Bratislava! Capital of Slovakia

So far, Prague gets all the attention from people travelling to Central Europe. But as a few of you know, Bratislava really deserves more attention. A nice mix of old and new, where you can still see the remnants of communism without going into really hardcore Soviet-bloc countries like Romania or far eastern Poland. Bratislava was the western border of the iron curtain, and as such, it had a little more exposure than insulated cities and entire countries. When Kat was little, Radio Free Europe could be heard, broadcast from Vienna, which is a mere 85km 60km away. She was allowed to accompany her father on a trip to Germany at one point, when she was still very small, (she got lost looking at Barbie dolls, but I'll let her tell that story later) and TV signals could also be picked up from "western" Austria.

Having once been the a capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Bratislava has some fantastic older architecture, and some rather cutting-edge modern architecture, too. During the Communist occupation and control, however, utilitarian themes ruled, and thus we have Petrzalka, which succeeds in housing as many people as possible (4,410 per sq. Km!) in as little space as is necessary.

The New York Times seems to agree that Bratislava is in a unique place, straddling both the past and embracing the future. Since Slovakia is one of the next countries to adopt the Euro, it will be exciting to see how things will change over the next few decades. For those of us going next year, it may one of the last chances to see what Bratislava is 'really' like before it succumbs to the intense westernization of Prague.