The day began when we left from Vienna in the morning and took a quick hour train ride over to Bratislava. Once we arrived we decided we'd walk to the highest point in the city where we visited Bratislava Castle. This castle was built around the 10th century and over its lifetime experienced several renovations, fires, and expansions. We were told that Bratislava castle was burnt down during WW2 and wasn't rebuilt until the 1950's by the communist government. Inside the castle we went through a small museum where we saw a variety of very old artifacts. These artifacts ranged from old coins dating back from Roman times to primitive Medevil weapons along with gold and jewels from the previous monarchy dating back 500 years.
Once we left the castle we ventured through Old Town Bratislava. There we saw their Opera building as well as the central church. Some parts of Old Town Bratislava resembled architecture found in Vienna. Although, Bratislava is much more ran down than Vienna. After walking through Old Town we grabbed a quick snack and walked to a modern/contemporary art museum with our professor. We walked through the museum for an hour and a half looking at a variety of different expressionist, abstract, post modern, and an assortment of different styles. Many of these paintings were created in the past 100 years. Much of the themes embedded in the paintings we saw were visible due to our knowledge of modern history. Our professor helped us decode many of the paintings meanings.The art museum was quite interesting, I always like looking at art because it helps give a thematic message through colors and images of our world.
A bit after we finished at the art museum we walked toward the direction of their new shopping mall. Along the way we saw a large Slovakian Nationalistic protest. We walked by it and stayed for a few minutes. During that time we listened to nationalistic slogans as well as songs in Slovakian. It was quite interesting to see such a scene, but, as I've seen all over Europe. Europeans love to protest!
After a short walk we arrived at their large modern shopping mall. It looked a lot like Tyler Mall in Riverside but much nicer since it is newer. Inside it is outlined with glass everywhere resembling an American shopping mall. It felt like I was right at home when I entered. There were a lot of the same stores like H&M, Nike, Adidas, etc along with Slovakian stores. The group I was with went into several shops and we eventually ended up by the river walk right outside the mall. This river walk is right on the Danube River with two large modern bridges in either direction outlined by the skyline. It was quite a picturesque location, I really liked it.
Eventually it was time to head back to Old Town Bratislava and meet up with everyone for dinner. We walked back into Old Town and went to a traditional Slovakian restaurant. For dinner I ordered grilled honey chicken topped with bacon accompanied by a side of potatoes as well as a side of vegetables. It was extraordinarily good. I loved it! The dinner itself was worth the trip to Slovakia!
When we finished dinner we walked through Old Town once again and we stopped at a chocolate store/cafe. My professor told us to go there and order hot chocolate because he told us it was amazing. He was right on! The hot chocolate I ordered was literally chocolate from a chocolate fountain. It melted in your mouth and tasted superb. I don't think I've ever had such good hot chocolate. It definitely was worth the stop! After we drank our hot chocolate we had to get back to the train station to catch our one hour train back to Vienna.
Overall, Bratislava was an exceptional day trip. While Bratislava may seem a bit run down it is beginning to look very modernized. Along with its food and culture, I think Bratislava is on a great path to fully modernize. I'm really glad we were able to make the trip over there for the weekend.
Next weekend I am off to the Austrian city of Graz, then I am off to Istanbul, Turkey for 5 days. Should be an exciting period! Until next time, Auf Wiedersohen.
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