Bratislava

We just got back from a week in Vienna and a short nip over to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Bratislava is a really bizarre place. It's a broad mixture of many different things. Elegance from the 1800 Hapsburg dynasty royalty, cute domed church towers, funky crumbling Art Nouveau, 40 years of Soviet rule (including lots of blocky concrete), sad little public transportation trolleys, and a gussied up downtown pedestrian area where there are trendy bars and restaurants. Throw in a _completely_ unrecognizable language (hello, 10 cents will buy you a vowel), fantastic cheap beer, nice hiking close by, and that's Bratislava.

Of course, you are still wondering about the bizarre picture here. That was our hotel. I kid you not. We weren't to thrilled by it, it was run by supplement popping hippies pretending to be artists (mind the paint and brushes on the breakfast table). The inside of the room was..uhhh...somewhat lacking in cleanliness. We've stayed in plenty of dumps before, that can be part of the fun sometimes. But this one was a bit too creepy, and the breakfast bar was just icky.

Bratislava was interesting, watching the city shake off the effects of communism in downtown. But you also have a nice view of identical rows of huge monolithic apartment buildings out in the burbs built during communist rule. And we found ourselves a bit frustrated by the public transit, the machines selling tickets *only* took coins, but no one would give you change. We poked around the town the first day, and went hiking the second day.

Pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Bratislava