Street art in Bratislava, Slovakia

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We didn't know, when we headed by bus for Bratislava, that it had been such an important seat of power when the Ottomans held control of Budapest and Bratislava became the coronation city for the Hungarian kingdom. Bratislava again became a centre of power as the capital of the country of Slovenia in 1993 when Czechoslovakia regrouped as two nations: Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

There is still a terrific Old Town with lots of ornate buildings, a giant castle and cathedral, but the street art gives the bustling and growing city an arty and human touch.

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Photos

Man at Work
He said, "I come from a land down under."
So I offered him a vegemite sandwich.

Ladies of the letterbox
Yes, this is where you post your mail.

Knight guarding the Old Town city square
Make sure you pay your cafe bill.

Armoured fighter
After I clicked the photo, he moved! Not a statue after all.

Monument to the Holocaust
Can you make out the Star of David at the top?
This stands where before there was a synagogue.

St Martins Cathedral was the site of 19 coronations of Hungarian royalty from 1563 to 1830.
During the time that the Ottomans controlled Budapest, the Hungarian royalty held their coronations in St Martins Cathedral in Bratislava.

The old double wall of the city. In between them was the moat.
To get an idea of the size, see Phil at the bottom.

See the little bump in the wall near the top of the tower?
That was the toilet for the guards. The church was part of the city wall, so the "plumbing" outlet was probably into the moat.

Unusual parking advice
With such narrow old streets, the city accepts cars parking on sidewalks.

Even the tour buses had to be diminuitive to make it through the Old Town streets.
Yes, we opted again for a red bus city tour to get our bearings in the new city.

Very ornate architecture. This building housed an apothacary on the ground floor.
A far cry from the bright yellow discount chemists we have back home in Sydney.

Odd gateway at the castle. The statues here were clothes without bodies.
See close-up in next picture.

Plan of castle, to guide you in your next construction project
We only got to #6 on this map as the bus wasn't going to wait more than 15 minutes.

View of the Danube River from the castle.
Bratislava was one stop our river cruise missed, but it was on our land path to Prague.

Colourful apartment blocks
Plain and utilitarian as the apartment buildings were, the colours on the different blocks gave a nod to aesthetics and may have helped people find which one they lived in.

All day long clusters of young people walked around the city in little school groups, making lots of noise with horns and singing, celebrating the end of their exams.
This group looked like they were going out to some fancy do.