21st Century Gal

I promised I'd tell you about my new life but I'm so tired that this is going to be very breef because you see, I've been working in the factory today. Yes sir, not only did I visit the plant but I helped with the work on the shop floor. I was no Charlie in Modern Times, no, I was a real Rosie the Riveter of my times.

And I am a modern girl, even if I've kind of settled down: I'm going to work by car, stoping for some shopping on the way home, chatting with my girls about shoes and dresses, kicking ass at work and so on.

Don't worry, I'm still a wanderer. Last weekend we went to Romania and then to Bratislava on the way back (and beat the curse on this ocassion because we had a great weekend). The weekend before that we were in France. I am alive and well, my fans, only tired and so don't expect many pics from my own collection, ok? Ok.

SkyEurope : Bratislava Strikes Back

First weekend in September was to be fabulous: a trip to Brussels with my one and only sweetheart. But fate wanted otherwise and so, at the last minute, our flight got cancelled.

I’m outraged, plans were made, very nice people were waiting for us, and beer was in the fridge. And SkyEurope cancelled all that. If you didn’t already know, they filled for, what in the States would be Chapter 11 and promised no flights would be affected. Well every flight we’ve had with them has been delayed and this is too much. At least if they had the decency not to sell tickets for the last month so people would not get scammed into buying them and then get their plans turned upside-down.

Here’s what they say on the website :

Those of you who have purchased flights with a credit card, please turn to your credit card issuing bank to seek refunds for unused portions of SkyEurope's flights.

If you are already at the destination or have rented a car through SkyEurope's business partner, you may stay at the hotel and use the vehicle during the period originally agreed. You must, however, order a return flight from some other airline at your own expense.

I am completely appalled. Everyone should be informed about this, not to get to the airport for nothing. And if you're wondering what the relation to Bratislava is...well it's the curse again, remember, SkyEurope is/was partly Slovak owned, q.e.d.

We’re changing our plans, of course, we’ll surely have a great time, and trying to get our money back, but still it’s sucks big time.

The Bratislava Curse

Known to the scientists studying this phenomenon as the Bratislava syndrome or the Bratislava effect, The Curse is a radiating, Bermuda Triangle like occurrence in Central Europe that follows Murphy's Law and where anything that can go wrong, will most certainly, go completely wrong.

The epicenter of this Phenomenon seems to be the city of Bratislava, on the Danube River, most famously known as the capital of Slovakia. Its proximity to Vienna gave it the nicknames Little Big city or Twin City. So far it is believed that the influence of the curse spreads as far as Vienna, thus inflicting its influence on a radius of 1hour's drive from the epicenter.

Manifestations

The curse manifests itself on travelers to Bratislava. No direct occurrences on locals have been noted so far, although there is a supposed influence. To this day, all locals questioned about the city have expressed a negative opinion about living there. However, no proof has been brought as to definitely link this to the Curse. The locals are very helpful and nice.

More precisely, the curse acts on travelers, attracting them to the city, causing them misery, trying to make them turn on each other (so far it hasn’t worked). The curse induces a state of frustration and fatigue by making the travelers lose their way around town, making them turn around many times to search for an address, etc, leading to a terrible time for the unwary traveler.

Despite help from the natives, travelers often loose their way and have trouble finding their friend’s flat. The curse sometimes attracts unknowing travelers to the labyrinth of the panelaks, the old communist apartment building complexes, making them turn in circle for hours.

Other manifestations are related to the city’s transport system, outgoing and ingoing trains and buses are affected, as well as tramways and buses inside the city (there is no metro, or none has been spotted by our researchers, despite their best efforts). Thus, trains and buses are often late. Should the train or bus be on time, Murphy’s Law is applied once more and the traveler will, most certainly either: be late himself or he will be mislead (the curse acting again) and will try to embark on the wrong train or bus.

Zone of influence

So far, the curse seems to be stronger in the area that spreads from the main railway station to the main bus station. Looking at a map, one will see that these are in opposite parts of town, meaning that the curse cover the whole of Bratislava.

Some accounts state that a focal point is this communist fresco in the departure hall of the railway station.

Scientists studying this phenomenon have been lead to believe that the curse, probably due to some strange paranormal activity in the area, might be stretching as far as Vienna, possibly even influencing flights and buses in the region. What is known for sure is that the curse tries to keep travelers in Bratislava for as long as possible, or as long as it takes for them to miss connecting buses and trains.

Examples and occurrences

The first time a strange event was spotted by our researchers (without it being called a Curse), was in November 2008, when, during a road trip in the area, two of our fellow scientists, I.D and V.A, passed through Bratislava on the way to Zvolen. While trying to find the bus station, the two saw almost all that was to see of the town, under steady rain. The pair got on the last bus, taking the last seats, and thinking nothing more about it. Two days later, while going from Zvolen to Brno, the two ha to change trains in Bratislava, at around 22.00. Because of misleading information, the two board a train to Minsk, only to realize this a few minutes before departure. Thankfully for them, they managed to break free of the curse and arrive at their destination.

One of the most famous occurrences happened in June 2009 when our leading researchers, I.D and Jiminy Cricket, a.k.a. A.R decided to take a trip to Bratislava, to visit some friends. They became aware of the Curse by mere accident, as the plan they had was simply to take one of the buses or trains from Prague to Bratislava and have a weekend with friends. The Curse started to act before they even left Prague, as I.D was stuck at work, making them loose all connections and forcing her already tired and preoccupied with work, boyfriend to come pick her up.

After a long trip, under the rain, the pair arrived late at night in Bratislava and tried, against all hope to find their friend’s flat. By the time they are rescued by the friend’s girlfriend, the couple had already been in the Panelak for an hour, searching for the street name on the buildings. During the whole weekend, they were too tired and some friends were too sick to go out and have fun.

When they decided to leave Bratislava, on Sunday, the Curse decided they had to stay and they found the car locked by the police for wrong parking. One hour later, after paying the fine an releasing the car, they finally leave, only to arrive to late for the last bus to I.D.’s home. Deciding to go to A.R’s house, the two loose one more hour in a traffic jam, thus ending a weekend haunted by the Curse.

Finally, the last event related to the Curse happed in August 2009, when the same couple was returning from a long weekend in Romania, via Vienna. The effects of the Curse on transportation were very obvious, as the two had a one hour delay coming from Bucharest and so missed the bus to Prague.

The Curse was now obvious, as they were forced to board a bus to Bratislava, from where there are more connections to Prague.

Once trapped by the Curse and brought to Bratislava, they had to face the city transport system in order to get to the railway station and lost precious time because of it. Murphy’s Law came into effect once more, and the worst happed: the train had a one hour delay. Once in Prague, the Curse seemed to follow them once more, as I.D. missed her connection and was forced to wait for hours for the next one.


Two before and after pictures of Jiminy Cricket, of JCOBW – Jiminy Cricket Observatory for a Better World(c), waiting for the train in Bratislava. (1) Hopeful that the train will be on time, and (2), after he learns that the train will be delayed, demonstrating the power of the Curse.

Down the rabbit hole, to Bratislava

This weekend, it was time to go to Bratislava. Two of our colleagues from the Master’s are there for their internships and because we are trying to visit as many of our mates as possible, we decided to head east.

Our original plan was to take the train or the bus from Prague, about 4hrs trip to Bratislava so it’s quite manageable. The good thing about living in the Czech Republic is that you truly are in the heart of Europe and can easily access several countries from here. And Prague is the hub of transportation in the country; you have frequent busses and trains to all destinations. The down side to Czech transportation is that trains are more often than not late…

This time though it was us who were late (for reasons independent of our will) so we had to change to plan B, taking the car. The high way from Prague to Bratislava is quite bumpy (nothing compared to the so called Romanian highways, but still a bumpy ride). In fact the highway is “affectionately” called the Tankodrom. For one thing, because the Russians could easily use it to bring their tanks here, in case the Czechs decided to rebel again like in '68. The main reason for this nickname is that the road is, bumpy, quite bad pavement, not really a pleasure to drive. To je skoda! It's a pitty. The scenery is really nice. (Didn't take any pictures, to busy driving or doing something else, besides, it's bumpy, doesn't make for clear photos, but take my word on it: Prague-Bratislava is a pretty nice trip. Scenery-wise. And you can visit Austerlitz.)

Once in Bratislava, at about 10 o'clock in the evening, we started looking for our friend's street. And although we had both visited the city before, it wasn't easy. Poor indication and maze-like streets behind the communist buildings in the neighborhood.

We went out that night and I can tell you that there is night life in Bratislava, people going out to clubs and bars, having a drink, dancing. Quite fun. Our friends were telling us that people usually go out of town during the weekends so it may seem deserted. Nevertheless there were things to do. I had a Bloody Mary in a lounge bar near Michalska Brana, the famous rendez-vous place in Bratislava (Picture form last November).

The next day we went to see some Siberian tigers in a reserve about 30 km into the Slovakian countryside. It was in a part of the country with a strong Hungarian minority. The countryside resembled a bit what I already knew from Romanian and Hungarian countrysides so nothing special here, plains, lots of grass, some trees, crops, the works. This is one of the tigers, and us...

In the afternoon, we visited Bratislava. It really is a little city, as it's logo goes: Little big City. When I was here last time, in November, I basically went on foot from the main railway station to the main bus station and I practically saw all there was to see. I did profit from a local guide this time so it was a nice experience.

There were certain places on my list of things to see. I always make up such a list in my head when I go somewhere and I always document myself in advance as to what is interesting to see.

So my list included the Radio building, an upside down pyramid; the big square with Napoleon's statue on a bench. Here you have the pictures to prove that we were there. Les lapins cretins a Bratislava.

Bratislava's old town has been restored and is really a pleasure to visit it. Beautiful houses, restaurants, bars. It's a bit like I'd like Bucharest to be. Maybe in a few years... It has nothing of Prague's grandeur, but you can see an effort in attracting tourists and in keeping them satisfied that the got what they came there for.

There are things to do and see, such as a very interesting exposition on India, Nepal, Tibet and the Himalayas at the National Museum, really well taken care for and interesting.

The city's arhitecture and the some times a bit strange statues that you find in the streets are another attraction point. A good excercise of marketing for municipalities (Bucharest should take notes). I don't think Slovaks particularly like their capital, it does have a small town feel and look, but they have managed to attract tourists here (Twin Cities campaign with Vienna is a good exemple of marketing).

The only thing that could spoil a tourists trip, in a really, really bad way, is the lack of service. Going into pizza places, book stores, at the museum, the staff will not always be very friendly. Even the police are not nice (gave as a ticket for parking in the wrong place, but there aren't many parking places either). The Czechs are know for lousy service, but the Slovaks could posibly be worse.

All in all, Bratislava was a nice gettaway for the weekend and it was a pleasure to see our friends again. Felt a bit like back in Cluny. Looking forward to our next get toghether.

And a last picture in the series: The Silly Rabbits do Bratislava.