Bratislava 2 – Day 17-19

There are three trips about which I blogged that I never wrote the final day(s)’ blog posts. There are also a few trips that I didn’t blog about, at all. I’ve decided to cast my mind back, and to write these missing blog posts, inspired by the pictures I took, and my memories of the events on those days. It won’t be as detailed as if I had written them on the day of the events, but continuing to procrastinate will not make the details any clearer. Here is a link to the first 16 days of this trip. The final three days were December 2-4, 2023.

And now for the much anticipated, exciting conclusion to my second trip to Bratislava.

Day 17 – COVID

The day dawned grey, and rainy, and I woke with a migraine. The plan for the day was to visit the Slovak National Gallery, and then meet one of Michael’s friends at the Christmas market in the late afternoon. We went downstairs for breakfast just before they closed. I still wasn’t feeling well when we got back to the room, so I snoozed, and Michael read, until I felt improved enough to venture out, midday. It was still raining, so we took the streetcar.

The Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava consists of a complex of buildings. The central building was originally a four-wing baroque residence on the Danube embankment built in 1759-1763. It was later reconstructed and an extension was built from 1969-1977.

This is an artistic representation of the gallery.

The gallery had been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. In 2001, much of the gallery was closed. It only reopened in December 2022, after seven years of construction. A total of 75 million euros was expended.

The various levels were accessible with open, inviting staircases. I will generally choose stairs over an elevator or escalator, and normally bound up them, but today, my legs had no energy, and I plodded slowly up.

Here are some of the galleries, and art pieces.

Much of the building was rather austere.

I like the way that the older part of the building is featured where the new part connects with it.

This is The Kornel and Naďa Földvári Library. “The Library presents an extensive collection of books owned by the writer, literary critic and satirist Kornel Földvári and his wife, Naďa. The project’s initiator was the writer and director Peter Krištúfek, who was determined to preserve Kornel’s extensive book collection and capture his inspiring personality and passion for collecting. Make yourself comfortable and choose from over 11 000 books that you can browse in a pleasant environment designed for studying, relaxation and cultural and social events.”

This part of the gallery is known as The Bridge, and was in such disrepair in 2001 that it was closed to the public for 21 years. They must have been between exhibits when we were there because it was mostly empty.

This is the view from the fourth floor where we sat for a while after visiting all the galleries. The gallery faces the Danube. The street was recently put on a road diet to install very wide bike lanes, even though there is a very wide promenade on the riverbank. The streetcar runs down the centre.

I was still feeling tired, was getting hungry, and was unsure that I could wait to eat dinner at the Christmas market. We decided to try Mondieu Bistro, which is a chain restaurant here. The food was good, but was some of the more expensive food that I have encountered here.

The bistro was absolutely packed, but there was some turnover, and we were able to get a table in a few minutes.

This is one of the new parts of the National Gallery.

We still had time before the planned meet up with Michael’s friend so we decided to climb up Michalská brána – Michael’s Gate in English. It is among the oldest buildings in Bratislava. It was built about the year 1300, but its present shape is the result of a baroque reconstruction in 1758. Most of the city walls and the other gates have all been demolished. One can go out on a balcony on the sixth floor. This view is to the south and you can see the steeple of St. Martin’s Cathedral.

The Christmas market completely fills the main square called Hlavne Namestie.

When we emerged from the tower, the rain had turned to snow, which is somewhat unusual in Bratislava. Despite wearing many layers of warm clothing, I just couldn’t stay warm. We still had about an hour before meeting Michael’s friend. I also felt completely exhausted so I made the difficult decision to go back to the room on my own.

I was beginning to suspect that I had COVID.

The first time I had COVID was 35 weeks earlier in March 2023. I had gone to a quilt show. It was quite crowded, and I knew from my CO2 monitor that the air quality was quite poor, with a carbon dioxide reading of over 2000 ppm. So I wore an N 95 mask the whole time I was inside. This was on a Saturday afternoon. By Monday morning, I had a sore throat, felt exhausted, and had very weak legs climbing the stairs. I took a COVID test and I was positive. My most recent vaccination had been in the fall. I was positive for 11 days and it took about a month after I cleared the virus to recover my energy level. That was just before my first trip to Bratislava.

As soon as I got back to the hotel room, I did a COVID test and I was positive. The line was faint, but unmistakable. So it seems, for me, one of the first symptoms is weak legs. I messaged Michael to warn him. My flight home was in two days, but he was staying for another nine, so I suggested he might want to get another room to decrease his chances of catching COVID from me.

I started to think about where I could have picked it up. This was Saturday afternoon. On Thursday night we had dinner in a crowded restaurant. We were seated close to the kitchen and far from the entry door – a position that studies show is riskier than near the entry door and away from the kitchen. The service was slow and we were there for about 90 minutes without wearing masks. There were no other times indoors that fit the timeline or the risk. I was really annoyed at myself because it was just the two of us that evening, and we could’ve chosen to get takeout to eat in the hotel, rather than sitting unmasked in a crowded place.

Michael decided not to spend the money to get another room, since we were together when I’m pretty sure I caught it, and it was likely only matter of time before he tested positive, as well. His first COVID infection was on a trip to Bratislava a year ago.

I put on a mask and went to the food court in the mall, which is attached to the hotel, and got takeout for dinner, and ibuprofen for headaches.

Michael tested when he got back to the room and was negative. He was still feeling fine.

Day 18 – Rest and Packing

The day dawned, sunny and dry, but cold. I felt well enough to go to the dining room for breakfast, but masked in the buffet area and sat in an empty area of the dining room while eating. We decided to go for a walk for some fresh air and exercise.

The old railway station and 10 track corridor are between a new neighbourhood, and our hotel. It hasn’t been decided what will happen with this area, but some sort of rail is one of the possibilities.

The new neighbourhood is dense, transit, cycling, and walking oriented. The main floors of the buildings are commercial units, the parking is underground, and the green space is imaginatively designed. Streetcars come every few minutes.

Bratislava was under communist rule from 1948 to 1989 and has many Soviet style buildings and works of art to show for it.

I visited view from the end of the corridor at the hotel a final time.

Then I swapped out my bike seat and seat post, and removed my bar bag, and cell phone holder, from the bike I had borrowed from one of Michael’s friends. I packed everything other than what I needed for the next 14 hours until I left for the airport.

The sun sets early here.

We went to the food fair in the attached mall for dinner, and it was empty enough, and the ventilation, good enough, that I took off my mask and ate there

We both took COVID tests when we returned to the room. Mine showed a bright red positive result. Michael’s was still showing as negative. All things considered, I wasn’t feeling nearly as miserable as the first time I had COVID. I had a vaccination just before this trip. While it didn’t prevent an infection, at least so far, it seems to be moderating my symptoms. We went to bed early since I have to be up at 6am for the taxi to the airport in Vienna.

Day 19 – Travel Home

The taxi picked me up at 6:30 AM. The drive to the airport takes about an hour. I masked in the taxi, even though there was no longer any rules that dictate masking, or isolating when infected with COVID, either in Slovakia or Canada.

It was a cold frosty morning. The driver avoided the highways which gave me a more scenic view of the route.

Check in was very fast with only one person in front of me. The line at security looks long, but it moved fairly quickly. Almost no one was masking.

Passports are stamped on the way out here, as well as the way in.

There is a smoking room in the departure area. It only did a partial job of containing the smoke.

Ventilation was good in the departure area, according to my CO2 monitor, so I found an area away from other people so that I could remove my mask for a while. I was quite tired, so I set an alarm on my phone, and on my watch, and had a little nap.

The plane had to be de-iced before we took off. After de-icing it was discovered that there was a problem with the aircraft. We had to taxi back to the terminal, and it was two hours before we were finally able to take off. It made a long flight even longer.

There was a light dusting of snow as far as I could see when we took off from Vienna.

I had to take my mask off to eat three times over the almost 12 hours we were on the plane. I saw only one family of four people on the entire plane that were masking. There was an elderly woman sitting next to me. She wasn’t wearing a mask. I considered whether or not I should tell her that I had COVID before taking off my mask to eat, but I decided that almost 3 years into the pandemic that there was no way someone was ignorant of the risk of flying without a mask, and that she had made her decision not to protect herself, so I said nothing.

My friend Cindy offered to pick me up from the airport, even knowing that I had COVID, but I declined her kind offer and got a taxi home. I warned my two kids that live at home that I was coming home with COVID. I set up my room with a HEPA filter, opened the window for ventilation, and kept the door closed with a quilt across the bottom of the door. I masked whenever I went to the kitchen to get food.

I had a text from Michael, when I landed, that he had now tested positive for COVID, as well.

With this bout of COVID, I was only positive for five days, and didn’t feel nearly as bad during those five days as I did with my first infection. My energy level returned almost right away after the five days so even though the recent vaccination didn’t prevent infection, I feel confident that it reduced the time I was infected and help helped me to recover faster.