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Bratislava
Day 2 - June 21, 2008
This morning we woke up and went looking for some breakfast. Our hostel suggested a street with lots of cafes for us to check out. We found a place and ordered a coffee each and an apple juice. Danny got ham and eggs (three sunny side up) and Laura got a cheese omelet - all for 240 SKK, the equivalent of only $12 - a HUGE contrast to the food in Switzerland last weekend. Afterwards, we went window shopping a little bit, looking for cheap Slovakian merchandise. We found a little outdoor market and Laura got two pairs of sunglasses for about $2 each.
After that, we headed for the Tourist Information center which was near the main town square. We got a map and some bus information for future excursions. We went into the main square and found a cute little train car that toured the "Old City." Since we had been wandering around looking at interesting building without any clue as to what they were (for some reason our travel books didn't cover Slovakia, imagine that…) we decided it would be a good investment to take the tour for about $6/person.
We had a nice 30 minute tour of the old part of the city. Bratislava has A TON of "palaces" and was home to lots of composers for some period of their lives (Beethoven's student and therefore Beethoven, List, etc…). We also learned that the St. Martin's Cathedral was the coronation place of many members of the Hapsburg dynasty. The top of the church has an exact replica of the Hungarian crown which weights 200 kg. From the cathedral, the kings would march along "Coronation Road" to the Franciscan Church to knight chosen members of the aristocracy. Then, they would ride their horses with their swords held high to overlook the river. Coronation Road is marked with golden crowns embedded in the cobblestone road.
After the tour, we backtracked to take pictures of some of the sights more closely. On one of the corners there is a statue called "Chumil" (don't know the spelling) which is a little man climbing out of one of the manholes. He has apparently been decapitated by cars twice in the past, so now there is a "man working" sign posted right by him. It is rumored that he "likes to look up women's skirts" so we had fun posing that way later. Also, near St. Martin's Cathedral there is a holocaust memorial, which casts a cool shadow of the Star of David. On the wall behind the memorial is a silhouette of a synagogue etched into a black wall. The synagogue used to stand there, but was torn down in order to building "UFO bridge" across the Danube. On the other side of the church, there is the remains of the fortification that used to border the city. It was a double wall and was also surrounded by a moat. One part of the church has an old "bathroom" tower that used to flush directly into the moat. There also used to be four gates into the city. Only one (St. Michael's Gate) is still standing and is the symbol of Bratislava. It has clocks on only 3 sides of its tower because the tax-payers did not want to pay additional taxes for there to be a fourth clock.
After that, we got some REALLY cheap ice cream (15 skk for a scoop = 75 cents) and walked over to the castle across the road from the church. Unfortunately it was being renovated so we could not go inside the actual castle but we were able to walk around the grounds and got a splendid view of the bridge and the rest of the city since it is up on a tall hill. We also about our 7th bride and groom pair. Apparently June 21st is a GREAT day to get married in Bratislava. There were literally couples on every set of church stairs, at every tourist attraction, and taking photos at various cafes along the road all day long.
After seeing the castle, we walked across the bridge to find Junifest - the event that had influenced Danny to want to come all the way to Slovakia to begin with. From the bridge, we saw what looked like a beach, so we went to check that out first. It ended up being a kind of fake beach with imported sand, a tikihut bar, beach volleyball, and sand soccer. We walked through a photography exhibition that was right by there and then headed back toward the Expo Center. When we finally made it there, after sweating (it was at least 85 degrees and REALLY sunny) we found out that it did not open for another hour. We went to the mall to get a cold fountain soda from McDonald's with "lots of ice" which meant less than a half the cup full. We went shopping a little (we got good deals) and had lunch before heading back to Junifest.
The admission to the festival was 100 skk per person = $5. Once inside, liter beers, just like in Munich, were only 50 skk ($2.50). AWESOME! (in Danny's words) There weren't many people there, but we figured it would get busier since it lasted from 4 pm to 2 am. We tried some of their local beer as well the "real" Budweiser from the Czech Republic. Danny had seen videos online of a contest where you held out a liter of beer with a straight arm for as long as possible and was really excited about participating. When the old host came up on stage to ask for volunteers (we thought) he spoke only in Slovakian so Danny was hesitant to go up. Once Laura finally convinced him, he went up and watched as several Slovakian women downed a half liter of beer. Fearful that his contest was going to be a liter chugging contest, he let an Australian guy take his place. Turns out it WAS the contest he wanted to participate in and even the losers got to keep the free beer. Anyone who placed above last place also got a goody bag which we think had a t-shirt in it (and they didn't sell t-shirts - we REALLY wanted one!).
After Danny finished his first two liters and JUST purchased his third, the host came back up on stage to ask for volunteers again. Danny jumped right up there ready to prove his strength and win us a T-shirt. Again, the women downed their beers and then the host went through to "meet all the contestants." When he heard Danny was from the U.S. He asked, "Washington D.C.? Atlanta?" When Danny said yes, Atlanta, the guy told everyone in the audience something (we don't know) and then chanted "Coca-Cola!!! Atlanta!" over and over. Finally, the contest got underway and as Danny got ready to hold out his liter, everyone else started chugging! NOOOO!!!!
Well, after being introduced as the American and being cheered for, he couldn't very well forfeit so he did his best to chug right along with the Slovaks. After visiting Munich and learning that the human body is only designed to hold about 1 liter of liquid TOTAL (and Danny had not yet gone to the bathroom after his first two liters) he was feeling pretty bad after chugging about ¾ of it without taking a break. By the time he got to that point, the winner had already finished. But Danny could not get last - he was representing the whole United States! - so he got second to last and DID NOT get a T-shirt! But…he didn't completely lose his pride, so it all worked out. We thought he MIGHT be able to puke, but nope…he doesn't know how.
Since we had the liter mugs, Laura started doing our Munich liter-spinning trick and some Slovakian guys saw her and came over to ask how to do that. She went over to their table and tried to teach these five Slovakians how to spin their FULL mugs, unsuccessfully. She told them to wait til they were more empty and try again. Later, we ended up joining their table and they taught us some Slovakian words and we had some fun. One of them spoke English very well because he had worked in the United States for a year. They kept asking why were there - and it wasn't surprising because there were NO other Americans - and they said not even that many Slovakians regularly attended Junifest.
There was lots of dancing on stage, live music and pretty good food, so we had a lot of fun, not to mention the beer was really cheap (in case you didn't get that before). During the course of the evening, we managed to stash away 3 of the liter mugs - a pretty heavy collection. Five and half liters after arriving, around midnight (don't worry Moms…Laura did NOT keep up with Danny), Danny finally agreed that it was time to go back to the hostel. Laura led the way for the most part. The best part of the walk back was when we got the UFO bridge and Danny acted like he was being abducted by aliens - it's a good video, check it out! Several liters of beer do not lead to ideal circumstances for walking long distances, so we had to make a pit stop in a hotel (well, two, we got kicked out of one before we found the WC). We finally made it back to our hostel and went to sleep - the best sleep we've had in a while.
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