Bratislava - City on Walk

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It was a matter of confidence till Saturday 13th December 2008 when I packed the camera and started exploring “Bratislava”.
Left the hotel around 08:45 am and took the route from where the last night taxi driver brought us to the hotel. It’s the shortest route to reach to city center. City center is the old charm of Bratislava with Churches, old style houses, food corners and offcourse tram paths. I was right on the track when my mischievous mind saw the hills on the right and guess what? - Hills were calling me as they do always.
In the beginning they seemed to be around 10-20 kms away from the city but who’s going to worry about the kilometers. For my soul, their calls are more important then thoughts. I rushed towards them. I halted for a minute and took the camera out, clicked the first foto of Bratislava, saw two young lads (probably toursits) said hello and good luck. Crossed the parks, tramlines, bus stops and taking the pictures of authentic architecture on the way. They were near but don’t know when to reach there. I saw an enormous mounment on the hill top which kept alive the determination to go there. Probably before I get tired, I decided to visit the museum and get some rest. The museum is called as “Muzeum Dopravy”. They have retained all the old heritage cars, motorbikes, cycles and locomotives. It was a pleasure to see them preserved and good opportunity for coming generations.
Continuing towards the hill, one can reach the hilltop either by car or have to unfold the charisma of climbing stairs. I climbed around 70 stairs to reach to the top. The monument is in the memory of people died in war. Amazingly, the war-memorial has some people’s names that are equivalent to name of the states in Slovakia. Was this enough to come to the hill? No, the hills give us a panaromic view of the city and it’s true in case of Bratislava. On the left, hill is full with the house as usual. Infront is the city which seemed to be a big one untill today morning and on the right is Bratislava Castle. I can see clearly the 3 bridges (Old bridge, Apollo bridge and new bridge).
I finished the wish of climbing the hill and time to back to the city. It seemed to be a lonely traveler untill I saw the bus full of tourist. Unfortunetly I was not a part of them. On the way to city, reached to a point which supposed to be a regular place of our visit. Well, from this point the City center was just 0.5kms. Thought of having lunch as didn’t had breakfast but the time was just 11:30. So decided to walk till the new bridge. This bridge has a specialty, it has only one tower that supports the full bridge and on the top of tower they have a restaurant. Numbers of ferries were standing on the river. By the way, river name is Danube. I had a walk on the esplanade and now it’s the time for lunch. Way back to restaurant “Govinda” which is run by Iskon temple members, saw a number of people praying to Jesus on the road. Hope their praying helps them. Had the typical Indian lunch without so many spices. Food was good and enjoyed having it.
Now the time to pack the day, tired of walking but not of taking pictures. Way back to hotel at 3:30pm
Past 12 days the life was on the edge of thinking Bratislava a big city with unknown people, jungle of automobiles and enormous buildings appeared to be known and small place. This was the City on walk - Bratislava (Slovakia).

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Photos

Compass - City Center
Compass with place distance - Jakarta is around 14000kms

Comments

[ajay]

Sanjeev,s maiden journey
it's very pathetic to see that even in the small country like Slovakia is having war memorial. I believe no country irrespective of size,population,language etc is spared in this world from the war and see the tragedy, country is making war memorial a tourist place.It should be replaced by the temples' god.How the people visit the war memorials to have a sanps and enjoy - enjoying the death of a Human. make them God -infact they are living God. --- Kucch jayada ho jaye to...... delete kar dena.