Hot Chocolate and Dandelions... in Bratislava

April 7, 2010

 “I thought you'd never guess.  My favorite:  Hot chocolate.”

(Roux (aka, Johnny Depp) in Chocolat)

It would almost be worth a trip to Bratislava simply for the hot chocolate at Schokocafe Maximilian on Main Square.  It was decadent:  thick, creamy and rich.  It was more like steaming “cream of chocolate” soup than hot chocolate.  Nesquik and Swiss Miss are going to be a serious let-down after this one.

I stepped up and ordered the classic, but when the kids saw the numerous hot and cold chocolate flavors they immediately branched out:  Cade opted for Dark Chocolate with Orange, Regan had the Milk Chocolate with Banana and Reyna remained consistent in her avowed preference for White Chocolate.  We were in a hurry to catch the 7 p.m. train back to Vienna, so we ordered our drinks in paper cups “to go” so we could drink them en route.  After just one sip, we chose to miss our train, sit down at a table on the square, and savor the moment.  There are some things in life you just don’t want to rush: like a delicious memory-in-the-making… and 5- and 7- year olds with scalding hot chocolate…!

Bratislava is the capital city of Slovakia and is one of the smallest capitals in Europe, with a population of only about half a million.  But it is large enough to have two different train stations, which we discovered quite by accident as we tried to navigate our way to the historic Old Town from the suburb of Petrzalka instead of the more centrally located train station.  Oops.  After a cab driver quoted a sum (15 Euro/$23) that was more than double what a nice local couple had told me it should cost to go the 5 kilometer distance, I balked, then challenged… then gratefully accepted the proferred assistance of a kind young man speaking hesitant English, and paid 1 Euro for the four of us to take the bus with the locals.  

We found the city to be quite charming, particularly the pedestrian zone in the old town city center and the castle which is on a hill overlooking the Danube River.  For such a small big city, it has a lot of significant history that dates back before the 10^th century.  The city itself borders both Austria and Hungary, and was once the capital city of Hungary, until it was made a part of Czechoslovakia after World War I in 1918.  At the time of the so-called “Velvet Divorce” in 1993 when Czechoslovakia became two separate states, it became the capital of Slovakia. 


To my faithful readers who have made it this far into my post...  it is late and I'm going to edit and finish this later...!