#4- Devin

One Saturday afternoon at the end of August, Deni and I took a short trip out of the city to a town called Pezinok. In this small little town is a race track for go-karts. Now I’m not talking about your everyday family go-kart track. These are fast go-karts. I’m talking about a top speed of 75 mph. Deni and her father used to race every weekend until Deni’s go-kart was mysteriously stolen from the garage at the course. Anyway, the track was closing for good and we were there to watch her Dad for one last time. While we were there some people told us that there was a festival the next day held at Devin Castle. Deni and I were already planning on making a visit there, but since there was a festival going on, we decided to go the next day.

So let’s take another look at the map of Bratislava. In the 4^th district, there is a borough called Devin. Technically this is a part of the city, but if you went there, you wouldn’t think it was the city at all. It felt like it took forever to drive there, and there wasn’t a whole lot around other than a few houses here and there. A lot of rich people live in this area. I imagine people live there because it’s quiet.

The castle was up on a hill and the festival took place at the bottom of the hill. This was something like the Renaissance Festival we have back at home, but on smaller scale. Everyone was dressed up in costumes, there were stages with different singing, dancing, and fighting performances, and of course food and beer. On the sides of the walk ways, there were actors pretending to do different things from different time periods. Some of them even sold things to onlookers.

Deni and I were mostly interested in the castle so we quickly observed what was going on at the festival and then continued up the hill to take pictures and read about the history of the castle. The thing about history for me is that it’s always interesting to me at the time, but I never remember it the next day. But never mind. We enjoyed the castle, and continued back down the hill to check out the performances. While we watched the different dramas and dances, we ate what is called ciganska pecienka, or gypsy cutlet. This is a delicious piece of pork grilled with some spices that are unknown to me, slapped on a fresh roll, and then covered with mustard. The option is also there to eat it with onions.

Later we left the festival and enjoyed a little bit of shopping just outside of the gates. Venders were selling a lot of different products. We purchased a small bottle of medovina, wine made from honey, and some small Slovak souvenirs. Then we continued down to the restaurant and enjoyed some ice cream.

For the rest of the pics go here