Day trip to Bratislava

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Since I've been to Austria before, I thought I'd take one of my days to check out nearby Bratislava. I left the apartment when Gaby when she headed in to work, and we took the tram together for part of the way, then I continued onwards to get to the main train station. Tonight I'll be spending the night with Marion, who lives outside of the city, but I didn't want to carry my bag around Bratislava, so Gaby will bring my bag and meet up with me at the train station when I return, so that I can continue on my journey.

The train to Bratislava just takes an hour, and round trip is only 18 euro. There's also the option to take a boat, but it was quite a bit more expensive, and apparently not worthwhile. The train station is quite far from the old town, it took me about 45 min to walk in, but it was a nice walk, with some pedestrian footpaths. Google maps again was essential- such a great invention!

I had thought about doing a free walking tour, but one had started at 10, and I didn't make it on time, and the next wasn't til 11. I decided instead to just explore on my own. I walked a bit through the old town, then up to the castle. After that, I headed over to the presidential palace for the changing of the guard. Then I went for lunch at a place that I had read about on a travel blog, for a typical Slovakian dish, kind of like gnocchi, with a sheep cheese sauce. It took quite a lot of time for it to come, and by then, it was cutting it close for me to get back to the train station in order to make the train time that I wanted (according to the schedule, they were once every hour). I scarfed it down (it was ok, but not my favourite- very heavy!), and did some speedwalking back to the station.

The train didn't end up coming on time, I had to wait almost an hour before we finally pulled out. But visiting Bratislave was a great way to spend a day!

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