Friday 15 July: Today we will visit Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. Tomorrow, Saturday, we visit the Wachau Valley and the Melk Albbey in Austria before docking back in Passau at the end of the cruise on Sunday. (posting on the bus from Passau, Austria to Frankfurt, Germany)
The first part of the day tour commenced in Komarno, Slovakia, a small historic town between Budapest and Bratislava. Komarno is one of the oldest settlements in the Carpathian Basin, and is on the border between Slovakia and Hungary which is on the other side of the Danube.
Most of the inhabitants in Komarno are Hungarian, so many signs are in both languages.It has its proportion of historic buildings and statues, but its main claim to fame being a section of the city where buildings have been modified to look like those of particular countries of Europe.
It was an hour’s bus ride to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Our guide, Uri (George) had a great sense of humour and his narrative was peppered with anecdotes and quips.Q. Who are Russia’s neighbouring countries?
A. Whoever they want them to be.
Also, an American, a Frenchman and a Slovakian were asked to quote prices on delivering tanks. The American said $50K each, The Frenchman said $40K each, The Slovakian said all he has to do is stand in the street and yell Alexander Dubček, and he can provide 1,000 tanks for free.
We first visited the hilltop castle (where else). Partially under renovation, it was rebuilt by the communist government a s a showcase, adding extra features to make it more gothic and attractive.
As Uri said, it provides the best view of the ugliest city, referring to the communist-built apartment blocks across the city. It’s also possible to see the Austrian wind farm in the distance.
He said not to blame the communists for the poor architecture; they copied the British model in Liverpool.
He pointed out that from the castle one can see both of Bratislava’s airports, the second one is called Vienna. On our way back down through the exclusive hillside suburbs, Uri remarked that no-stopping signs have been posted on the streets preventing tour buses from stopping for photo opportunities, however by asking the driver to go very slowly the bus can leave more CO2 emissions.
The old city centre of Bratislava still maintains some of its medieval structure and buildings, with narrow winding streets and tall narrow buildings.One is apparently the narrowest building in Europe. We saw the Town Hall which apparently has a former torture chamber, referred to as the “Exhibition of Medieval Justice”.
The town square also has a sculpture of a Napoleonic soldier, unfortunately pointing his backside at the French Embassy. Speaking of embassies, Uri said the Swedish Embassy has left Bratislava, however they did leave an Ikea store.
We visited a store/museum which had an amazing collection of counting machines and cash registers as well as a number of other interesting shop paraphernalia.We just had to buy a couple of little things, including some very nice Frankovka Modrá Rosé wine , a bottle of which we drank on board the ship.
Later we passed the Slovakian National Theatre which apparently took 30 years to complete, apparently so long that the warranty on the air conditioning expired before it was built. However it is very popular with Austrians who can buy tickets much cheaper than for similar performances in Vienna.
Bratislava is now host to some European Union administration in the former Concert Hall, which has increased the number of police. Uri said that they are required to escort EU dignitaries as without a police convoy no-one would know who they are. He said that now instead of concerts they have a political circus instead.
We had some free time to explore, and we both agreed that it’s the sort of city that requires more than a short afternoon visit. It has a combination of history and funkiness that’s quite attractive.
I asked Uri about the communist era in the former Czechoslovakia, and although he was only young, his opinion was that socialism was idealistic, and that Czechoslovakia’s economy was in a better position than many other communist states, but was too paternalistic. The closed borders and inability to travel was a huge cause of dissatisfaction – particularly given the proximity of Austria. Many people had satellite dishes to view Austrian TV. He also said that Slovakians had the best relations with the Czechs with whom they lived for many years as Czechoslovakia.
Some of the problems the face now are increased urbanisation, particularly the growth of satellite suburbs with family dwellings that lack infrastructure and require cars to drive to work and transport children to school. Even in the communist period when apartment buildings were constructed, the streets were not paved, and people would leave home in gumboots to walk through the mud to the bus-stop, then leave them and change into work shoes, repeating the process when returning home.
Slovakia has slowly increased it manufacturing base, particularly in the motoring industry although wages lag behind Western Europe although the cost of living is comparable.
Finally Uri said that Slovakians are optimistic about the future. For the first time it has a prime minister who is not part of the old guard and has no political past – he then said that people are waiting to see if he has a political future.
