Sights in the outskirts of Bratislava

Oh dear, haven't posted anything in 3 months and now I have so many things to share... I've done some day trips, a few days trip to Kosice, and of course the latest Covid19 update from Slovakia. I will try to keep it short so you won't get bored right away.

Let's start with Sandberg, a paleontological site situated in Devinska Nova Ves in Bratislava, about 12 km from the city centre. You can take a bus there, but my friend picked me up with a car so that was easy for me. Sandberg is protected site, rich in fossil remains of marine coastal and terrestrial fauna and flora. That place used to be sea! Not last week, but about 15 million years ago.   https://www.welcometobratislava.eu/sandberg/

It was a beautiful day, with good lunch, and very nice ice cream after our visit :) The view is gorgeous too so it was nice to walk around and see my friends since we don't really see each other that often.

                                     

                                               

Devin Castle really amazed me! We took a ferry there, the return ticket costs 15 euros, it takes 90 mins to get there but only 30 mins to come back. It was one of the last hot summer days and the day was just absolutely gorgeous. It is one of the oldest castles in Slovakia, so I expected just some rocks and ruins, but it is a lot bigger than I thought and VERY interesting place with great views. The entrance fee is just 5 €.

Pics from the boat

Devin Castle, hrad Devin

According to Wikipedia the castle was likely firsts mentioned in written sources in 864. You should also visit the museum at the site, it gives you a lot of interesting information about the history.

There really IS an uglier river than Danube, it is Morava!

After returning to Bratislava, we had lunch at La Cava Barcelona, a tapas restaurant in the city centre. The food was to die for... Eat there if you have a chance! And when the restaurants are really open again, now it is just take away and outdoor dining. Their patatas bravas should have songs dedicated to them. 

Then the last one...Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum is one of the youngest museums of modern art in Europe. It is about 15 km from Bratislava, you can get there by bus, it takes half an hour. It was nice museum, and the surrounding is so beautiful!

First we walked around, saved a pumpkin too! That poor thing was stuck so we let it go to freedom... If we can't get to Hungary, hopefully it got there :)

Surrounding

I have NEVER see as many swans as I saw there, there were just dozens and dozens of them

FREEDOOOOMMMM!!!!

Museum

Garden

I also visited Kosice for some days but I will make a separate post about that. I did a day trip to Nitra a couple of weeks ago, I will add that to the same post. I don't want to make too many posts, so these 2 posts will be quite long. 

Then the Covid 19 update... Things in Slovakia were really good at summer, we had many days with 0  new cases. Then came September and the numbers started to go up. I remember in the end of September I checked how we had 400 new cases a day and in spring we had just a couple of days with over 100 new cases. Well, a month later we had over 3000 cases a day. That means more strict restrictions again; only grades 1 to 4 are at school now, gyms got closed again, but actually now they are open with restrictions, shops can have less people in, no mass gatherings (6 people is the limit), and masks are mandatory also outdoors.

We had a mild lockdown for over a week before the mass testing, I think still  Slovakia is the only country that has done that. One weekend was a test in some districts in the north, the next weekend was nationwide testing. If I remember it correctly, way over 3 million tests were performed that weekend, and about 1% were positive. I went to get tested too of course and oh boy was that unpleasant! The nurse was great and friendly but the test is taken from the back of your brains! Holy crap... the next weekend the mass testing was only in districts with more than 1% positive rate, and luckily Bratislava was under that. Last weekend there was yet another mass testing in some districts and I heard that there will be another nationwide test weekend coming soon. Good thing is that the numbers are coming down now, past days the numbers have been under 2000 a day. But still... In the beginning of summer the total death count was just over 30, now we've had up to 50 deaths a day. The second wave really hit hard around here. 

All the neighboring countries are in lockdown, and only 10 countries are in so called green list. Finland is one of them, but for Finland Slovakia is a red country. That is why I skipped my dad's 90th birthday, and will skip my niece's graduation party in couple of weeks. Actually numbers are up in Finland too, so there will be new restrictions for events, so they can't have the graduation party as they had planned. There will be no international travelling for a while now :(

Santorini

5 nights in Santorini was exactly what I needed! I wanted to see if it really is as beautiful as everyone says it is. And it is. As I said in my Athens post, I think I am done with Greek cities, but I am not done with Greek islands. So far I have only been in Crete and Santorini, but want to explore more of them, maybe do an island tour next year... A girl can dream!

I stayed in Kamari, which is quite new area since it was almost totally destroyed in 1956 earth quake. My hotel was Villa Irini Studios, lovely family run apartment hotel close to the beach (just across the parking lot). Some hotels and restaurants were still closed and social distancig was very easy, so it was just perfect for me. In the evenings hardly anyone was out. I don't know how the tourism industry there will survive this, but I hope they do. There was also a lot of Greek tourists, I don't know how it has been before but I was surprised. I thought it is mostly foreign tourists, maybe I had the wrong idea or maybe this year people do more domestic travelling. 

I wanted to see as much as possible of this beautiful island, so I did a day tour. It took 11 hours and cost 50 euros, money well spent! In the bus it was marked where you could sit, hand sanitizer at the door and in the bus we wore masks. The first stop was the village of Pyrgos, and old village with very narrow paths and lots of stairs! Wear comfy shoes. The day was very warm and I even got a sunburn on my shoulders (not bad, just a little bit and it turned into a tan).

He played traditional instrument and sang traditional songs (amazing voice). We stopped there for a few minutes to listen to him. 

Next stop was Red Beach, kinda obvious why it is called that... We didn't go down there though, just a short stop for pics. 

Next stop was Emporio, another old village and the paths very ridiculously narrow! Again, lots of stairs as everywhere in Santorini. If you have some disability in moving, Santorini is not the place for you. Or if you are afraid of heights. Even though tourism is a big industry, these villages are very authentic and original. And gorgeous <3. 

This one I saw at a door and it just looked beautiful to my eye

I love bougainvillea and yu can see it a lot in Mediterranean area. 

Winery and wine museum! We had some wine tasting; white, red and dessert wine, it was included in the tour price. The wine museum is actually underground. Santorini has lots of wineries even though it is a small island. 

Then Oia... Magical place. I totally fell in love with Santorini. Some places just feel right for you, and for me this place just felt right. I know some people who also have visited, and so far everyone has liked it. I have never heard or read someone saying "yea, Santorini was not that great". Go and check yourself!

First thing the hotel owner told me to see in the island, was to see the sunset in Oia. Here it is :). Unfortunately a few other people had the same idea, and it was totally packed! No social distancing then. It was still worth it. 

The beach in Kamari, middle of the day, high season, sun is shining... this is how empty it was. Social distancing very easy, would be difficult to find a crowd. In the evening, even on Friday when I was walking to my hotel, it was about 10 pm, and I saw maybe 5 people. I think my chances of getting the virus were lower there than at home. 

Perissa Beach, and the lovely dish I had there! I don't take food pics that much but just had to take a pic of that. And it ws yummy too!

My studio at the hotel, it was nice to sit outside at the terrace, take a little swim, have a glass of wine and enjoy the soft and warm Mediterranean breeze... sigh. 

Writing this post and looking at all the pics again made me miss it SO much. I miss travelling, but now it is on hold for a while, and can't really plan anything right now. We will see, at least I can do day trips and weekend trips in Slovakia. Going to see Sandberg on Saturday, will do a little post about that, hopefully it won't take 2 months... I have also been thinking about pros and cons of the 6 countries I have lived in, and my friend suggested I could do my top 5 destinations. Lots of ideas, just too lazy to do them :D. 

Right now the numbers are up again in Slovakia, and in many other countries too. I am still working from home, and I still love it, and don't miss the noisy office at all. I am hoping to work remotely in the future too, at the moment I don't know when we are supposed to return to office so this will continue for a while. Mask is still mandatory in shops and public transport, but many people just don't bother anymore. Although now that numbers are up again, I have seen people wearing it more, and wearing it correctly. Hope the numbers will go down again and there will be a vaccine soon .