euro deposit, but is adamant that he has. Hotel man not happy.
I'll do the proper entry when I get back.
EDIT - Monday 16th May
I'm back! So yeah, Bratislava. I wish I could have written this entry a little sooner, because everything that happened has gone and done that annoying post-holiday thing where it all melds into one day. I'll do my best.
I think it's safe to say that Bratislava was very much the middle ground of Eastern Tour; not that it was unenjoyable in any way, it just felt a little more low-key than Budapest and was a little rest camp before Vienna. I'd actually pictured it being a little more wild than it was, what with its reputation as party city, but maybe we just didn't look in the right places.
I think we've established from the little bit I wrote while there that Bratislava is a little more architecturally drab than the other two. This is the view from our hotel.
And a couple of streets. Second one could almost be Huddersfield.
But, on what I think was the second day, the weather cleared up and we managed to find the bit which I'd describe as 'Old town' Bratislava, let's say, with lots of little souvenir shops and cafes and restaurants.
Having just read that back, let me rephrase: We found the tourist area.
Either way it looked a hell of a lot better than the other parts of the city we walked through.
So we looked round here at strange bits of art and various shops. One thing worth mentioning is that it seems to be hockey season at the moment, presumably hosted in Bratislava, or at least Slovakia, and there are statues all over the city of hockey players, each painted a different way representing a different country. Nobody seems to have pictures of them though.
We found a couple of good signs here though:
Happy pig - roasted pig. Click for full size.
A polite sign to please bin your dog.
This next one was for a restaurant shaped like a UFO that was suspended about 100ft above a bridge, there's a picture of it in the boat trip entry. I don't know about you, but "Progressive Mediterrasian" sounds more like a music scene than a type of cuisine.
Walking on the footpath underneath this bridge, we found this, which I presume is Bratislava's answer to the love-padlocked Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, except .. just not as popular. There will be no displays of love in Slovakia, it seems.
Another view from the bridge; our boat left a little further up-river.
And us walking on the railing, because we could.
One place we did want to go was a club called SUBCLUB in an old fallout bunker sort of thing which was built into the side of a hill. Sadly it was closed, but it looked pretty good (albeit grubby and terrifying).
In the hills just above the bridge, we found a castle and a wicked playground, but me being a moron, I hadn't charged my camera the night before and this is where that day's photos ended. I managed to get a couple before the battery died completely of the city and the bridge (UFO restaurant visible here) but any others I might have to steal from my friends.
I think you can kinda see the difference between the nicey bits and the shitty bits further into the centre quite well here.
So that was Bratislaaaaaaaaava.
EDIT - Monday 16th May
I'm back! So yeah, Bratislava. I wish I could have written this entry a little sooner, because everything that happened has gone and done that annoying post-holiday thing where it all melds into one day. I'll do my best.I think it's safe to say that Bratislava was very much the middle ground of Eastern Tour; not that it was unenjoyable in any way, it just felt a little more low-key than Budapest and was a little rest camp before Vienna. I'd actually pictured it being a little more wild than it was, what with its reputation as party city, but maybe we just didn't look in the right places.
I think we've established from the little bit I wrote while there that Bratislava is a little more architecturally drab than the other two. This is the view from our hotel.
And a couple of streets. Second one could almost be Huddersfield.
But, on what I think was the second day, the weather cleared up and we managed to find the bit which I'd describe as 'Old town' Bratislava, let's say, with lots of little souvenir shops and cafes and restaurants.Having just read that back, let me rephrase: We found the tourist area.
Either way it looked a hell of a lot better than the other parts of the city we walked through.
So we looked round here at strange bits of art and various shops. One thing worth mentioning is that it seems to be hockey season at the moment, presumably hosted in Bratislava, or at least Slovakia, and there are statues all over the city of hockey players, each painted a different way representing a different country. Nobody seems to have pictures of them though.We found a couple of good signs here though:
Happy pig - roasted pig. Click for full size.
A polite sign to please bin your dog.This next one was for a restaurant shaped like a UFO that was suspended about 100ft above a bridge, there's a picture of it in the boat trip entry. I don't know about you, but "Progressive Mediterrasian" sounds more like a music scene than a type of cuisine.
Walking on the footpath underneath this bridge, we found this, which I presume is Bratislava's answer to the love-padlocked Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, except .. just not as popular. There will be no displays of love in Slovakia, it seems.
Another view from the bridge; our boat left a little further up-river.
And us walking on the railing, because we could.One place we did want to go was a club called SUBCLUB in an old fallout bunker sort of thing which was built into the side of a hill. Sadly it was closed, but it looked pretty good (albeit grubby and terrifying).
In the hills just above the bridge, we found a castle and a wicked playground, but me being a moron, I hadn't charged my camera the night before and this is where that day's photos ended. I managed to get a couple before the battery died completely of the city and the bridge (UFO restaurant visible here) but any others I might have to steal from my friends.
I think you can kinda see the difference between the nicey bits and the shitty bits further into the centre quite well here.
So that was Bratislaaaaaaaaava.