Unplanned visit to Bratislava

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Dobrý deň (Good day),

Like the title of this blog says, I made an unplanned visit to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. The plan was to go straight to Poland after Budapest but then I thought "why not stop briefly in Bratislava first"? Slovakia used to form one single country together with Czech Republic, called "Czechoslovakia" between the end of World War II and 1993.

The train from Budapest to Bratislava took about 2,5 hours. Bratislava is also Slovakia's largest city with about half a million people and lies on the shores of the Danube River. Vienna, Austria's capital, is just about 40km from Bratislava but I've been there already in 2006 and didn't want to go again. Bratislava is not a big city which is good because I didn't have much time to stay here...just two nights! I arrived late in the afternoon and didn't do any sightseeing/exploring that day. I met with people from Couchsurfing and we went to a bar which had a lot of locals, foreign students and other foreigners working. We stayed until about 00:30. The next day the weather was luckily clear and sunny so I grabbed my map and left the hostel. I started wandering in the small historic downtown with its beautiful squares and alleys, all of it easy to do by foot. The area around of the National Theatre was pretty and also the Havlé Nám square. Around the city there were a couple of funny bronze statues, two of them which I uploaded pictures from. In the Michalská street, which leads towards the St. Michael's Gate, there are several bars and restaurants. I had lunch at one of the restaurants offering a pretty good all-you-can-eat buffer for just EUR 7. I walked also along the shore of the river towards a newer built part of the city, consisting of new apartment-buildings with views over the river and a shopping-mall called Eurovea. The Church of St. Elizabeth (Blue Church) was closed when I went there. The church is about 100 years old and looks very "different" than most churches do and I learned that it's a Hungarian Catholic Church. There were many Hungarians (and Germans) living in Bratislava in the early 1900's, more than Slovaks, but that all changed after the World Wars.

A "must" when in Bratislava is the Bratislava Castle, located on a hill with excellent views over the city. The castle was built more than 1000 years ago but destroyed by an attack by Napoleon in 1809. The castle remained in ruins until late 1950's, when they started to reconstruct it. The castle is house to the History Museum which offered a wide range of collections of historical and traditional clothes, crafts, ceramics, glass, fine arts and historical press.

I didn't have much time to spend in Bratislava but I'm glad that I took advantage of the opportunity to at least see some of it anyway.

Well that's all for this one...it's a short blog for a short visit. Thanks for reading and the next blog, Poland, will be online in less than a week!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

The beauty of Bratislava
We are going to Vienna for New Year's and people keep telling us to take a quick trip over to Bratislava. It looks lovely.

[Elton]

Hello! Yes you should do it if you're going to be in Vienna. It's very near so you should take advantage, it's indeed lovely! :-)

[Ido STEENI]

Observashon.
Elton mi ta sinti falta ahina y di unda bo da di e bandera di Korsou riba bo blog. Kaminda bo ta splika mas o menos ken bo ta y di unda bo ta bini.

[Rosemary Sint Jago]

Elton kon ta bai Kon ta bai ey banda, Bo ta sinti hopi falta di Korsow awor ku dianan di fiesta ta jegando.Unda bo ta pasa Pasku ku Anja Nobo. Tante Rose ta deseabo felis dia nan di Pasku i ku Anja 2014 jen di bendishon i ku tur bo deseonan bira realidad aunke bo ta hopi leu di nos tur bo famianan. Un abrazo Tante Carla tambe ta manda deseabo felis dianan di Pasku i Anja Nobo. Un abrazo di nos tur aki banda. Tante Rose

[Elton]

Masha masha danki, igualmente! Mi a respondé tante Rose via e-mail.

[Adam]

Tour of Bratislava
It looks that you have seen a lot of Bratislava during such a short stay ;) Great photos I live in Bratislava all my life and do not have pictures of some of the places you have visited ;) thanks for sharing. Next time you visit Slovakia, there is lot of other lovely places to see, castles, rivers, caves, mountains etc ;) Some of my pictures of Slovakia are here http://goo.gl/Cny9A8

[Elton]

Thanks Adam! Yes, I know there is much more in Slovakia than just the capital. Like I wrote, I didn't even plan to visit Slovakia at all and had just enough time for the capital. Maybe in the future I'll visit again!