Slow slow Slovakia

The first thing I noticed about Bratislava was that, like Croatia, there seems to be no definition of what a road is. No distinction between where the cars, trams, people and bikes go…it’s just chaos on a big stretch of concrete (presumably a road), and every man and his dog just sort of venture all over it. I have nearly been knocked over by many a tram, just because unlike Melbourne, there are no Rhinos on trams to remind me to be safe. And considering I don’t have any travel insurance, (and have no intention of buying any) I’d best be careful.

Bratislava has been my favourite city to photograph so far. It’s beautiful. When people see me looking through pictures on my laptop, they tend to assume I’m a photographer, - which I’m not, but rather a pathological picture taker.

For the most part, the days I spent here stayed around 5 degrees. On the last day however, it ventured more towards zero and was raining, so that wasn’t perfect, but with hot chocolate and some hard liquor thrown in, I managed ok. I have survived the winter so far – if that’s not an achievement, then shoot me.

Admittedly I started eating street food in Bratislava, with the occasional café-lunch to try local the local cuisine (potato dumplings, noodles with sheep cheese, poppy seed dumplings, sauerkraut soup...) It was only then that I read a guide to the city some two days later that simply said; DON’T EVER EVER EAT STREET FOOD FROM THE MAIN SQUARE!!! So uhh…I stopped chewing promptly and gazed curiously at my potato and meat and cabbage sandwich, placing it down slowly, swallowing deliberately and then clutching my stomach, half expecting a sudden outburst of food poisoning. It didn’t come, (of course it must simultaneously occur as to when I read the warning), but so far I feel fine, but I’m still waiting. My curious brain wonders why they wrote that, and made such a point of it, without saying why…? Maybe it’s so bad, that we don’t want to know. My stomach lurches at the thought. Anyway, because of that situation, I’ve taken to eating mostly free food in the hostel and rice and milk, and stewed fruit. That’s my diet.

Berlin bear...not sure what he's doing here...

Bratislava, like most of Europe, has an interesting history; mainly as the former part of Czechoslovakia, being a major point as to where German and Slavic tribes clashed hundreds of years ago, and a city fenced in for four decades by the barbed wire of the iron curtain. I don’t know if ‘yall care for history too much, but this place has got it, and it’s absolutely astounding to walk through places where such has happened. Australia and America are only young , countries on a historical time scale.

Because Bratislava is situated on the border of three countries, there’s a lot to like. A mix of cultures, a mix of languages, - I get off better using German than English. My predominant friend here was from Brussels. That’s rather a pointless sentence but I feel necessary to point out that I wasn’t a lonesome sod the whole time.

I picked up this handy little guide to the city, ‘written for young people by young people’. It’s rather better that picking up the brochure that the old ladies from the council tourist board make, you know, when they’re all sitting around the Town Hall with a cuppa, thinking about what people would want to see. Yes, it’s those sort of situations that lead you to an abundance of information about the ‘must see’ Clock Museum, or the Exhibition Of Old And Pointless Medieval Tapestries.

But no, it’s been quite helpful as I potter around, for example that was where I learnt about the street food, and that old people are not so friendly because they’re not so good or confident in English, so try your best German, Russian or Hungarian. 

By the way I hope everyone stayed safe and well as the temperatures soared and bush fires swept through Victoria. Occasionally I find myself thinking about the heat Down Under, whilst I have icicles growing out of my nose.