A Brief Visit to Bratislava

Four hours by train from Prague and we ended up in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The small city, situated along the Danube and boarding on Austria, has a population of about 500,000. The Old Town was a short stroll from where we were staying. Unfortunately, much of the city has been vandalised with graffiti, even many of the historical buildings.

Along the Danube, Bratislava Castle sits high onto of a hillfort. From the Castle, you get a bird’s-eye view of Bratislava and the border of Austria.

Close by the Castle complex is the Old Town which includes a number of significant (and historical buildings), such as St Martin’s Cathedral, the site where many Hungarian kings and queens were crowned. Other attractions included Primate’s Palace, Devín Castle, Church of St Elisabeth, Michael’s Gate and a strange sculpture piece called “Man at Work”, which is a bronze sculpture of a sewer worker protruding from the ground.

It seemed that the area we stayed in didn't get too many tourists from the way that people looked at us, and from the occasional “dobrý deň” that we got from people passing by. In the supermarket, a woman approached Jason and, in Slovak, asked him about the ingredients in the packet (well, that’s what we figured she was asking). Jason shrugged his shoulders and politely said that he doesn’t speak Slovak. We were not sure if the checkout assistant was having a bad day but she didn’t look too happy and almost pegged the checkout divider at us. When we had fresh produce that hadn’t been weighed and labelled, she started asking us questions in Slovak, to which Jason quickly replied “English please”. She obviously thought that it was futile trying to explain to us what needed to happen so she took off from her cash register, went to the fresh produce section on the other side of the shop, weighed the contents and stuck the barcode on the bags, came back to the register and continued to scan the other items. At the end of the transaction, she threw the receipt on the counter and quickly moved onto the next customer. Oops!

Next stop: ViennaRead more