Banska Bystica

Wake up call was 6:45 am.  Good thing I powered through my massive headache and packed for my trip to Slovakia last night.   I made up for all the lack of sleep and had about 9 hours of good, solid sleep.  Sleep is so good.  I’m back to being a rock star.

We were on the road and on our way to Slovakia at 7:30.  First stop was Banska Bystica.  Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and it was rainy and cold when we got to our first destination.   But after a little bit, the rain stopped, and I was bundled up enough that the cold didn’t bother me too much.

Banska Bystica is a cute Slovakian city about half way to our final destination.  The city has one major street, Dolny Ulica, that heads to the Old Town Center.

 This street is filled with cute shops, restaurants and coffee shops.  It has coble stone streets and the old, ornate buildings that are typical of many European cities.  I especially liked the churches and the beautiful steeples.  At the end of the street you get to the center which is called Námestie SNP , the old medieval marketplace.  The first thing that strikes you is this black marble obelisk that's about 25 meters in height.  It's a Soviet war memorial and surrounded by a few ornate fountains.

As you walk through the center, you can also see The Plaque Column which is a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Clock Tower.  If you look closely enough, it looks like it's leaning a bit and isn't perfectly straight.

 To the left of this is the City Castle that has an interesting steeple in both gothic and baroque styles.  It's pretty neat to see how the architectural style differs in one building.

The whole walk will only take you about 20 minutes and that’s with stopping and taking pictures.  At the end of the street is a large square with statues, a fountain and shops.  This is a good place to sit and watch the Slovakian world go by.  Sit here a while to soak up some of the atmosphere.

By the time we headed back to the car, it was lunch time and we had many choices of places to go.  We opted for the Pizza Music Club and had slices of pizza.  Turns out that the owner of the pizzaria was Italian.  So needless to say the pizza was very good.  Not the traditional round pizzas that we are use to, but a square piece with tasty, thick bread as the crust.  I opted for the vegetarian, olive and artichoke hearts and really enjoyed this.  And the best part is, it cost less that 2 euros.