We parked up the hill near the tramlines & walked down the ancient looking steps to the Town. Old Bratislava was composed of a "rabbit warren" of roughly cobbled lanes and narrow streets leading directly or less direction to the town square. The first thing that caught my eye (near the under-road tunnel) was a smoking salon, decked out with comfy chairs much like a cafe. I was surprised to find this here, only because I'd heard from a Slovak acquaintance in Australia that smoking parlour shops had been banned in the city, but here it was, couples happily chugging away at the weed in relaxing surroundings. Mind you, they were lots of other public places anyway that you could freely smoke in the town (so a shop specialising in smoking seemed a bit superfluous to this outsider!).
It was very hot on the day we toured (about 35-36 degrees), so most of the locals were sitting round drinking their pivo of choice in the numerous bars all over the old town. One of the bars had the right idea in the heat, the staff had affixed a sprinkler system of sorts to the inside of the shop awning & a gentle mist of perfumed water(?) was being sprayed onto the grateful drinkers reclining below (something similar was done in Budapest, I noticed).
Cultural pointer: Beer drinking du jour is the norm in Bratislava - & cheaper than H2O I found out! ... when finally we were driven inside one of the bars by the unrelenting heat, the spring water I ordered cost me €1.80 whereas the half-litre of beer my companions both had cost them a mere €1.20 each!?!
Footnote: Tiny Slovakia cf. Even Tinier Slovenia
We visitors to Europe from the other side of the world get these two small Central/Southern European republics mixed up SO often (no excuses though once you have actually visited them!). I can only imagine how frustrating this must be to the Slovaks & Slovenes themselves ... especially as both peoples long existed under subordinate ethnic identities in their respective former states before finally freeing themselves from the shadow of numerically larger ethnic groups.
