Bratislava, Slovokia

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Sunday March 4, 2007 - After a very sombering experience at Mauthausen, I decided it would be good to do something more upbeat and fun. On the train ride home from Mauthausen Tyler and I decided we would find a train to Bratislava that night. I knew absolutely nothing about Bratislava so I first had to ask him what country it was in. Of course it is the capitol of Slovokia.

So after we got off the trian from Mauthausen, we came back to the dorms and grabbed some stuff to take for the night. We made our trian and were awoken about 1 hour and 15 minutes into the trip by Slovokian soldiers checking our passports. It was an interesting thing to wake up to.

We did not arrive in Bratislava until about 1:45am and were in our hostel finally at 2am.

We woke up the next morning at 9:15 and began walking around town. If you read my blog about Mauthausen, you know that we had to walk 3 miles to the camp. Well, I was wearing low riding socks and the back of my heel was rubbed raw on that walk and when I began walking the next morning in Bratislava, it was so painful I almost could not walk. So we went immediately to a department store across the store and found a good pair of walking shoes. Everything was sooo much better after that.

Then we found a quiet little Jewish cafe and had a great breakfast that filled us up with bread, orange juice, and omlets.

We walked first to the giant castle on top of the hill that overlooks the city. We paid for what we thought was a tour of the castle and the history of it, but it turned out to be just a museum of Japanese artifacts and clothing. Then we walked probably over 6 or 7 more miles around the whole city looking at points of interest.

We saw the New Bridge, the Presidential Palace, the Primate's Palace, several churches and the Slavin Memorial. Slavin Memorial is a cemetery of fallen Slovakian soldiers which over looks the city. It has a very high monument of a Slovokian soldier crushing a swastika. It was an extremely hard and long climb to get up to the memorial, but the views were well worth it.

We headed back to the train station at about 3 and headed home. It will be good to sleep in my own bed again and with sheets that actually cover the entire bed (unlike in the hostel).

Bratislava was a great day trip and Tyler and I are very glad that we went.

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Photos

A common city street
The castle is up ahead on the hill.

Michael's Gate
The only preserved gate of the medieval city's fortification.

St. Martin's Cathedral
Most important sacral building in the city. Built in the early 14th century.

The New Bridge
Bridge over the Danube

Tyler in the castle
The floor and railings are all of marble.

Comments

[george.mj]

message
Sir,i like old czechoslovakia but now it is a dreem only.eventhough i like both slovokian people and czech people very well.And i would like to make frienship with slovokian people what can i do for this matter?.