Slovakia

Last night in Bratislava, and I'm ready to move on. I happened to arrive in the middle of a heat wave - 40 degrees every day so far (one day I saw temperatures as high as 43). I've heard that it's about ten degrees higher than normal. It's made sightseeing a bit difficult, since it's hard to generate much enthusiasm for going out and getting lost for hours.

Bratislava is a nice town, but it's not one to visit right after Prague. Prague is just so huge and impressive that the direct comparison just isn't a fair fight. I've also been a bit let down by the food here. The types of food offered (that I can understand, at least) is 33% bagety/baguette sandwiches, 33% hamburger/hotdogs/kebab, 33% ice cream, 1% other. It's sad when the best place you've found is the dried fruits and nuts shop at the train station. I think under different circumstances I might have enjoyed the city a bit more, because it is very nice. Small enough to get around on foot and not overwhelming. The first day I was here I took a nice free walking tour of the city which ended up being two and a half hours, and the guide was very nice and enthusiastic. Day two all I could really manage was a hike to the "castle" at the top of the hill, and some more wandering.

 

Cute square with pools and statues.

Statue of Napolean hanging out in the square.

Blue church.

Soviet housing across the river - it's its own small city.

 At the "castle"/fortress.

My last day in Slovakia I took a trip about an hour and a half outside of Bratislava to Trencin. Trencin was on the top of the "tourist day trips" and must-see lists, and is another small town with a castle and a nice old town. There was not much English spoken in the area, but I was lucky enough to show up just in time for an English tour of the castle. A bit strange and awkward, since I was the only person on the tour, but kind of nice since otherwise I would have gotten nothing out of the trip (all posted information was in Slovak).

A fun fountain in the center of town.