Central Eastern Europe 3. Zigzag across Slovakia

 

 

the 'man in the street' manhole cover sculpture in Bratislava

I’d always got Slovakia and Slovenia mixed up and I doubt that I’m the only one to have done so but I hope now that I’ll remember which is which.  Our Lonely Planet for Eastern Europe, grabbed from our local library because the trip was arranged at such short notice, suggests that if you have a week in Slovakia you spend three days of it in the Capital Bratislava, then visit some castles or galleries, a day or two in ‘quirky’ Kosice and Poprad.  It doesn’t give the impression that there’s much to see.  ‘Quirky’ is a word that when used in L Planet raises suspicions but it happened to be on our train route.  A day did it for us in Kosice, pleasant enough and we obviously didn’t stay long enough to spot the quirk.  

 

the High Tatras from the train near Poprad

and a lot closer from Tatranska Lomnica

After the flat lands of Hungary, we decided to head to the High Tatras, the mountain range bordering Poland to the north.  Once we’d left Kosice, we changed trains at Poprad from where we could see the jagged Tatras to our north.  We were now on a sort of narrow gauge train/tram hybrid to trundle us to the mountains and we stayed in Tatranska Lomnica, a little past the wonderfully named Stary Smokovic and Horny Smokovic.  We were in a classic Alpine looking, pine building filled ski resort with once the mists cleared, fine pointy mountains just to the north.   There were really spectacular.  Lomnica had a fine Botanic Garden which will look great in the spring but was a little less than it’s best in mid September.  I was having a session of being exhausted and stayed in our apartment while Heather took a cable car and ski lift up the mountains for a walk where she was happy to be snowed on.   This northern part of Slovakia is certainly very scenic and is when the limitations of train travel become more apparent.   A car or even better our motorhome would have opened up many more possibilities but we knew that when we came.

Heather on her ski lift run

 

At this point we were still undecided whether to go north into Poland to visit Kracow or stick to our original vague idea of getting to Ljubljana in Slovenia.  Both are a long way from where were, Kracow by time (there are mountains in the way) and Ljubljana by distance.   What decided it was the sheer awkwardness of getting to Kracow, so it was Bratislava and then on to Ljubljana for us.

 

a really skilful piece of roof work
with wooden shingles

I have no idea how train tickets are priced here.  When Heather bought ours at the station she was asked how old we were and had the tickets issued.  We must have got the EU citizens over 65 rate because the two train 5.5 hour trip cost us a little over five Euros including 1.5 Euros for reserving our seats.  Compare that to our later journey from Vienna to Ljubljana which cost 123 Euros plus 7 Euros for reserved seats which were arranged for us (as we later found out in two completely different carriages) in the Vienna station booking office by one of the two most unhelpful people we’ve met on the entire trip.  The other most unhelpful person was also in Vienna, in the information office.  Of all the languages we’ve come across this time, Hungarian, Slovak, German and later Slovenian my strongest is easily German although to be fair it is still limited to Ja, Nien and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

 

The big excitement on our journey to Bratislava was to get a long email from our hotel which right at the bottom informed us that there had been a problem with their booking assistant and our reservation had been cancelled.  As it happens we found a much better located apartment as we jogged along westward.  While perusing the accommodation we saw one that was described as “kitsch with a smirk” which I believe translates into English as “avoid like the plague”.  There were also a smattering of “Boutique Hotels”, hotel with a shop ? shop with a hotel ?  Bratislava has an extensive tram system like many of the places we’ve been to on this trip and we caught one from the station straight to our hotel.  Nice place, recently restored and very contemporary, no carpets, a rest area, with a fully equipped kitchen and a free proper coffee machine plus a laundry and right on the edge of the old town.  It had the feel of a student accommodation block but tidier.

 

our Bratislava hotel common rest, coffee and kitchen area
with a laundry at the far end

While watching some trams moving about I noticed one of them stop, the driver jumped out with what looked like a long straight metal bar, ran to the front of the tram and levered the points so that he could continue along a different line to the previous trams.

 

a night view of Bratislava

our really expensive tea and cakes in Bratislava
- not very classy though, the tea came as a tea bag with a pot of hot water 

Bratislava old town is mainly traffic free which makes it very comfortable to wander around and it does have a lot of interesting looking old buildings in that late Austro-Hungarian style that is so common here.  It is a small centre, about a similar size to the centre of Oxford and in my opinion falls into that category of places worth seeing but not worth going to see.   What didn’t help Bratislava’s case was that it was cold and drizzly.

 

the 'Blue Church' in Bratislava

a couple of Bratislava old town views

For this trip we’d decided that we’d have at least two nights in every place and none of that arrival in the afternoon, hotel, meal, and then up and away in the morning stuff.  It’s worked well for us.   So after a long enough break in Bratislava we were off to the station by tram, one train to Vienna and then a change for the long train ride to Ljubljana.

 

your correspondent at Bratislava
 awaiting the Vienna train

One disappointment this trip was that because it was arranged so quickly and with even less of a plan than usual, we’d not contacted our friend Ingrid in Vienna who we had hoped to see on this trip.  We’d met in the Dominican Republic some years back, she dropped in to visit us in the summer AND she reads my blog !   Unfortunately, when we would have been in Vienna she was in Malta so we ditched our thoughts to stay in Vienna for a couple of days and headed straight onto our expensive connection to Slovenia.    

 

Now here's a question for you.  

This is our hotel in Bratislava, when do you think it was built ?

Answers by email, on the blog or by carrier pigeon, as long as I get some answers

 

 

 

Covers 16 September to 21 September 2022