At the moment, I am on a train from Bratislava to Prague. I have to say that this is the first even semi-unpleasant trip I’ve had on a train while in Europe, but even it is not that bad. I like trains.
One thing that I keep noticing on the trains is that every time an announcement comes over the speakers, it starts in the native language – here, Czech – and lasts for about three minutes and then the English translation is given and inevitably, it’s something like, “Ladies and gentlemen, our next stop will be Brno.”
What? There’s no way that the three minute Czech soliloquy translates into “our next stop will be Brno.” What aren’t you telling me? My fear is that the part in Czech is something like, “Ladies and gentlemen and Czech comrades, if you understand what I’m saying then you speak Czech and should be proud and angry at those around you who are too ignorant to learn the language of a country before they come to visit it. You do not deserve to be punched in the nose. Everybody else, however, does deserve such a fate. When we get to our next stop, place your right thumb into your right ear. If somebody sitting close to you does not do this, then they obviously do not speak Czech, so you should punch that person square in the nose. Our next stop will be Brno.” For this reason, every time the train stops, I stick my right thumb in my right ear. Nobody has punched me in the nose yet, thus proving my theory.
Now, about Bratislava. Other than London and Paris, Bratislava was the first town in which I really wanted to spend more time. Part of that is that I only spent a day here – so maybe three days would have been too many – but one wasn’t enough. I did try to make the best of it, though.
I got to my hotel, and there will be more on this in another post, but the hotel was actually a botel, sitting on the Danube in the shadow of the Bratislava castle. The view from outside my window, with the water flowing by at sunset and again in the morning, was terrific, though I’m pretty sure that at some point during the afternoon, we hit an iceberg or something because the whole room jerked several inches. We didn’t sink, though, which is something I always look for in a hotel room.
The first thing I did after leaving my hotel was make it up to the Bratislava castle, which sits on top of a hill and is the focal point of the city. From what I think I remember reading, though I do make crap up a lot so take it with a grain of salt, when the Turks forced the Hungarians out of Budapest, they fell back on Bratislava as the new Hungarian capital and much of the castle derives from that time, though the site also has ruins dating back to the period when the area was dominated by Rome. It’s very beautiful, though it does look like a coffee table sitting upside down, and it gives fantastic views of the city.
I also spent some time strolling through and shopping in Old Town, which is similar to Zurich’s Old Town except much cleaner, much nicer and larger. There aren’t as many historic buildings as in Zurich, but the area has a ton of cafes with diverse culinary options. I ended up stopping at one café for dinner and had Wienerschnitzel and Slovak potato salad. (That’s what they called it; I just took their word for it.) I thought the veal was a little dry, but you rolls the dice and you takes your chances.
I didn’t really have a chance to do much else in Bratislava. I’d like to do more Eastern Europe, including Hungary and Poland, which aren’t terribly far away. Perhaps I’ll get to Bratislava again and spend a few more days here. For now, it’s on to Prague.
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