Sign In
Blogs from Bratislava, Bratislava Region, Slovakia, Europe - page 7
Advertisement
July 19th 2009
This entry may seem somewhat less like travel writing than my usual and and will have no pictures, as I'm not sure whether writing about this should be considered travel blogging or just generally raising awareness of a certain experience which I've had more than once in my life, and had again on our last night in Slovakia, which we spent in the capital city, Bratislava. Short and to the point, we were mostly offended by how expensive the place was - when we're used to paying 2 euros for a beer and a red wine, going back and paying 11 euros for the same was not particularly welcoming, and we found ourselves waxing lyrical about how much we preferred Banská Bystrica pretty early on in the evening! I suggested that we need to get away ... read more
June 30th 2009
For our next stop on our backpacking adventure we made our way south by train to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We found out quickly that the trains in Eastern Europe operate a little slower than trains elsewhere. But, we arrived safely and only a hour late. Bratislava is one of the more random stops on this trip as we really didn't know much about it or what to expect. But I guess that is what made it exciting! Usually we've been able to rely on English or Spanish to get us by, but not here! Since our working knowledge of Slovakian doesn't go beyond "thank you" and "good morning" we have found a new way of communicating. Pointing and thumbs up, etc. Ordering at a restaurant is especially interesting. We basically wait for people around ... read more
June 24th 2009
So with just 72 hours at home after returning from Toronto, it's back on the road. Or more accurately, back to the airport - Gatwick this time. I've been tracking the weather forecast and Bratislava currently has some very unseasonal thunderstorms, so it could be fairly unpleasant. However, I expect to be working pretty much continuously, so it probably won't matter! There are few direct flights to Bratislava, and even fewer at sensible low prices. However, Vienna is only 40 miles away so I'm flying easyjet to Vienna instead and planning to catch the bus. A word in favour of easyjet: they're the new British Airways in my view. The flights are sensibly priced, on clean modern aircraft, with friendly crew. BA in contrast run tired old planes staffed with bored looking crew. Ryanair spend all ... read more
June 22nd 2009
Starting to wonder whether this plan to post on each country makes sense but I will try to keep it up for a bit longer. So what do we know about Slovakia? There was one of those filler programs on TV program that focused on British people who bought houses in Slovakia. It basically showed a beautiful country that had cheap houses and an easy atmosphere. Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution when the Communist regime was removed and elections were fought by more than one party. Slovakia supplied a couple of Prime Ministers at least for the former 'joint country. Alexander Dubcek was the one who was probably the most famous. He took a view that wasn't supported by the USSR at the time and the Soviets sent in the ... read more
June 11th 2009
Jim - Write up 5 -5/11 We arrived at in Bratislava at 4 PM and took the bus to the hotel. It was warm, almost hot, and our tour leader, Ben (Carol) Szyplinski discovered we did not have Air Conditioning in the hotel rooms. This was something she specified with our travel agent. We now refer to Ben as our “Polish unguided missile”. It was not pretty. Needless to say, we moved to the Executive suites which have AC, Refrigerators, Digital TV and post Soviet Furniture. The only thing we don’t have is in-room internet access. Yesterday afternoon I walked down the street and they had a beautiful church they built in 2001 (St. Vincent de Paul). I stopped in and it reminded me that their first priority after the Soviet occupation was to rebuild/build their ... read more
Advertisement
Eastern Europe - Day 30 - Bratislava
Published: June 2nd 2009Europe » Slovakia » Bratislava Region » Bratislava
June 1st 2009
Today we caught the train to Bratislava for a day trip from Vienna. Our tour leader had told us that there wasn't all that much to do in Bratislava and that we would probably only end up spending about 4 hours there before we headed back to Vienna. However we actually ended up spending most of the day there. We started the day by catching the 9:28 train from the Sudbahnhof and since it only takes an hour to get to Bratislava by train (apparently only 60kms away) we were there by 10:30. After a quick tram ride into town we were ready for a wander around the old train of Bratislava. Our first stop on our wee walking tour (after a wee coffee break in a little cafe) was the castle. Unfortunatley the interior of ... read more
May 24th 2009
Took a trip to explore Bratislava (an hour away from Vienna) via public bus and within 2 hours of arriving I was looking for the bus back to Vienna. Twas nice and quaint but small, and thats all I have to say! :)... read more
May 24th 2009
Bratislava — historically Pozsony and Pressburg (see also other names) — is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two countries. It and Vienna are also two of Europe's closest national capitals, at less than 60 kilometres (37 mi) apart.... read more
April 24th 2009
10 February Flying out this afternoon but not until about 6pm so had plenty of time to spare before then. Had a bit of a leisurely morning given I saw much of the old town yesterday. Checked out of the hostel at around 9am and left my luggage in the hostel. Basically spent a couple of day seeing the last of the sights I didn;t get a chance to see yesterday. Got incredibly lost and ended up on the other side of town from where I was supposed to be but that does tend to happen to me. After a few hours wandering it started snowing so despite it being too early to head to the airport I headed back to the hostel, slightly concerned that my flight might end up being delayed because of the ... read more
April 14th 2009
Bratislava was quick and dirty. The lonely planet claimed trains left every two hours - this is correct except for the 4 hour break they have between 10am and 2pm, so having missed the early trains, I killed some time on the net before nearly missing the next train. So rocked up at the train station with about 40 mins to spare. killed 15 mins waiting at the wrong ticket booth. I was direct to the international and eventually found it 5 mins later. There was a free counter so went up to it asked about the next train. She yes - but I need to get a number before she would serve me, so I go get a number but then I have to wait for it to be called. At which point the woman ... read more
