Getting out of a taxi and "entering the Middle Ages" – that is so typical for cities of Eastern Europe
If you ignore the next medieval castle lost somewhere on the mountain, then we can say that Bratislava is a business and student city. Slavic carelessness is felt everywhere. The streets are a bit dirty, shop windows are modest. An undeveloped embankment and next to it a technical marvel – a suspension bridge over the Danube, in the only support of which is a revolving restaurant.
But everywhere they understand you, the language is similar to Russian, and food is cheap. While waiting for the ordered taxi to the airport, we had lunch in a student restaurant "polenitsa" (these are thick cabbage soup with sausage), and a huge plate of potatoes with fried cheese, three servings of each, which cost $5.5.
A modest city. Little is on display here. Amazing little things hide behind gray buildings, and when you discover them, you rejoice like finding a porcini mushroom in the forest. On one of the pedestrian streets, a bronze head of a technician peers out from a manhole.
The Czechs are more practical, and in their gardens you already encounter tomato vines or corn.
Czech towns are quite typical: a mandatory medieval castle towering over the town, Gothic churches, red roofs, narrow cobblestone streets, little greenery and wildlife. People walking dogs on the street are not seen. Although in Prague, special paper bags with cardboard hang on the streets – for cleaning up after the dog. It seems that pets here are replaced by marionette dolls. On every corner there are 'puppet' shops. You can't bring yourself to call them toy stores, the expression of these 'little toys' is too fierce. Moreover, their images are mostly mystical – sorcerers and witches, in a word – Gothic. Catholic cathedrals are also decorated with chimeras and monsters that inspire terror.
All old things find their use and owner here. Tables in cafes have legs made from sewing machine stands, old suitcases and trunks decorate the interior, forgotten photographs, hats, barber supplies, any household or art items from times not long ago but gone can hang on the walls. The interiors of cafes remind us of our dachas, where all sorts of unnecessary but memorable things and old furniture from all neighbors were brought. Chairs and sofas were collected over several years, they are of different styles and eras.
But all together it charms, as if a 'time machine' has been started, the bustle of the tour no longer bothers you, you are not in a hurry and you quietly sip beer, watching passersby through the window...