We have been in Vienna for a few days and I have a lot of pics to share but we aren’t done with Vienna yet. Yesterday we took a day trip to Bratislava and that needs to be shared now, even though my blog posting might be out of order. We took a 1 hour train ride from Vienna in the morning, hung out all day, and then took a 2 hour boat ride on the Danube back to Vienna that evening.
I have never been to Eastern Europe and this was my first time inside the old Iron Curtain. It seems like yesterday that the Soviets fell, but it has been over 30 years, and the people of Slovakia have done a lot to make a beautiful city again. Under Soviet control for 45 years, they didn’t care about beautifying anything. They just made the ugly concrete apartment buildings and focused on everything being “OK” and the same. They even got rid of the medieval cobbles in the streets in the 70’s and sold them to German towns who were looking to improve their town’s character. But the town had good bones and it is hard to tell in the city center that everything was stagnant for 45 years.
The entire old town is pedestrian with a few electric trams (streetcars) which is the way all cities should be. Lots of tourists everywhere which mean lots of fun restaurants, bars and gelato shops. Lack of parking and cars are not hurting the businesses on this street. It was a pleasant place to be and we ended up sitting at a cafe with our Aperol Spritzes and watching the world go by for several hours.
The city was not the total urbanist dream though…. There is only one small section of the ancient city walls and they put a freeway right between it and the old castle which makes both attractions not so attractive. Definitely a road decision made during the Soviet era but they are working on burying it or something eventually…. We also saw a memorial for a beautiful old Jewish synagogue that they destroyed to make the freeway. Not many Jewish people left here after WWII but they definitely feel guilty about that decision…. The Christian church survived and seems to show up in many of my pics.
We have been eating a lot of good food lately and it was no different in Bratislava. Below is a pic of some Bryndzove Halusky, a pretzel soaked in pork fat, and some bread with a variety of spreads. The Bryndzove Halusky is a cross between spaetzle and gnocchi, and has a sheep cheese sauce. We have been keeping a list of all the new dishes we have tried, and will try to make some of these when we get home, or if we have a good kitchens in some of our later AirBNB’s on this trip.
I have been playing a stupid addictive train game on my phone for the past year or so and it turns out that the company making it is here in Bratislava. That company (Pixel Federation) is one of the few software companies in the country but it is still cool that Slovakia’s economy can include tech stuff after the years of soviet imagination stagnation. I didn’t cross the river to go see the business park but you can see it in this picture behind this bridge with the UFO on it. You can take a funicular elevator to the top of the UFO but we didn’t have any interest in going up there either.
One more night in Vienna (post coming soon) and then we are heading to Budapest.
