Wanderings: A gusty wind in Paris

June 3 to 4, 2026

Bratislava is a 20-minute bus ride, but a world away, from Hainburg. The iron curtain ran along the Austria/Czechoslovakian (1) border for almost fifty years, and the landscape still bears the scars. The Austrian side is tidy farm country, while the Slovak slide is more urban and less well-developed. At Bratislava, a flight went to Oslo for an overnight layover. A long layover the next day in Paris starting with some drizzle and views of the city from Montmatra. At midday, a gusty west wind (30 mph +) cleared away the drizzle before catching a flight home.

(1) Czechoslovakia emerged from the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of World War I (a), and again from the German Reich after World War II. The more urban, industrialized west (Czechia), split from the more agricultural east (Slovakia) in post-Cold War 1993 (b).

(a) The structure of the first Czechoslovak state envisioned a federal structure with two equal nations (Czech and Slovak). The agreement was worked out in 1918 in Pittsburgh (of all places).

(b) The 1993 partition was not popular in either part of the country, judging by opinion polls, and was not subject to a referendum. The leader of the Velvet Revolution overthrowing communism in 1989, Vaclav Havel, resigned as President of Czechoslovakia, rather than oversee the dissolution of his country.

Bus map at Hainburg shows hiking times to the hilltops from bus stops

Twenty minutes from rural Austria to Bratislava city center by bus

Bratislava Hrad (Castle) from the bridge over the Danube. The Slovakian flag (white, blue and red) is joined by that of North Macedonia flag (orange and red), whose president is visiting Bratislava today.