Notes from the Road
It's been a long time, folks, but sometimes one just can't be bothered to sit down and type out his experiences of foreign lands whilst he's still traipsing about them. At the moment, I'm in Varna, Bulgaria, where I've spent the past few days chilling out on & in (it's still warm enough for swimming, though today was overcast) the Black Sea before leaving for Istanbul tomorrow. So here's a brief synopsis of some of my destinations thus far:
Bratislava, Slovakia
Bratislava is a pretty cool town; it's almost a shame that it's so close to Vienna. On the one hand, the Slovakians see a good bit of tourist trade from Vienna, as the Euro/SKroner conversion makes it relatively cheap, even with a train ticket. But on the other, Bratislava won't really ever be anything but a smaller, cheaper Vienna.
The architecture is relatively the same, with a bit of some truly hideous Soviet-era stuff (A little too much vodka that day, Comrade Architect?)--fortunately it's not only shockingly ugly, but also poorly-constructed, so a lot of it is in the process of collapsing in on itself--and the culture is relatively the same as well. That's a gross oversimplification, of course, but more or less true, based on the day and a half I spent here. I'm sure in non-Bratislava parts of Slovakia, there's more traditional Slovakian culture, but the old center of Bratislava feels just like Vienna, with more hills, and tighter streets.
There's a sense of doom here, of impending (continuing?) economic misfortune. Communism came and went, leaving the Slovaks with a shit economy & newly opened borders. That made it an attractive spot for budget-minded Austrians but, for whatever reasons--the Slovak Kroner gaining on the Euro, the standard/cost of living rising, etc.--prices are going up, and it becomes less and less attractive a place to come and visit. And that's no good for the Slovakian people, as I've never heard Bratislava being discussed outside of a cheap place to go from Vienna, for a cheap weekend of drinking. It's a shame, really; Bratislava is a pretty cool town.
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest has a cool, laid back, if somewhat gloomy feel to it, or maybe it's just the language. But the architecture, too; Austro-Hungarian style buildings atrophy, fading memories of a once-great empire, and an improbably large number of bars in what appear to be vacant lots of buildings that may have been destroyed in WWII, or possibly more collapsed Soviet-era stuff. But precariously string up a couple rows of colored electric lanterns--safety code be damned--find some picnic tables and tap a keg of Dreher, and it makes for a hell of a cool place to drunkenly argue about the ancient debate of Grizzly Bear vs. Great White Shark with newly-made hard-drinking Aussie friends. And the buskers here are fantastic, possibly the best I've heard yet. Well, maybe not the best, but their pretty fucking good either way. And, in keeping with what has become a recurring theme of fecal anecdotes, A night of heavy drinking with Australians, following a dinner of traditional Hungarian cuisine (which was delicious, provided one likes onions), does not make for a pleasant morning after. I blame the horseradish.
Bratislava, Slovakia
Bratislava is a pretty cool town; it's almost a shame that it's so close to Vienna. On the one hand, the Slovakians see a good bit of tourist trade from Vienna, as the Euro/SKroner conversion makes it relatively cheap, even with a train ticket. But on the other, Bratislava won't really ever be anything but a smaller, cheaper Vienna.
The architecture is relatively the same, with a bit of some truly hideous Soviet-era stuff (A little too much vodka that day, Comrade Architect?)--fortunately it's not only shockingly ugly, but also poorly-constructed, so a lot of it is in the process of collapsing in on itself--and the culture is relatively the same as well. That's a gross oversimplification, of course, but more or less true, based on the day and a half I spent here. I'm sure in non-Bratislava parts of Slovakia, there's more traditional Slovakian culture, but the old center of Bratislava feels just like Vienna, with more hills, and tighter streets.
There's a sense of doom here, of impending (continuing?) economic misfortune. Communism came and went, leaving the Slovaks with a shit economy & newly opened borders. That made it an attractive spot for budget-minded Austrians but, for whatever reasons--the Slovak Kroner gaining on the Euro, the standard/cost of living rising, etc.--prices are going up, and it becomes less and less attractive a place to come and visit. And that's no good for the Slovakian people, as I've never heard Bratislava being discussed outside of a cheap place to go from Vienna, for a cheap weekend of drinking. It's a shame, really; Bratislava is a pretty cool town.
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest has a cool, laid back, if somewhat gloomy feel to it, or maybe it's just the language. But the architecture, too; Austro-Hungarian style buildings atrophy, fading memories of a once-great empire, and an improbably large number of bars in what appear to be vacant lots of buildings that may have been destroyed in WWII, or possibly more collapsed Soviet-era stuff. But precariously string up a couple rows of colored electric lanterns--safety code be damned--find some picnic tables and tap a keg of Dreher, and it makes for a hell of a cool place to drunkenly argue about the ancient debate of Grizzly Bear vs. Great White Shark with newly-made hard-drinking Aussie friends. And the buskers here are fantastic, possibly the best I've heard yet. Well, maybe not the best, but their pretty fucking good either way. And, in keeping with what has become a recurring theme of fecal anecdotes, A night of heavy drinking with Australians, following a dinner of traditional Hungarian cuisine (which was delicious, provided one likes onions), does not make for a pleasant morning after. I blame the horseradish.