August 25th

Hrad Castle- Bratislava

After class today, A small group of us made our way to the capital city of Bratislava, Slovakia. It was only about a 50 min train ride from Vienna and was my first trip to Eastern Europe. Situated along the Danube River, Bratislava was the capital of the Hungarian Empire from the years 1536-1763. After we got off the train we headed for the Hrad Castle, which is one of the most dominate features of the cityscape of Bratislava. It is situated atop of a hill and looks directly out over the Danube River. it was built in the 13th century and is constructed primarily in the old gothic style. The largest of the towers is called Crown Tower and actually houses the crown jewels of the Hungarian Empire. One of the most noticeable features across the river was the old Soviet style of housing. The apartments are brightly colored and are very distinct from other apartment buildings that you would be used to seeing. The style of architecture was intended to provide individuals with affordable housing while putting as many people into one building as possible to maximize efficiency. With a population of around 429,000 the capital city of Bratislava is Slovakia's largest city. You would not get that impression however walking around because the city is very easy to navigate and was quite small compared to Vienna. The people there were very friendly though compared to the Viennese and it was much more affordable to grab some dinner. We went to this restaurant at the bottom of the hill that lead up to the castle and for 6 people, we were able to get dinner for around 31.00 euros. If you were to do that in Vienna it would have been double that. Our waiter though was very friendly and did not try to rip us off or anything like some waiters in Vienna tried to do. There is quite a lot of shopping though in Bratislava if that is what you desire. In the main downtown area, there are countless jewelry shops, shoe shops, clothing stores and so on. There is a street market where you can get affordable jewelry which is hand made and very rich in detail and the prices are very affordable. Before we left, we walked along the Danube River at sunset. It was probably the most beautiful sunset that I had seen on the trip . The city of Bratislava is very small so we spent about 6 hours there and saw all the sites. I would definitely go back to the city though because of its charm, affordability, beauty, and local population. Unlike Vienna where everyone seems to treat you like foreign tourists, I didn't feel out of place in Bratislava. The people didn't give me disgusted looks for just walking down the street and enjoying their city like the Viennese do.