The main square in Bratislava, where the music festivals were going on. This is where David heard his newest favorite chanteuse, Jana Kirschner. Check her out on YouTube.
I think this is the old town hall. Double click to see the detail on the green roof.
The blue church. Blue on the outside, blue on the inside.
And here are my general impressions:
- There weren't nearly as many tourists as in Prague but just give it a few years...
- Everything is already priced in euros and you can use euros to buy anything. That's because Slovakia will join the euro zone on 1 January 2009.
- We heard lots of German. Given Bratislava's proximity to Vienna (about 30-45 minutes down the Danube), we assume they were mostly Austrians.
- Slovak seems to be closer to Russian than Czech, or else I was just getting used to it, because I could pick up a little more of what was going on around me.
- Traffic never seemed to stop outside our hotel, even though we were on a semi-residential street.
- Even though most restaurants close up tight early, there must be some night spots open late - really late - because inebriated Brits kept waking us up as they said good-bye to their new Slovakian girlfriends outside our hotel.
- Slovakians are meat eaters. The menus all feature pork, poultry, and beef dishes and some have duck; there was also lots of goose because it was goose season.
- What impressed me the most was the perception that Slovakia is terribly excited and enthused about being in the EU and NATO, about the promise of a bright future with the West. They're working hard to rehab the city and restore it to its former glory as the coronation city of the Hapsburgs. So our advice is to visit now, before the rest of the world discovers it and it becomes the next Prague!
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