By Dr. N. Harimohan
When we planned a three city European tour with Vienna and Prague it was the third, Bratislava which foxed us! A part of former Czechoslovakia in the Eastern communist Bloc we expected a dreary drab city, but when the Fly Dubai flight landed us in a sunny bright Bratislava we instantly fell in love. Home to the European Volkswagen and Skoda automobiles, the driver who received us chattered on about his beautiful country.
Trendz Austria, our hotel, reminded us of the Hapsburg dynasty of Austria which ruled over this tiny country for more than 300 years. The Danube flowed so peacefully having seen history in its time, from the Romans, the Hungarians, the Ottomans, the Carpathians, the Celts and finally the communists who had all contributed to this ebullient nation.
It was pleasantly cold ,and we taking the advice of the friendly neighbourhood Malaya lee hoteliers next door took a cab up the rolling hills to reach the Devin’s castle about 12 km off. Taxis in Bratislava were better called by phone than off the streets, we were advised.
We were driven across the city with trams and trains crossing the roads, and climbed up to a small 200 meters hillock with a ruined fort, walking through the landscaped gardens in the base, we reached the castle .
The view was breathtaking!
Down below, we could see the Moravia and Danube rivers branching out, this was where the iron curtain portioned off the nation during the communist regime which would later be removed by the velvet revolution and the velvet divorce would part the country into two Slovaks and a Czech republic.
We returned by the local bus which was much cheaper, though we had to learn on buying the tickets from a vending machine, as it was based on time of travel than distance!
Trundling back into the brightly lit city we got down in the heritage town very close to our place of stay.
The best part of European cities are the pedestrian only walk areas lined with brightly painted cottages, elegant shops, bars, pastries, and cafes on the pavements. It was filled with tourists walking and drinking and eating but each to his own. We got into a nice bar and I had an excellent cocktail and some fresh burgers.
We moved into a pastry to bite into a succulent temptation.
The city was quite prosperous and we learnt that the per capita income was pretty high. We walked for long in the chilly night and through the Michelle’s gate, we reached our hotel.
In the morning after an excellent continental English breakfast, we took the heritage tour for 28 Euros worth every cent. We went up the historic Bratislava castle, lucky to see the quaint change of guards; the castle is a veritable storehouse of history.
From the Celtics to the Carpathians, the Ottomans, Romans, Austrians, Hungarians, Germans, French, have all been here and ruled it for years building and rebuilding it ,but the golden era was naturally during the Hapsburg empire and the rule of Marie Theresa known for her exclusive taste of luxury made it an epitome of fine tastes .
It was Napoleon who destroyed it, and his statue in the city centre shows him sitting with a shrug, maybe regretting his evil deed. The castle was last rebuilt in 1953. Two more famous statues of a man with the hat, and the worker who peeps at woman on the road from a manhole are well known photo ops for tourists.
There’s a statue in city centre whose head is supposed to roll around only in New Year and if a couple happens to see that they are supposed to be in eternal love of course one need to be adequately sozzled to see that.
In the evening we went to the famous Blue church, it was another exotic building and ended the day with a fine Punjabi dinner washed with some fine white wine in our friendly Indian restaurant for we would bid goodbye the next morning, off to Vienna in a bus and that story is for another day.
(Dr. N. Harimohan is a travel writer and a Fellow in Palliative Medicine and Associate Consultant at Department of Palliative Medicine, VPS Lake shore Hospital and Research Center, Kerala. The views expressed are the author’s own.)