Around the blue Danube, episode I

We spent last weekend in Bratislava and Vienna, two of the cities which are visited by the Danube in its trip of 2800 kilometres to the Black Sea. It has been a strange trip, where we have suffered extreme heat, especially in Vienna, and some minor inconveniences or anecdotes.

To catch our flight, we had to wake up at 5:45am, an hour which cannot be appropriate according to the Human Rights Declaration. If it is not explicitly mentioned there, I can tell you that at least it is in the spirit of the text not to allow this to happen.

We started in Bratislava, where we spent one very nice day, which started with a visit to the castle in Devin. This castle, around 10 kilometres from the city centre, stands on a rock, overlooking the rivers Morava and Danube. In this occasion, due to the rains of the previous days, both rivers had quite brown water (not blue like in the walzer), even with some wood from time to time. In same areas, it was possible to see the Danube slightly overflooded.

Then, we continued the visit in the historical centre of Bratislava, which is dominated by the castle. The old town in Bratislava is free of cars, so it is really easy and convenient for a short walk. In the evening, we decided to go closer to the river, to the commercial center Eurovea, where we could also take impressive pictures of the Danube.

We decided then to stay for dinner and we chose a Czech restaurant. Going to a Czech restaurant in Slovakia sounds a bit weird and I think that it was our destiny not to have a good experience. In the end, after 45 minutes waiting, we had to leave because the waiter had forgotten us and did not have the courage to tell us the truth.

One very interesting aspect of Bratislava is to observe how much the city looks like a Western city in some areas. Twenty years after its collapse, the trace of communism has disappared in some big areas of the city and, for sure, in the mind of the inhabitants. I guess that in some rural areas the situation may be different, but, at least, in the capital city, one does not have the impression of being in a former city under communist rule.

The two days in Vienna will come in the next post, where I will talk about African temperatures and a crazy Persian taxi-driver, among other things.