B. revisited

Yesterday I made an excursion to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It’s only about 60 kms from Vienna, pretty much the same distance Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is from my native Klagenfurt. Until I spent a year in Ireland, where I met lots of people who had never in their lives set foot on (mainland) European soil I had taken it for granted that you just had to drive for less than an hour to be in another country. In Carinthia (Austria's southernmost province of which Klagenfurt is the capital), it was and still is not unusual at all to drive to Italy just for lunch followed by the obligatory cappuccino and grocery shopping at an ipermercato every other Saturday. Whenever a friend from abroad would come to visit me while I still lived at home, he or she would inevitably be dragged on a family-excursion each to Ljubljana and Udine (Italy).

When I moved to Vienna, Italy and Slovenia unfortunately moved out of popping-over-for-lunch-reach but Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia became attractive alternatives. Yesterday I was back in Bratislava after a rather long absence. At the time of my last visit (spring of 2003), the old town was more or less one big construction site as the streets were being re-paved with cobblestones.

That project is obviously finished now (see photo) but other parts of the centre still have a distinct post-communist flair. Or at least what westerners tend to associate with it. So for example the TESCO department store where I pilgrimage every time I go to Bratislava just for the nice and somewhat anachronistic range of products sold in the haberdashery and stationery departments. When I first visited the city in 1995 (?) it was owned by Kmart but basically time has stood still in that store which, judging from the density of vistors, must still be very popular in spite of the existance of huge modern malls . Rather inclement weather and the fact that all three of us had "done" the sights on previous visits provided the perfect excuse to visit as many shops as possible with the pretext of thawing out. After a rather unpleasant culinary experience (lukewarm crêpes with dubious fillings) in a very promising-looking establishment we had a nice cup of coffee to get rid of the nasty aftertaste before we headed back home.

I also dragged the girls into a Bata shoe store, right across the street from TESCO. I'm a big fan of Bata shoes with which I've had an intimate relationship since I was little thanks to the company's many branches in Italy. Last year I visited Zlín, which is basically the HQ of the Bata empire. There, you can visit the Bata villa, seat of the Bata Foundation, the shoe-museum the highlight of which is Thomas Bata's "office" which is actually an elevator without a door enabling him to check the various departments whithout getting up from his desk. From the topmost floor of the museum building you can overlook the former houses of factory workers, a very impressive complex indeed. There's even a Bata University in Zlín. Apart from providing his employees with attractive living quarters, the factory-founder is alleged to have been the inventor of "odd-numbered" prices, i.e. prices like 19,90 instead of 20 to make them appear lower. If indeed he was, he should posthumously be awarded some medal just for that stroke of genius - I'm living proof that it works. Every single time.

Purchase(s) of the day: a pair of shoes (Bata, of course) 2 curduroy hats and an original set of snow-flake-shaped cookie cutters.