Bratislava

After arriving Bratislava, one poster made me stopped.
AIESEC is nominated as one of the sponsor for an event seems HR related something.

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way to hostel Vegas(that was nice one for 12EUR)

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hum,,, Madonna on a concrete post...

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aha, renovated 25 years ago, in communist times.

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Slovakian spray stray sheep, Hey man.

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from the castle. to the west.
mountains, windmill, Danube...
surprisingly, untouched wood are remained in the very central part of the capital. that well represents how Bratislava new and a bit artificial.

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Communist apartments, i guess these date back 70 or 80's..

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Chimneys, shopping centers, ordinal district on the other side of Danube.

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Old town on this side... quite nice view, united colors of beautiful roofs.
Some people say this scene is being destroyed with high buildings by looking uncomfortable contrast of both modern and traditional aspect. The other people say this city is developing more and more by looking tall Chimneys to produce blocks and cranes to built new skyscrapers.

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A shot from another observatory of new tower. this is how travelers look at the castle.

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this is the one from the side which has many apartments and industries.
This is how local people here look at the castle.

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the population of this city is half million.
Bratislava became the capital just around 15 years ago.

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Old district.
Celts or Romans settled in this areas from the very beginning.
Local aristocrats are kicked out by Hungarian army, and the castle had been used as residence by Hapsburg empires for generations.

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In summer time, old district would be crowded with travelers around the world.

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Castle Devin, blew up by Napoleon when his army attacked Hapsburg empire, and remained for 200 years as it used to be. 20 minutes bus drive from downtown.

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The castle stands at the point Danube and its tributary stream meets.

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Huge cement mixer in the middle of the city park.

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On the way to the castle, the red and blue posts is standing at the foot of this Valley.
I guess some of Japanese citizens cannot understand the reason why they have to walk down to pick up their daily newspaper.....Postmen are not post machines, actually....

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From the castle, look down the Danube.
From Hungary? Serbia ? or Romania ? the big ship carries around 200 cars, going up for Austria and Germany. Even on the surface of river, sometime traffic jams happen.

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From the castle, look down surrounding towns.
I only can find the wine vineyard and stone quarries except for their residence.
But on the other side of Danube, there spreads vast field probably for wheat or sunflower.
So this vary is not suitable for farming as the ground mainly contains hard and huge rocks.
In the Middle ages when the lord still controled this areas from this castle, probably locals used to settle on castle side. Slaves go for mountains, poor farmers cross the bridge and cultivate the fields on the other side... I just guessed so. Anyway, maybe the wine producing helped the Devin though, this areas does not look it has been flourished both in history and recent days.

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