Welcome back! I hope you’re enjoying the trip so far. =)
So, we don’t really use trains very much in the States.
People use them more in certain areas of the country (like people who often
travel between DC-Philly-NJ-NYC), but where I grew up, trains were Thomas the
Tank Engine and something people used in the 1800s to get across the
country—not something people use as an alternative to driving or flying! I’ve
ridden trains before in Japan and Switzerland, and each time it’s a fun and
exciting experience. While my previous train ride from Warsaw to Krakow was not
the most pleasant I’ve experienced, I was still looking forward to the night
train thing.
Now I’ll be honest, I was starting to get a little concerned
the close it got because so many people had told me to watch out and be
careful. But since I was going from one main city to another, I really didn’t
have anything to worry about! I had to ask a couple of different people what
car I needed to get on (I’m not sure whether it was something lost in
translation or miscommunication on part of the train folks; one guy told me to
go to one end of the train, and two others told me to go to the opposite side
of the train), but I got on the right one. I was actually quite pleasantly
surprised! The interior was small, of course, but the “room” I was in was
plenty big enough for me! There were three bunks, and mine was on the bottom. I
thought maybe a couple of other people would be getting on, but nope! Just me!
It’s really interesting how space can be so well utilized. Pictures to follow.
=) There was even water and a towel and breakfast provided. Quite nice!
The only problem came when we started moving… it was a
really bumpy ride! I have trouble sleeping on anything that moves, even on an
airplane. I had hoped having an actual bed where I could lay down and the
methodic movement of the train would actually help me sleep—but boy was I
mistaken! We stopped and started, sped up and slowed down, went around curves,
etc. I might have gotten an hour of actual sleep, but I survived it. I’m glad I
did it so that now I’ve had the experience! =)
The train got in at 5:38 am, right on schedule. And I had no
useful money. I had US dollars, I had a few Polish zlotys left, I even have
some Swiss francs with me, but in Slovakia, they use the Euro! So, I had no
money for a bus or a taxi, the exchange places in the train station weren’t
open yet, and I didn’t see an ATM anywhere. Fortunately, my hostel is within
walking distance of the train station! Unfortunately, the directions were a bit
confusing! The roads in Bratislava are very curvy, and I couldn’t quite figure
out their naming system. Somehow I missed a turn, but I kept going toward the
Old City center. Along the way, I saw some posters for a Jethro Tull concert,
which made me think of my daddy! The Slovakian “White House” was on my way as
well, so that was cool to see, and you know what else I saw? And ATM! So I got
me some Euros and went on my way. Crisis averted!
Now the Bratislavan Old Town is really cute and quite
pretty, but my goodness it’s complicated! The roads are not in any kind of
order, and people drive and park anywhere—sidewalks, squares, wherever you can
fit. I was getting kind of frustrated because no one I asked seem to have ever
heard of the street where my hostel is located, but eventually I met a kindly
police officer, and she said I was on the right road! I just needed to go a
little further, and the hostel would be on the right—and it was! Again, crisis averted.
;)
The hostel girls were very nice and let me go ahead and
check in so I could put my stuff in my room. They gave me a key and pad lock
for my stuff and said whatever lockers were open were free to use. They gave me
a map, suggestions for where to eat, told me about some of the features of the
hostel—full kitchen, “chill room” where people can “chill out” and not have to
be in their rooms, and they sent me on my way! So I dumped my stuff, changed
clothes so I could feel like I actually did start a fresh, new day, and set out
to find Shtoor, which is a little café that serves homemade Slovakian food!
Shtoor is really cute, and they have great stuff! Coffee was
typical European (strong), and I got whatever was the most Slovakian. I asked
the girl at the counter what the best thing would be, and she told me about
this thing called Bryndzik (that is probably totally wrong). Anyway, it’s
homemade whole grain bread (with beans in it—interesting and quite good,
actually) with spiced sheep’s cheese spread; it also came with salad. The
cheese was on there THICK, so I ended up taking some of it off, but it was
really good! And it definitely stuck with me till I had time for lunch. Shtoor
was an interesting kind of guy. He actually was the person who codified the
Slovakian language! That interested me to no end, of course, so I HAD to go to
his café!
Next up: The Slovakian National Museum. Apparently this is a
lot like the Smithsonian; lots of different museums make up the institution of
the Slovak National Museum. This one had a special exhibit of toys, home life,
and schools over the years. This was all in Slovakian, since it’s a temporary
exhibit, but it was neat to see the stuff, even if I couldn’t read about it. =)
The next couple of floors (they call it the first and second floors, but we
would call them the second and third floors in Europe) were dedicated to
natural history. Lots of rocks and fossils, lots of land, air, and sea animals.
The content didn’t interest me as much, but they had a really awesome exhibit
there. It was a huge, blank, white book with a projector above it. The pages
were definitely blank, but when you turned the page, the projector would go to
the next slide. There was a mark on the back of each page, and I guess the
sensors picked up on that and knew which slide to show. Pretty cool!
I had some time on my hands till time for a tour at 1:00, so
I headed up to Bratislava Castle, which is not really a castle like we might
think of it. It’s nice-looking, but it wasn’t build for kings and queens. They
were coronated (crowned) there, but they didn’t usually live there. It was
built as a fortification (i.e. a fort) to protect the city. It’s situated up on
a hill, and there are lookout towers so you could see who was coming from far away.
The Ottomans tried to get in and take over Bratislava, as did the Monguls, as
did Napoleon himself in 1805! No one succeeded while this fortification was in
use, at least not on their first attempt; Napoleon was successful in his second
attempt in 1809. They also have a barbican here, like the one in Krakow. The
Krakowian barbican has two gates at a 45 degree angle from each other, which
has its benefits, but the Bratislavan barbican gates are at a 90 degree angle.
That would slow down an army quite a bit to have to make a complete 90 degree
turn just to get into the city! That would have bought the Bratislavan army
some time to get some arrows into any attackers for sure!
Anyway, there is a lot of reconstruction going on because
the castle had fallen into such disrepair after WWII, and it’s taken this long
to get together the research and funding for repairs. But they’ve really done a
great job with the parts that are open to the public. In one exhibit are
various items that have been excavated. There were tools and jewelry and
weapons from as far back as the third century BC, before the castle was even
built! The first written account of the castle was in 907 AD, and it’s changed
hands several times since then, but always remained Bratislavan. In the 16th
century, the Hungarian capitol liked the place so much, and Bratislava was
basically the place to be, so they moved their capitol from Buda to Bratislava.
I’m not sure where the boundary lines were at this time, but they felt
comfortable coming on over!
The other exhibit open to the public showed models of the
castle in its heyday, as well as pictures from the 1950’s when it was at its
worst. There were a few things about knights, too, which was pretty cool. No,
my knight in shining armor was not there. The search continues. ;)
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