Christmastime in Bratislava

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It's been awhile since I have made a post. Honestly it's a combination of busyness, laziness, and a camera that ran out of batteries. No worries though, I'll catch all of you up right-quick now.

I've been in Bratislava for two weeks to the day working on my final project. I've been following around a man named Marek Hojsik who is an expert on the subject I'm working on, and meeting many interesting people, and reading through a lot of information. However, that's the more mundane stuff that's not very exciting for you to hear about I'm sure.

On Monday (Nov. 19) Marek and I took a train to Eastern Slovakia, to a city called Presov. That is officially the furthest east I have ever been, so close to the Ukraine that I was considering crossing the border just to get the stamp. Anywhere, Presov is a nice looking town with a medieval center, and some really great Churches. The reason I was there was to go along with Marek to some villages in the region and visit some of the settlements that the Roma are forced to live in. So, we visited three of them, and spoke to some people about their homes and communities. It was very interesting/depressing, but unfortunately I can't show any pictures from the settlement because a) I didn't take any, and b) it probably wouldn't be ethical.

However, I returned to Bratislava on Wednesday, and got back to working. On Thursday I went to a sub-committee meeting for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (NOT the European Union). It was interesting to see how important politics get done, which is apparently not very quickly. I did get to sit near the Deputy Prime Minister and listen to live translations of all of the speeches through headphones (the meeting was conducted in French, English, and Slovak).

Last night I decided to head over to the Historical Center and check out the Christmas Markets that I saw them setting up last week. It was really surprising to see all of the people out an about. For the previous times I've been there, I practically had the center to myself. All of a sudden the Slovak people come out in droves buying Christmas ornaments, jewelery, red wine, white wine, Russian wine, Czech wine, sandwiches, bread, pastries, grog (tea and rum), and every other manner of Christmas tomfoolery. Who knew that a country of Orthodox and Catholic people would go CRAZY for Christmas?

In any case, I return to Prague in one or two days, where I'll be spending my last couple of weeks compiling my report together and preparing a presentation. I'll probably only have one more blog post to do before I come home I imagine, so let's make it count. Before I return home, can you think of something that I must, absolutely, no-doubt-about-it, have to do? If so, let me know. . . Otherwise I'll just spend the rest of the time moping in my flat, because no one will have told me what to do. Sigh

On an endnote, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't do a little publicizing of my friend C. Fox's blog, because he kindly recommended mine for his readers. So, if you're interested in a little Venezuelan learnin', check out his blog at:

http://seefoxrun.blogspot.com

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Photos

Slovak Government Center
I felt pretty important walking through the front door to have a meeting

Statue
I'm not sure what to make of this statue, but it sort of frightens me

My grocery store
This is where I've been buying my food, it's a lot like a grocery store at home, which is probably why I like it

Building
with a neat design on the side

My street
Pretty much the way it looks. Nice neighborhood though, lots of young families

!
Want to go emma?

Oh . . .
Maybe not

Bakery
A bakery near my flat. Too bad it's always closed, I'd be a great customer

UFO bridge
This is the UFO bridge (pronounced "ooh-faux"), I think it's pretty obvious where it got its name. You can go up to the top, which I guess is neat. Too bad they destroyed most of the historical center when they built it

The Christmas Market
There's the Nativity Scene with carved wooden figures

Narodni Divadlo
This is the National Opera house

Tower, Christmas Tree
Sorry it's sort of blurry . . .

Christmas Tree
Here's the decorated tree up close

Market Stall
A market stall, where, if it wasn't blurry, you could see them selling their wares (in this case it was little metal figurines)

Prasna Basta
This is my favorite pub/restaurant in Bratislava. Lots of students come here after class at the university, and it's a very nice place to sit and sometimes hear live music

A well-lit church
that was closed. I like the yard in the front, some of the trees look hundreds of years old. I sat in a mass for a few minutes at another , bigger, church for a while

From the tram stop
You can see towards the historical center. Usually there isn't this much light, but they really pull out all of the stops for Christmas

Comments

[montpelliEMMA]

Tree time
I have to hurry and eat before heading over to sell Christmas trees, but thank you for the nice pictures. The night shots were surprisingly good, given previous attempts. I wish I could be at that market, are there any little wooden ornaments or cooking apparatuses or friendly toms that i would like to see soon?

[Mom]

Christmas
I was excited to see all the Christmas things. We are getting started here with our annual trip for the tree next Saturday. We are anxious to hear your stories. Can you take a photo in the grocery store? love,mom

[montpelliEMMA]

I forgot
Yes please, let's go to the banjo pizzeria pub. Mmm, chords and slices.