Slovakia

City Center
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Bratislava is the newest capital in Europe as it was named the capital of Slovakia after the split of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s. It is a small city that was easy to get around in once you developed an orientation. We had read that it was a friendly city and we were hoping to enjoy the friendly conversations with the locals. We arrived at the hotel we were to stay at just before 10:00 PM. He grunted at us and in guttural exchanges with this guy, Sinead and Chad filled out some papers to get rooms. He gave us one key and said “one room, two people.” We were like yeah, we need another room key. Sinead stated that she had made reservations for two rooms. The clerk continued with “one room two persons.” He looked as us as thought he were evaluating us and after several minutes decided to take the passports of Jen and Ve and allowed us to have another room. With that cleared up we asked if we could get something to eat. He stated, “Closed, everything closed.” We thought he was talking about the restaurant in the hotel and asked him about the restaurants up the street. He repeated “closed, everything closed, eat tomorrow.” We realize that this guy did not speak English and we respected that his English was better than our Slovakian, but friendly this guy was not. We dropped our stuff off and walked to a restaurant across the street. As Ve walked in the guy said we are closed. Hmm, maybe the clerk was right but how can a capital city with a growing tourist trade be closed by 10:00 PM? We walked to the next place, which was a lounge that served some food. Ve asked if they were open and if they served food. After conferring with a waitress the bartender said normally we are not serving food at this time but we will make an exception for you tonight. There was the Bratislava friendliness coming out. We ate well and had great service. We then walked back to the hotel and by doing this we had to disturb the night desk clerk from his sleep so he could let us in. I don’t think we gave this guy a reason to like us, but oh well.

Loving the statues!
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The next day we toured the old city and saw some churches, took pictures of many cool statures and just took it all in. We also went to the mall and shopped and helped Ve hunt down some coats. As Ve and Chad tried on some coats it was apparent that sizing was different. Ve and Chad wore the same size but were being forced to try on XXL in order to have any chance of moving their arms. The guy at one store just laughed at us as we tried to put on these coats. We are NOT obese Americans, there must be some sort of conspiracy against the US by other countries to focus American attention on their weight and distract us from other issues.

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That night we went out to find some authentic Slovakian food for dinner. As we walked through the old city gates we came across a small bar that was selling Mojitos for approximately 2 euros which is a more than fantastic price. We went to get a before dinner drink. The place was quite smoky as with most of Eastern Europe, the people smoke a lot. We thought we would kick off the night with a shot as well. We choose a shot form the large drink menu. However, the shot was made with different ingredients than we were use to and the shot was in three layers that were to be consumed using a straw. As good tourists we did it as the locals do it. (not Jen of course-she knows better) The shot was tough and very strong. As we tried to figure out what the ingredients were we came to find that one of the layers in the drink was Absinthe. That is a beverage I advise none to try. After we finished we went to the city center to find a restaurant. Ve had looked in a local restaurant guide and we were going to go with his choice. As we entered the city center there were policemen all around. We had a little trouble finding the restaurant so Ve went up to a police officer to ask where the restaurant was located. Ve approached but before he spoke a word, the officer yelled at Ve in a forceful voice “Go! Just Go!” We quickly walked away from officer and past the French Embassy. Moments later a convoy drove through the city center to drop off some officials. The security we assume, was there to protect them, but as they got there people lined up to see who it was and people took photographs. We assume Ve intimidated the youthful police officer and in panic the officer used his forceful voice because they were of no security help.

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Needless to say we found a traditional Slovak restaurant and ate a great meal. On the return to the hotel we found the doors locked. We rang the bell to gain our entrance only to have the not so bright eyed, not so cheery, not so happy desk clerk who checked us in to be the one we woke up to get in.

The following day we went to the castle. It was a grand and large building, which had a really cheap entrance rate for the museum. The reason the rate was so low is because there was not much to see in the castle. Some remodeling projects were going on but we still saw just about everything there was to see. Again, it was large but it was very bare. We didn’t know if that was a result of the communist era where lots of items had been removed or what. They did have a great exhibit on Hungarian coins, which enthralled Ve to the point where we moved on ahead so he would have to catch up. Other than that the castle was really only a sight to visit in order to view the city from a bird’s eye view. This was very cool and a great way to sit and take in the city. After finishing our tour, we decided to do a little shopping. As we walked to the non-tourists shopping sites I heard a voice say “Mr. Van Cleve?” I about died, a former Senior HS exchange student from Slovakia, who I advised in Model United Nations, saw me when he was getting on a bus and ran to see if it was me. He helped to show us around a little bit and he took us to a nice place to get some lunch. We caught up and we had a fun time asking him questions about Bratislava and how he was doing at his university. I was taken back by this whole situation but it really shows how small a world it really is.

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Overall we gave Bratislava a good rating. None of us knew what to expect when we got there but we thought it would be a nice place to visit and it was. There are some nice sights, it is relatively romantic and it is easy to navigate to get everything you want to do accomplished.