Where the hell is Bratislava?

Day Two

2 June 2012

Weather: cloudy, showers, 21

Cat count: 3

T-shirt count: 6

Sunshine streaming in through the curtains woke me again, but it was just a tease. I opened the curtains to puffy blue clouds rumbling in and obvious showers in the distance. The forecast is variable though.  I woke just before my alarm with no real after-effects from the jetlag. Gotta love the pre-day.

I think I’ll call it Recovery Day from here on.

I took my time getting ready. The cats were already down to the buffet. I could tell. When I went down for 8 am, all the scrambled eggs were gone. And so were they. I got my favorite seat next to the window overlooking the Danube and watched the clouds eat up the sun.

We boarded the bus but there doesn’t seem to be a rotation schedule yet. People are just taking what seats they want. Gasper must be waiting for the first real departure tomorrow. Most seem just as interested in the back as they are in the front. People had to be pushed to take the front seat.

My knees said no.

We started by driving by the Prater which used to be the hunting grounds for the king.

Guess who’s hunting there today?

Should save me a fortune in gushy food at lunch time.

Vienna is 400 sq km with 4 million people. It has few high rises as it doesn’t need to build up. It has the room to build out. The Danube passes the city but the natural Danube splits the city. The larger one is a canal, if I heard him right. My attention was on the ferris wheel as we passed by. I thought I saw the cats climbing outside the cars.

The Prater ferris wheel is the oldest in Europe, maybe the world and for more than a 100 years it was the highest wheel at 65 metres. Recently, the London Eye took that distinction then another one in Singapore took it from London.

We picked up our local guide and proceeded on our 2 hour city tour. We passed the usual spots and just like 3 years ago, we pulled up to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and got off the bus to do our walking tour.

Déjà vu.

The Cathedral hadn’t changed except the scaffolding had changed. Gasper said they do one side and by the time they’re done, they have to go back to the other side. He’s never seen the Cathedral without scaffolding. 

We walked down towards the Hofburg Palace which we didn’t visit 3 years ago. En route, the guide pointed up to an ad for Nespresso coffee and a picture of George Clooney next to it. She said her friend had spent a fortune buying this coffee, but no matter how much she buys, her husband still doesn’t look like George Clooney.

Outside the Parliament building, the guide pointed out a statue of Athena which is meant to represent wisdom. She said it was too bad it was outside the Parliament and not inside the Parliament where it was needed.

I’d like to import it to Canada. In bulk.

The guide pointed out the Sacher Café where we can get the real Sacher cake. Apparently, the creator used to work at a café called the Demel and moved. The Sacher Café exports its cake so it’s made dryer than the cake you can get at the Demel as they only make it for their own sale.

The guide spoke about university. She said it used to be free but that because of that, Austria has the oldest students in the world. I mean, if it’s free, why not get two or three doctorates? So, the government introduced a fee after a reasonable amount of time – I believe it was four years with one more grace year. 

After that, you pay.

The average age of the Austrian student dropped dramatically after that.

Hofburg is the winter palace. We took the walk through as the showers started up. The most interesting spot was the three clocks. One was a sun dial (which doesn’t work with daylight savings time….or on rainy days as we found out). The second was a regular clock. Keeps great time on rainy days. The third was a phases of the moon.

We took the bus back around to the road next to the Mozart Café (our meeting point 3 years ago, so I know where to go). And just like three years ago, I get to shop in the rain. I re-visited some of the same souvenir shops and had to be careful not to buy the same t-shirts. I found a street vendor’s stall where I had bought my sister a little cow 3 years ago. He was still selling them but this time, it had a buddy. I got the buddy for his friend back home.

I walked as far as St. Stephen’s and said hello to the horses...

...then I went to the same Burger King I had had lunch at 3 years ago. This time, they had wifi.

Sweet.

We met the bus at 11:30 and took it back to the hotel to drop off the three people not going to Bratislava. They’re going for some retail therapy, but wondered if the hotel had a spa. Gasper said they only had a Jacuzzi but it wasn’t that good.

You have to push a button to turn it on.  

Heh.

Don’t think he knows why we all started laughing. I don’t think anyone is brave enough to tell him.

We are on the highway for Bratislava by noon. It’s barely an hour’s drive through some gorgeous farmland which holds literally hundreds of wind turbines. Likely, the farmers are paid a good rent. Today’s wind turbines are geared so that they don’t need to move quickly to generate electricity. Unlike the old free spinning turbines which used to kill thousands of birds, today’s geared turbine farms have a lower bird kill rate than the average skyscraper.

Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia but split after Communism fell. Since Slovakia was already a different language and culture, the divorce was amicable. Slovakia has 5 million and Bratislava, its largest city, has just under a half million people. When Communism fell, the homes were returned to their original owners, some of whom could not afford to keep them up, so a lot of them are run down. Unclaimed homes in some cases are being taken over by the city in order to repair or demolish them.

We picked up our local guide and she took us up to the Bratislava Castle.

And the sun came out.

Woohoo!!

What a difference it makes with the photos. Especially against a white castle.

The view gave us a view of both Austria to the right and Hungary to the left in the distance. A bridge with a revolving restaurant on top spans the river below. We all stood there wondering how the patrons got up there. Apparently, there’s an elevator in the left hand span.

After our photo op, we were driven down to the old town and the guide took us along the streets that just scream “Eastern Europe” complete with the street cars. Then we crossed a bridge and looked over. Below is the last remaining section of the city wall.

And three cats.

Guess what I took a picture of?

We proceeded around the corner to see a tall steeple like gate structure that signals our entry into the town that dates back almost a thousand years. In the cobblestone is a bronze plague of a crown which marks the Royal route that we’ll be following. Under the steeple (St. Michaels I heard her call it) there’s a bronze disk in the cobblestone with the direction and distance to various locations around the world engraved on it. I took a picture of Toronto on the dial.

It’s 6981 km away.

Now I know roughly how many airmiles I should get.

The guide took us around the old town with its narrow streets and market spots. There are restaurants everywhere and the sun is out and the temperatures are warm. Great for photos. There are a number of bronze statues of various figures. One is a paparazzi taking a photo around the corner. Another is Napoleon leaning on a bench staring at passersby.

Another is a man standing in a sewer. There are also some real life imitators and others who are historical figures. One man has a contraption set up so that he looks like he is levitating. He stopped people in their tracks as they tried to figure it out. It was just a platform attached to a pole and his robe hid it.

Next to him was McDonalds. In Bratislava.

Then in the street next to it were more stalls and they had different t-shirts. I already had two, but I couldn’t pass up these. One said “All your Bratislava are belonged to us” and “Rumour has it I have been to Bratislava.”

The second one was a compromise. I had wanted another one that said “Where the F*** is Bratislava?”

Oh, I wanted that one sooooo bad. If it had used the H word instead, I would have. But I can’t bring myself to walk around with a shirt with the F word on it.

Darn.

I picked up a baguette with chicken in a hole in the wall type of take out. Interesting to see the variation on hygiene from country to country. No gloves. No hairnet and no washing hands after handling money.

But she heated up the baguette and it was really good.

Part of the reason for taking Dukoral before I left.

I met up with everyone at the square and we drove back to Vienna. We arrived around 5 pm and had two hours to get ready for the Vienna Concert. Only 11 of us were going and the hall had been changed as something was going on in the hall they usually use.

But we got front row seats. And you know what that means. We have somewhere to put our feet.

Gasper was so happy, he took a picture of us in the front row. Said it was the first time he had gotten a group that close to the stage.

And it was sweet. The conductor was the same gentleman that had conducted the concert when I was there 3 years ago.

It’s an optional one can do over and over again. Loved it. The aria singer was absolutely amazing (check the videos on my flickr page).

We got our champagne/orange juice at intermission. Half the crowd were from the river boat cruise and most had dressed up. I felt pretty cool in my jeans and “All your Bratislava Are belonged to us” t-shirt.

Most others were just as casual.

We got back to the hotel by 10:30 which gave me just enough time to download the photos and take a shower.

The cats were back from their romp on the Prater hunting grounds.

They were like 315 smiling Cheshire cats.

I didn’t ask.