Slovak in a day

The rain caught up to us. I sat on my bed staring out the wet soaked window, still in shock over the details of last night's mass shooting at Las Vegas. Everyone has left from my room, and it was barely 7am. I wasn't too surprised. From everyone I have spoken to on this trip, the consensus has been the same. One day in Bratislava, the biggest city in Slovakia, is enough. In fact, I had originally planned not to come here. But why not spend one day in the country, I thought. It's not like I might ever been in Slovakia again. In fact, had I planned this better, I would have scheduled to stay on a night when the local KHL hockey team was playing. I fellow Canadian traveller went to one. It was a riot, he said. I would expect nothing less. The KHL can be the less civilized, more rowdy version of the NHL. There are some sick talents, no doubt, but probably a lot more variation in skill levels and goon plays.

And so, this rainy Tuesday (Tuesday, is it?) is now my travel day, a nice slow intermission in my city hopping schedule. My train in Kraków leaves at 11:10am, which means plenty of time to stay in the appropriately named dreamy Dream Hostel, and get my laundry done.

But spending a day in Bratislava was well worth it (the 3 hr bus journey here was rather comfortable, which I have learned, they do quite good job of long distance bus travels here, with comfortably clean coaches and, in the case of the one I just took ran by RegioJet, even served hot coffee and water enroute along with headrest entertainment systems on each seat). Coming from the stunning city of Budapest to Bratislava, you have got to feel a little bit of a downer. This was it? Damn that castle looked hideous on the hill. The train station looked trashy. That was supposed to be the biggest in the country?

But like all sleepy smaller towns, once you walk it, they usually still have a lot of character. The old town of Bratislava was clean and well preserved, despite losing a large chunk of it over the building of a terrible looking bridge during the communist ruling era. Bratislava is like the always overlooked sibling of Prague. Word was that, when it was Czechoslovakia as a whole, the communist regime felt included to have one beautiful city (Prague), and one simply just functional one (Bratislava). There's a chip on the shoulder of the Slovaks, no doubt. But while it may not be as refined as some of the nearby worldly cities, the charm is that people simply just live here and make it work. In fact, sometimes it feels more real. Everyday modern Slovaks, living among dull looking communist buildings beside historic ones alike. It felt a little like the Eastern part of Berlin, whose chill and laid back attitude actually made me rather fell in love with it. So, Bratislava does have charm, behind its somewhat pretty-enough face.