Bratislava For All!
I know, if you're a faithful reader, you're going, "Hey, what about Istanbul?" Yes, I'll get get to it, promise. But recently I have had some quality time right here in BA and wanted to tell you about that first. And it all seemed to fit in with this past week-end which was Bratislava For All, where the doors of the city were literally opened wide: you could meet the mayor, visit the townhall, museums and zoo, all for free. In addition, there were numerous musical performances, also no charge. So this was a great time to be home.
Bratislava For All was scheduled for this past week-end because centuries ago, the burger allowed Bratislava to elect its own mayor and decreed that it should be on April 2, St. George's Day. Well, I didn't meet the mayor but I did meet Eva's husband, Alexander. (Eva is a colleague who teaches english). We drove out to her place, stopped for coffee and then went to an exercise class in her village after school on Friday. (aerobics, the universal language.) Eva showed me her digs and her dogs, including the four long-haired daschound puppies and I got my canine fix.
I love home construction, especially remodeling, and was very interested to see what they had done to their 40-year-old place. What hadn't they done? All new windows and doors, in and out, sidewalks, kennel, tile roof, floors, new kitchen and bath, changing doorways and repairing plaster and paint. Their home has a steep roofline with CONCRETE steps going up to the attic which they are presently remodeling. (The majority of homes are concrete block construction with stucco coating and tile roofs.) We ended the evening by watching Borak, after which Eva drove me back to town.
On Saturday I was invited for dinner to the flat of Jozka and Ewa, two teachers at our school. Both teach German and Jozka also teaches PE as well as chairs my department. Ewa (say Eva) gave me directions and said if I take the 1:08 bus I should be there about 1:30. 1:30?! Yes, that is not unusual for a dinner invitation, so I figured out the tram/bus connection and made it a point to be on time, if not early.
Ewa had prepared a table full of food including both traditional Polish and Slovak specialties. We had two different types of soups; spinach or chicken. To the chicken broth you add your own noodles. With the spinach you spoon in hard boiled eggs, a dish we have in the canteen but I'd never tried. It's actually a delicious combination. There was a pork roast made with plums, sausage wih cabbage, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, salad, rice, corn (always) and probably more that I can't remember. Oh yes, middle child Martin is a vegetarian so he got eggs. Youngest daughter, Danielle is a 4th year, and eldest daughter Andrea, soon to graduate high school helped with dinner and even more with translating.
Following dinner we looked at some family photos on the computer while we nibbled on desserts. Martin left to go to Vienna; cheaper to go there to get the best price on the soccer shoes he needed. We checked bus schedules on line and decided to go to Devin Castle ruins, about 5 minutes away. Jozka's family lives in Devinska Nova Ves, an area that used to be a village but is now incorporated into Bratislava. It is next to Kolyba, the sand dune I had hiked last month, just above the Danube and the bike paths that run parallel to it. Jozka is a certified tour guide, working during the summer months, and knows a lot about Bratislava. He told us that the bike paths were built upon the original soldier routes the communists would walk as they secured the border. During those 50 years of communism, no one ever saw this gorgeous area except the border patrol.
We enjoyed the afternoon walking through the castle ruins, parts of which are over one thousand years old. Devin Castle had been re-built and remodeled numerous times before it was finally blown up by Napoleon's army. Jozko also told me that Bratislava is the 30th most expensive city in Europe, a statistic that will probably continue to rise as the euro gets introduced in Sovakia next year.
Here are a few more BA stats I discovered on my own: Car manufacturers have been enticed to set up shop here, with Kia being the newest arrival. Volkswagon makes the majority of its SUV's here. The Toureg is finished here, and the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 are partially built here. We're thirty-something, the average age being 38.7. Beethoven performed his Solemn High Mass here in Bratislava. (This is what I heard when I saw the Vienna Choir Boys last winter.) And Bratislava is a sister city to eighteen cities, including Vienna, Prague, and...Cleveland!
During our talk about Ewa's German side of the family, she told about how her mother's family was forced to leave Poland after WWII. Ewa's Polish father then illegally crossed the border into Germany to get his fiance and bring her back to Poland. Taking advantage of the distraction of someone else's crying infant, they were able to cross back into Poland where they subsequently married and raised their family. As Jozko says, "That's real love."
Jozko's owns a car but his sister had been using it to drive out to their mother's place to work in the garden. (It's very common for flat-dwellers to own small pieces of property with either a gardern shed or, fancier, a small chata (say hata but make the "h" sound down in your throat; means cottage). She picked us up and I was driven home sometime after eight, later than I expected, but happy to have had such a good visit with the family Marek. (But Ewa is Marakova.) Jozko and Ewa apologized for being so late in the school year to invite me, as they were completing some major renovation. I complimented them on the improvements; it really was a lovely flat. Jozko replied, "It is not important."
The next day was Sunday and Bratislava For All beckoned. I had heard about some folk dance/music entertainment planned for Partisans' Meadow "where inhabitants of Bratislava can convene for traditional entertainment", or so said the announcement. So, feeling very much like a comrade, I took a bus to Zelezna Studnicka (Forest Park) a huge forest preserve in the Little Carpathians. I had planned a hike that would finish up at the Meadow where I could have lunch and enjoy the performance.
I had been there last fall with Zuzka so parts of the area looks familiar, but hiking the trails (or tramping out in nature as they say here) put a new spin on things. I hiked a bit and soon came upon the bottom of the "summer" chair lift for hikers where for some reason you could ride down but not up. So...I hiked UP the hill and crested Koliba, the hilltop where they were holding a mountain bike race. All riders were out on the course so I kept going.
Close by is Kamzik, the TV transmitter tower and a landmark of the area. Up here are the plastic tobaggon runs I had seen dormant last fall but now were in operation. I was dying to try but would have had to abduct a child to get a ride, so on I tramped. I identified a red hiking trail (Remember I now know how to read trail signs.) and thought it would exit me in the general area of the Partisans' Meadow. Didn't see much wildlife that day, unless you count the kid (as in baby goat) I encountered on the trail. I cut across the forest following the trail, which sort of dried up and spit me out on the street hours later, way too tired to go back in and look for the entertainment on the meadow.
Out on the street but not the street I came in on, I was once again confused. Thankfully, it was also a bus line street, and a quick look at the schedules told me I could get to the train station and then take a tram home from there. (I have a 3-month transportation pass which allows me to use any tram, bus or trolley-bus in Zone 1, which is quite large. Most people like me get to know many different stops by name. As at Jozko's, we can also look online to easily read routes and times.) So I missed Bratislava For All, but eventually made it home a tired and well-exercised comrade.
Bratislava For All was scheduled for this past week-end because centuries ago, the burger allowed Bratislava to elect its own mayor and decreed that it should be on April 2, St. George's Day. Well, I didn't meet the mayor but I did meet Eva's husband, Alexander. (Eva is a colleague who teaches english). We drove out to her place, stopped for coffee and then went to an exercise class in her village after school on Friday. (aerobics, the universal language.) Eva showed me her digs and her dogs, including the four long-haired daschound puppies and I got my canine fix.
I love home construction, especially remodeling, and was very interested to see what they had done to their 40-year-old place. What hadn't they done? All new windows and doors, in and out, sidewalks, kennel, tile roof, floors, new kitchen and bath, changing doorways and repairing plaster and paint. Their home has a steep roofline with CONCRETE steps going up to the attic which they are presently remodeling. (The majority of homes are concrete block construction with stucco coating and tile roofs.) We ended the evening by watching Borak, after which Eva drove me back to town.
On Saturday I was invited for dinner to the flat of Jozka and Ewa, two teachers at our school. Both teach German and Jozka also teaches PE as well as chairs my department. Ewa (say Eva) gave me directions and said if I take the 1:08 bus I should be there about 1:30. 1:30?! Yes, that is not unusual for a dinner invitation, so I figured out the tram/bus connection and made it a point to be on time, if not early.
Ewa had prepared a table full of food including both traditional Polish and Slovak specialties. We had two different types of soups; spinach or chicken. To the chicken broth you add your own noodles. With the spinach you spoon in hard boiled eggs, a dish we have in the canteen but I'd never tried. It's actually a delicious combination. There was a pork roast made with plums, sausage wih cabbage, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, salad, rice, corn (always) and probably more that I can't remember. Oh yes, middle child Martin is a vegetarian so he got eggs. Youngest daughter, Danielle is a 4th year, and eldest daughter Andrea, soon to graduate high school helped with dinner and even more with translating.
Following dinner we looked at some family photos on the computer while we nibbled on desserts. Martin left to go to Vienna; cheaper to go there to get the best price on the soccer shoes he needed. We checked bus schedules on line and decided to go to Devin Castle ruins, about 5 minutes away. Jozka's family lives in Devinska Nova Ves, an area that used to be a village but is now incorporated into Bratislava. It is next to Kolyba, the sand dune I had hiked last month, just above the Danube and the bike paths that run parallel to it. Jozka is a certified tour guide, working during the summer months, and knows a lot about Bratislava. He told us that the bike paths were built upon the original soldier routes the communists would walk as they secured the border. During those 50 years of communism, no one ever saw this gorgeous area except the border patrol.
We enjoyed the afternoon walking through the castle ruins, parts of which are over one thousand years old. Devin Castle had been re-built and remodeled numerous times before it was finally blown up by Napoleon's army. Jozko also told me that Bratislava is the 30th most expensive city in Europe, a statistic that will probably continue to rise as the euro gets introduced in Sovakia next year.
Here are a few more BA stats I discovered on my own: Car manufacturers have been enticed to set up shop here, with Kia being the newest arrival. Volkswagon makes the majority of its SUV's here. The Toureg is finished here, and the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 are partially built here. We're thirty-something, the average age being 38.7. Beethoven performed his Solemn High Mass here in Bratislava. (This is what I heard when I saw the Vienna Choir Boys last winter.) And Bratislava is a sister city to eighteen cities, including Vienna, Prague, and...Cleveland!
During our talk about Ewa's German side of the family, she told about how her mother's family was forced to leave Poland after WWII. Ewa's Polish father then illegally crossed the border into Germany to get his fiance and bring her back to Poland. Taking advantage of the distraction of someone else's crying infant, they were able to cross back into Poland where they subsequently married and raised their family. As Jozko says, "That's real love."
Jozko's owns a car but his sister had been using it to drive out to their mother's place to work in the garden. (It's very common for flat-dwellers to own small pieces of property with either a gardern shed or, fancier, a small chata (say hata but make the "h" sound down in your throat; means cottage). She picked us up and I was driven home sometime after eight, later than I expected, but happy to have had such a good visit with the family Marek. (But Ewa is Marakova.) Jozko and Ewa apologized for being so late in the school year to invite me, as they were completing some major renovation. I complimented them on the improvements; it really was a lovely flat. Jozko replied, "It is not important."
The next day was Sunday and Bratislava For All beckoned. I had heard about some folk dance/music entertainment planned for Partisans' Meadow "where inhabitants of Bratislava can convene for traditional entertainment", or so said the announcement. So, feeling very much like a comrade, I took a bus to Zelezna Studnicka (Forest Park) a huge forest preserve in the Little Carpathians. I had planned a hike that would finish up at the Meadow where I could have lunch and enjoy the performance.
I had been there last fall with Zuzka so parts of the area looks familiar, but hiking the trails (or tramping out in nature as they say here) put a new spin on things. I hiked a bit and soon came upon the bottom of the "summer" chair lift for hikers where for some reason you could ride down but not up. So...I hiked UP the hill and crested Koliba, the hilltop where they were holding a mountain bike race. All riders were out on the course so I kept going.
Close by is Kamzik, the TV transmitter tower and a landmark of the area. Up here are the plastic tobaggon runs I had seen dormant last fall but now were in operation. I was dying to try but would have had to abduct a child to get a ride, so on I tramped. I identified a red hiking trail (Remember I now know how to read trail signs.) and thought it would exit me in the general area of the Partisans' Meadow. Didn't see much wildlife that day, unless you count the kid (as in baby goat) I encountered on the trail. I cut across the forest following the trail, which sort of dried up and spit me out on the street hours later, way too tired to go back in and look for the entertainment on the meadow.
Out on the street but not the street I came in on, I was once again confused. Thankfully, it was also a bus line street, and a quick look at the schedules told me I could get to the train station and then take a tram home from there. (I have a 3-month transportation pass which allows me to use any tram, bus or trolley-bus in Zone 1, which is quite large. Most people like me get to know many different stops by name. As at Jozko's, we can also look online to easily read routes and times.) So I missed Bratislava For All, but eventually made it home a tired and well-exercised comrade.
posted by Joan Vande Velde @ 11:37 AM
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