Central Europe evaluation

Was it eastern or central and is it even important^[1]?

In September and October 2013, I went to Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic for a holiday of sorts, and you can see them all here:

• Budapest (day 1)
• Budapest (day 2)
• Budapest (day 3)
• Vienna (day 1
• Bratislava
• Vienna (day 2)
• Brno
• Prague day 1
• Prague day 2

I'll place them in order of enjoyment, which may not be the same as how good they are. I found interesting, when looking back on it, how often I missed things or did not get the timing right and just did not plan it properly. I enjoy that aspect of it sometimes and I can get away with it to some degree but there are plenty more things I could have done with a bit more thought. I was also very fortunate with the weather and that has to have an effect. I was glad to go to all of the cities and am also happy to have changed my plans from my initial thoughts.

1. Budapest

I was really taken by Budapest and genuinely very surprised by how much I liked it as I'd only heard a little about it. The scale of the city is ideal for me as it is walkable within areas but it is not a good idea to walk across the whole thing. Architecturally, it is beautiful with well designed buildings that are expertly lit at night. I especially liked the little details in the chain bridge across the Danube. Arguably, the city is made by the Danube as it is a very pleasant width at this point and wide enough to genuinely separate the two sides and give the city an open feel that permeates through. The Pest side is nice and dense with plenty to do and bits of heritage. The castle complex on the Buda side along with Gellert Hill give a great tourist feel with great views and even some fresh feeling air. The icing on the cake was the smattering of social housing and parkland in Obuda.

Transport is excellent throughout with the evocative Millennium line to start with and trams making it easy to get around and have a view. The food was also tasty and fairly cheap with good drinks too.

Budapest is one of the few cities that I have visited that I felt there was more to see as I left and that I would like to go back to in short order. It is possibly, now, my favourite European city to visit which was previously Berlin.

2. Vienna

Vienna is a fairly modern city in many respects with modern buildings interspersed with the older ones. I enjoyed it but I was a little surprised at how small (or intimate) it felt and the more blatant aspects of the tourism industry. The coffee and cake culture has to be appealing to some so I would strongly recommend it for those people. The Danube is not quite as focal as I had hoped it would be so the city feels quite singular as a result, compared to Budapest or Prague. It did not feel quite as organic as a result and the Ringstrasse, whilst making it very simple to comprehend, did feel a little too designed. I really appreciated the cultural parts of the city and it did feel current and progressive rather than just left in stasis, overall. The Museum Quarter is a stunning realisation of what it is trying to achieve and I was glad to see that it was open to modern, accessible designers and artists along with the larger, more famous pieces. The palace is also an amazing place to have but I did not feel an emotional connection with it and so enjoyed the grounds more.

3. Prague

Busy cities can go two ways for me and Prague was just on the wrong side of it. I do not mean busy in the way London or Tokyo are - people getting around with their days and moving quickly, but a lot of tourists and tourists being baited. It felt like a lot of it was for show (even if it was not) and so I was not sure about it. The thing is though, a lot of it is genuinely stunning so even though I was flagging at this point^[2], I am still able to appreciate a lot of it in hindsight and did like it then too. The castle and old town are some of the most sumptuous places I have ever seen with the connection between the two, Charles Bridge, one of the most wonderful bridges I have ever seen. I especially like that it was pedestrianised and felt so alive but it was so busy on the first day that it was inconvenient to use. The connection with the city was helped immensely by the tour I went on and I will search out similar things in the future.

4. Brno

As a city to visit on the way somewhere it was ideal. It is definitely small enough to get around on foot and the people were pleasant and helpful. There is the cliche of it feeling more authentic (as if large cities are not real...) but it did feel different to Prague and in a way, less catered. It was not at all difficult to get around, I did not even use the extensive tram network, but it would have been better for me if I could actually have done a few things that I wanted to do! It is, again, a strollable city centre and the sights are different enough to be worth it. The food was cheap, the views were great and the coffee was lovely. I would definitely recommend it as a break although there is not a great amount to do, you can do that in a pleasant and relaxed environment. I probably had fewer frustrations here than in either Vienna or Prague but I have to consider that this was a day trip and it was not as if I missed a great deal.

5. Bratislava

It is a fairly industrial city and less than ideal as a place to see. It does have, however, an old town that seems perfect for evenings and nights out with low costs and plenty of choice. As it is quite a small city, it would be great for this and I am sure it would be a lot of fun with a group of people or if you were to use it as a base for some other trips. I am pleased that I ended up seeing Petrzalka inadvertently as it really changed my feeling about the city with the housing looking amazing in its scope. The city definitely seemed in two parts and I would imagine that the old town and castle area would be nicer but the south side ended up being a bit more memorable. I guess I would not have gone here if it were not another country, so maybe it is good if you have a completionist streak.

<sup>1. Granularity and detail are important but the point is to communicate, if nobody understands what I mean, was there any point in saying it?↩
2. I have found that in Asia, you can use the phrase "all templed out" and it will make sense to people, but I cannot think of an equivalent in Europe as they are not all quite the same, but it starts to feel like that.↩</sup>

Bratislava

Train to Bratislava 
Vienna and Bratislava are not far apart (The closest together capital cities in EU) at all and have fairly good connections between each other by train, coach and boat. Although I was tempted by the boat, I'd heard it was not particularly scenic so just went by train - there were two each hour from Vienna Hauptbahnhof so I did that. I went fairly early but not exceptionally so I was hoping to spend the day there in a fairly relaxed manner. Due to the fact that the Schengen agreement exists and that neither Austrian or Slovak government is run by the type of idiots that regularly politick about how terrible other Europeans are and then have to break their own rules to get rich people in, the journey was simple and without border control, which helps the relaxation.

The train ride was fairly pleasant and I enjoyed the scenery including quite a lot of wind turbines. Having not seen many, I found them quite interesting and was struck by the way that they rotated at different speeds. I guess it makes sense, but I'd never thought of it before. They have a bad reputation amongst the usual suspects in the UK but I think they are quite pleasing, aesthetically, and clearly have a positive effect on energy production. Anyway, I kind of wished that I'd spent as much time looking carefully before the journey as I did during the ride as I soon ended up in Bratislava, but not the main station. I was not just at the wrong side of the city, some might say I was on the wrong side of the tracks.

Petrzalka

Bratislava, like many major cities, has a river running through it and, common to many cities, the two sides of the city develop quite differently. In the case of Bratislava, the Danube split the city into north and south with the north being where the city itself really is and the south being an area "for redevelopment".

I was at Petrzalka Station but by a relatively happy coincidence, I was quite interested in this side. The south side had been extensively redeveloped under the communist regime of Czechoslovakia and so had a lot of housing blocks^[1]. As I have said before, I do have an irrational soft spot for socialist era housing and so I quite enjoyed being a little lost in Bratislava. And I was that, lost I mean. I got the bus which I thought (more hoped) would take me over the bridge to the more touristy north. It didn't - I just ended up in a slightly different part of lost. I did eventually get over the bridge and I did also enjoy looking around but I cannot, in hindsight, say it was the wisest, or safest, thing to do.

Old Town and Castle
Once I came to a more central part of town and got off the bus, I noticed that a little crowd had formed around a building so I had a look. As I went to have a look, some familiar music started up - the French national anthem. It is safe to say I did not expect this. I stayed for a bit and watched the salutes, anthems, presentations and stuff which was a little odd. Nobody seemed to know what it was for^[2].
Bratislava is not well known for its sights, or much at all from my point of view, but I have heard of people going for weekends away and stag dos^[3] and the like. As far as I could tell, the castle was the only real sight and the old town was pleasant. Not bothering to consult a map, I went towards the area that seemed right and came to a cobbled road with tram lines. I think it was part of the old town but at this point, I felt I should make my way to the castle as that would be busy later so I could avoid the crowds.
It was a steep climb and a little out of the way from the town but I needn't have bothered hurrying though I was glad I'd bothered coming. There were very few people there and fewer still once I got inside. The castle is situated on a Hill (hence the steep walk) close to the banks of the Danube so there is a great view over the city and, as it is not the biggest of cities, beyond. The castle grounds and entrance are quite nice but nothing particularly special though I believe that a beautification process is underway both internally and externally. Inside was not particularly busy and I would guess a lot of the reason for that was how closed it looked. As I walked into the courtyard, the doors were closed and when I opened one to go in, I was told, or more accurately motioned, in Slovak to go to the ticket office. I did that, but I couldn't find it - it was not the biggest entrance but there was no clear ticket seller. Unless, could it be that?
Yep, it was behind a closed wooden door that looked like it was a caretaker's cupboard.
The inside of the castle has been transformed into a selection of museums and gallery spaces that were within some very nicely restored rooms. The exhibits were not, however that interesting and I spent some time in a room dedicated to Slovak war medals. This was not time well spent. The other exhibits about the country and area were a little more interesting but nothing amazing. The little bit on clocks seemed a bit out of place but I liked it. The website is not particularly up to date either – I think they need some advice to be honest.

After visiting the castle grounds, there was not a lot for me to do so I walked around the old town a little after getting a not particularly great lunch. The old town has a lot more to it than just the area that I had walked earlier so it was not a wasted time and is almost totally pedestrianised so I would imagine it lends itself well to a vibrant, and rowdy, nightlife. Some of the best known parts of the old town are a number of playful statues such as a strange French sailor looking out to sea and a man under a manhole cover. It was interesting to see how popular they were, especially with the older crowd.

Bridge and back
I decided to take the train back to Vienna from the main station and so continued a wander through the town as it became dark and then got back to Vienna. I walked back over the main bridge (called Novy Most) which was really quite striking at night as it seems to have a UFO on the top - for no apparent reason. The walkways are placed on the sides away from traffic so as you walk, you have a wall to one side and the river (and view) to the other so it feels simultaneously open to the elements and claustrophobic. I quite liked the concrete feel but it could definitely be a little intimidating^[4] as a way to cross the river even though it was to a very pleasant park.

The train back was nice and simple, as it had been on the way to Bratislava but the scenery was a little less enticing in the dark.

Bratislava was not particularly special and I doubt I would have visited had it not been in another country and a capital city (I doubt I would have seen it had it been part of Czechoslovakia, for instance) but it was still a pleasant day trip. I am not sure I would want to go there for much longer although the nightlife may be more enticing. Or, it may not. Bearing in mind what I have heard^[3].

Bratislava 2013 - click for photo album

<sup>1.These are called Panelák and were used all over the country but are most prevalent in this area.↩
2. I later looked up what was happening and it seemed to be merely an ambassadorial visit - quite a lot of fanfare for that I think.↩
3. I spoke to someone later on that told me that there were plenty of British stag weekends in Bratislava, and they were not popular with the locals. This is not surprising. I did explain that a lot of British towns can be carnage on weekends with drunkenness and a lot of fighting. He nodded in complete understanding.↩
4. It was intimidating when I crossed and saw a few people around a car under a poorly lit spot. My imagination made me believe a drug deal was taking place - this is pretty unlikely to be honest.↩</sup>