Eastern Europe - Day 30 - Bratislava

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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 the castle is actually closed as it is going through massive renovations at the moment, however we did manage to get some lovely views of the city from the top of the castle walls. After our whistle stop tour of the castle we headed back down into the old town of Bratislava where we proceeded to literally just wander around and attempt to find the series of statues that are listed in the lonely planet. There are 4 statues listed in the lonely planet that are supposedly quite quirky. The first one is the most photographed sight in Bratislava and is a bronze statue called the watcher. This statue peeps out of a fake man hole cover at the intersection of two roads in the old town, and has a 'men at work' sign above its head. Apparently the sign was installed by the local council after the statue kept losing its head from cars hitting it. Another statue is that of the frenchman who is leaning over a park bench, along with the photographer who is stalking people papparazzi style. The last one (the Schoner Naci) is based on a real part of Bratislavian color. This status commemorates the eccentric dandy who dressed in a top and tails and lived at the beggining of the 20th century. Apparently he was often seen strolling around the Bratislava korzo giving flowers to passing ladies and sometimes adding a pre-ar musical hit.

Halfway through our statue hunt we had a pause to take on some sustenance and tried a traditional Slovekian Restaurant where I had the most delicious garlic soup that was served in a wholemeal bread tureen. Divine!

This pretty much summed up our day in Bratislava. Tomorrow we leave Vienna and head to Cesky Krumlov.

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Comments

[Aan]

only very stupid tour leader
can say there is not more to do in Bratislava than 4 hours - actually bratislava castle and Olt town are the most touristy locations and the least interesting, you can visit UFO on New bridge with grat views, you can visit war cemetery Slavin just 15min of walk from Maint rain station with other great views and with relaxing atmosphere, you can visit restaurant in TV tower Kamzik again with great views, you can go to Kamzik with elevated cablear in nature and you can also go there on bobsledge road, not mentioning interesting underground jewish cemetery Chatam Sofer