We took a train from Propad to Bratislava that was full of local backpackers who were returning from their outdoor holidays. We passed through fields of sunflowers and various grains but mostly wheat.
We checked into a hostel that had just opened in March and it turned out to be a part of the veterinary university. It was a huge block building 10 stories high and the hostel took up the third floor. The corridor stretched for 100+ metres without a fire door. The room was obviously used by students during the term and rented to travelers over the summer. It was not a place to meet people though as it had no common areas to gather. We shared a bathroom with two other people and had a one element electric cooker and a fridge but no cooking utensils. On the campus was a bar and a cafeteria which was convenient and meant we didn't have to take a long walk or buses to find food. It was promoted as the cheapest hostel in Bratislava and it was compared with some of the others we looked at online.
We had summer temperatures of 25 celcius and a lightning storm, great weather for getting laundry dry.
The hostel was not far off the banks of the Danube so we were able to walk about 30 minutes to the Bratislava Castle which is described as looking like a four-poster bed. It is covered with scaffolding and having a major facelift and some extra buildings added to the structure.
Below the castle are streets of old Jewish houses.
The city has 420,000 people and has a lovely small town feel. In the old city main square is the 14th century St Martin's cathedral where ten ruling kings and one queen were crowned.
Like all the other Eastern European places there are restaurants lining the narrow cobbled streets and squares.
This guy is the most photographed guy in town.
After exploring the city and seeing all we wanted to we decided to take a bus to Devin Castle on the outskirts of the city. The stone castle was built in the 9th century on the banks of the Danube and a smaller river. It survived attacks from the Turks but was blown up by the French in 1809.
It was decided to leave the castle as a ruin and there are some rooms with the artifacts that archaeologists have unearthed. When they dug up the graves in the church cemetery they found the average age of the skeletons to be 22 years old. A display of skulls showed how the shaman used to drill through to the brain, or hit the skull with a heavy rock causing the bone to 'dent' in order to cure mental illness or get rid of demons. Some of the skulls showed signs of healing after such treatment.
Some of the leg and arm bones showed breaks that had healed and without traction they would have been shorter than the other limbs. A few bones showed signs of syphilis.
Archaeologists were working on the site while we were there.
