Bratislava

Day 434 (September 5, 2019) – Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, was only a short train ride away from Vienna. After arriving at the Bratislava train station and walking to our new apartment, it was clear that Bratislava was a much smaller and more manageable city than Vienna. It was still the afternoon when we got settled in, so we went for a walk downtown.

Waiting in the Vienna train station for our train to Bratislava.

Walking around Bratislava.

The downtown area was very cute and very European, but with a hint of Soviet flair. The city is situated on the Danube River and one of the major bridges across the river is decorated with a giant gray concrete UFO-like structure at the top. There is really no other way to describe it, but it screams of Soviet-era architecture. Otherwise, most of the city is composed of cute pedestrian streets, outdoor cafes, and a handful of noteworthy buildings, like the Historical Building of the Slovak National Theater and the Bratislava City Museum Building, among others.

The next day was our grand walking tour of Bratislava. We walked all through the downtown streets and up a hill to Bratislava Castle, a huge white castle that can be seen from everywhere in the city (and the photo at the top of the post). After walking all around the castle we went back into town, past a number of churches and downtown streets until we reached the Blue Church. It was supposed to be an important tourist site, but it really is just a blue church. We couldn’t even look inside because the doors were locked. It seemed a bit overrated to us, but to each their own.

A set of stairs leading up to Bratislava Castle. 

The Blue Church.

When we were walking around town, we experienced our first significant episode of travel exhaustion. We had been on the road for a long time now and we were still feeling the whirlwind of our recent trip around Czechia and our quick stopover in Vienna. We were walking down one of the streets in Bratislava and I remember thinking, this place is really nice, but where am I again? Seriously, I can’t remember anymore… where am I? It’s not Vienna. Vienna was the last place. Oh right, Bratislava! Got it. So then I told Travis that for a minute there I honestly couldn’t remember where we were anymore, and he says, “yea, I was just thinking that myself!” This was the first time either of us experienced that feeling on this trip. Maybe we have been traveling for too long or maybe it’s just that the cities around Europe all look so similar to one another, especially in their downtown areas. They all have cobblestone streets, outdoor cafes, and that iconic European façade architecture. We’ve been to so many of them that they all kind of blend together at this point. It’s apparently quite easy to forget where you are.

The Historical Building of the Slovak National Theater.

We went to a couple Slovakian restaurants, but they weren’t much to write home about. Maybe we chose poor restaurants, but they left the impression that Slovakian food was pretty much the same as Czech food, but not as tasty. It was drier, probably because it wasn’t swimming in gravy like most dishes we got in Czechia. We did, however, go out for a great Indian dinner one night. Indian food is always pricey no matter where we are so it’s a bit of a splurge, but we found a place for dinner that was highly rated and it didn’t disappoint.

This stew had potential, but it fell flat in the end.

After only a couple days, we were leaving Bratislava via the airport, but first we had to get there. All throughout Europe we had been buying bus and train tickets on our phones. Public transportation was always on the honor system and in Bratislava, like many other cities, there was a transportation app where you can instantly buy a ticket for the bus or tram when it is about to arrive. Well, this was our first experiences of trying to purchase a ticket as the bus is approaching and it not working. Travis tried again, but it was refusing to take our credit card. The buses to the airport only ran every 30 minutes. I admit that my first thought was that we should just get on the bus anyway and see if we can figure it out on board, but Travis insisted we take the high road, so we watched the bus pass us up as we figured out how to buy a bus ticket the old fashioned way. This was just a random road that we were waiting on, so it wasn’t like there was an obvious place where we could buy a ticket. Fortunately, the dry cleaner behind us was very helpful and directed us to a couple places we could try. What worked for us was a ticket kiosk up the street a bit. It only took coins and we were lucky to have just enough on hand, but we got out tickets and waited for the next bus.

It turned out that we had made the right decision to have proper bus tickets on us. We saw our first ever random ticket check. A ticket checker boarded the bus and was scanning everyone’s tickets and, not surprisingly, found someone who didn’t have one. The ticket checker escorted him off the bus at the next stop and was going to write him up with a €50 fine. However, we also learned that we could have purchased tickets on board with a credit card, despite what the internet had told us. In any case, we were glad we had our physical tickets on hand. We arrived at the airport half an hour late, which had us worried, but bizarrely there was not a single person in line at the check-in counter and we walked right up. We went through security, got to our gate in plenty of time, and were soon jetting off to Brussels to visit some friends.