Big Doings in the Brat

Several people on tripadvisor said their favorite spot in Bratislava is Slavin, a memorial cemetery/park built in 1960 to honor vets of WWII. One liar on tripadvisor claimed it's a beautiful 20 minute walk from Old Town. I did a mapquest and it was a 16 minute walk for me and I am already half way up the mountain. My location is up a steady incline; Slavin is straight up from there. Once you get there, though, it's worth it. Beautiful park with a great view of the city and the way back is all downhill. This whole area is a ritzy residential area--the houses have to start at $1 million and go up from there. The people who live here don't care that they live on a mountain--they all have cars. High security also; every house and this hotel has a camera controlled entryway.

I am an experienced trolleybus rider from my time in Budapest. The system is similar here. What I hate about  public transportation in these countries is you can't buy a ticket on the bus.  You have to buy tickets from a stand that sells lots of other stuff besides the ticket; plus, it's hard to make the person understand what you want if you only speak American. But yesterday, I noticed on the 10th time up the hill that there are machines next to the stops. So today, I asked the hotel clerk what stop to take and took the trolley. You buy a ticket for 15 minutes and stamp it on the trolley or bus. There are random checks but otherwise, it's an honor system. So I went to Old Town one last time where I saw everyone getting ready for the annual "fake coronation" ceremony tomorrow. But they don't do just one fake coronation; they do about six. I think that explains the different types of uniforms  I saw  but all women were dressed up as Quakers. I heard an English speaking tour guide tell her group that if they go, just stay for a minute; it's very tiresome.

For lunch, I had Pressburg schnitzel because I kept seeing that everyone should try this regional food. I have never liked schnitzel so that turned out to be a bad idea and I still don't know what was all Pressburg about it. The waitress said "It is no good?" Frankly, no. Schnitzel is never good.