Bratislava

Upon first hearing about Bratislava on my way to Europe it conjured up images of an Eastern Bloc state struggling with their economy. I remembered a scene from Eurotrip circa 2004 in which the characters happen to be in a country to what Slovakia seems like it would be in my head. In the movie the four travelers actually do find themselves lost in Bratislava with "only" $1.83 to their names.



Bratislava and Vienna are considered the two closest capital cities in the world separated by only 40 miles. This makes for an easy day trip by train from Vienna. Arriving in the train station you might think that the country is like the scene from Eurotrip as the buildings are mostly ugly concrete rectangles, most the trains are seemingly falling apart, and it's the most graffiti I have ever scene in one place. Initially, this seemed like the most foreign country I have been to this summer as minimal English is spoken and we thought that they used a different currency other than the Euro. Having to pay 0.40 Euros (they started using the Euro in 2009) just to go to the restroom I realized I would not be opening my own hotel.

Once we made it down to the city center it was apparent that the city had in fact done a very nice job in making the old city a very nice tourist destination. And, although I had to pay a bit to use the toilet, it was the most affordable (i.e. cheap) city that I have visited in Europe as well. So far it goes something like, Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, and then well below the rest, Slovakia, from most expensive to least expensive countries. My parents and I spent the afternoon walking around the old town, making our way to the Bratislava castle for a view of the entire city, and then down to the Danube for a stroll along the river. When viewing the entire city from the castle, the dichotomy of Bratislava came into plain sight with the near side of the river being the revitalized old town and the far side being a heaping cluster of cheaply erected apartment buildings pointing toward their very communist history. It was not a very pretty cityscape.

In the main city square near the old town hall there was this extremely popular statue of one of Napoleon's soldiers as an ode to Napoleon's army entering the city on two different occasions. Throughout the old town there were a number of these caricaturesque statues providing some light humor to the historical city.



Had to strike the same pose as the soldier.