Bratislava Scenes, 2

Continuing our walkabout in old Bratislava...

Pretty courtyard

In another square, the bishop's palace...some vow of poverty, right?
now city hall

The dragon not doing so well here

Moving right along...we thought we'd left old
town and were now in the 50s Eastern bloc zone;
but no, this is a Bauhaus structure, Bratislava's first
skyscraper; we'll see more Bauhaus in Vienna; notice
this instance is now a bingo parlor; sic transit, Gloria

Apparently the reason there are no food trucks in Prague is that 

they are all here, in a small square, a dozen or more; it was lunch 

time and we thought we'd give it a go

Very serious about plastic, recycling...

We'd looked forward to eating at the street
food thing, but couldn't find anything
really inviting...pasta with plum jam and
poppy seeds?!

Potato dumpings with beets, goat cheese, and nuts...

Even the possible olie bollen was not tempting; we moved on,
resolving to have an early dinner 

In an upscale art deco arcade

National theater, communist era; note extensive stain-glass windows

"The Peeper," one of the city's several more amusing sculptures

We were sitting on a bench outside a toy store, wondering why all 
police along the street, when we began hearing a large, largely male
crowd, some hundreds I would say, chanting and singling boisterously,
and coming our way; normally we would attempt to keep our distance,
but they were on us very quickly; all wearing the same colors, the
same jackets, the same pennants...a union action of some sort? we
wondered...they disappeared down the street in the direction of the
old square, still singing...later we learned there had been a futbol match
the previous day, and a number of the German fans had hung around
another day to celebrate and enjoy the cheap beer...I guess any futbol
gathering warrants police presence...

Opera

Symphony Hall

National poet...an immense statue, unlike anything you'd
see in the US

Hans Christian Anderson, who visited Bratislava,
probably back when it was Pressburg; "to travel
is to live," is one of our favorite travel quotes

All this along a beautiful 3 or 4 block tree-lined boulevard/park