Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava is a horrible city. There is quite a charming old town with a fort and a church on the Danube, but it is the size of a grain of sand in an oceanic and grotesque melange of soviet-style blockhouses and unplanned urban sprawl. I bet most tourists don't see this, but I chose to walk the two kilometers from the train station to my hotel, and it was enlightening and depressing all at once. Clearly, Slovakia is an up-and-coming country infused with new EU money, but just as clearly, the old architecture couldn't be more opressing no matter how massive.

But I mentioned the charming old city. This IS truly charming. I wandered around the castle today and took in St. Martin's Cathedral, where emperors (and the one empress) of Hungary and Austria were crowned over the course of hundreds and hundreds of years. The palace, in particular, is something else, atop a steep hill and fortified with imposing stone ramparts. I liked it.

I was the only one visiting the cathedral, which rather surprised me as it does have quite an illustrious history and some fine stained-glass windows. There was a keeper there washing the windows, though, and he and I got into an interesting (if stilted, because of language) conversation. There is a highway at the bottom of the hill that forms the base of the palace. On one side, of course, is the palace; on the other is St. Martin's. The fellow with whom I was talking--a soft-spoken old man who seemed to know an awful lot and who seemed very pleased to be engaged by somebody--told me that the highway ran where the palace moat used to be. Decades ago, he said, this seemed like a great idea because it allowed the road to run through the old town without disturbing any of the old buildings, and, because it was sunk relative to ground level, it didn't much disturb the pleasant views of cobbled streets and whatnot. But now, it turns out that the traffic is too near the church and is weakening its foundations. Every year that goes by without something being done weakens the foundation further. The keeper is worried that the church won't last very much longer despite a renovation to fix fire damage just two years ago. "I am sure the government will rebuild," he says, citing its importance as a cultural icon, "but I would like them to not let it fall."

Also today, early this morning, I awoke and wandered around fields outside of the city. It was lovely, and I saw (wild) grouse, pheasants or something, and a large canine-like mammal (not a dog, though--it was at a distance, but I'd suggest something like a fox?).