BRATISLAVA Photo Thread - hkskyline's Euro 2007 Tour

[hkskyline]

After Budapest, the few of us from the Hong Kong forum took the train to Bratislava, Slovakia, where our flights back to London would depart (with thanks, Ryanair). We didn't know much about this place at first, and given some disappointments in Budapest, our expectations weren't so high for Bratislava. However, it turns out this city well exceeded our expectations, with a very charming old town. Our whirlwind tour of several hours was jam-packed and exhausting.

Unlike the previous photo series from the rest of my 2007 Europe trip to Copenhagen, Malmo, and Budapest, I'll consolidate all the photos into this one thread.

The train station is about a 10 minute walk from the old town. Let's start walking.



I like these tidy newstands.





Although some of these buildings need restoration, in general, the old town is quite well maintained.









The president lives here - between the rail station and old town, with a pleasant garden behind it.











Unfortunately, we took a midday train to Bratislava, which took over 3 hours. The faster trains didn't have the departure times we wanted. We had to rush before the light dips too low and the streets would be too dark to photograph.





We do see some modern new buildings but the old town is quite well preserved.



We're nearing the old town. Notice the historic tower in the distance.









The streets were fairly clean.









Lovely scene. The tram tracks are on level with the pedestrian areas, so we had to check around extra carefully.







I guess that means pedestrian zone?



Reminds me of Prague's trams.







Darn .. the sunset is imminent and we haven't entered the old dtown yet!







We're in!











How far are we from the rest of the world?



We were quite excited seeing how lively the streets are inside the old town. There is one major street [pedestrian-only], and a number of alleys, which seemed quite safe to venture about. The buildings were well-maintained with many shops and open-air restaurants.







I guess steaks and fishes are in English.









Due to the decreasing light, we had to adjust our photo-taking angles a bit. I wanted to make the building glow after a little Photoshop work.







More old town in the next part!

[Aan]

thanks for photos, although there aren't much photos from Old Town (popular photos of Cumil/Paparazzi, Hviezdoslavovo square...) or from new modern highrise buildings

[Wizzard]

Originally Posted by Aan

thanks for photos, although there aren't much photos from Old Town (popular photos of Cumil/Paparazzi, Hviezdoslavovo square...) or from new modern highrise buildings

I think our few high-rises are not interesting for the visitors from Hong Kong

[Qwert]

Thank you hkskyline. I can't wait for the next part.

Originally Posted by Aan

thanks for photos, although there aren't much photos from Old Town (popular photos of Cumil/Paparazzi, Hviezdoslavovo square...) or from new modern highrise buildings

I think these photos are much more interesting than notorious Čumil.

[dustik]

ehm and where is this, I would like to see it,

[kaxno]

dustik - it´s just under the Michalska Gate

[Wizzard]

Originally Posted by dustik

ehm and where is this, I would like to see it,

dustik, you lama, do you even live in Bratislava?

[LeMoN-SK]

Thanks for the pictures, hkskyline, I am glad you did like our town.

Originally Posted by Wizzard

dustik, you lama, do you even live in Bratislava?

Exactly what I thought.

[dustik]

echo slovak_to_english('boha sak stane sa ze zabudnem nie? sak viem ze tu bolo to miesto ale som rozmyslal kde som ho videl');

[hurahura]

its nice to know opinion about Blava from someone from other side of the world:

[peterthegreat]

very nice pix and comments hkskyline.... thanx

[hkskyline]

Thanks for your support and comments. Now on to part 2 - more from exploring the old town :













They made this to provide photo opportunities?

















The main square looks quite nice, with a huge open space fronted by what looks like several key buildings. There wasn't a lot of activity but it didn't seem like a deserted space. Perhaps I came during a quieter part of the day. I think it has effectively carried out its function.



























Another one of these photo-op sculptures. I like the theme ... matches perfectly with the location.

[hkskyline]

More pretty buildings await. Although the design is simple, the colour arrangements and maintenance add to the simplistic beauty.











As the sunset approached, it became difficult to take pictures as it got too bright.







Some parts of the street were no longer lit up, hence despite the daytime feel, parts of the scenes may be too dark to capture.













The sunset offers opportunities to take some silhouette-type photos, although this one doesn't seem to achieve that perfectly.



Bratislava's old town is quite amazing. Time was not on our side, and soon we had to leave, but we tried to cram as much as we could during our short trip.







A man-made waterway adorns a small park that is edged between buildings.

















This new building offers quite a contrast, but does match somewhat with the surroundings, such as building height, simplicity, etc. We can't stop progress, but can certainly mitigate the clash of worlds through design.

[vano]

nice pictures..well old town is probably the most beautiful part of Bratislava..

[Wizzard]

Originally Posted by vano

nice pictures..well old town is probably the most beautiful part of Bratislava..

probably???

[hkskyline]

[Amrafel]

great photos, thanks

[peterthegreat]

very very nice.... thanx again :-)

[Majnolajno44]

Wow, amazing photos. I´m glad to hear that you enjoyed your short stay in Bratislava.

I specially love this one.


..and therefore, I have one question. Could you post it in original resolution and without the watermark?
I will understand if you won´t, I would just really love to use it as my wallpaper because it is hard to find a good photo which is not HDR edited.

Best regards

Hope you tried some beer in here

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Majnolajno44

Wow, amazing photos. I´m glad to hear that you enjoyed your short stay in Bratislava.

I specially love this one.


..and therefore, I have one question. Could you post it in original resolution and without the watermark?
I will understand if you won´t, I would just really love to use it as my wallpaper because it is hard to find a good photo which is not HDR edited.

Best regards

Hope you tried some beer in here

No problem. Here's the original, albeit the quality is not the best with a digital camera :

http://www.globalphotos.org/budapest/IMG_1018.JPG