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Published: July 27th 2010
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This morning it was out to a few sites in the various districts of Bratislava. The first stop was a monument to the liberation of Slovakia after the WWII. I am sort of ashamed that I don't know more about the history of this area. And I have to admit that I find it hard to think of switching from Nazi occupation to Russian-led Communism as liberation, but it's an adjustment I'll have to make, mentally.
Next stop was the Sandberg, a geological formation that is made entirely of sandstone, and that preserves a lot of the geological history of the area. Pretty nifty!
Another running joke is how fast I'm going through sites here, as the average tourist is a) a fair bit older than me and b) not as fit (thank-you, Running Room!). And most of these sites are on the tops of hills, accessible by either long sets if stairs, or climbing up the hill on foot. We're packing a lot into each day. Although it also helps that I essentially have a personal chauffeur - I'd never know where to go or how to get there otherwise. But the third stop of the morning was
Devin Castle, where the Morava River meets the Danube. It's been settled since the stone age in some form or other, it's current ruins dating from the 16th century and earlier. The well in the courtyard is something like 100 meters deep - when one of the staff dropped some water down it, it seemed to take forever before it hit bottom... While Slovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc, there was a wall running next to the river (which happens to form the border with Austria), and anyone caught trying to escape over the wall via the river was shot. There is still a memorial on site to all those killed in this way.
Domenica had asked if she could come along to Banska Stiavnica with us - no problem! The more the merrier, I thought, so we picked her up from a local shopping mall, but only after stopping in at three stores to find me my Slovakia jersey (which fits! Adidas' "slim fit" version of men's medium is very different from Puma's men's medium). We ate lunch at the food court. Which sounds totally unadventurous, I know, but I had a chance to sample some more
typical Slovakian food, for cheap-ish. Lunch was a sort of potato pancake with a sort of pork goulash-y filling, and a sort of milk to drink that Marian had tried to describe to me yesterday (and failed). It was a bit like drinking sour cream, which was odd... But really good with the food, so...
The drive to Banska Stiavnica usually takes about four hours, apparently. Certainly didn't seem that long, but the conversation was good - mainly discussing cars (apparently Kia is super expensive in Slovakia - not BMW or Mercedes expensive, but definitely no competition to the European brands like Renault, Fiat, etc.) and traffic/driving laws (you blow anything other than a 0.00 in this country, you could be in major trouble, and trying to explain the fear of roundabouts that so many Canadians seem to have was entertaining). It may also have seemed short because we stopped at another castle, this time in Zvolen, to check out the museum/exhibit there. Sadly most Slovakian museums make you pay to take pictures, and there isn't much in the way of postcards to make up for it. And a really good museologist with a good budget (I suppose that would be the sticking point) could do some amazing things with these places... So much interesting information that just needs to be better presented to engage visitors. Armour and arms, textiles, religious treasures, statuary... It was all beautiful, but all sort of just thrown together.
My wish for weather that was not 40 degrees and sunny has unfortunately come true, so today it was raining off and on, and about 18 degrees. Given this, I had dinner at my pension (small hotel with restaurant attached.. An inn, I guess) and used their free wireless to catch up on facebook, Twitter, email, etc. It was a nice, relaxing night.
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