Another long day of travelling to a new country for us means another stopover in a low-key and often tucked away location, which in this case happened to be Bratislava, Slovakia. It's one of those places that seemed to be less well-known on our itinerary, so I was interested to see what the day would bring and if this town would prove to be a hidden gem much like Salzburg.
It was an early start to the morning, so I was sleeping along most of our route to Bratislava, but I did manage to take one halfway decent en route photo between subconscious moments.
Once we officially arrived, we had a quick introduction with our tour guide, Henrietta, and then hit the ground running! She led us straight to the top of the Bratislava observational tour within about 20 minutes, so I think it's safe to say that I had seen the whole city within half an hour of arriving! Henrietta wasn't messing around, that's for sure.
It's always amazing to see things from above. In my case, I'm always thinking of the irony between my distaste of heights and the knowledge that they always seem to bring about the most stunning viewpoints. The latter is certainly true though, and there was no denying that this was also the case in Bratislava--even amidst the rainy weather and winds that threatened to shake me (and my calm mindset) from the tower.
A surprise at the top was an abundance of colorful ribbons, all which had writing on them! No one had any idea what they were about, and I tried to research this when I got back to my computer but I couldn't find anything about it on the web. Between you and me, I may or may not have taken a ribbon to translate it as well, and it may or may not have read, 'I have lots of friends at school' with a sunshine drawn on it. It's all still a mystery to me!
Two of my favorite photos from Slovakia--two boats joining and a white castle on a hill. The rain was clearing and it certainly was shaping up to be a beautiful day!
Another random fact about my time on the observational tower..even the bathrooms offer a view! I found this to be just a little bit creepy but at the same time kind of cool..either way I guess it was an experience! (notice the inscription on the window reads, "enjoying the view?")
The graffiti along the bridge to the tower was also pretty clever, and I wound up photographing a handful of tags. What can I say, I think it's pretty neat to see what people are drawing while our class is en route from tour stop to tour stop.
More things we passed by: a copper-coated street performer and his inanimate inspiration; a sculpture set of white mystery blobs. Someone in my group guessed them to be teeth and I in turn guess that's the most oddly accurate thing we managed to compare them to!
A colorful and huge print of sunny times; the bridge leading to the observation tower.
Two large old-fashioned bicycles (that reminded me of the museum in Grand Rapids I used to visit as a kid), and another one of my many photographs of a European door
Beautiful yellow flowers and beautifully detailed architecture.
A contemporary building which exists in the same world as many older building in Bratislava--Henrietta talked about this at some length, discussing the debate amongst locals about whether or not the city should strive to meet modern technology and building which has produced a certain aesthetic in our architectural era, or if Bratislava should attempt to maintain its architectural identity as it appeared some years ago. She also brought up the question of how these two separate worlds begin to collide amidst the attempted boundaries of separation, and the consequentially confused urban fabric that Bratislava is beginning to experience.
One of the last stops on the tour was at a blue church, which I admittedly didn't hear much about since I was lagging behind due to my snap-happy photo-taking binge I was apparently ensuing. I really like the blue church though. It was smaller and clearly a lot different than many of the overly Gothic and high Renaissance ones we had been frequenting, and so I appreciated the change of appearance and grandeur. The details like the hand-crafted tile work along its facade complimented my overall attitude toward it. Plus, it brought back reminisces of elementary school via the song 'i'm blue da-va-dee-da-va-di' which only added to the randomness that seemed to identify my entire experience in Bratislava.
And as if that weren't enough to convince you of how odd and peculiar and spontaneous everything truly was, my lunch happened to consist of pear juice and half of an apple strudel. Ah, such is life.
Ultimately, I liked the architectural debate that Henrietta brought up. The tour was a visual representation of that, and it certainly provided ample food for thought. Beyond that, I seem to have discovered that Slovakia is the perfect place to go for whims, bizarre things, and collectively interesting occurrences. Just an fyi for those of you who may be looking for a little of that or wondering what the heck Bratislava is all about!
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