![\"\"](\"http:\/\/willz.org\/hosted\/blog\/austria\/bratislava\/IMG_2264.JPG\" "\\"Hviezdoslav\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe water in these fountains is really blue and you can’t see the bottom of the fountains.\u00a0 I think they dye the water but I asked the tour guide and she apparently doesn’t think so.\u00a0 Maybe I’m just crazy?<\/p>\n
At the other end of the square is the National Theatre\/Opera House.<\/p>\n I decided I needed to go to the bathroom before the tour started.\u00a0 The public toilets are a bit strange.<\/p>\n There is a woman who cleans the bathroom and gives you a bit of toilet paper.\u00a0 Then you put some money in a basket when you leave.<\/p>\n On the tour, we went to some places we had already seen, such as the main square of the old part of town.\u00a0 Apparently, this is supposed to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Bratislava.\u00a0 I don’t really see the appeal.\u00a0 It looks a bit pink to me.<\/p>\n We also saw the castle from a distance.\u00a0 Apparently it survived an attack by Napoleon, but one night some Italian visitors accidentally started a fire.\u00a0 The tour guide told us the castle survived tons of attack but did not survive one Italian dinner.<\/p>\n She also took us to their “White House.”<\/p>\n Will was amused by their security.<\/p>\n But they had two guards.<\/p>\n This is called the Blue Church, but we can’t figure out why.<\/p>\n There is also another important church, but according to the tour guide, it has extra structural problems because when the communists were in power, they built a highway too close to it.\u00a0 I guess the vibrations mess with it?<\/p>\n This highway curves to end up very near the church.\u00a0 As you can see, it’s quite modern.\u00a0 In fact, some parts of the southern half of the city remind a lot of Minneapolis.<\/p>\n I better you’d never guess it’s Will’s dream to work on this scaffolding.<\/p>\n During the tour, Will got distracted by this car being towed away by means of a tiny crane.<\/p>\n After the tour, we grabbed some food near the hostel.\u00a0 I had chicken and French fries.\u00a0 Will had ham filled dumplings with sauerkraut.\u00a0 After the food break, we went up to the castle.\u00a0 A lot of European cities involve castles on hills.\u00a0 Oh hills.\u00a0 Here’s the gate.<\/p>\n Here’s the castle up close.<\/p>\n There were some neat views.\u00a0 The tour guide said there is no wind power in Slovakia, so if you see a wind farm, you’re looking at Austria already.<\/p>\n There were some views.<\/p>\n Will was amused by the gates that went no where.<\/p>\n And the windows on top of windows?<\/p>\n And the hill the castle was on was full of lizards and snails.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n