part 4 of 2 weeks in east europe
YAY! part 4, aka the final part is finally here, 1 mth after we returned! we have been to many more places since then..i have to go on a blogging spree!
anyway, bratislava was better than we expected it to be. the town is generally quite run down and dead, maybe 'coz it was easter and easter monday when we were there but the old town is a charming and pretty. afterall, bratislava was the capital of czechoslovakia before they split. it does look a little bit like prague, just not as happening. 
we arrived in bratislava by bus from budapest. it's the cheapest journey of our trip, at only 15sgd for a eurolines ride. thanx for the 50% student discount + some internet reservation discount! yep..and SAD is written all over the station. it's actually the name of their local bus company. how sad..
after getting to the hostel, we spent a pretty long time getting the tickets for our next journey settled 'coz of some dispute in the prices quoted. bleah. it was tough trying to get our idea across to the ticket ladies who didn't really understand english. thank god for their patience. after the tickets were settled, we were all starving and got ourselves some chicken cutlet burgers at the roadside stalls just outside the station. it's yummy..kind of like the old fongseng western. and it's quite cheap too i remember..about 2sgd. easily the cheapest food we've had in months! 
we set out to search for the old town. along the way, we noticed that the buildings in bratislava are actually quite nice and big. 
along the way to the old town, we stumbled upon a nice big park. oh ya! the weather was superb that day, nice blue skies with little specks of clouds, kind of like wallpaper. so cheerful!
and we found a fountain rainbow in a fountain in the park! now everytime i pass a fountain, i am tempted to circle around it in search for the rainbow. haha. 
this is the old town square in bratislava. it's really quite pretty, just a little on the small side. 
we visited a palace in the old town and were gladly surprised that admission is free for students! but no photo taking in the palace, which obviously didn't stop us. we still sneaked a couple of shots of the luxurious furnishing of the palace. it's beautiful. 
and i found roasted chestnuts! gao lak!! it's not too much different from the ones we have in singapore, but they crack the shell here so it's easy to peel. but it's not as fragrant. but really nice for a cold day. 
and here are some of the nicer buildings around the old town. 
we heard music and singing along the streets and went to see where it came from. we found this family at the street corner. they were there the next day too. i think they're middle eastern 'coz the song they were singing sounds malay. but they sing pretty well actually. and the 2 boys are twins which makes it adorable. 
around the corner, we also found really cheap gelato! which we went back for more like at least 3 times and even bb who doesn't even like ice cream that much asked for it! it's like 80 cents a scoop for good gelato. yummy. 
and the kids in Bratislava were the friendliest lot we met on the trip! there was this cute little boy kicking a ball around and he kicked it to us. there are alot of soccer stars in the making there. everywhere, there are toddlers kicking soccer balls. and the top right photo, the little boy was playing on the statue and then a little girl went to join him and he started flirting with her and when his parents carried him away, he screamed and fought to go back! haha. 
there were alot of strange statues around the old town too, apart from the man in the manhole. i like the papparazi at the street corner and the man on the bench. really cute. 
and outside their huge church, there was this wall with the windows filled with van gogh paintings which puzzles us since van gogh isn't from slovakia but from holland. hm hm..
this is the huge church. St.Martin's Cathedral. it was used in the past for the coronation of kings and there's still a festival each year to celebrate that. should be nice to watch. the interior's really grand and there's an excavation at the corner in which the boys were spotting the skulls. and top right corner was the tomb of a guy whose name i can't remember but his head is gone from the statue. eeks. 
more strange stuff around town. the witch in the window is quite freaky 'coz it looks quite real and it's above a.......watch shop! and the man popping out of the window is quite comical. 
dinner that night was at a student pub called Slovak pub. the food's cheap and pretty good. if you're going to bratislava, check out the place. we had some slovakian dumplings which are really different from the polish ones. it's really small..like small balls of dough. and everything's in goat cheese which has a taste a tad too strong for me but apart from that, the food's tasty. 
but at the back, we found this huge bird mama statue and had fun taking photos and sitting in her lap. haha. quite comfortable really. 
we headed back to old town for another ice cream break. haha. 
while we were shopping for souveniors in the old town square, i noticed this woman dressed really really oddly. 
a closer look! she had like flowery stuff, huge butterflies in her hair, i don't even know how to describe her! it's no wonder why people think asians are weird! 
we had hot chocolate at a speciality shop on the town square too. they had like 20 different kinds of hot chocolate! mint, nuts, fruits, you name it, you get it. even white hot chocolate. it's quite yummy. the inside of the shop had a huge chooclate fountain and the wall was panelled with shelfs of chocolates and biscuits! arh!
and we eventually found nothing more to do. we decided to head over to tesco, one of the very few places open to buy food and had an impromtu picnic along river danube which stretches from vienna to budapest to bratislava. look at the boys happy faces outside tesco! haha. 
and that's the river danube behind me. the opposite shore looks like it has some park but we didn't go there 'coz we were too lazy after almost 2 weeks of walking. but yea..pple were looking at us really strangely when we were eating peanuts and chips on the benches. there was even this lady who was tsk tsking at us for the few peanut shells we dropped which we picked up of course, even without her tsk tsking. irritating. 
and that's it for bratislava! we boarded the train at night for krakow. it's a long overnight ride and we got a sleeper cabin. quite cool. we had free water and croissants and small towels and soap! 
we stayed at Flamingo Hostel at Krakow. it has the best location! it's right smack in the old town which made going out and getting around much easier. the hostel's really homey and the staff's great. when we were leaving, we even met the boss who's really young and friendly. he was changing the mattresses of the beds 'coz they're quite old. the hostel deserves all the praises and awards is has gotten and we highly recommend staying there! 
foodwise, poland again meant donuts for me and zapiekanka for the guys, which we didn't wait to buy! the zapiekankas are as good but the donuts are no match for the famous ones in warsaw. i want more! roar! 
there are 2 famous tours in Krakow. one's the wieliczka salt mine and another's the auschwitz concentration camp. we decided to go for the salt mine since it's indoors and the bad weather wouldn't affect us. we would have went for both if not for the high cost. i really want to see what's auschwitz like but i guess it's quite morbid and depressing. 
here's the outside of the salt mine. it's about a half an hour drive away from town. and for those who are going there to visit, don't buy tickets from the one that's posting advertisements everywhere. there's another one that's cheaper for students right on the spot of the meeting point of the more advertised one. ask me for the street! i'm lazy to find it now. 
the salt mine was quite disappointing 'coz its a little too manmade and touristy. instead of seeing the mining process, we were visiting more salt sculptures and cathedrals. but the main cathedral's really beautiful. and the fact that everything is carved out of salt is quite amazing. there really is salt along the walls and it's really salty. haha. the lift we took to get back from the bottom of the mine to the top was scary and the most exciting part of the trip. but it's a good thing we went for it 'coz the weather got even worse when we got out. 
its a good thing Krakow has a huge shopping mall! the first and last time i've been in such a huge one since i came to europe. it's just like the Singapore ones. i miss vivo! we spent some time having lunch and shopping around before heading back to the hostel. i got some pull n bear t-shirts and a skirt for 50sgd. much cheaper than in Singapore. i would have bought more if not for the long queues for the changing room! 
we went to an Irish pub that night to catch the man u vs roma match. it's really fun 'coz the crowd is crazy. there were men dressed in irish kilts and cheering and singing just like in the stadium. and it was a crazy match too! trashing! totally worth our money and walking in the rain! 
the next morning when we set out from the hostel, there was this man just outside dribbling a soccer ball and doing tricks. he's really good at it. it's a good thing these people actually do something to get the money instead of just holding a cup begging for some. 
we then visited a synagogue for the first time. the inside of a synagogue is simple and peaceful. not lavish sculptures, etc. it's interesting to see something different apart from the many churches and cathedrals we have been to. 
we visited another cemetary which was neater and less destroyed. this is 'coz it was buried during world war 2 which helped it to escape destruction. oh..when visiting jewish places of worship, men have to cover their heads, so remember it if you're visiting any. 
we all had a nice long zapiekanka for lunch. we really should open a zapiekanka shop in Singapore. it's delicious and filling. 
after visiting the Jewish quarters, we visited the Wawel Castle, a storybook like castle which was too expensive to go into the interior! but the flowers were beautiful there and there was a wawel dragon dungeon. haha. 
we managed to walk into the cathedral without paying and were caught only on our way out but the man couldn't really be bothered. just told us to get a ticket at the building 50m from there. hah. the cathedral's really grand and had multiple chapels with the tombs of royalties and bishops. there's even a piece of dragon bone hanging at the door. the whole cathedral's a little too luxuriously decorated for me. the entire altar's made of gold. the whole building looks really interesting with all the chapels of different styles sticking out of its sides. 
on our way to the next stop, we saw these cutely dressed men along the park and snapped a shot of them. i didn't realize that one of them waved until i saw this photo. haha. cute. 
the next stop is the pope window from which the late pope sang and talked to the people during a visit to krakow. the portrait of him makes it look as if he's really in the window. 
back to the town square. the town square is the largest in europe during medieval times. and it really is huge! and a part of it is filled in to make the whole square level. the church at the bottom right was much larger and only the top of it is left now. the town hall only has its tower left sticking out and the marketplace too. i wonder what made them do such a strange thing. would have been nice to see the entire square as it was. 
here's the square when it was rainy and gloomy. doesn't look as nice as it did when it was sunny. there was also much more activity when it was sunny. oh ya..souveniors in Krakow are really cheap. buy more if you go there! haha. 
the Krakow theatre's facade's really interesting. the art noveau faces all had different expressions. totally fitting for a theatre. 
and we boarded the overnight train that night to Gdansk to catch our flight back to Sweden finally. it was a really cool trip which got us addicted to backpacking. haha. and YAY! i'm finally done blogging about this trip!! after so long. haha. hope you guys have enjoyed reading about it! there are more photos uploaded here. =)
luv, jL
posted by jL-yZ @ 9:01 PM
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