Bratislava

The capital of Slovakia is our first stop on this trip that neither of us have been to before. The hotel is not bad (Hotel Turist) and it wasnt too hard to find. The room is a decent size but the whole place is undergoing construction, just like most of the city actually. The hotel has the feel of a student dorm and we think that is what it used to be. The construction isnt too much of a hassle reall, except when they insist on starting at 7am. Drill, hammer, repeat.
The city isnt too bad, it has more of a grandiose mediocrity feel about it. It is an eclectic mix of communist bloc type apartment buildings and new, modern towers and bank buildings. This is apparently the place where big business is setting up their central europe headquaters' and there is money coming in. Soon I think it there will signs of money, but for now it is a city in transition it feels. Although people all seem to look content, not overly happy or grumpy but simply content. One more observation about the people is that there dont seem to be any overweight people around.
About the only things of note to see are the castle, which seems very new and freshly built for a 14th century castle. The original one burnt down in 1811 and the only got around to rebuilding it in the 1950's, you can rush these things you know. When they did rebuild it, it ended up looking like how a communist would build it in the 14th century. An interesting thought, imagine the Tower of London built by Brezhnev, or Versailles built by Krushchev. The other thing to see is the old town, which is quaint. A typical old town with a square, a fountain and 50 restaurants and souvenir stalls.












In the evening we caught the 205 bus into the city and had dinner at the Slovak Pub, a very interesting building, set back from the street as most shops are on the Obchodna (the name of the street). You go through an entrance, usually an arch, and walk 15m through an arcade to the shop, in this case to a set of stairs going up or down. Up to the Slovak Pub and Down to the Europa Pub, which is more of a club. Up the stairs we go and it is an old looking house that just keeps going and going. From the street you wouldnt tell that it is so big, it seems to continue away from the street with hidden rooms. It is all mad with wood with interesting paintings on the walls, some portaits of Catholic Priests, Knights and and ordinary old man. The food was very typical Slovakian, self professed although how would someone like me tell. There was a page on the menu that says you must order one day in advance for these items, such as Roast Goose or a Roast Suckling pig which they say is 30kg and cost 318 Euro. Not a light snack. I had some small traditional pasty type things that were good, Tanya had a cordon bleu type chicken thing which was good and we shared a plate of halusky bryndzove, which is apparently the national dish and maybe rightly so since there were a lot of locals eating it. It is very small gnocchi like dumplings with a sheeps cheese sauce and topped with crispy cubes of bacon. It was really good but had a very strong flavour so I dont know how much you could eat in one sitting. We washed it down with some local beer and then a local digestive called Borovicka which is a spirit made from berries, kind of like a schnapps. Not a bad meal, especially since in total, for both of us it cost 20euro. We are definitely noticing that the further east we go, the cheaper it is getting.

The buses deserve a special mention here. I think they all have the last name of Schumacher, because they certainly drive like it. They have 3 types of transport in the city, normal buses, trams and electric trolley buses, which are the ones we have been taking. The fares are quite cheap at 50c to get into the city, a 15 min journey, but Im sure it should take about 20 mins. Lots of sharp corners and late breaking make each bus ride an adventure. At least there are lots of them and they run very often and on time, and so most people use them. The almost exact opposite of Adelaide really.
Prague tomorrow.