Bratislava has only been the capital of Slovakia (motto: Little Big Country) for 18 years, because before that, Slovakia didn't exist. It was one half of Czechoslovakia, a joint Soviet state with its capital in Prague in what is now the Czech Republic.
Ever since the two countries peacefully parted ways in 1993, Slovakia has done very well for itself. In 2009 they switched to the Euro and the stability that gave their economy has ushered in a construction boom - primarily in the Little Big City itself.
As we entered the city from the Southern railway station (we liked our Vienna campsite so much we decided to leave the van there and commute) the building boom was immediately obvious. We walked from the train station past towering new skyscrapers in amongst the old Soviet concrete-block housing.
Bratislava's tram system only runs on the North side of the river, and instead of getting the bus, we walked a couple of kilometers to the banks of the Danube.
It was the fifth time we've seen the river on our trip (Regensburg, Kelheim, Linz, Vienna) and this time it was wider and more graceful than ever. A barge putted past us on its way up the river. If it wanted it could sail all the way to Rotterdam in the Netherlands through a series of canals.
Bratislava's most striking landmark was once its very utilitarian and fortress-like castle, but now it's been replaced by the Nový Most bridge - a bizarre, asymmetric concrete 21st century suspension bridge held up by one pylon on the southern side which looks like one of the alien walkers from War of the Worlds trying to lift the bridge off the ground. At the top of the pylon is a restaurant appropriately called UFO
with 360 degree views of the city, including the castle nearby.
The menu at UFO of "mediterrasian food" was a little pricy for us so we just opted to cross the bridge to the other side to catch a tram into the city centre. It was here that we encountered our first problem with the language barrier.
Unlike all the other countries we've been to so far, neither Rachel nor I speak a word of Slovak. We can't count, say hello, thanks, please, sorry or goodbye. We certainly can't say "can we buy two tickets for the bus and tram system for the rest of today, please?"
There was nowhere at the tram stop to buy tickets, so we wandered over to the bus station under the bridge and found some pre-euro coin-fed ticket dispensers. One of the buttons was labelled Turisticky 24h, so we pressed it and it asked for €4.50. We only had enough coins for one and a half tickets, so we went to a nearby cafeteria and bought a drink with a €10 note. We fed the change into the machine and happily wandered over to the tram with our Turisticky ticket.
Over the next four hours we caught 5 trams all over the city and saw some of the amazing new architecture the city is building, including the upside-down pyramid shaped headquarters of Slovakia Radio.
We caught a tram hoping to get to Bratislava castle, but were surprised to find that it went into a massive tunnel underneath, rather than taking us there. The tram dropped us off on the banks of the Danube, so we wandered back along to the river to the Nový Most bridge again and took photos of the castle from there.
Bratislava reminds me a bit of Cardiff, Wales in the way that it seems to say "come back in ten years, I'm really going to be something special by then". It still bears some of the scars of communism, but it's really shaking those off and looks set to become an amazing 21st century city.
It was getting dark so we decided to head back to Vienna. We caught a tram to the city's Northern train station only to discover we'd just missed one to Vienna. We spent 50 minutes waiting on the platform taking advantage of some free Wi-Fi. While we were there, we saw some Slovakian trains roll in and out of the station. They still had little compartments in the carriages like the Hogwarts Express and emitted an ear piercing screech when they put on the brakes. They looked like they were built during the declining years of the USSR, and made me very thankful we were catching a nice, new Austrian train home.
It was dark by the time we left the Little Big City (daylight savings just ended so the sun sets at 4:30 now). The city is still predominantly concrete-based and covered in graffiti, but I felt like we're bound to hear more about Slovakia in the future.
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