Trip to Bratislava

I couldn't imagine that there are two capital cities so close to each other in the world! Vienna and Bratislava are just 57 kms away from each other. Besides, I had two bottles of wine and brandy to give to Peter.

I bought the ticket the same day and managed in time surprisingly. This was the first time I was going to travel somewhere alone though Peter was to meet me at the station. So I sat in the train together with some British people trying to catch pieces of their truly British conversation. I put my music on and started to gaze at the view from the window. There were some intermediary stations in between ending with “dorf” necessarily and I was trying to guess where was the first Slovak station but later on I was going to be disappointed by finding out that there were actually no Slovak station at all and the first Slovak station was BratislavaJ))))))))))))))). I was shocked how can a capital city be built in such a close distance from the border. Armenia for example couldn’t afford to have such a luxury…

The way was very short during which I was admiring the wonderful windmills moving so graciously and wisely. I again understood that anything genius is so easy and simple.

I came to the station in time and had to wait just for 10 minutes when Peter came with Stanka( I didin’t remember her name ,actually I thought it was Maria, so in the beginning I couldn’t call her by her name as I was ashamed to ask for it again). We went to the car which was taken from Stanka’s mom and then drove to the Stary most which was so old that when we were walking it was moving and Stanka said it will be broken down soon. On the way we were discussing the buildings on our way and Peter asked whether I had any list of the places I would like to see. First impression from the city was that it is more industrial, smaller and less attractive than Vienna. In general, I was all the time comparing it with Vienna. We crossed the most and reached some park. Peter gave me some guide with the map of the city old part “Stary grad” which was quite useful as it had the main monuments marked and numbered on it. First we went to the “Little Blue Church”, it looked like a toy house, blue with nice paintings and like form a fairy tale. We entered it and I walked a bit inside. As I didn’t have a digital photo I asked Peter to take the photos from the views. The church was quite new , built in 1909. On the way we spoke about their lifestyle and religion, etc. Then we went to the Slovak pub through a street that Peter said was most touristic and I compared it with Abovyan street but according to Peter Abovyan is much better. We entered the Slovak pub and went to the 2^nd floor. I was shocked with the big size of it. It was actually more like a restaurant having lots of rooms which were all different from each other and all wooden. It was a little bit like our Caucasus. We took a seat and then Peter met a friend of his from LC Kosice, an AIESECer with a ACDC T-shirt and long hair. The funniest thing was that he was with his guests too,a couple from Australia whom he actually met when he was a trainee in Australia:))))))))So the same story as mine:) We decided to order different things so that we can taste more staff. I ordered pirogi, Peter-haluski and Stanka took some sweet staff.All the food was traditional .I liked my “pirogi” very much. It was like “pelmeni” but inside instead of meat it had potatoes, then covered with sour cream, brindza, specific Slovak cheese "brindza" and fried bacon over it. It was veeery tasty especially after the tasteless Austrian food. Then I tried haluski and also some sweet rolls with blueberry jam inside and cacao over it. I most liked the pirogi. The Australian couple wife was very funny. They were travelling all round Europe and she was telling about it to us. Then suddenly a heavy rain started of which we learnt as it was pouring inside the pubJ. Peter told it is the summer part and they just covered it with some canvas but it wasn’t enough and the water was filing inside. I remembered the Armenian anecdote about the guy from Lori asking whether it's raining inside or outside. We finished our food and went out. It was very windy and cold and I suggested Peter and Stanka to go tot ake something warm from home as they didn’t have anything with them. But Stanka said she is fine and we continued our way. Fortunately very soon the weather became better. We first went to presidential palace. It was a nice but quite a small and non impressive building compared to its importance. Peter told me that my staying at his friend, aiesecer’s home, Petra, is confirmed. I was very happy with that. Then we went to the main part of the old town and appeared on a typical touristic road with expensive souvenir shops (with very creative staff btw) and lots of tourists. It was a small street with nice old buildings around. We walked through it taking photos and then appeared in the place called “Main square” . It was a centre of embassies and open air souvenir sellers. There was a fountain with a funny statue that had its funny story. It said that this statue used to spin but only a girl born in Bratislava who was 16 and was virgin could see that (and of course there was no such a girl in BratislavaJ)))))))))))) and there was another statue over a bench just in front of that statue who was kneeling on the bench as if he was following the statue to see if it is really spinning or not. I bought some souvenirs from the shops and then we went to the Bratislava museum. It was a very old museum with employees old too. First we entered the very old room with the fist records of life in Bratislava. It had the map of Bratislava in different epochs. We found out that some part of Danube had either vanished or disappeared somehow but the guide wan’t able to explain exactly what happened. There were some kitchen utensils and a skeleton of those times. It turned out to be that Celts used to live there in the 4^th century b.c. Bratislava was initially built in 9th century and has changed its names after that about 14 times depending on who was ruling the area then. After we went to the newer rooms. All of them contained some things describing those times. But the museum was very old and actually I was very lucky to manage to see it as it was going to close down for reconstruction for 3 years in 3 days. The most impressive things there were the tools for people torturing and the prisons. There was a huge list describing what kind of punishment is meant to be for different crimes. For example for telling a lie to ur husband u could be dumped into the water. It was a very cruel part of the museum and we rushed away from it to the top, up the Michael’s tower. It was very old too and near the stairs it was written that u can climb up at ur own riskJ So we climbed up quite lots of stairs, actually 88 as the last 5 stairs were closed so initially they mean to be 94. And then there opened a great view over the city. First time I saw some really nice buildings from above. There were even some small gothic style churches like those in Vienna.

After taking a few photos we went down. Then we continued our way along the old street and came to one palace, Primatial Palace. Stanka said they had lots of British who usually come to Bratislava as it is cheap and spoil everything surrounding them. Just then I saw some british people. As it was already quite late in the veneing we decided to buy some food and go home to eat something. We went to Slovakian Billa which was quite similar to Austrian one. Then we walked to the car by the way back. On the way we were discussing the district they were living in and Stanka said they have a nice lake around where they usually go to swim after work or on weekends. But in general Petrzalka wasn’t a very good district in terms of it used to be quite a dangerous place where it is not safe to go down by stairs as u may meet some narcoleptic people on your way. But as she said it is no longer such a place. We finally reached the building which was a typical living district with standard buildings. We went up to the twelfth floor which was the last one and entered the flat. I found out that they lived together with two other guys, one of them Jaros, was speaking Russian and we started to speak in Russian a bit. It was quite nice though he could hardly speak and made lots of mistakes. The flat had about three rooms and a balcony. We went to the kitchen and started to prepare some sandwiches. I helped Stanka to make very nice and creative sandwiches which had mustard and butter. I even took a photo of them as they were really nice. Then we started to eat them and I liked it very much. After it we had a long talk about the difference lifestyles of our youth. I translated the Kiss bottle content and we laughed at it a lot. Then Peter called Petra and we decided to go there asit was 9 o’clock and she lived on the other end of the city. So we packed and went out. The way was quite long and we first were quite lost. Then we appeared in a green zone with a block of living houses and at last found the right building. We went up and Petra welcomed us into her nice flat. We first took a seat in the dining room and they started to talk about changes in their lives particularly about that Petra had broke up with her boyfriend. Stanka used all the possible and words to describe that guy and we continued the conversation. I found out that she had Vietnamese father and Slovak mother and the result was quite a nice cute girl who as in AIESEC for 4 years and currently worked in Tatra bank or actually in Raiffessen bank in the HR department.We agreed on that I will join Petra and @ Bratislava trainees to go to the Red Bull Air Race which was quite a prominent event in Bratislava and everybody was getting ready to go there tomorrow. As we were all very tired Peter and Stanka left and I took a bath. I went to sleep in the dining room and slept for the longest time during my stay out of Yerevan. It was soooo great! I woke up at 11 o’clock and we had breakfast with Petra. We had a nice conversation about our lives and careers. Then we went out to the bus station. We first took a bus and then a very old tram to reach the Novy most where we were supposed to meet the trainees. On the way Petra told about the Turkish trainee who everybody seemed to be very proud of as he first came there as a trainee and then went to work at IBM. So he called himself a turecki muj to make people see that he knows Slovak. We went out at the station near the most and after a while met two guys, the Turkish guy of course and a guy from Norway. As I was presented to the Turkish guy he said he is from my rival country and the greeting style was quite fighting. As Petra started to talk to this Turkish guy actively I had no choice to talk to the guy form Norway. He was nice but seemed to be too spoilt for being able to like Bratislava. After a while two Slovak girl came who were form the Slovak LC. We waited for other two guys who were actually strange French guys: Maxim and a funny guy with a strange name that nobody could pronounce - Judicaelle.He had a very artistic hat and I said he looked like a painter in it. I think he liked that idea as he looked at me with a smile. Then we walked to Danube where there were lots of people already near the river bank. We found a good place or at least we thought it was good and saton the river bank gates. The view was good form there but the sun was very hot and Maxim asked if anybody had sun cream. First I thought he was too much in panic and there was actually no need in such concerns but later on I was going to find out some red stains all over my face and hands to understand he was right. We stayed there until it started during which I had a talk with the Slovak girls and the French guys. The show was actually a competition of 4 airplanes who were supposed to fly through some facilities in the shortest possible time period. Before the actual show the organizers were speaking something in Slovak not considering the fact that most of the people who were actually tourists. But there were really lots of people all over the river bank and up on the nearby Novy most. At last the show began and the airplanes flew in one by one doing some acrobatic movements in the air. It was very exciting in the beginning but then it was already ordinary. Then there was a big break during which we managed to fry our heads even more and I found out that Stanka has lost her bag. Then the second round was which was more interesting as all of them were flying together and doing great things in the air. At last it was finished and we went away in the huge crowd of people. Petra said Peter was somewhere around and I was searching for him. We then at last found them and went there. They were very anxious about the bag and decided to go to Petra’s house to check if it was there. I was feeling myself guilty for that as it happened because they took me to Petra’s house. We walked to the so called “beach” which was actually an area with sand near the river where people were playing and lying in the sun. It was a good idea actually. We lied there a bit and as Stanka was very anxious I suggested that I will go to the castle myself while they will go to Petra’s house to check the bag. We agreed to meet at 5:30 near the castle and I started my way. I said goodbye and thanks to Petra and other guys and walked back to the Novy most. I appeared on a very nice street with lots of people and interesting statues and monuments all along it. Then I went to the direction of two nice churches and appeared on the castle street. I saw some stairs and decided to go up. I found out that travelling alone can be really great as u urself decide where to go and when. I walked up the stairs and appeared at the back of the castle I walked a bit but understood that it was actually a wrong way but I was lazy to go back and started to climb over the steep hill somehow J)))))))))Then I found a closed place and anyways went down again. I appeared again on the castle street and soon reached the Parliament and the castle entrance itslef. The castle was in the reconstruction process so I couldn’t go inside. But the surroundings were also interesting and I was admiring several levels of fortress gates and walls. There was a great view over the city and I got to understand that Bratislava is actually a nice city just spoilt with too much industrial buildings. I was very hungry and wanted to find some shop to eat something but there wasn’t anything nearby. I went out at 5:30 as agreed and met Peter and Stanka. I was very happy to find out that Stanka found her bag. We decided to take some photos form the castle. Then we called the station and found out that there was a train in an hour and in 2 hours. As I was very hungry Stanka suggested to go to their home as she had prepared some dishes. We drove there and went to the lovely kitchen where Stanka started to take out all the food she had actually. She put a soup in the beginning which was actually a very funny one as it was just the water of the soup separate and other ingredients such as pasta, carrot vegetables separate. Then she unfroze some potatoes and also put corn and rice together with “pechenka” which was actually our tjvjik ans I was very happy to have such a tasty meal at last! I was very full and happy and we rushed to the station. I bought the ticket said goodbye and thanks to guys and took a seat in the train. Then I saw them near the window saying goodbye to me, They were so nice standing there on the other side and smiling at me. I waved at them and the train moved.