Bratislava Series - Stories are better when shared

Bratislava Series - Another Day Another Dollar

The long summer evening is shrinking. Along the River Danube, the dusk cast a warm glow, and the cool breeze brought a relief to the suffocating summer heat.  As this is a short week in Bratislava, a lot of people are on holiday, and the riverside cafes, bars and restaurants are less crowded.

This is my dinner tonight - 3 pieces of octupus, a baked potato.  It was tender and succulent, cooked to perfection.  Other delicacies on offer were truffles from Italy, and wild mushrooms.

One of my colleagues had her handbag stolen from right under her nose today, when she was buying a magazine from a news kiosk.  With it she lost her car keys, her mobile phones, and her house keys.  Fortunately she had her purse in her hand as she was talking to the kiosk attendant.  Some colleagues recently had cars stolen from their home.  Altogether not quite a safe place....

Bratislava Series - Here we go again

It's back to Bratislava, for my second slot.  Another beautiful summer day, what a difference from the greyness and the wetness in the UK.  Milan the driver was there to pick me up.  Hardly a word was exchanged as neither of us speaks the other's language. Actually he speaks a little English and I know only one Slovakian word, which is thank you.  The wind turbines have now become a familiar sight on the motorway between Vienna and Bratislava.  Here they are, proud and standing. 

Another familiar sight - the state of the roads.  The tarmac is worn on this dual carriageway somewhere between the airport and the city centre.  On a side road leaving the office, there is a big ditch, which often traps unsuspecting taxi drivers.  It's a moment when I conveniently leave my teeth marks on the dashboard.

Slovakia is a country of meat eaters.  Fish dishes are second class citizens.  Today, I had grilled monk fish fillet and a few pieces of grilled vegetables.  There would have been sauces, but alas, all of them contain cream, butter or cheese. A lot of food in Bratislava seems to contain cheese of one sort or another.

There is an event on today at the hotel.  Women in 5-inch high heels and tight dresses, beautifully made up, were seen gracing the arms of some good looking young men in their 30's.  

Bratislava Series - Transient and temporary

For a week, this was the sitting room where I did more work after a long day's work. The space was generous. The downside is the laundry price - €14 for a dress.  At Primark, one can probably buy a new dress for that price. 

On the way to the Old Town, parked in a conspicuous place was this motorbike with a unique number plate : JOKER.  The owner's sense of humour was for all to see, or maybe, this was his calling card.  How can I be sure that the owner was a male?  No female motor bike rider would call herself "Joker".

Bratislava Series - Night into Day

The square at Eurovea Gallieria at 03:41. 

Stillness

piercing the night

Distant call of home

Bratislava Series - Desirable Residence?

An advertisement for a 3-bedroom apartment for €397,000 at Bratislava.  Quite some price for a toehold in this part of Europe, considering the average monthly salary is €769 (Source Slovak Spectator).  I have yet to see a high performance car on the road.

Bratislava Series - The Old Town

The Old Town is about 20 minutes from the hotel; it can be accessed on the footpath that runs along the River Danube.  At dusk, people were in their casual clothes, taking a stroll along the river banks.   In the distance, the horizon shimmered in the last of the sun rays, while the heat lingered.

A street entertainer blowing bubbles, making magic in the evening sun. In this quarter, there are many different types of restaurants, all serving food and drinks outdoors.  The dress code is extreme casual - T shirts, shorts and flip flops.  The women were in flimsy dresses, in part due to the heat, in part due to the fashion code.  There was much smoking and civilised drinking, but no rowdiness such as that experienced in the UK.

An amusing sculpture emerging from the ground.  No attribution to the creator, which is a shame. 

Bratislava Series - Food Glorious Food

Segedinsky gulas 120g

There is a greasy spoon near the office where people go for their lunch.  Lunch break is terribly important to the Slovakians.  By law, an employer has to provide for lunch as part of the renumeration.  An industry therefore has developed, almost like luncheon vouchers, where people pay with vouchers, and top up the balance in cash.  Interestingly, these vouchers have SKK (Slovakian Kronas) as their face value, even though the legal tender is now Euros.

Today, I tried the pork goulash, accompanied by 4 big slices of steam buns.  The drink was Kofola, the equivalent of Coke, without the fizz.  A 3-course lunch with soup, a main course and a small dessert, is €5.00, with waiter service. 

Bratislava Series - Home Brands

What a coincidence that the first view that I see from one of my hotel windows is M&S.  I must find time to visit the place and check out the merchandise. 

Sheraton Bratislava has upgraded me to a suite, which means a 1-minute walk from the  bedroom to the door at the end of a long corridor.  This also means that I am relatively insulated from the comings and goings of late night revelers.

Summer has come with a vengence.  It is like a sauna in the open.  If the dress code is casual, be prepared for beach wear at office meetings.  It pays to be open minded and be prepared for all manners of clothing including vests, flip flops, shorts.

I notice that there are reserved car parking spaces at office buildings for bosses to park their BMWs and Audis.  Here, there is no pretence of being an egilitarian society.

Bratislava Series - First Impressions

This is my first trip to Bratislava, a city that I will make my home from home for the next 3 months.  From Vienna, it is a skip and hop across the border to Bratislava, passing many wind turbines on the way.  The city is a forest of rectangular buildings, probably a legacy of the Communist era.  What took me by surprise is the multi-lingual ability of the population: the locals that I have come across can speak at least 3 or even 4 of these languages: Slovakian (of course), Czech (from the days when Czech Replublic and Slovakia were one nation state), Russian, and Polish.  Two things stand out: friendly people, crap roads. 

And, the Slovakians do have a summer, which completely passed UK by.  It was warm - 30 degrees C and humid, almost like an Indian summer.

The border between Austria and Slovakia

Bars and restaurants line the pedestrianised

area along the River Danube

The square at Eurovea Galleria

Lille Series - Street scenes

Everything for the garden

Cafe in a time warp

Backpackers seen around Old Town

Jewellery display

Idiosyncratic sculpture outside Euralille shopping centre

Lille Series - Marche de Wazemmes

Probably the liveliest place in Lille on a Sunday morning, when nearly all the shops are closed.  The market spills out over numerous streets and is a hive of activity all morning. There were stalls selling food, vegetables, cheap clothing and shoes, and even heavily discounted branded cosmetics (a l'Oreal Youth Code was selling for €6 compared to a UK high street retail price of ~£10).  One street vendor was selling cheap perfume with memorable names such as Blue Fog.  We got there on the Metro, and as soon as we emerged from the Gambetta station, the disgorged shoppers made a beeline for the market, ignoring the opportunist hawkers who tried to flog huge bunches of mint and coriander from their makeshift carrier bags.

Paella

Sun ripened melons

Bright red tomatoes

Rotisserie chickens on an industrial scale

Flower stall

Middle Eastern goodies               

Lille Series - La Piscine

A stunning conversion from a swimming pool to an art gallery.  It's located at Roubaix, on the outskirts of Lille, about a 30-minute ride on the Metro.  Alighting at Gare Jean Lebas, the place looked decidedly ex industrial, almost run down.  Further down the road, the museum was set back from the main road, and what a wonderful place.  It has an impressive and wide ranging art collection including ceramics by Picasso. 

La Piscine

The front door covered with visitors stickers

The Mermaid

My favourite painting

Baixeras-Verdaqeur's Jeune Pecheur dans un port

Lille Series - Palais des Beaux Arts

Palas des Beaux Arts, located not far from the city centre of Lille, is touted as the number two art collection outside of Paris.  Hmmm, really?  True, it does have work by artists such as Goya, Rubens, Picasso, Toulouse-Laurtec, Renoir, etc., but the paupacity of what it has to offer is evidenced by its near emptiness.

The gigantic and eye-catching sculpture at the entrance. After that, the rest of the place came as a disappointment. And voila, almost  all the employees were busy chatting among themselves; the visitors were just a disruption to their endless chit chat with each other.  Some female attendants were so animated in their exchanges that they might as well have a soiree on their own. However, there were few rules, and visitors could get as close to the paintings and sculptures as they like, which was a bonus.

The first floor art gallery - the walls look spartan, and so does the rest of the gallery.  There were probably more life on Mars than there was at the art gallery.  The stillness brought a sense of void, of isolation, and of loneliness.  Not even the ox blood walls could save the day.

Strength

Desire

Hermaphrodite - Freak

Unmistakably Rodin

Lille Series - Grand Place and Old Town

Old Town

Who would have thought that Lille was once the European city of Culture in 2004?  It is billed in promotional literature as a vibrant city, creating an expectation that the city fathers can easily fail to deliver.  The city centre of Lille is within walking distance from Gare Lille Europe where the Eurostar arrives.  Especially picturesque is the Old Town with its narrow cobblestone streets, contrasting architecture, charming cafes and bars, and small boutiques.  On a Sunday when nearly all the shops are closed, the Old Town exudes an old worldly charm, far removed from the rampant consumerism that is the modern shopping complex.

A balloon seller at Grand Place

A focal point for tourists is the Grand Place, built on the site of the original medieval market square, and is now the heart of the city.  Officially it is called Place du General de Gaulle, in honour of Lille's most famous son.  The square is surrounded by the usual suspects: cafes and tearooms, including Paul, a bakery that started life in Lille in 1889 and has since sprouted hundreds of branches throughout France.

Grand Place, from another perspective

By far the most attractive building in the square is a lavish mid-17th century Flemish masterpiece - the Vieille Bourse.  Originally built as a stock exchange, it now houses a second-hand book market and other second-hard paraphernalia such as black and white photographs, old postcards, old greeting cards, vinyls and posters.  Most items had seen better days, and they were probably purchased as job lots during a house clearance sale.  The prevailing atmosphere  among the punters is congenial, the pace is slow, with plenty of people browsing and not many buying.

The spirit of the French exemplified at Sunday lunch time

Isle of Wight Series - Flora

The island is rich in flora: some remind me of the time when I was growing up in Hong Kong.

A colourful reminder of the lotus pond at

my alma mater University of Hong Kong

A flower that I used to see at Hong Kong

 

Summer, glorious summer