On the left is a photo I took of what appears to be a knight carved into an old church's exterior wall in a narrow alley on the outskirts of Bratislava where Amy and I happened to be walking one day in January of 1993 shortly after the country had declared its independence from the Czechs.

Bratislava is not known for its beauty in the way that Prague, Krakow, and other western Slavic cities are, but it is, nonetheless, kind of an interesting place to walk around for awhile.

The photo on the right was taken in a small town in Slovakia whose name I have long since forgotten. It was what appeared to be an abandoned monastery or church. It looked to have been an impressive structure in the past, but is now slowly crumbling into nothing. The funny thing was, though, that it was right in the middle of a thriving little town with school kids and many others wandering past. (We passed through right about the time school must have been letting out, because the kids were all walking past with their little backpacks on just like they used to do in Germany.)
Last Updated 17 August 1998 1