Rainy days

It’s rainy, windy, and chilly my first few days in Bratislava, but that’s probably better than the killer heatwave sweeping southern California this week. I’ve been walking everywhere to soak up the look and feel of the historic Old Town. It's supposed to be clear this weekend, and I hope to get better pictures on a clear day. I’m glad I have the wool lining zipped into my trenchcoat.

The Slovak Philharmonic plays in this gorgeous restored building. The huge construction crane looming behind it defines this city. Everywhere you look, historic buildings left to crumble under the Communists are being restored and sleek new buildings are going up on the perimeter. To the right of the Philharmonic building is the Radisson hotel. I took this shot standing on the plaza in front of the Slovak National Theatre, another Hapsburg era treasure.

This morning I bought a three-month pass for unlimited transportation on the city’s superb system of busses, trams, and street cars – for the equivalent of about $82. I understand it’s just about the only legacy of the Communists people today value. The older clerks at the transit shop didn’t understand much English but between pointing to things and a little help from a young woman in line, we got the forms filled out for my application and I now have my photo ID pass.

The transit shop underneath Novy Most (New Bridge) seemed a less desirable throwback to the Communist era – a rundown building with minimal signage and ample grafitti. The vendors nearby didn’t know where the ticket office was when I asked. I found it through a process of elimination, although I hesitated, thinking it looked like an abandoned shed.

I also went to a big bank to trade Euros for Slovak Korunas. The conversion to Euros is on schedule for early 2009 and the national bank has stopped printing new Korunas. Those Euros I bought last summer have turned into a good investment, as the dollar continues its sickening slide.

I went to T-Mobile Slovakia to see about a local number and cheap cell phone. On my American account I’m paying $0.99/minute for international roaming for voice calls, even if I’m just calling another number here in Bratislava. The clerks were fascinated with my T-Mobile Dash, a blackberry style phone, and one offered to buy mine, as they are not for sale in Slovakia. Sorry, I love that phone too!

One of the T-Mobile clerks was a young university student studying business with very fluent English. I asked him how long he had been studying English -- twelve years! I complimented him on his fluency and he beamed with pride. I got the same reaction from a clerk here at the hotel who made me a cappucino. Not only is her English very fluent but she has a nearly impeccable American accent. She is also studying business at the university, but she spent a year abroad studying in Virginia. It seems the most appreciated praise you can give here is singling out someone’s excellent English. These business majors seem to have figured out that English fluency is the ticket to success in their career aspirations.

This city knows great coffee, especially espressos, lattes, and cappucinos, my great addiction in life. Everywhere I go, the coffee is just superb and very reasonable ($1.50-$2.50 for a delicious and very large cup). It seems odd that Starbucks has invaded Vienna, famous for its great coffee houses, but they’re not here in Bratislava. At a stop at a local grocery chain, Billa, I was astounded at the huge racks of specialty coffee of every type imaginable, including all sorts of instant capucinnos that make up very nicely in a hotel room.

One local chain, Bank + Coffee, has an interesting marketing idea, combining a coffee/pastry shop with a real bank – not just an ATM, but tellers and the whole bit. And if that won’t get you into the store, they also have free wifi internet access. I haven’t seen that combination of services anywhere else – perhaps it will catch on.

My big success was securing a great apartment. It does not seem wise to announce on a public blog where I'll be living. Suffice it to say that I'm in a great building, with a lovely view, hi-speed Internet access, cable TV with English-language channels, and a short stroll to the National Theatre, where I hope to see a lot of ballet this fall. It's not available until next week, so I'll be spending a few more days in the hotel.

Another mundane travel tip: On restaurant meals in the U.S., I typically add the tip on the credit card slip, but nobody accepts that here. Be sure to have some local currency in appropriately small denominations to leave the tip in cash.

Bratislava beginnings

The view on the descent into the Vienna airport. Fulbright requires us to fly on American carriers, but there were several choices. The Vienna airport is closer to Bratislava than to Vienna. Bratislava also has an airport with jet service, but I couldn't get connections that worked with my schedule.

My trip to Bratislava is off to a great start. The Delta flights were on time, and the overnight nonstop from Atlanta to Vienna was two-thirds empty, so I could stretch out. The airport shuttle driver met me with a neatly-lettered sign when I walked through customs – and a Mercedes to whisk me to the hotel in Bratislava where I’m staying while I look at apartments with a local real estate agent.

The local Fulbright director urged us in the strongest terms not to make any long-term commitments to housing until we could personally inspect the options. As she said gracefully, “Not all apartments are up to Western standards.” In truth, I would not make a long-term commitment to an apartment in New York or London either without personally inspecting it.

The trip from my home in southern California took 24 hours in real time, and I am adjusting to a nine-hour time change, which will take a few days. But the adjustment to a new city in a part of the world I had never visited is off to a good start.

The previous “class” of Slovak Fulbrighters sent us a helpful letter with their recommendations for everything imaginable for life’s little details – the airport shuttle they used, the real estate agents they liked working with, a dentist for emergencies, etc. Their main criteria: they speak English, take credit cards, use e-mail, and are very nice, reliable people – what more could I want? The local Fulbright Commission director as well as the Washington, DC Fulbright staff also have been sending enormously helpful information all summer. Especially in planning a visit to a country unfamiliar to most Americans, this has been priceless.

My most striking impressions on the trip over include the huge metal windmills I saw everywhere in the farm fields in eastern Austria as we drove from the airport into Slovakia. In the U.S., the debate rages on whether we need these supposed “blights” on our landscape to generate power. But the windmills are no more unsightly than the high-powered electric lines strung across the farm fields, and they are a good reminder of environmental and energy concerns that need serious attention everywhere on the planet.

I’m also struck by the juxtaposition of old and new – quaint colorful housing and ancient stone bridges and towers interspersed with modern gas stations and grocery stores. Homes on the busy two-lane highway from the airport have a vaguely “Alpine” design with red roofs and gorgeous flowers pouring from window boxes.

The border crossing from Austria to Slovakia was downright casual. Dreary buildings look like tired left-overs from another era. My driver handed his passport and mine to an officer in a booth by the road; he seemed to barely glance at them and we were on our way. The passport check at the Vienna airport was equally perfunctory. Not a single question, not even a stamp in my passport to go with my Heathrow stamp from last October, which I earned after answering questions for several minutes about my reason for visiting London. Is this simply a difference in fears of terrorists entering the country or the realities of frequent border crossings in central Europe by an increasingly mobile population?

I was struck in the Atlanta airport by the departure lounge next to mine packed with American soldiers in desert fatigues waiting to board a Lufthansa 747 bound for Frankfurt and a trip back to Iraq – 3rd and even 4th tours for many. This is a modern army – laptops, cell phones, iPods everywhere. In a visit to London last fall, I was struck at the ever-present protesters and signs objecting to our (and the UK’s) presence in Iraq. I wonder if that war, so unpopular now in the U.S., has harmed our standing with Europeans. I wonder how Slovaks feel about the Iraq occupation, and whether they contributed to the so-called “Coalition of the Willing.”

My own mundane travel tip for now: bring a EuroSurge, which I bought from a travel supply catalog (Magellan). It plugs right into the continental plugs and gives me two U.S.-style outlets and a surge-protector for all the electronic equipment we can’t live without (laptop, blackberry, digital camera, etc., etc.). It eliminates the need for those little plug adaptors for everything (although I have a supply of those with me, too). Electrical appliances and power cables all seem to be dual-voltage nowadays, so I don’t need a converter, making things a little simpler.