Central / Eastern Europe Trip — Slovakia

Sitting here on a Friday night, dreaming up schemes and drinking cheap wine, I decided to write about the second leg of my trip.

Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia

We arrived in Slovakia on Tuesday, October 4th at about six pm. The hotel was a decent distance (and also uphill) from the part of town with stores, restaurants, and bars, but it was still a nice enough hotel overall. The only real drawbacks were that they only issued one key per room, and we were in doubles. And the shower was also woefully inadequate, so I ended up taking baths. Not entirely bad. The continental breakfast here was also very good.

After moving my stuff into the room, I headed into town alone. Found the center of town without any effort, and walked about. The downtown area of Bratislava was very nice. There was, on one side of a major thruway, the ‘old city’, complete with the requisite cobblestone, pedestrian-only streets. On the other side, was the more modern section. I’m sure there was a high-scale area somewhere, but the modern section that I walked about was fairly dingy, filled with second-rate, dubious shops. My sort of area. In one spot, there was a narrow alleyway that I wandered into, and throughout the entire way there was a sort of market that had sprung up, mostly used clothes and cheap jewelry.

I walked around for a few hours, and finally settled onto a bench in a large, well-lit square with two impressive churches on either side. There were choirs singing from both, and it was really a lovely atmosphere. I slowly smoked a cigar and sipped jager from my flask for nearly an hour, people-watching. Afterwards, I ate a quick wrap, and then stumbled upon a group of Americans. I joined them for a bar or two (or three), and then departed. Walked back to the hotel, fairly early, and called it a night. We had gotten in so late, that there was not a whole lot that we could have done that day. On the way back to the hotel, I tried to take a new way, and got a bit lost. I mean, I knew where the nice city center was, so I eventually backtracked. But outside of the shop / restaurant area, Bratislava was pretty sketcky. Especially late at night. A few times I questioned the wisdom of walking about alone (which is forbidden according to the higher-ups in the study abroad program. But I’m a rebel).

Wednesday, October 5th, we left early for three educational seminars. These were alright, nothing to write home about. Including a quick lunch break, they lasted from 9:30am till 4pm. This was also the evening on which we had the chance to go to an opera on the program’s dime. It was at 6pm — Swan Lake by the Slovak National Theatre. There was not enough time to go back to the hotel, so I wore business-formal attire the entire day. It killed my feet, wearing my dress shoes all day.

The ballet was great, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to, being my first ballet. But it certainly was a dash of culture. I think that I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Originally, I was pretty much only going out of some sort of obligation of seeming cultured. Oh, and it was free. But I genuinely enjoyed myself. Some of the moves were amazing, and the orchestra was grand (there was one lead clarinet that I could see from where I sat; she seemed to get many important parts, and the music reminded me of when I use to play). The only thing worth mentioning that was not particularly impressive, was the spot-lighting. It was pretty so-so, but I think that the only reason I noticed was because I had to deal with shoddy spot-lighting in high school, when I did the lighting for a few plays.

Afterwards, I went back to the hotel since it was getting a bit late, and I didn’t really feel like drinking. Not sure why. Watched some TV.

Thursday, October 6th, we ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel early, bound for Prague, via bus.