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European Holiday and River Cruising Memoirs

Daily Archives: November 27, 2013

WOW! Make that a Double Honour – Blog of the Year 2013 a Second Star!

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by KidazzleInk.com in Blog of the Year 2013, Time flies when you're globe trotting and river cruising, Uncategorized, Viking River Cruise

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Another star, Blog Of The Year 2013 Award, With Humble Thanks

OH WOW - Very Cheery and Chirpy Tonight

OH WOW – Very Cheery and Chirpy Tonight

I would like to thank wonderful Dawny Hosking for nominating me for this award.
Please do go over and check out her entertaining and informative blog.

This is what the Blog of the Year 2013 – Two star Award looks like.

Blog of the Year 2013 -2star

Blog of the Year 2013 -2star

The idea as always when you receive one of these lovely awards is to choose some other blogs to nominate for the same award.

Well here are my nominees: there is really just such a plethora of blogs to choose from, it was indeed very difficult for me to choose again.

Once again I should also let you know that I do still have several other awards to give out over the next week or so as well ….so please do  keep dropping by. If I haven’t nominated you for this I’m still very likely to be nominating many of you for another different award.

Well here are my new nominees for round 2 of “Blog of the Year 2013:


Humbuzzwhistle

Heni’s Happy Paintings

Wiley Schmidt

Jardin

Anotherday2paradise

Pooky’s Poems

Bug Photo

Lynda Michele

Dawny Hosking

Sweetness

The instructions for this award are simple:

1-Select the blogs you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.

2-Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required- and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.

3-Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them – (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)

4-Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link: http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5-You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page.Click the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear

Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6-And as a winner of the award- please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award-and then proudly display the award on your blog- and start collecting stars!

Yes – That’s right-There are stars to collect!

Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once-this award is different!

When you begin you will receive the ’1 star’ award- and every time you are given the award by another blog- you can add another star!

There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

Which means that you can check out your favorite blogs- and even if they have already been given the award by someone else- you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum of 6 stars! You can either ‘swop’ your badge for the next one each time you are given the award- or even proudly display all six badges if you are lucky enough to be presented with the award 6 times!

You can find all the badges and banners and information you need via this link: ‘Blog of The Year 2013′ Award Badges.

Congratulations to all the nominees! Best of luck to every one!

And of course a very big thank you once again to lovely Dawn for nominating my blog a second time for this Award. Hugs to everyone.

Once again Warrm Hugs to Everyone at WordPress

Once again Warm Hugs to Everyone at WordPress

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Gosh What an Honour – A Blog of the Year Award 2013

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by KidazzleInk.com in Blog of the Year 2013, Time flies when you're globe trotting and river cruising, Uncategorized, Viking River Cruise

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Blog of the Year Award 2013, Blog Of The Year Award Facebook, Facebook, Star

Feeling very Chipper and Chirpy today!

Feeling very Chipper and Chirpy today!

I would like to thank wonderful Sweetness for nominating me for this award.
Please do go over and check out her entertaining blog called The Chronicles of a Public Transit User.

This is what the Blog of thre Year 2013 – One star Award looks like.

Blog of the Year Award 1 star

Blog of the Year Award 1 star

The idea as always when you receive one of these lovely awards is to choose some other blogs to nominate for the same award.

Well here are my nominees: there is such a plethora of blogs to choose from, it was very difficult for me to choose. I should also let you know that I have several other awards to give out over the next week or so as well ….do keep dropping by. If I haven’t nominated you for this I’m still likely to be nominating you for another different award.


Kaligrafi

A Window into the Woods

Restless Jo

Tails from Paris

Janalines’ World Journey

The World’s Top 10 of Everything

Booknvolume

Ajaytao

Dawny Hosking

Tracie Louise Photography

The instructions for this award are simple:

1-Select the blogs you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.

2-Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required- and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.

3-Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them- (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)

4-Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link: http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5-You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page.Click the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear

Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6-And as a winner of the award- please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award-and then proudly display the award on your blog- and start collecting stars!

Yes – That’s right-There are stars to collect!

Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once-this award is different!

When you begin you will receive the ’1 star’ award- and every time you are given the award by another blog- you can add another star!

There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

Which means that you can check out your favorite blogs- and even if they have already been given the award by someone else- you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum of 6 stars! You can either ‘swop’ your badge for the next one each time you are given the award- or even proudly display all six badges if you are lucky enough to be presented with the award 6 times!

You can find all the badges and banners and information you need via this link: ‘Blog of The Year 2013′ Award Badges.

Congratulations to all the nominees! Best of luck to every one!

And of course a very big thank you once again to lovely Sweetness for nominating my blog. Hugs to everyone.

Hugs to everyone at WordPress.

Hugs to everyone at WordPress.

Day 13 – Bratislava; The City of Fun.

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by KidazzleInk.com in Amsterdam to Budapest, Art, Bratislava, Slavakia, Uncategorized, Viking River Cruise

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

A City of Fun, Bratislava, Carpathian Mountain, Central Europe, Danube, Pressburg, Schoolies, Slovakia

A City of Fun. Bratislava.

A City of Fun. Bratislava.

I thought I was going to be the first to call it this….but NO…evidently not so.

Bratislava in Slovakia (Pop about 470,000) has actually been labeled the “City Of Fun” by several others in the past, and long before our visit in the Spring of 2013 (well this is what I’ve recently read on the almighty Google network anyway).

Bratislava Castle, Slovakia on a warm hazy day.

Bratislava Castle, Slovakia on a warm hazy day.

Mind you it’s really not at all surprising that others have also graced it with this name. With its oh-so-charmingly comical elements and its deeply embedded sense of humour, this tag just seems to be a rather perfect fit somehow. I believe it describes modern day Bratislava remarkably well. And after our early info-walk around the old town area, on what was now Day 13 of our wonderful river cruise, this was precisely the catch phrase that had begun to echo in my brain as we’d soaked up the cities new contemporary atmosphere.

Bratislava Slovakia, a city with a sense  of fun.

Bratislava Slovakia, so enjoyed this playful City.

More of Bratislava the city with a sense of Fun.

More of Bratislava the city with a wonderful atmosphere of Fun.

However, I should probably also add, our visit just happened to coincide with a sort of “Schoolies” day in the city. Many of Bratislava’s final year High School students were out and about, wandering the old town areas, looking to create some mischief of their own and having, what looked like, a jolly good time.

Schoolies in Bratislava, Slovakia, 2013.

Schoolies in Bratislava, Slovakia, 2013.

They were obviously fund raising…..trying to collect donations (more precious penny treasure from we, the  impoverished river cruise tourists, who had already given all of our carefully saved pennies away to the wonderful Viking Company LOL– see my post “Lost in Regensberg” for more about how our personal penny treasure had already disappeared).

A Modern Day Fairy Tale

More Penny Treasure

Schoolie funds raised would soon be put towards their own after dark celebrations that evening. These, we were told, would begin just after sun-down that same evening. As the moon began to rise and the sun began to set and sink behind the old city horizon, the young were obviously about to put on their new shoes and party like they’d never done before!

By then it would be time for all self-respecting Viking River Cruise Tourists to be sailing on!

Moon Rising, Schoolies Party Time.

Moon Rising, Schoolies Party Time, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Well I guess many people would have cringed at the thought of having a bunch of rowdy, out-of-control Schoolies partying all around on the streets as they explored a new city, but actually ….this was NOT the case at all. These excited young people appeared to be quite well-behaved albeit VERY VERY boisterous, VERY VERY happy and VERY VERY  noisy. I found it a most convivial atmosphere and I believe it actually added to, rather than subtracted from, our morning visit to this wonderful mid-sized city.

Day 13 -  Viking River Cruise, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Day 13 – Viking River Cruise Info-Walk Morning, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Geographically, Bratislava, Slavakia is close by the Carpathian Mountain range of Central Europe. According to Wikipedia, it occupies the Southwestern corner of the new nation. Sprawling around the Danube, the little Danube and the Morava River. It is actually renowned as the only independent National Capital to border two independent countries….namely Austria and Hungary.

View of the Danube and surrounding Mountains from Bratislava Castle,Slovakia.

View of the Danube and surrounding Mountains from Bratislava Castle,Slovakia.

Indeed at one time in this cities’ early history (1526 -1867) Bratislavia had been the grand capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and part of the larger Habsburg Family ruled territories. At that time it had been called Pressburg (1536-1783).

Post World War 1 it became part of the new nation of Czechoslovakia.

Post World War 2 it was forced into a far more serious chapter in history when it became part of the organised communist block of countries. Bratslavia then remained oppressed, socialist and centrally ruled for near on 5 decades until, in early 1993,  it is described as undergoing the “Velvet Divorce” from these restrictive socialist ties.

The separation heralded in a whole new era as Bratislava became part of the new Republic of Slovakia.

A city with heart, Bratislava, Slovakia.

A city with a new heart, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Perhaps it is because of,  or indeed perhaps it is in spite of….. all those years of strict control (I’m not actually sure which), but Bratislava today exudes the most wonderful sense of humour.

While the city was largely refurbished in the late 20th century, its historical town centre remains fairly intact. But wherever you go, wherever you look as you wander the city’s streets today, there’s evidence of so many new and lighter, one could even say, more whimsical touches. They all add to the cities new and cheerful atmosphere. As you can see from my photos, modern  Bratislava is indeed a most wonderful experience…..a city just brimful of fun. Today it could easily become a new centre for the arts.

The longest legs I'veever seen, Bratislava, Slovakia.

The longest legs I’ve ever seen, Bratislava, Slovakia.

A family of hedgehogs in the Market Square, Bratislavia, Slovakia.

A rather sweet little family of hedgehogs in the Market Square, Bratislavia, Slovakia.

Ice Creams Bratislava, Slovakia.

Ice Creams Bratislava, Slovakia.

Pretty Flower Box, Bratislava, Sovakia.

Pretty Flower Box, Bratislava, Sovakia.

For more informative reflections on Bratislavia, Slovakia you might like to read these wonderful posts from Terri and James Vance at Gallivance on WordPress:

http://gallivance.net/2013/11/04/bratislavas-hidden-gems/

http://gallivance.net/2013/10/28/bratislava-a-delightful-chance-to-recharge-the-batteries/

http://gallivance.net/2013/11/02/bratislava-its-all-in-the-details/

 

RELATED VIDEOS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KybTbyqgd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwtxOpJh-Hs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-_73Jr6f3E

 

RELATED BLOG POSTS:

  • Walks in and around Bratislava (bratislavajournals.wordpress.com)
  • Bratislava City Tour – Guía de Bratislava. Slovakia – Eslovaquia (mytravelvideoblog.com)
  • Bratislava, Slovakia (travelinitiative.wordpress.com)
  • Bratislava, Slovakia (gensdailleurs.com)

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