The Many Delights of Bratislava

I thought this picture was appropriate as we got cheap train tickets and the ad for it is travel to Bratislover. Ho ho ho. Anyway.

Jordy and I were very excited to be away on our very first trip outside of Austria. I'm sure Greg was too but he was being all "macho", so I couldn't tell. The tickets were only 14 Euros return and this included a one day public transport ticket. There's a train every hour starting at 6.30 pm and last one back is just after midnight. Pretty cool eh? Plus, the ride is only 1 hour.

As it turned it, Bratislava is so tiny that we didn't need the transport tickets. The other great thing about "B" is it still has it's own currency and the exchange rate is excellent. We managed to do our whole tourist experience for 50 Euros. 50 Euros in Vienna would only have been dinner out.

Our first stop was the Museum of Transport and Technology. It cost the grand sum of $1 NZ each or 20 Slovak Krones. We don't have any photos because you had to pay extra for that and we didn't realise what a pittance 20 SK's was. Which is a shame as we were given a guided tour of the really interesting bits by a lovely elderly man who was obviously a bit of an enthusiast where trains were concerned. It's amazing what can be translated with one word and lots of emphatic gesturing.

If you look in the background of the next two pics, we were trying to show the diverse views from the tower overlooking the city. Jordy's view is of the boring commercial, modern new city. Ours is the old,town and the more touristy area. Also, in the background you can see a castle which also contains a museum.

There was a free performance on when we arrived, of an example of medieaval singing. Although interesting it wasn't really to our taste.



A couple of tapestries at the castle. We were a bit excited to see that the "Da Vinci Machines" exhibit had just arrived in Bratislava. Excited because we had seen this show in NZ a few days before we left, and even though we were so far away, we still got see it first. Silly I know.

We had dinner before we left then entered the delights of a genuine chocolate shop where the hot chocolate they serve is simply melted chocolate. It was so good, Greg and I ordered another round. It was sooooo good in fact that I actually felt that I was drunk on chocolate. This place is a definite must if you are ever there. Unfortunately I can't remember what it is called but it's not necessary. It has the word chocolate, in Slovak of course, on the front window. But I reckon, true chocolites will know the word for chocolate in any language. Plus, the city is so miniscule, you can't miss it.

It's October in Austria. You know what that means.....

Actually you probably don't. However in NZ, the words October and Germany, (or any other germanic speaking country), normally means to the average kiwi, Octoberfest. as in copious amounts of beer, in conjunction with much quaffing, lots of barmaids in revealing traditional dress, plus funny men in leather pants. If this is the imagery that came to your mind, you would be wrong.

In Austria, it means, fab autumn coloured trees, the sale of roasted chestnuts on the sidewalks, as well as roasted potatoes and hash browns. Also, it means "Wildwoche". Which means game meat is on the menu in certain restaurants.

Also, October includes The National Austrian Day. On this day many tourist attractions, (like museums) are open for free entry or reduced prices.

Unfortunately, October also meant the closure of the majority of ice-cream parlours. The owners pack up and return to selling ice cream in Italy, then return to Vienna in summer. I guess you can't have it all.

Anyone ready to visit us in October?

Quick Potato and Leek Soup recipe

I have spent a long time surfing the web trying to find some good easy and cheap recipes with very little success. Hence the perhaps seemingly odd inclusion of a recipe on my blog. It takes 15-20 mins to cook which includes the prep.time. Perhaps less if you are a better cook than me.

Ingreds: 340grams potatoes (about 6-8 med potatoes), sliced
1 onion, cubed
20gms marg/butter(about1 Tbsp)
1/2 litre beef broth (about 2 cups water and 1 cube of instant beef stock)
150gms of leek.(umm it's not much leek probably about a 1/4 of a stem), sliced
4 Tbsp cream
salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped basil for seasoning according to taste. I don't use any.

1/ Melt marg. Add onions. Fry till clear
2/ Add potatoes. Cook with the occasional stir for about 5 mins.
3/ Add beef broth and the leek. Cook for 5 mins.
4/ Stir in cream.
5/ Season to taste
6/ Enjoy

One of the reasons I love Vienna

They have cool free stuff all the time.

Open Door days are a common event. Like the one I went to in Karlsplatz that I mentioned in a previous blog. The dancing schools had an evening when you could go in and participate. The gyms are holding an Open Door day for a week.

Last night, Vienna had what's called "The long night of Museums". Actually this event was held in the whole of Austria. But there was a special bus operationg for the night that just did a loop to all the museums. In Vienna I think there are 83, in the whole of Austria, there's 500. All this for the small price of 12 Euros. I particularly wanted to go because there is a Picasso exhibit on at the moment which is 9 Euros on it's own. But we had other plans.

However I think it is an annual event and I just found out that on National Austrian, again a lot of museums have either free admission or reduced rates.

Erntdankfest or translated as thanksgiving.

However I think that is a very poor translation. My misgivings over that translation may be due to generally the word "thanksgivings" always is connected with Americans, in my mind.

Literally, I think "Ernt-dank-fest" is translated as first thanks celebration. A celebration of the harvest. Many places celebrate it on different days and a lot of churches have a special service for this. Which also seemed odd to me because these kinds of harvest rituals I always thought were a more pagan kind of thing. But then what do I know being just a girl from way down under.

So anyway. Friends of ours live right next to a vineyard. We happened to have our church service on the same day as this vineyard's Erntdnkfest. So we went out for a look-see and a walk in the sun. It was very enjoyable. At the end of our walk we enjoyed a glass of Sturm and Most (pronounced Moss-t). Sturm is usually alcoholic and Most is not. Apparently these drinks are what you get when you make wine except you drink it before it becaomes wine. And of course you can only get it at around this time. It is not available all year.

If I am making no sense, I can only suggest you track down a friend, colleague etc... of Germanic heritage who can explain better. Or better yet you can come yourselves and investigate in person. Free holiday lodgings are still on offer at the Ewings/Monkey household.