You only have to look down from hilltop Bratislava Castle to see how the city’s architecture starkly reflects history’s extremes.
Here’s my story published on February 7, 2018 in Fairfax Media’s The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age Traveller and online:
http://www.traveller.com.au/bratislava-slovakia-a-stunning-stop-on-a-cruise-down-the-danube-h0qgs4#ixzz58ARLU9te
About alisonstewartwriter
Alison is a writer, journalist and travel writer, born in South Africa, now living in Australia. She has had nine books published - two books for adults and seven for young people. Four of them have been translated into Italian, Danish, Dutch and Thai.
Her latest project, Cold Stone Soup, an unpublished memoir about growing up under apartheid and migrating to Australia has won the FAW 2013 National Literary Awards (Jim Hamilton Award for a non-fiction manuscript). Cold Stone Soup was also runner-up in the 2010 Penguin/Varuna Scholarship.
Her first book for adults, Born Into the Country (Justified Press 1988, South Africa) was shortlisted for the 1987 AA Mutual Life Vita Young Writers’ Award. Heinemann Australia published her next adult novel, Bitterbloom in 1991. Her YA novel, The Wishing Moon was shortlisted for the 1995 Australian Multicultural Children’s Award and was a 1995 Children’s Book Council Notable book.
Her YA dystopia, Days Like This, published by Penguin Australia was a finalist in the inaugural 2010 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award in the YA category.
Alison worked for years as a news and feature journalist. She is now a regular travel writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age and online Fairfax Media publications. Her travel story, Snails in the Mist, was placed first in the Lane Cove Literary Awards 2019 travel story category and was shortlisted for three awards. Snails in the Mist will be published in the Lane Cove Literary Awards Anthology in 2020.
Alison Stewart writer 
Bratislava has a special place in my heart. We lived in the city for a year and a half before moving back to Sweden in 2014. Part of that time we actually lived in Petržalka, which had its own charm. 🙂
I usually try to encourage people to also explore the sights outside of the old town. There are the Devín Castle and the Slavín War Memorial that are both easy to access. A bit harder but also really interesting is a walk along the Austrian border – which is located just a few kilometers from the old town. It is filled with history with WWII bunkers and signs from the Cold War – a reminder of how hard it was to cross borders at the time of the Iron Curtain.
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Hi Jesper,
Thank you for your interesting comments about Bratislava. It must have been an interesting place to live, especially in the Petržalka area. I would like to return and visit the places you suggest, particularly the walk along the Austrian border, which sounds fascinating with its historic references. It’s a bit alarming to now read of Slovakia’s and Bratislava’s various growing political issues, but one can only hope that peace and harmony returns soon. I enjoyed your latest post on The Aland Islands – a place my partner and I would love to visit with a view to cycling around.
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Thank you, Alison, I can only agree and hope that the development in Slovakia changes course once more. Sadly the political turmoil is nothing new.
I can really recommend a visit to the Åland Islands during the summer. It really is a beautiful place with so much to see. In case you get to go, let us know and we might be able to give a few additional tips and tricks. 🙂
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