After visiting the Czech Republic, our next stop was Slovakia, also known as the country that the horror film, “The Hostel”, was based on. We stayed on in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, for two days before moving on to Hungary.
The old town of Bratislava is one of the city’s main tourist attractions. In an attempt to break away from the solemness of communism, the streets are lined with quirky statues, such as Cumil, the statue coming out of the manhole, and Napolean’s soldier (top right). We spent the bulk of our time in cafes at the old town sipping hot chocolate and just immersing ourselves in the tranquility of the city.
St Martin’s Cathedral was the other attraction that we visited. It is the oldest church in Bratislava and was previously the coronation church for the King of Hungary. What is interesting about this church is that it has a crypt with real human skeletons on display! If I recall correctly, the crypt was used to bury monks in the medieval times.
On our second day, we tried to brave the torrential rains and strong winds to visit Bratislava Castle and Novy Most bridge, the most famous modern landmark in Bratislava thanks to its UFO-lookalike restaurant and viewing platform. Inevitably, this resulted in a few overturned and broken umbrellas. To add on to our disappointment, Novy Most was closed due to the strong winds and even the ships along the Danube River were not in operation.
As you can see from the pictures, there was hardly anyone on the streets besides us. Everyone was hiding indoors. The winds were so strong, I had to put on my trench and wool scarf in the month of September!! In the end, we gave up our fight against the forces of nature and retreated into our favourite cafe for chocolate crepes with whipped cream.
Truth be told, there is really nothing remotely frightening about Slovakia, except for the strong winds that we experienced. If anything, it is the quietest, most peaceful city I’ve ever been to. The people are generally friendly and very good-looking too (especially the girls). That probably explains why we spent most of our time chilling out at cafes and people-watching. 😛
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