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City Christmas Market Not the Only Game in Town This Year
Two new market sites join the fray to compete for Bratislava inhabitants' and visitors' mulled wine pocket money this year but the city's main Christmas Market also offers a few innovations.
The city's official Christmas Markets in the Main Square (see panorama below) with the adjacent Old City Markets in Hviezdoslavovo have been around for years. Last year they were joined by a Christmas market in Koliba, in foresty hills just outside the centre.
This season a colourful market opens at Eurovea, the city's newest 'quarter' by the Danube river, a development with a mall, offices, apartments and a Sheraton hotel.
There will be about 40 booths in Eurovea's signature colours and the innovations are to include fancier food fashioned for the jet set crowd such as seafood, champagne oysters and Dutch Stroopwafles. Unlike the main market, Eurovea Market will remain open after Christmas, until the New Year.
Another new market opens at the Strkovec lake Areal Hier Radost, a short tram ride from the centre of Bratislava. The market by the Ruzinov area municipal authorities and a local sports club ice skating in a rink and heated shacks to eat your loksa in. Local schools, bands and singers perform on most days.
The main market brings innovations in 2010 too: a small arts and crafts market opens in the courtyard of the newly restored Apponyi Palace right by the Old Town Hall building.
