Bratislava

Our last two days have been consumed by a very windy and cold, but very comical, class trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, accompanied by Frank, Mona (his wife, another geography professor at Dartmouth), and one of our Czech professors. How to describe Slovakia…Well, its more a less a ghetto Czech Republic. It is not as big, not as historical, and not as economically advanced—but it is on the Euro! The 12 of us who went on the trip did enjoy our stay.

We toured around the city on a small bus- led by a guide and as Slovakian geography student. Considering they used to be united in one nation, Czechs and Slovaks are able to communicate because about 70% of their languages are the same, and they can more or less understand the other words based on the TV they have watched. Attractions we hit: two castles (we can’t get enough of those), panel housing, and a dam (obviously, Frank is a physical geographer). Don’t be blown away (no pun intended) by how exciting that itinerary sounds!

What amazed me about the city was that Bratislava sits right on the border of both Austria and Hungary. The city expansion over the years has been confined to these arbitrary political borderlines. A view from one of the castles allowed us to see the expansive Slovakian communist panel housing across the Danube, distinctly cut off by the Austrian border. The quick landscape change was marked by a highway and then greenery filled with wind turbines. Then this morning when we visited the dam in the Danube, we learned that half of the project was Slovakian and half was Hungarian, and it has created numerous political controversies over the years. It is also home to an extreme white water kayaking course- were we saw some national Slovakian competitors in their daily training. Cool!

Lastly (in my Bratislava geography lesson for all of you), one of the small communities we visited sits on the Morava River, an extremely narrow channel of water on the Austrian border. Under communism, no one was allowed in this community because it was the easiest point of escape to Austria and out of the Soviet regime. We saw a memorial for all of the Slovakian lives that were lost in their attempt to escape communist rule; some tried to swim and some tried to para-glide from the top of a nearby hill. Needless to say, Bratislava sits presently and historically in a pivotal geographical location.

Now back to the fun stuff. We had a DELICIOUS meal last night when we were on own to wander around the historical center/main square of the city. We found this awesome “all you can eat for a fixed price” tapas bar/buffet. (A little preview to Heather, Anny, Ana and my Spain trip at the end of our term- AH! That is a week and a half away!)

Most people chose to go for the all-you-can-eat salad bar that was filled with every kind of veggie dish you can think of, soup, and bread. But Kristen, Sarah and I splurged on the all-you-can-eat meat platter, in addition to the salad bar. The three of us received cards that on one side were green and had a sketch of a skinny man that said “All you can eat. GO!” The red flip-side was a fat man saying, “Oh, you can’t eat. STOP!” We feasted on steak, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, calamari, octopus, and maybe even more types? As much as I wanted to keep going because the food was so good, I eventually had to say no more and flipped my card. This tapas bar was definitely one of my favorite dining experiences we have had this term- I think most people can agree with that.

We are on our 5 hour train ride back to Prague now, where we will remain until our program is done next Friday, May 28^th. We have one independent study project left and we are going to try to fill our days with everything we have yet to do in Prague. We miss you all at home and can’t wait to see you all so soon!