Bratislava: A nice little Eastern European day trip
Jeff and I went to Bratislava on a whim (sort of), and I’m glad we did. It’s just about an hour train ride from Vienna, and here’s a fun fact: Bratislava, Slovakia, and Vienna, Austria, are the two closest national capitals in the world (source: my husband, probably dictating from a Rick Steves book).
I loved the city. It’s small and walkable, mostly recovered from its communist past, with its wear and tear a bit more evident on a lot of buildings compared to its more “posh” neighbors. But, I like that because it feels a little bit more real to me. The city is not touristy, it is cheap (we paid about 40 Euros per night for our bed and breakfast), it is colorful (both the buildings and the apparent art scene), and the food is really good. Needless to say, I would recommend this as a day trip. I’m sure it’s even more beautiful in the summer with a blue sky, green trees, and an active main square. Plus, it sounds like even during the heavier tourist season, it’s still not a major destination — so it may offer a nice break from all the camera-toting crazies.
As an aside, what is with tourists using iPads as cameras? The pictures are terrible! And PS, you look ridiculous.
Regardless, here’s a really good blog post from our favorite travel writer about the city. Worth a read: Blooming Bratislava.
And here are a few (well, several) pics from our day there.
Jeff and Hans Christian Andersen. I made them hold hands. Big hands, Hans.
Rubberneck. According to Bratislava’s tourist website: “A unique Bratislava curiosity: no other city in the world has a statue emerging from a manhole. After Rubberneck had lost his head twice due to careless drivers city councillors decided to help him by erecting a road sign to warn drivers: another world-first…” (Source: http://visit.bratislava.sk/en/vismo/dokumenty2.asp?id_org=700014&id=1225&p1=3993).
Jeff and Rubberneck.
According to the city’s tourism site: “This statue commemorates a unique figure in Bratislava’s history. Not a statesmen, a sportsman or soldier: instead, the Schöner Naci, whose real name was Ignác Lamár, is remembered for being one of Bratislava’s social institutions. Born in 1897, he was famous for wandering the streets of the city, elegant in morning suit and top hat. He would frequently doff his hat to the ladies he passed and offer them flowers or a song.” (Source: http://visit.bratislava.sk/en/vismo/zobraz_dok.asp?id_org=700014&id_ktg=1037&p1=3993).
Napoleon’s Solider statue in the town square.
Here he is again, with more of the square in the background. I’d love to see this place in the summer.
Hey bear, raise the roof.
Random celebrity grills.
A run-down church. I’m pretty sure the doors were locked.
I push for wine.
Basically sums up my feelings about life.
Inspecting the beer for alcohol content.
Yum.
A nice cozy lunch and a break from the cold rain.
Shot of Bratislava Castle from town. It was such a nice, sunny day.
A glimpse of St. Martin’s Cathedral, the largest in Bratislava, known for the coronation of many rulers, including Maria Theresia — the only female ruler of the Habsburg dynasty.
Narrow roads.
Not entirely sure.
A perfectly safe-feeling rundown neighborhood.
Every town has a little ghetto.
LOVE this door. Slightly obsessed with European doorways.
Another random street without a person in sight. Don’t you love these captions? I just hate how the photos look so bare without any words to accompany them.
Closing in on the Cathedral. Unfortunately,the doors were locked when we arrived the first day, so we finally went inside Wednesday morning before we left.
Do you have the key to my angelic, alien TV heart?
Jeff with alien tower in the background.
St. Martin’s.
UFO tower.
After a 45-second elevator ride to the top of the UFO tower, you are offered a nice view from the bathroom.
You are also offered a nice view of the castle and cathedral from the open-air lookout tower. (This shot was taken before I realized I could leave the shutter open on my camera somewhat indefinitely. Oh well, still learning. Plus, Jeff was getting a little tired of me dorking around with the settings. So, we began our journey to the castle.).
Atop the UFO tower.
Heading across the bridge that connects the UFO lookout tower to the old town and essentially divides the city down the middle. It is rumored that this highway will eventually be built as a tunnel underground. If it’s anything like the Big Dig in Boston, it might be a few generations before the project is completed.
Heading to the castle…
Met a nice dog along the way.
Getting closer.
Closer.
There!
We had a wonderful and delicious dinner, but don’t recommend ordering the “headcheese.” Sounded good, as it was dressed with caramelized onions… not so much.
A miniature outdoor “van Gogh” exhibit.
And a monument dedicated to the rack of a female superhero. This one’s for you, Jeff. (Actually, I haven’t a clue what this is. Strange for what appears to be a residential courtyard).
Vienna Day 3: Just the two of us. Gold tableware. And procrastination.
As it turns out, I’m much more interested in blogging than doing my real job, which is about to rear its ugly head and bite me in the ass. Oh well. Here’s what will likely be my final post for the working week. I know all 25 of our readers will be sitting at the edges of their seats.
The Habsburgs (based in Austria and then later Prague) ruled a ton of central/eastern Europe for several hundred years (you can read about them here), and on Monday, Jeff and I toured part of their enormous palace in Vienna, which is now broken up into a number of museums. We opted for the silver/china, Queen SiSi, and Royal Apartments package tour.
I seriously almost never get sick of seeing how the royal once lived. It seems utterly excessive, but I can’t help but wish these palaces would open a camp for adults, where you could dress in old royal garb, sleep in freezing cold canopy beds, and tinkle in a pot for a couple days. Okay, so a lot of it really wasn’t so glamorous, but it would be really cool to be transported back just for a few hours — even as a fly on one of those gilded walls. I would, of course, also be interested in how the other 99.99999999 (“with a bar”) percent lived. I’d probably need to learn how to build a fire, but I could do it.
From the palace, we were finally able to get into the Stephansdom. Only took three tries! Fortunately, it is still a functioning church, unlike some we have toured. It was beautiful, but I had a hard time capturing a decent photo, even with my rad camera. I just was not feeling extremely patient.
We also walked inside the baroque St. Peter’s church. While I’m not a student of architecture, baroque to me has come to mean dripping with opulence, and also excessively … excessive. Certainly not humble, nor does it seem terribly holy to me. Oh, well. What else would tourists do without these grand sites?
More pics from day three below!
Next, we were off to Bratislava, Slovakia.
Outside of Habsburg Palace.
Cold, bored horses.
Palace staircase.
Some insane gold tableware, Habsburg silver collection.
Habsburg gold/silver collection.
Loved this plate. Mädchen mit Hund.
Small church we visited prior to entering the palace.
Inside of small church. Even the seemingly insignificant looking churches from the outside are more impressive than anything we have in the US.
Statue outside of palace.
Inside the baroque-style St. Peter’s Church. Ridiculous.
Had some tiny sandwiches at Trzesniewski.
So good.
And tiny beers. Pinky out!
After the tiny beers, we needed to use the public toilets.
And then we finally made it to Stephansdom, with the “Tupperware-colored” windows, as Rick Steves calls them.
Inside Stephansdom. I was having trouble getting a good shot of this church. From here, we warmed up with some hot chocolate, coffee and cake. And that pretty much concludes Vienna!
Vienna Day 2: Like Moths to a Flame
On the second day, the three of us started our day with yogurt, gouda, and some coffee we made at the apartment we rented.
As an aside on the apartment … We used Vacation Rentals by Owner to find it, and I think this is a great way to go if you’re staying somewhere for a few days — it just feels more homey, and it provides the option for making your own breakfast, especially if you enjoy real food and not just air-filled croissants and pastries. It was a nice place, with a kitchen and big bathroom, master bedroom, and big living area that included two twin beds. Aside from our flu-infested neighbors (who owned the place), and my mysterious case of the sniffles that appeared two days later, we were mostly satisfied. However, the owner was a little stingy with the toilet paper — TWO ROLLS ONLY! Very German for a French dude. Also, we needed 4 keys to get into the place. It was like Fort Knox, and I’m almost positive that in the event of a fire, we would all roast — because you also need the keys to GET OUT. I don’t understand this European way. In Cologne, we have no smoke detectors installed in our apartment, and I could literally lock someone into our pad.
Back to our day: first stop was the Hundertwasserhaus, a modern-art residence that sort of reminded me a bit of Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. Here we “made” a bunch of photos (we were too early for the tour), and took a scenic walk — featuring much graffiti — along the river to our next stop.
Next stop — Karlskirche, where we actually climbed the stairway to heaven. This was a beautiful church and an icon often used to represent the city. While there was some construction and renovation within the church, we were able to take advantage of the scaffolding to get really close to the artwork on the inner part of the dome. Beauteous!
Next up, some penguins and the gilded Strauss statue, where it was difficult to get a decent photo of this famous violinist due to the recently unfettered tour group. You would have thought Strauss was handing out gold bullion. I take offense when large groups swarm monuments. I know you paid a lot for your seat on that bus, but please get out of the way.
Then, we finally made it inside the Opera House. Here we learned the theater puts on about 70 (if memory serves me correctly) different shows per season, without ever performing the same show on consecutive nights (they’re performed in threes, I think). So, if you’re visiting for several days, you can go for a few nights in a row and see something new each time. On the tour, we also had a chance to see the debutantes practicing for the upcoming Wiener ball, where admission is 250 Euros, dress code is formal/coattails, and box seats cost around 18,500 Euros. I will watch it on TV, thanks.
After some delicious goulash and the local pancake specialty, we attempted to get inside Stephansdom for the second time. But, mass was taking place AGAIN. So we climbed 300+ stairs to the top of one of the towers. It was actually a pretty disappointing climb for all the effort since the stairs simply deposit you into a gift shop with dirty windows, offering a sub-par view.
Anyway – here are some photos from the day.
Outside Hundertwasserhaus.
Hundertwasserhaus.
Lindsay and random dog. I told her to bend over to get her in the shot, although it was actually unnecessary. I still think it’s cute!
Dog patiently waiting for owner.
I love how Lindsay’s outfit matches the graffiti in this picture!
Cool.
A penguin fountain that apparently only serves as a fountain when it’s above freezing.
Like moths to a flame.
The beautiful Karlskirche.
Stairway to heaven.
Actually, it was more like an elevator to heaven for the majority of the climb. Lindsay only appears to be relaxed in this picture.
Nice close-ups of the frescoes.
Rejected. Back to Earth he goes.
An inside shot of the cathedral.
Huge church doors.
Inside Vienna Opera House — lobby/main stairway.
The auditorium.
Opera house.
Inside opera house.
Attempting to get a shot of the debutantes practicing for the ball.
It took us a while to find a decent lunch stop since smoking is still allowed in most restaurants. In search of a non-smoking section, I found these ancient hieroglyphics of male/female anatomy.
Traditional goulash and dumplings!
My protein-rich lunch.
Feeling pleasantly plump.
Stephansdom – take 2. A view from the gift shop at the top of 300 stairs.
Stephansplatz. I love how the Dom reflects in the windows of this modern building.
Famous public restrooms. Jeff and I actually used them on day 3.
Of course, we ended the night with … cake! Rick told us to go here.
Treats.
A European Adventure 