Episode 3: Little Town... it is Brastislava

October 19th, 

We had our breakfast which consisted of a typical hotel spread and then took a taxi to the Erdberg bus station where we would catch a coach headed for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The city was once a roman garrison named Gerulata. After the migration period, the Slavs and Avars took over the region. It was made part of the Frankish Eastern Marches but after the Magyar conquest of the Carpathians it became a part of the kingdom of Hungary during which time it became known as Poszony. At the end of the 16^th century, after Hungary had been absorbed by the German-speaking Austrians, it was the capital of Hungary also known by the German name Pressburg. It received its current name Bratislava after World War I when the Austrian-controlled territories of Bohemia, Silesia and Moravia were merged together with the Hungarian controlled region of Slovakia to form the new state of Czechoslovakia. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on New Year’s Day 1993, it was made the capital of Slovakia and has remained so since. Enough history and now back to the tour.

As we travelled along the International highway, the beautiful countryside reminded us of Euro Truck Simulator 2; a game set in Europe and also covered the region we were in. In a computer game like ETS 2, I had only seen a 3D virtual rendition of the Central European countryside. This time, I saw it for real. Seeing everything with my own eyes made it even more beautiful.

The National Theatre on Hsviedoslav Square-our Start

Upon our arrival at the bus station our local guide, a sweet young lady by the name of Alena, gave us a walking tour of the city. We started from the national theater which was built in 1856 when it was under Habsburg rule as the City Theatre. Then we went up to the Main Square which was named after that infamous short man with a butterfly moustache during the Nazi Puppet government. While being an avid Disney fan at the time, the old town of Bratislava reminded me of Belle's village from Beauty and the Beast. The new areas of Bratislava were more like a modern city though we hadn’t been there.  Trams and vintage cabs, all bright red ran along the streets

Church of St. Stephen the King

 

Bratislava Transport- Trams and Vintage Cabs all red

Why so Serious- Bratislava's original  (Not Evil) Clown Schöner Náci

The "Crown Markers of Coronation Square

There were buskers in the square including a live statue performer who was fully covered in gold and had to be given a hair ruffle to bring good luck and an elderly one-man band performer named Ivan Hollinka who happened to have a YouTube Channel. We then travelled along the Coronation Square which was the path taken by the Emperors as they were proclaimed king of Hungary and through there to Michael’s Gate, the last remaining of a series of fortifications constructed in the 1300s. Our tour had to unfortunately end at St. Martin’s Church where the Emperor’s Coronation as King of Hungary took place.

Michael's Gate- The Last Remaining clock tower and now a Weapons Museum 

 

Michailska 15, the Narrowest house in Eastern Europe

 

Plaque with Info on Michael's Gate

 

St. Martin's Church- the Coronation Church

But with us went an Indonesian Lady who was travelling solo. She had gone to see the Bratislava Castle which was not accessible to me so after she left, Alena took us for lunch at a restaurant serving Slovak cuisine. Unlike the dishes we had at the Schönbrunn Residenz Cafe, I'd say that the food was okay. During the tour, she gave a really helpful advice. FOREX card users should only withdraw money from an ATM attached to a bank branch. This piece of information really helped us later in our trip. After we started having our food, Alena asked if we had any questions and we got to know Bratislava better. She then bade us goodbye and left.

After finishing our lunch, we explored on our own while we waited for the coach to arrive. We had a unique kind of cake called a chimney cake created by a local bakery called Chimney Friends in one of the alleys close to the Main Square. We also bought a Sachertorte which we took home. This is a famous speciality of Austria. Created in 1832 by baker Franz Sacher for Prince Klemens von Mettenrich, the architect of the Post-Napoleonic World Order, It’s a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam.  Then the bus arrived and we boarded. While boarding, we had our first brush with western Racism as an elderly blue-eyed white man refused to sit beside my dad. "The Whole bus is empty, you had to sit beside me?" he rudely asked him before shifting beside a fellow white person. My assumption was that he must have been a Nazi. We then went back to the hotel by metro and ended the day. Speaking of Nazis, the next episode will cover a train ride to the hometown of a family whose daring resistance to them inspired a Broadway play and a timeless classic movie which was the first Hollywood movie for generations of Indians. Stay tuned for that and more posts.    

           

Episode 2 The Half-day city tour and the concert

October 18th, 2019

We got up early in the morning, and went outside to catch a Tramcar. Viennese trams are extremely wheelchair friendly and it was as easy as a pie for us to board the tram. Once inside all we had to do was to purchase our ticket from the machine inside and we were all set to go. The tram took us to Vienna's city centre and after ascending from the underground tram stop via elevator, we found ourselves in the heart of the city close to the St. Stephen's Cathedral, the archdiocese of the city. It was very early in the morning under the dimly lit blue sky. Our next job was to find our tour bus and our tour guide who would be holding a placard signifying that they belonged to 7TRAVEL, the agency organizing the half-day city tour. The EU doesn't yet allow wheelchairs to be used on coaches and buses so we had to keep my wheelchair inside the coach's luggage rack. We had a very large group so were allotted the coach with a licensed guide, a chubby lady called Lydia. 

The Horseman of the Albertina (start point)

 

 

 

 

The Tour started at 9 am from the Albertina museum and went along the Ringstrasse, the most important road of the city,  with Lydia explaining on the mic . Among the sights we saw were the Cafe where the noted founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud wrote his theory and the Parliament building which resembles the Parthenon, the famous Ancient Greek temple.

 Our first stop was the Hundertwasserhaus designed by an artist called Friedensrich Hundertwasser, that being his pseudonym of course. Lydia, my dad and the rest of the group went off while I and my mom stayed behind in the coach. It was nothing more than a weirdly designed apartment so it was a good thing I did not get down.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Weird Apartment by F. Hundertwasser

 

 The next stop was the Belvedere, a palace complex which was built in 1697 for Habsburg general and prince Eugene of Savoy after his victories in the Long Turkish war. Construction began in 1712 on the Lower Belvedere and in 1717 on the upper Belvedere. It was here that the Turkish commander was humiliated by having a special tent made for him. Prince Eugene died in 1731 after which the estates were initially owned by his niece and was later acquired in 1752 by the reigning monarch at the time, Maria Theresa and in 1770, the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of "Let Them Eat Cake" fame were celebrated here. In 1781, the first art gallery was inaugurated in Maria Theresa's last years. The gallery continued for another century until it was moved in 1888 during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It was during this time that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked World War I lived here. The Belvedere has been an art gallery ever since. For our tour, we only took a walk around the garden and stopped for toileting.

 

 

Upper Belvedere

 We then headed for our next stop, the Schönbrunn Palace. The name comes from the German words for beautiful Spring. It was originally a castle around a monastic estate until it was purchased by Emperor Maximilian II in 1569. It received the name Schönbrunn during the time of Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor of the 30 years war. In the 18th Century, particularly in the time of Maria Theresa, the modern palace began to be built. Franz Joseph I, after his ascension to the throne in 1848, regarded the Schönbrunn as his favourite residence, living here throughout the Belle Epoque. It was he who gave the palace the yellow paint. It is now a museum managed by a government-owned company. As for our tour, this was our last stop. After giving us the tour of the ground floor, Lydia and the coach left and we were on our own. She had already purchased the museum tickets for the group. My parents and I explored the various rooms of the palace using audio guides which the listener had to hold as if making or receiving a phone call and the place was as barrier free as it could be. After the museum tour ended I wheeled around the garden and my parents took pictures. later, we had  lunch at the Residenz Cafe which was attached to the palace, and had two famous traditional Austrian dishes the Apple Strudel and the Wiener Schnitzel whose names I had only heard in the lyrics of the famous musical number "My Favorite Things" from the classic film The Sound of Music.

 

 

Enjoying ourselves at the Schönbrunn -The Big Ben of Vienna

 

 

 

 

The Famous Apple Strudel and Wiener Schnitzel (With Potatoes and not with noodles)

 

Then we went home via Metro. The Metro in Vienna is as Barrier free as a metro should be. I could get in very easily as there were buttons to hold the door and people did hold the door for us. People could get in easily using walking two-wheel scooters. There were even spaces to keep not only wheelchairs but also bicycles and your ever so adorable dog or cat. The tour was over but we still had one more activity to engage in before our day would be over. 

While returning from the palace, a man in a red shirt, cap and sunglasses approached us. He was a ticket agent, and he was selling tickets for a concert to be held at the orangery, a theatre built by Empress Maria Theresa. The concert was open to tourists. Our tickets were upgraded by the agent to ‘VIP’ which gave me a good viewing position. We returned to the palace in the evening to attend the concert. The programme consisted of two segments highlighting the popular tunes of two of Austria's greatest classical composers, Mozart and Johann Strauss Jr.. There would be a baritone and a soprano opera singer and a pair of ballet dancers. They would portray the same theme-love, for the concert was a proposal by a rich man to his girlfriend. After enjoying the concert we returned home by metro again and ended the day. The next episode will be on a tour to a beautiful town in Slovakia, so stay tuned and keep reading.  

 

Revisiting Western Classical Nostalgia with  Royal Lighting at the Start...

 

 

 

...and with a 16-piece youth Orchestra