Bratislava - Entry 5

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Jim - Write up 5 -5/11
We arrived at in Bratislava at 4 PM and took the bus to the hotel. It was warm, almost hot, and our tour leader, Ben (Carol) Szyplinski discovered we did not have Air Conditioning in the hotel rooms. This was something she specified with our travel agent. We now refer to Ben as our “Polish unguided missile”. It was not pretty. Needless to say, we moved to the Executive suites which have AC, Refrigerators, Digital TV and post Soviet Furniture. The only thing we don’t have is in-room internet access.
Yesterday afternoon I walked down the street and they had a beautiful church they built in 2001 (St. Vincent de Paul). I stopped in and it reminded me that their first priority after the Soviet occupation was to rebuild/build their churches. This was also true in Hungary.
Bratislava is very small compared to Budapest. Most of it was built in the Soviet Era of utilitarian design of bad taste and even worse construction. It truly is depressing and makes you appreciate capitalism and democracy even with all of our problems. Capitalism certainly helps people strive to produce their best and it rewards the most productive.
One of group member (JC Bosse) gave me a saying that will probably be a good prospective on differences between Europe and the US. It is: In Europe, a 100 years is a short time while in the US, a hundred miles is a short distance.

Mary Anne 5/11/09
Our new guide here in Bratislava, Slovakia is a nice young man who was born and raised in Bratislava. His English is quite good but that could very well be because he did his last year of high school in Sioux Falls, SD. He came over as an exchange student. I think he is doing a very good job.
Today we got up and hopped in a Taxi to one of the malls. We didn’t buy anything but it was
fun to see what the prices were and of course the latest trends in Slovakia. The prices are very high here even for sneakers. The latest clothes and shoes are really outrageous. I asked Mathew (our Guide)
how the young working girls could afford to buy these trendy expensive clothes. He said he sure wished
he knew but they seem to manage it.
This afternoon we hopped on the bus and headed to historic Old Town. Now I am seeing a lot more like I expected in building and history. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. In Old Town we viewed
dozens of palaces, churches and the Castle. The Castle still bear witness today to the impressive spiritual and worldly power of the former rulers.
The Castle is built on a hill (as most of them are) and is very impressive except for the fact that it is another building “under restoration” so you can’t really see much of it. There are beautiful steps, paths and a park all around the area. Many beautiful statues are in the park including my favorite, St. Elisabeth, daughter of Hungarian King Andrew 11, who lived at the Castle in 1211. Following her husbands death, she devoted her life to charity, for which she was later canonized.
On the western edge of Old Town below Castle Hill is St. Martin’s Cathedral. At one time the church was on Castle Hill but the higher up in the church didn’t want having the common people up on
Castle Hill. They stripped the Church of all the priceless relics and built a church that the common folk could come to worship, below Castle Hill at one of the entrances to Old Town. In the original church on the hill between 1563 and 1830 a total of nineteen royal coronations. St Martin’s Cathedral was closely connected to the city’s rich musical life. The church Music Society of St. Martin, established in 1828, was able to organize many concerts of the works of famous composers. In 1834 Mozart’s Requiem and a year later Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis were performed there.
As we walked up and down the winding cobblestone streets, it was overwhelming for me to feel
The sense of history, I mean really old history, not just a couple hundred years. We passed by the Old Town Hall, (City museum) the Primates Palace, (no not monkey’s-English tapestries), Frone of the favorite Franciscan Church, (the oldest church in Old Town, 13th century), Bastova Ulrika, (the narrowest lane with several arches, home to the town’s hangman. Another interesting palace is Palffy Palace, (now the Austrian Embassy).
The Palace was the location where in 1762 the 6 year old Mozart gave one of his very first public concerts for the local nobility. There is the Church and Convent of the poor Clare’s.
One of the most delightful things we saw was all of the fun statues as one sit’s as a dinner at an outdoor café, another was a paparazzi with a large camera and lens peeking around the corner taking shots of the famous. My favorite is the statue of Cumil conceived by artist Viktor Hulik. It is a statue of a workman coming up, via the large man hole in the street with the top half of his body lying on top of the street. They say it is one of favorite attractions within the pedestrian zone. The locals say to rub the top of his hat for good luck. I felt you can always use good luck so I rubbed hard.
All streets lead to the Main Square where there are many different architectural styles. In the center of the square the town’s oldest surviving fountain-the Maximilian Fountain dating from 1572 sits proudly. Many more churches, palaces, concert halls and museums line the sides of the square. The town square is filled with Tourists from all over the world and is full everyday in nice weather as they are buying local Folk Art, pastry’s and clothes.
Bratislava with its very old town and then it’s newer (about 60 years old) communists built
Housing and then the Mall’s that are less than 5 years old, is a very interesting town and it looks like its well-educated and positive attitudes will someday make it a town to pay attention to.
On to Vienna and another interesting history lesson.

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Comments

[The Boys]

Mmmm...
Grandma - What kind of jerky do they make there? We are starving; nobody feeds us like you do!

[Barb Louis]

Impressive
Thank you for taking the time to share your wonderful adventure! I have enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. It almost feels like I'm there!