Days 10-11: Bratislava

Day 10 Bratislava (Friday 11 February 2011)



14th c. St Michael's gate

Austria turned out to be somewhat of a party for me and to recover I have decided to take a single room at the City Hostel Bratislava, located just a short walk along Obchodna from the historic centre of town. My first afternoon in the Slovakian capital is spent taking a tour of the main sights, guided by my Lonely Planet. Perhaps the rain has kept people indoors because Bratislava is eerily quiet this Friday afternoon and I am left virtually alone to wander the streets as though they are a huge open air museum. The fourteenth century city walls have almost entirely been destroyed over the intervening six hundred years. Despite this, the centre still has the feeling of a fortified town, especially when entered from the north near the Church of the Trinitarians, where you cross the bridge over the moat and pass under St Michael's Gate into the old town. Hlavne Namestie is the main square on which the Town Hall sits. It is surrounded by streets, squares and buildings that have a look and feel of the recently restored, yet when I venture only slightly off the main tourist drag, further west behind Venturska, I find a completely different scene of derelict, boarded up buildings that gives the impression of waiting to be done up. I sense that the Bratislavians have almost been driven out of their city centre in favour of the more lucrative tourist trade. This feeling is compounded as the only Slovaks I have met today are shopkeepers, restaurateurs and barmen.

Day 11 Bratislava (Saturday 12 February 2011)



Slavin memorial

This morning feels better: not only is the sunshine back in my life but, as it is Saturday, there is a much busier buzz about town. It strikes me that, no matter where in Bratislava I find myself, chances are I will be able to catch sight of the Slavin Memorial which stands at the summit of a hill just a couple of kilometres north of the town centre. This giant 40 metre high monument and cemetery were constructed in 1960 in honour of the 6,845 soldiers of the Soviet Army who were killed in deliverance of Bratislava during the Second World War. To reach it from Stefanikova (the street which connects the old town with the train station to the north) you can take Puskilova, a series of staircases, the majority of the way up. Alternatively, I decide to take the steep streets that wind their way up to the top of the hill. This ascent may be more effort but my reward is getting a closer look at the ultra-modern villas of Bratislava's rich and famous that I pass along the way. The higher I climb, the more impressive the houses become. Once at the memorial I can see that the obelisk is topped with the statue of a Soviet soldier, and on the walls of the white marble sarcophagus are carved inscriptions of the dates of liberation of various places in Slovakia during 1944-55. Bratislava, I now know, was liberated

from Nazi occupation almost 66 years ago on 4 March 1945.

Climbing high places for a panorama is becoming a pastime of mine and today is another bright sunny day which means a clear view across the city. Looking south over the River Danube and across the Novy Most (bridge) I can see clearly the rows of Communist era housing blocks – giants all stood to attention – quite a contrast from the palatial villas I passed by just moments earlier.

Novy Most and communist housing blocks

Bratislava is undoubtedly an interesting place to visit. However, in the context of my journey I have been slightly underwhelmed. Perhaps this is because I have not made any new friendships or really met anyone of interest during my stay here. Evenings have been tedious, and not improved by the very basic food which I have not found to be any cheaper than in Austria or Germany. Two nights here has been enough and my mind has already arrived in Budapest long before my body will be able to catch up.

(c) Robert Beardsworth