Blogs from Bratislava, Bratislava Region, Slovakia, Europe

So the decision to come here happened a little over a year ago, it’s one that I’ve continually questioned, but, as has been the norm of my life since that first BIG trip to South America, seven years ago, I’ve tried to go with the flow and make the most of the situations and the people which I find myself with – you often get asked two questions, in either order, but both accompanied with the vague expression of WTF… a) where is Bratislava? And 2) Why are you going?!!! (Cue inane laughter and the distant loony-bin sirens drawing closer…) Well, 9 months in and I’ve started pretending that I moved here at Christmas; my limited amount of Slovak is embarrassing – I really am better of in thai!!! I can ‘ahoy’(but still without murmuring 'sailor' ... read more

Okay, you ready??? How-about we play a little game... I’ll give you ten seconds to name five famous Austrians... ............................................................,eight.......nine.........., That’s it. Times up! So, how did we do? Well, I’m guessing the Austrians amongst you actually found this pretty easy. The rest of us, though, probably struggled a bit. The sad truth is that outside America, there are very few people who are truly world-famous, who will live on in our collective minds forever. Think a little longer, though, dig a little deeper, and you’ll come to realise that almost everywhere has its own little list of notable heroes and villains, and Austria, it has to be said, has some real crackers... Adolf Hitler, Niki Lauda, Sigmund Freud, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart... more than one or two stories bet... read more

Bratislava Men in Bronze During our recent trip to Bratislava, Slovakia to get our long term visas put into our passports (Hurrah!), I carried MY camera. There were scenes I wanted to bring back to share with you blog readers that weren't in Bill's camera after our first trip there. There are many nice statues in the Old Town section of this city and several of them are 'typical' scenes of the male of the species in his natural habitat. What habitat? Well, there is the scene of a man at work in the usual way many of us have seen the men we know and love working. There is a scene of a the true humility a man can show as he ambles down the street on his day off. Then there is the occasional ... read more

The Witch I love the witch. What a wonderful witch. She has the look that any self-respecting witch should have. "Hee, hee, come into my house little one." Can't you just hear her cackle, "Come into my house, dear child"? The Man I can't figure out if this is a woodman, a dunce, a peasant or just what he represents. Perhaps in different stories he can be any one of these characters and more. I looked at him and wondered, "Hmmmmmmmmm, is this the way I look when I am feeling green? The King and ........ The king seems pretty obvious, at least to me Why is it the king is almost never the hero? The prince and the princess are always young, beautiful and smart. What happens so that by the time a prince becomes ... read more

By Train to Bratislava Off we go on another trip, another adventure. We are glad you have decided to join us on a trip away from Prague to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. As usual we chose travel by train since it is the most comfortable, most enjoyable form of travel for us. We reserved two second class tickets for Saturday morning, October 13th with a return reservation for Monday afternoon. The train pulled out of the Prague station on time. This was not surprising as in all the train travel we have made in the last seven years only one has been late. Though it was a Saturday morning the train had very few empty seats. The train was uncomfortably warm for a short time before the air conditioning got going full speech as ... read more

We did not get a chance to finish up all we wanted to do yesterday in Vienna so we went out this morning to visit the old town nice and early. We saw the Cathedral, we saw some old buildings and we did some shopping. I was not as impressed with the old town of Vienna as I have been with some previous ones, Sydney felt the same way. Perhaps we have seen so many old towns in the last few weeks that they are all strating to look the same. IN any case Vienna is a cool city to visit and we had a blast yesterday. Our assessment of Vienna Kyle 8/10 - Love the people, love the palace, love the zoo, however food and shopping are pricey. Syd 8/10 - The best part was ... read more