Category Archives: Slovakia

Eastern Europe, Paris, Restaurants, Sightseeing, Slovakia

Weekly Blogger Round-Up: Secret hot chocolate spots in Paris – The blue church in Bratislava – Good & bad in Istanbul

May 20, 2014 Rosemary Kneipp 3 Comments

This week’s Blogger Round-Up starts with a post by Judy MacMahon from My French Life who shares 4 secrets spots for hot chocolate – I shall be the first to try! Next Phoebe from Lou Messugo takes us to visit the Blue Church in Bratislava – I’m so jealous because I didn’t know of its existence when I visited the city last summer. Anda from Travel Notes and Beyond then tells us the good and bad of Istanbul which will stand me in good stead when I go there in September. Enjoy!

Paris off the beaten path: 4 secret spots for hot chocolate

by Judy McMahon from MyFrenchLife, a global community of French and francophiles connecting like-minded people in English & French

The French know their chocolat chaud like no one else: it’s how they begin their day! After all, there’s nothing quite like a proper French hot chocolate – except perhaps drinking said French hot chocolate in Paris…

There are the classic, well-known spots to sip a hot chocolate in Paris. And then there are those little cafés that the Parisians would love to keep for themselves; but secrets have a way of getting out. Read more

The Blue Church, Bratislava

by Phoebe from Lou Messugo, a traveller, francophile, expat, mum and foodie now living in Roquefort les Pins where she runs a gîte after many years of travelling and living in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia

After two years of writing exclusively about France, mostly about the area where I live and French culture, I’m diverging into wider pastures, so this, my friends, is my first offering not about France. I’ve been itching to write about other places I’ve been and having just returned from a trip to Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava I’ve decided it’s now or never!

Bratislava, the tiny capital of Slovakia, is only an hour’s drive from Vienna, making it perfect for a day trip. I had done a little research about the place and knew that I wanted to see the Blue Church, no matter what. And in this case the “no matter what” was a big black cloud and rumbles of thunder coming from the general direction of the church. Read more

The Good and The Bad of Istanbul

by Anda from Travel Notes & Beyond, the Opinionated Travelogue of a Photo Maniac, is a Romanian-born citizen of Southern California who has never missed the opportunity to travel

It is difficult to judge a city of the size of Istanbul after a 5 day trip, but if I were to describe the little that I saw of it in just a few words, I would say: huge, crowded, majestic and unique. Huge, because the city boundaries cover almost 2,000 square kilometers, while the metropolitan region, or the Province of Istanbul, covers 6,220 square kilometers. Crowded, because everywhere you go in Istanbul you walk almost shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other people. Read more

Austria, Cycling, Dieting, Food, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia

The 5:2 Fast Diet on Holidays

July 15, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 9 Comments

You may remember I started the 5:2 fast diet about 2 weeks before we left on holidays, desperately hoping it would allow me to wear all my summer clothes again. Well, it worked but I wondered how it would go once we were actually on holiday particularly as I wasn’t sure whether or not Jean Michel would join me.

We left on a Monday which was a fast day for me. Jean Michel had a regular breakfast whereas I decided to skip mine. We both had the same lunch with an extra 100 calories for Jean Michel because men are entitled to 600 calories and women to 500, and the same dinner. By then we were in Germany and with the long twilight, we were able to cycle for 2 hours (29 kilometers) afterwards. I was surprised to feel neither tired nor hungry.

After that, we both fasted twice a week throughout our month’s holiday, with the exception of one day when it proved to be impossible for logistic reasons. When we could, we tried to make our fast day coincide with moving from one place to another, but even on those days, we still cycled in the evening. On other fast days, we cycled 40 or 50 kilometers without any problem, to Jean Michel’s surprise in particular.

On the other days, we usually ate a bit more for breakfast than we normally do, especially Jean Michel who always has trouble resisting a buffet. We then had lunch in a local restaurant, eating high-calorie foods such as wiener schnitzel and knudels, accompanied by a glass of wine. We often had an ice-cream in the afternoon as well. In the evening, we had a glass or two of wine with pistachios, followed by a salad we made ourselves, often with bread and cheese. Sometimes we had a picnic at lunch time and ate out in the evening. A couple of times we skipped lunch or dinner because we’d had a big breakfast or lunch.

Diet coke and ice-cream when it's very hot! — Diet coke and ice-cream when it’s very hot!

I would say that the only complicated part was planning ahead for fast days because the only time we were able to cook for ourselves was a short 4-day period during the second part of the trip. We did, however, have a car fridge, which helped considerably. To make things easier, we nearly always ate the same thing on fast days: black coffee for breakfast then 2 boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes and a piece of fruit for lunch (plus a slice of bread or tabouli for Jean Michel). In the evening, we ate yoghurt, fromage blanc, lettuce, tomato, carrot, capsicum and a piece of fruit.

In Germany, Austria and Hungary, hard boiled eggs were nearly always available for breakfast at our hotel or gasthaus, so on fast days, we would just have our coffee and take two eggs and a piece of fruit with us as we left. I also kept a tin of tuna in the car in case we ran out of yoghurt and fromage blanc.

Not only did I not put any weight back on, but I lost another kilo!

I found it very liberating not to have to worry about what was going to be served in a restaurant, particularly as my knowledge of German did not allow me to know what I was getting most of the time, let alone negotiate vegetables instead of dumplings, for example, as I would have done in France or Australia. I was also able to have food I don’t usually eat because of its high calorie content, such as wiener schnitzel, apfel strudel and ice-cream, and taste the local dishes.

A glass of wine on the terrace in Austria

It was wonderful to be able to have a glass or two of wine in the evening with nuts. Skipping meals when not hungry, after a big breakfast or lunch, is something I’ve never done because I was always told it would make me put on weight. Well, it’s just not true.

Indulging in cake and hot chocolate in Bratislava

Only a couple of times during the entire month, and only on a fast day, did I feel hungry at any time and then, the feeling soon passed. Jean Michel found it harder, but he is also used to eating more than me because he is generally more active.

So I shall continue to have fast two days a week until I have lost another two kilos then try fasting once a week. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go back to twice a week. I believe that it’s something I can envisage doing for the rest of my life and certainly much better than having to be careful about what I eat every day.

Accommodation, Slovakia, Travelling

Bratislava, a Memorable Experience

June 26, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 4 Comments

We leave Aschach for Bratislava in pouring rain, shortening our stay by 3 days. After a picnic in the car in a desolate rest-stop about 20 minutes out of Bratislava in what must be the windiest part of Austria, in the middle of an immense field of wind turbines, we follow the GPS instructions to our hotel, that we reserved with booking.com the night before and which is supposed to be ten minutes from the historical centre.

“I don’t like this at all”, says Jean Michel. “We’re not even remotely near the centre”. “Vous êtes arrivé”, says the GPS with not a hotel in sight, just sad-looking low-income high-rise buildings. I get out and go to Zadunasjska cesta 12, after checking it’s the right address, and a helpful lady speaks to me in Slovak. I show her the address on my iPhone and she tells me in rudimentary English that it’s on the other side of a flyover.

The high-rise buildings where our GPS took us

I get back in the car, doing my best to calm down Jean Michel. He’s convinced we’re the victims of an Eastern European con trick. We try to follow her instructions. At last, we spot the name of the hotel and eventually arrive in a parking lot in what seems to be a small shopping centre. We park the car and follow the signs, up a pedestrian footbridge and into the hotel.

I explain to the hostess that we thought the hotel was close to the historical centre and that we want to cancel. The manager comes out and says that we just have to walk across the bridge over the Danube and we’ll be in the centre – 10 minutes. She explains that with booking.com we have to cancel 24 hours in advance.

Jean Michel is looking furious so I smile and say that we’ll take the room. The hostess says there is a bus that takes 5 minutes, just two stops, to get to the historical centre. I hear a groan next to me. She gives us the key to the room. The interior is fine, if a little dark and taupe. It has good soundproofing and a decent shower. Unfortunately, I don’t recognise the stale smoke smell straight away. We go down and bring up our small overnight bag and other necessities.

In the meantime, the hostess has written out the bus instructions and shows us out the back way, where we have to negotiate a couple of broken planks at the bottom of the stairs. Thankfully, Jean Michel has now decided to make the most of the experience.

We arrive at the bus stop almost immediately, get tickets out the machine as instructed and wait for the n° 88 which pulls up within a couple of minutes. We go under and over a couple of flyovers, then across the Danube and down into a grotty terminus under the bridge.

Tree-lined pedestrian street at the entrance to the old town of Bratislava

Within two minutes, we are in the pretty though small historical centre of Bratislava. We wander around admiring the various buildings reminiscent of Austria and eventually have hot chocolate and cream cakes at Kaffee Meyer one of the city’s most reputed establishments. I figure we can give dinner a miss!

It doesn’t take long to exhaust the historical centre so we go further afield and are struck by the general grime and dereliction. We follow some people into a large church and are introduced to Slovak baroque, much darker than its Austrian and German counterpart.

Bazilika Kincstar baroque church in Bratislava

We choose Le Monde opposite the Carlton for a glass of local wine. The waiter who takes our order for a dry local white is very off-hand, almost insolent, but the waitress who brings our wine is friendly and professional. The xxx is enjoyable.

After walking along the Danube to the bridge (and incidentally not regretting that it is too chilly to cycle, as there is nothing much to see apart from the high-rise buildings opposite), we decide to walk back to the hotel since it is only supposed to be 10 minutes from the historical centre.

A half an hour later, after walking through a shopping centre full of the same middle-of-the-range shops you find in French shopping centres such as Camaieu and C&A, going over a footbridge, up and down as few staircases, under a couple of flyovers and along an overgrown path, we finally arrive at our hotel.

Jean Michel on the path back to the hotel

That is when the stale cigarette smell hits me. We keep the window open until we go to bed despite the cold outside and the noise of the expressway but I feel slightly nauseous and headachy all night. Two women talk in piercing voices somewhere until about 3 am. A sort of whining noise is repeated at regular intervals, probably due to the wind on the pedestrian walkway.

By 7.30 am, doors are banging, showers are running and toilets flushing. After breakfast, where there is only herbal tea but very good bread, we leave the Hotel Esprit and Bratislava without regret!

Aussie in France