Bratislava (now with pictures!)

Bratislava!  What a nice city!  Full of friendly and silly natives (in a fabulous way).  They really value humor here... seems like a nice contrast to all the heaviness in post-world war two, fall of communism flavors that abound.  For example, on our walking tour, our lovely gap-toothed beauty of a guide Sona, took us to town hall to show us the cannon ball that was embedded in the wall of the historic building which they considered a "birthday present" from Napoleon during his invasion and kept there to make sure they did not appear ungrateful.  

There also is a brass sculpture of a grinning man, perched on the edge of the sidewalk, emerging from the man-hole cover, put there "just to be funny" and without a deeper reason.

She also tells us stories of Easter holiday shenanigans, what a trip!  The men/boys are carry around a whipping lash and have to try and "spank" as many ladies as they can, and when they succeed, they get a ribbon as booty to tie to their lash.  They ring your doorbell, and spank you, and they you (the woman), who god-only-knows why you opened the door, have to reward them with a ribbon, money, or perhaps even a nice bottle of booze to show your appreciation.  They also, on this special occasion, douse the ladies with a bucket of ice water which she is supposed to be grateful for as well.  Our guide says she tries to travel out of town during these festivities.

In any case, we crossed into Slovakia on a Saturday afternoon, were barely welcomed into the country (loose borders in these areas) by a sign in Slovakian that might have announced you had crossed country borders (but seemed really to only be a grocery store advertisement).

We floated over the Danube on their Soviet-era "UFO" bridge to land in the historic downtown square of Bratislava with a peddle cart selling lattes and a low-key buzz of locals and walker-abouters.



Made it easily to out hostel (which was staffed with adorable and freakishly friendly Slovakian hipsters).  Took the best warm shower of my life and headed out to the city museum.  After scoring a quick snack of roasted chestnuts and corn-on-the cob (Bratislava gets a 9!)  we headed into the museum/town hall and began a 3 hour history adventure.

the view from our hostel.  whaddayaknow, there's that castle again!

Learned all about the building itself, the craft masters in this area (850 different guilds of coppersmiths and spa-attendants and bread bakers and iron-smiths of every order).  Also learned about education, hygiene and alcohol transport and brewing over the centuries.  There were some very beautiful painted shooting targets, almost too pretty to imagine shooting at.  And the most beautiful colanders I have ever seen (artisan noodle straining!) The only bizarre issue was the little-old-lady factor, the museum was staffed 100% by cranky middle aged women who were obsessive compulsive about your moving through the museum at a certain pace and direction.  I had an audio-guide malfunction (probably just a dead battery) and they glared at me, "did you drop it" was mimed in Slovakian...This was the ONLY unpleasant part of our entire stay :)

some of the museum's interiors and displays:

ceramic wood-stove; heating system on the same principle we encountered in Gallneukirchen

walrus tusk censer

a 19th century midwife license

i think we deserve one of these medals

regalia of some of the local humor societies, including the order of the poszony roll (the local specialty croissant-like filled pastry)

views from the old town hall tower (now part of the museum building)

okay, so the windows are a little dirty...

We also did a 2+ hour walking tour with the lovely aforementioned Sona, met some other serious travelers (Canadians on the road for the year, a New Zealander on the road for some 40+ countries) and learned some about the decision of Slovakia to work with Hitler (in exchange for getting recognition as an independent country) and also the presence and fall of communism.  She says her parents were among those who were sad when communism left, since it was a time when "all was taken care of" and you always had good work, stable income, health insurance. Was a different perspective than the scathing view of communism we got in Prague (and also were going to get from the Terror House in Budapest).

a "buddy bear"

the fabulous, Alice in Wonderland-ish blue church...

sadly not open for visiting but again, easy to get a peek through the windows:

We also got (overly) excited about the hostel's kitchen and cooked up a proper storm, offering to feed any human with a visible mouth that walked by....peanut soy stir-fry with pounds of veggies (tried to cook everything we hadn't been able to easily cook while camping) and made about 15 servings too many.  It ended up coming along with us when we left and was great as leftovers.  We are in vegetable deprivation, or maybe just I am :)  Anyways, I am not complaining that we've had amazing duck and goose leg confit like every other day.  It's apparently the season.

art nouveau in the main (not-quite-rectangular) square

 Bryndzove Halusky, Slovakia's national dish.  basically it's like mac & cheese made with gnocchi and sheep's cheese, with cubes of fatty bacon on top.  mmm!!

St. Martin's – the Hapsburg coronation church (as kings and queens of Hungary) for centuries, and yet the motley (and mostly just in Slovak) assortment of displays barely even made reference to that fact...kind of strange

eleventh century graves, visible through a plexiglass hole in the church floor

burnt handprint left by a ghost, following the successful completion of his demands that a statue be built using the money that had been left to his widow (or something like that?)

some nice vaulting decoration