| Page Views: 115 Last Visit to Bratislava: March, 2007 | Bratislava, Slovakia by ALANinWORCS69 - last update: Apr 25, 2007 |
I'm not one to often say this... but to be honest Bratislava dissapointed me. Yes true, it's a lovely Little City, it has great architecture, a quaint small feel to the place and it's very easy to get around. But for me what makes a place is it's people and I feel this is where it lets itself down. Unfortunately I found the majority of people rude and arrogant especially people in authority ie, at the airport and the police. It was as if the locals avoided eye contact... I don't know, maybe it's something to do with Slovakia's past. Or even the fact that it was raining continously for three days out of the four I was there! I know us Brits can become depressed in the rain! If anyone knows why, please let me know.
Bratislava promotes itself as the "The Big Little City" this description can been seen all over Bratislava with advertising splashed across buses and trams. And it's right, It's a capital City with a population of less than half a million people. It feels like a midsize UK city.
The Old Town is the heart of Bratislava... a network of traffic free streets packed with places to eat and drink. I visited in March (in the rain!) and although it was still lovely, I guess it would be best to visit in the summer months when the Restaurants and Cafe's would have outdoor seating where you could sit with a drink and watch the world go by.
The River Danube splits the city in two. The Danube is very important to Bratislava... it brings in goods (barges can be seen all day long "tooing and frowing" ) and more importantly of late it brings in tourists; either daytrippers from Vienna (it's only just over an hour downstream)or passengers cruising on the River Cruises. Again at the time of my visit these cruises and trips hadn't started for the "season" yet... they usually operate between April and October.
Perhaps in hindsight I may just have been unlucky... the endless rain, going out of season or even visiting with 3 other English males (we're not all hooligans you know!). Maybe it is that Bratislava does not want to become another Prague or Amsterdam and is discouraging UK males from visiting... Although I can't blame any city wanting too. Although as I said "we're not all travelling for beer and girls...". |
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| Pros: | "Small and Easy to Navigate" | | Cons: | "People did seem unfriendly" | | In A Nutshell: | ""The Big Little City"" |
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