Write Again Soon

« Bratislava! | Main | Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading »

January 30, 2006

Leaving Bratislava

I'm sitting in the hostel's internet room, the drizzling rain and frigid wind having driven me out of the streets. It's hard to believe that in just a few hours I'll be leaving this charming (and cheap) city for Milan.

While I approached the whole "dorm-style" hostel with trepidation, it turned out to be a wonderful experience. After writing my last entry, I had only managed to make a grocery run to Tesco's and return to my room to drop off my purchases when I met up with the two Australian girls. We decided that a coffee was in order, and headed off to one of the coffee shops highlighted in our guidebook.

Founded in 1878, Kaffee Mayer (Hlavné nám. 4) is Bratislava's most famous café, an upscale Viennese coffee shop with gorgeous cappuccinos and "apfelstrudel mit schlag". These delights may be pricey for Slovakia but are much cheaper than you'll find at Mayer's Vienna branch.

After that, Sandi and I decided to do a bit of walking around, and took in the local castle.

Bratislava Castle (Bratislavský hrad) seems a bit boxy and Lego-like, but it's still a grand, impressive structure that dominates the skyline, and an easy walk from the center. Built in the 15th century when Bratislava was the capital of Hungary, it was remodeled by Habsburg queen Maria Theresa, only to be gutted by fire and bombed in World War II, and then rebuilt during the Communist era. The castle is now home to a branch of the Slovak National Museum (Slovenské národné múzeum) with a respectable collection of Slovak paintings through the ages and a staggering array of arms and armory; entry is 60 Sk. From the castle walls you can look over the city and see a fascinating contrast of Gothic Old Town and Communist paneláks across the river. A pleasant green park on the castle's east side is a good place to relax.

Having seen my share of "respectable collections" we decided to forego the museum and just admired the view from the top of the hill. Then we saw a couple of nice churches, along the way realizing that--after a significant amount of international travel--most tourist spots seem to blend together. Bratislava's castles, churches, and museums are undoubtedly nice, they are rather forgettable in the grander scheme of things. Even a walk through the old town section was quaint, but not thrilling.

Instead, we decided to go to the opera.

The Opera in Bratislava is popular among international visitors - for its quality as well as favourable prices. The Opera of the Slovak National Theatre is located in a Habsburg-era building right in the center of the city on Hviezdoslavovo Square.

For a mere 80 SK (about $1.50), we got seats at the top tier of the opera house, to see Verdi's Don Carlos. Unfortunately, the last-minute ticket buying adventure left us with no time to locate an English summary of the plot, so we had to guess our way through it. We looked it up later at the hostel, and were quite proud to have figured most of it out.

After the opera (well, at intermission) we went to the Jazz Cafe.

Jazz Café (Venturska 5, Old Town) Live jazz every Thursday through Saturday in an intimate cellar pub setting. Interpret intimate to mean hot, stuffy, smoky and packed. Get there before the doors open at 8pm or forget about finding a table.

Long story short, there was no jazz, but a fun local band that played an eclectic mix of rock, oldies, salsa, and undecipherable Slovak music. The drinks (oh so many of them) were also nice--at least, I have vague memories of them being nice.

A late night trip to McDonalds (the thinking was that a hamburger would soak up some of the alcohol so copiously consumed and prevent a hangover in the morning) was followed by a freezing walk back to the hostel. The next morning, it became glaringly apparent that the McDonalds had NOT done its job and we all laid low for most of the morning. In the afternoon, we walked around a bit more and then set off for the ST Arena for an ice hockey match. The home team lost, which was quite sad, but I was happy to leave because I had ceased feeling my extremities early in the first period.

We called it an early night, and this morning we packed our bags and went our separate ways after a final cup of thick, warm, pudding-like hot chocolate. The Australian girls are off to Budapest, the 2 French girls are off to Prague, and the Russian girl is staying another night. We exchanged email addresses, and I hope we get the chance to meet up again sometime.

So now, because my flight isn't until this evening, I have several hours to kill. The weather is crappy (we had beautiful--if cold--weather the rest of the weekend) and there's not much left to see. While I'm tempted to go on a crazy shopping spree (this being the last of the cheap cities for this trip), I have to admit that I'm not particularly entranced by the local fashions I see (plus there is a dangerously-low 15 kg weight limit for baggage on my flight to MIlan). Instead, I had hoped to catch up on friends' blogs, but sadly I see that January has been a slow month and the entries are few and far between.

Perhaps this is the opportunity I've been looking for to get caught up on some work. I had planned on working a couple hours each day, but sadly (or not) the pull of high adventure in Slovakia delayed that schedule. And even know, as I glance over to my laptop, so sedately resting in my bag, I'm not particularly motivated to fire it up. There will be plenty of time for that later, when I return to my humdrum life. For now, I think I'll explore the internet for places to go on my next global adventure.

Comments

Posted by: Anonymous at January 30, 2006 08:39 AM

Post a comment