Unfortunately we left the sun in Prague and didn't see it again for the rest of the trip, and the coach station is not usually the best part of a city, so Bratislava did not appear to best advantage when we first saw it. Its aspects improved as we got closer to the old city centre, however, and its quirky charms kind of snuck up on me. As we were on a a native food kick, we had our first Slovak meal at the Slovak Pub, which, you guessed it, serves traditional Slovak food. After finally convincing the server to take our order (she was not pleased that we wanted to order food, not quite sure why), we dug into real, authentic perogies.
This means that they were not battered and fried, as Dickinson seems to feel is necessary, but served with bacon, sheep's cheese, and dill sauce. Good stuff.
After lunch we set out to get our explorer on. Bratislava is very small, so we were able to cover most of the touristy things in one afternoon, especially since everything was closed for Epiphany. We discovered some delightfully colourful buildings (which made a very nice contrast against the grey weather. Looking at you, England) and some very unique statues.
Sarah and I felt right at home, although we were puzzled that we had never seen this stop on the Tube map before...
Our first real stop was Bratislavsky Hrad (Bratislava Castle), which was closed. But it was here that we got a lovely view of the city and found...
Svatopluck! He quickly became our new favourite hero and the mascot for our trip. Many legendary stories were written about him.
Aforementioned lovely view of Bratislava. You can see the New Bridge over the Danube River in the distance - it looks like a spaceship.
Quirky statue 1: Napoleon. He burnt down Bratislavsky Hrad when he swept through, so they built him a cheerful statue. Weird? Yes.
Quirky state 2: Schone Naci, a local dandy who lived in Bratislava in the early 20th century.
Quirky statue 3: Rubberneck, which is apparently the world's only statue sticking its neck from a hole in the ground. Yeah, because we really needed one of those... Anyway, he's been decapitated twice by rogue drivers, so the good people of Bratislava gave him his very own Man at Work sign.
St. Elizabeth's Church, most aptly nicknamed "The Blue Church."
Sites not pictured: the narrowest building in all of Central Europe, which is 130 cm wide and is home to a kebab shop, and other eccentric statues. I'm glad that we stopped in Bratislava, especially since it's somewhere that I'll probably never return to, but I'm also glad that it was only a one-night stop. We came, we saw, we had really good bagels, and we talked to a really nice young woman while eating our bagels. She studied abroad in New York, and she was telling us all of the other places that we should see in Slovakia. They sound amazing - if only I had the time and resources to travel everywhere. But it was not to be on this trip, and later that day we were in Vienna! More to come on that later. Right now, I have to get ready for my lecture on Chartism in Victorian Britain. Whee. I guess that will balance out the sheer, unadulterated awesomeness of my King Arthur class.
Before I head off to what promises to be a thrilling afternoon, though, I have to recommend one especially delightful piece of British culture. The BBC did a modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, entitled Sherlock. It's a three-part miniseries on Masterpiece Theatre (and I do love Masterpiece Theatre very, very much), and it is fantastic! It stars the delightful Benedict Cumberbath as Sherlock, and Martin Freeman (soon to be appearing as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit - so excited! Less excited for Richard Armitage as a dwarf king, but we'll see how that goes) is Dr. Watson. They do a great job, it's really well-written, and just fun to watch. Also, a good way to procrastinate for 5.5 hours! So there you go, your recommended British cultural export of the day.
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