On my quest (I’ve been watching too much LOTR) to visit every country in the world, I scooted over to Bratislava, Slovakia from Salzburg, Austria as the next stop on my impromptu train travels. I know there is more to the country than the capital and I know some people will hum and hah about what constitutes as “visiting” a country, but let’s not do that today.
bratislava, slovakia
Once again, you have your CLASSIC European city- luscious river, castle on the hill, charming cobblestone streets with delicious coloured buildings.
Bratislava can be done in one solid day. Loads of people (personal knowledge) do a day trip from Vienna because it’s only an hour train.
Side note: since I bought my Interrail May 25 and left Amsterdam May 29 you would be correct in thinking I didn’t plan much. I ended up booking all my accommodation only one or two days before travelling to the next place.
Back to Bratislava: I was originally going to stay two nights since I had never been to Slovakia before, but then (I swear I’m not being dramatic) there was virtually no accommodation. When I looked on Booking.com a few days in advance for Bratislava there was nothing but a 16 bed hostel for €28 a night. I changed my search to one night and managed to find these apartments called City Center Best Place Apartments, which were fine I guess. Cha-ching (= expensive), but spacious. Would have been fab for a group (= savings). I’m somewhat of a mathematician.
Side note: Overall, what I found in eastern Europe/ the Balkans (again, let’s not do that today), there are a lot of private hosts on Booking.com along with Airbnb’s, but you’d be hard pressed to find a hotel. If you’re so smart you can leave me a comment telling me why this is the case.
Back to Bratislava: From Salzburg, I took the train to Železničná stanica Bratislava-Petržalka station. From there, you need to pay a whopping 0.90 cents for a bus to the center. When you get to the train station, Google maps will tell you that you need to walk around the station to get to the bus stop, but you need to take the underground walkway from inside the station. The woman at the customer service desk told me. I believe I also bought my the bus ticket from her.
The first thing I did was head to U Sedliaka– it’s not a famous landmark, it’s a restaurant. By this point you should know my priorities. Who am I kidding, we’re not friends, are we? How was the restaurant?
me “wine and perogies please”
waiter “0.5 liters or 1 liter”
me “marry me”
-Corrine 2023
That very morning I had a Radler and sausage at 9:34am so I was living my best day.
I met a guy while eating my perogies and we walked to Slavín hilltop memorial. It says online there is a view, but we went at night so I’m not sure if Google is lying or not.
Other than the obvious castle (FREE to wander around the grounds) and The Blue Church – Church of St. Elizabeth (FREE) (it’s in a residential area so it’s hard to get a good snap), I went to the top of the Old Town Hall for the charming view. I bought the ticket on the spot for 3 euros. At the top, there was me a three Austrians filming something and I awkwardly stood in their otherwise clean shots. Who shall I make the autograph out to?
I also had iced tea in the underground bunker tea house of Čajovňa v podzemí. You need to take your shoes off, you can sit on pillows- you know the scene. The woman was lovely and I think it’s sweet when people follow their dreams even if it doesn’t pay much and the universe is against them, so I gave her a tip even though all I got was a matcha cold tea (delish). That’s big because I’m not the type to tip for a single non-alcoholic bevvy.
Realizing that there were no trains to Serbia or a long-ass train with multiple changes to Bosnia, I decided to fly from Vienna because I couldn’t pass up the Ryanair flight for €37.87, inclusive of a checked bag.
