Bratislava isn’t what you think

I was thinking Prague, circa 2002. Communist block housing, hustlers trying to sell you a hotel room/food/merchandise of questionable origin, a complete lack of vegetables or food that I can eat…

Bratislava is definitely the cleanest city I’ve ever been to. It’s got a stunning architectural mix of Art Nouveau, Gothic, Renaissance, plus the Socialist realism and Communist brutalism that you’d expect. I’ve had exactly zero people try to sell me things, pickpocket me, or scam me in any way. Walking around at night feels easy and safe.

We started the day with a 10:30 tour of 20th Century Bratislava. Having lived through the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the Iron Curtain, Luke and I were particularly interested in this part of the area’s history.

We learned about the city’s Jewish history. Of the 85,000 Jews in Slovakia, fewer than 10,000 survived WWII, and fewer than 500 stayed in Slovakia when it transitioned to Communist Czechoslovakia. The city has only 1 remaining synagogue to serve the remaining population.

Throughout the past 70 years, Slovakian architecture also featured public art as part of a law requiring 2 pieces of art with every building development.

Slovakia recently elected a female president, something I’m not confident I’ll see in the US in my lifetime. She’s opted not to live in the Presidential Palace, although she still goes there to work. We watched the changing of the guard and all agreed that having to stand completely still for an hour would be miserable.

We wrapped up the tour at the memorial commemorating the Velvet Revolution, where our guide outlined the breakup of Czechoslovakia (a velvet divorce, as he called it).

As we set out on our own, we set our sights on the Blue Church. It seems all of Bratislava has weird hours and all of those weird hours exclude Mondays, so we couldn’t go inside, but it was super cool on the outside. This looks nothing like any cathedral I’ve ever seen. It’s a sort of mix of big cathedral, soft Art Nouveau curves, and pastel coloring of nothing I’ve never seen in a cathedral before.

Lunch was at a place that was originally built to house a monastery and public hospital in the 16th century, but is now a brewery and restaurant. Food was traditional Slovakian, which apparently means absolutely no green veggies of any kind, but plenty of potatoes, cheese, and meat. Thankfully, they seem to be totally OK with vegetarians as long as cheese and potato are ok. That’s ok with me!

We meandered our way up to Bratislava Castle. This has a strong Bavarian castle feel, with the symmetrical walls and turrets on the corners. It’s on top of a hill (of course), so we had quite the workout getting up there!

Since the castle wasn’t open, we explored the exterior and then left to see two more sights. First up was St. Martin’s Cathedral. This was a quaint cathedral by most standards, and I appreciated the modest scale as compared to a cathedral in Spain, France, or Italy.

Last event for the day was the observation tower on the UFO bridge. On a really clear day, you can see Hungary and Austria from up here. It wasn’t quite that clear, but the views were still fabulous.

We leaned hard into the tourist angle and had a drink in the rooftop bar while the sun set over the city.

Anybody who knows me knows that I never leave a bar or restaurant without using the bathroom. These facilities were hilarious! They are all glass with some strategically placed frosting. While I’m confident the street is too far away for anybody to see anything, the glass certainly makes you think about how you pull your pants up. 🙂

Dinner was at a little pub near the hotel. They had soccer on the projection TV, but then switched to hockey. I’ve never traveled someplace that appreciated hockey (other than Canada and the US), so it hadn’t crossed my mind that the Czech and Slovakian Republics would watch NHL hockey. In hindsight, of course they would like hockey – a huge percent of NHL players come from this region. Some hockey, Pilsner Urquell on tap, some excellent fries, and the best companions wrapped up a great day!

Tomorrow we are off to Budapest. I think one day here was OK, but a 2nd day wouldn’t be a bad thing (3 seems excessive – the city is small). I was expecting a grey, boxy, somewhat soul-less city, but I was so incredibly wrong! This was one of the most surprising cities I’ve ever been to. It surpassed my expectations in every possible manner. Budapest, you have BIG shoes to fill!