My wife and I will be visiting Bratislava end of July/beginning of August. She is especially excited because her grandmother was born in and lived in Raca until she emigrated. My wife knows nothing more specific but she would like to visit the Raca area. Does anyone have suggestions about Raca, especially about places that existed in the late 1890s/early 1900s?
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8125 posts
Raca is quite a ways east of Bratislava, and it's just a wide spot in the road. Wikipedia says there are 27 inhabitants.
We really enjoyed Bratislava for a weekend after visiting Budapest--on our way to Vienna. It's one of the really up and coming European cities with high tech industries and very high incomes. They have a huge mall on the riverfront with a bunch of restaurant/bars on the lawn overlooking the water.
Although Bratislava is just 39 miles from Vienna, we didn't hear a single word of German spoken in our time there. They speak Hungarian.
Posted by
Oregon, USA
198 posts
Although there are no doubt some Hungarian speakers in Bratislava--since it is so close to Hungary--the language in Bratislava is Slovak. Languages in that part of the world are so interesting; for example, Hungarian is quite different and not related at all to any of the Slavic languages (Slovak, Czech, Polish, etc.)
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5372 posts
David - why do you keep saying that Slovakians speak Hungarian? Totally incorrect. I’ve seen you say this at least twice already. They speak Slovak!
Also, Bratislava is in no way a high income, tech city. That is just laughable. Viennese go there to shop because things are cheaper and stores are open on Sundays.
Posted by
San Francisco
14503 posts
Bratislava was once a town in Hungary. The Hungarians called the place Pozsony, while the German Austrians called it Pressburg. In English it was called Pressburg after the German name, as in the Treaty of Pressburg of 1805 imposed on the Austrians when they were beaten.