After finding my way around the Slovak capital, here is a photo collection of some of the views I found interesting and captured.
As per usual, there were some exciting outlooks of the city...
..and interesting buildings..
..one of which I am happy to work in.
Getting around itself rewarded me too, and I learned new bits about the city. Whether I went by public transportation...
Tunnel underneath Bratislava's castle, built in the 1940s..
..or by my own steam.
A view from the La Franconi bridge. The highrise in the background is the Slovak Television HQ from 1974, once the tallest building (by the highest occupied floor) in the city.
Baroque garden at the Bratislava Castle
The visuals then revealed more about the people who live here, too. I already mentioned that I noticed many high-end bikes here; the vehicles around follow a similar pattern. Make no mistake; there are better places to sightsee supercars; still, I was surprised by the concentration of upmarket rides here. They are common regardless of the city district.
Interestingly, there are hardly any sports cars; on the other hand, Bratislava has the biggest concentration of G-Wagens I've seen in any city. It is similar to seeing Range Rovers in London — there are so many of them that they no longer cause any excitement. Someone here probably felt the same about the Gs, so they got the model with portal gear axles.
17+ inches of ground clearance, $220,000+ price tag.
A peek at the local real estate prices only confirmed this trend. Clearly, there's a market for expensive stuff. Surely enough, the European Commission's Regional Competitiveness Index from 2019 and 2016 placed Bratislava in the top five richest regions of the EU by GDP (PPP) per capita. No other city from the former Eastern Bloc got close. However, while the costs of groceries here are on par with the UK, the average salaries still aren't. Yikes.
Meanwhile, as the rules eased, the city started to come back to life...
..and the traffic is reaching its normal volume (hell).
People can go outside without special paperwork, and it feels better.
But the outside's been recently featuring temperatures regularly exceeding 25 Celsius. I am not used to this, so I celebrate every cloud (as I am aware that things will get worse).
Sometimes, the clouds bring more than just a cooldown.
Another double-edged sword is to have all these plants around.
Everything is blooming now, which might be pretty, but I haven't sneezed this much since I arrived in Shanghai four years ago (time flies, dear me, it sure does!).
That said, a part of me wants to take a break and rest from all that bustle. But the other part, well... We shall see. Thanks for reading.
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