Day 1 – Monday (12/29/2014)
After almost 3 hours of travel from Budapest, we arrived at Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. We decided to include the city in the itinerary because in addition to having great prices for this time of year, considered high season, this city has several reviews interesting and some even say that it will be full of tourists in the coming years. Will it be?
(A basic summary: Pressburg, as it was called, was the capital of Hungary in 1536 and only developed during the reign of Maria Theresa, between 1736 and 1765. After World War I, the city was incorporated into Czechoslovakia and was renamed Bratislava. It was only in 1993, with the fall of the USSR and the division of Czechoslovakia, that the city became the capital of Slovakia. The city is known for its statues, its castle and for having the Danube cutting through it, separating the new city from the old city.)
The train station is quite small compared to all the others we passed by. We went straight to the ticket office and bought our return ticket to Vienna, just to be sure. The saleswoman didn't speak English very well, but we managed to communicate somehow. Afterwards, we tried to find tourist information, but we couldn't find ANYTHING. We went to talk to a few people and explained that we needed to buy bus tickets, but again, in english. The guys who helped us at least smiled and tried to make gestures, but in the end they gave up and guided us to the place where we could try to buy the tickets. I felt relieved to realize that the Slovaks were not as tough as the Hungarians, you have no idea…
We walked to a yellow machine inside the bus stop and tried to figure out what to buy. (no english, again!). Celo even researched that it would be better to take a tram instead of a bus, but with the cold weather, we decided to take the bus anyway, since we didn't even know where the tram station was. A new girl who was at the stop was an angel with us and helped us with every little detail. (english, finally!). We talked about amenities and when I asked her if she liked living there, she answered not very enthusiastically: “It's home, right?”.
We bought our tickets (1.80 euros for the two of us), got on the bus she had indicated, and when we asked the driver for help, he told us the name of the station we had to get off at, but we didn't understand anything. (PS: I love the adventure of traveling to a place with a different language!) We got on with our backpacks and the whole bus realized we were tourists. I took advantage of the fact that everyone was staring at us and started a conversation with a young man who was nearby and he told us when to get off. We got off and walked towards what we thought was the busiest place in the city. Since we couldn't find a map at the train station and we didn't have a guide or internet, we just walked around on our own, stopping a few people on the street to ask for help. Didn't we find our hotel really quickly? How lucky!
We stayed at the hotel Michalská Brana (69 euros per day, with coffee), which is next to the Michael's Gate, which is the only preserved portal from the medieval period.
Right next door is the narrowest house in the country, measuring 1.30 meters wide. Check it out:
We loved the hotel, despite it being in a not very friendly alley, and we took advantage of the snacks and wine in our backpack to have dinner in our room.
Day 2 – Tuesday (12/30/2014)
We had a great breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which has an interesting decor, with lots of old photos of the city. Finally, with a map in hand, we were able to get our bearings better and decide on the route to take, based on some notes I had made on blogs I had found. We decided to go to the Bratislava Castle (Bratislavsky Hrad), which is the city's main attraction. We walked because it was relatively close and the climb wasn't too difficult. We passed by some churches and even went into one (I don't remember the name), which was always covered in snow.
When we entered the castle, we found the view of the city to be amazing and the castle itself to be quite cool too. I think I was spoiled by the architecture of the two previous cities (Vienna and Budapest), so I wasn't as impressed by this one. Even so, we paid 14 euros to enter and enjoyed a very complete exhibition about the first war that was taking place there. Afterwards, we stayed in the garden, enjoying the view and the snow.
We went down another path, which led right in front of the St Martin's Cathedral, built in 1452.
We walk through Hviezdoslavovo Christmas, which is one of the city's main squares, with beautiful Baroque and Renaissance buildings, which even house some embassies. This square is also home to the Slovak National Theatre, opened to the public in 1886, opposite a not very attractive skating rink. We turned right and went to the bank of the Danube, which gives the city a charming feel.
We went back down the same street, as we wanted to see the Happy Birthday, which is the main square of the city. Halfway there, we stopped to take the classic photo of Cumil, the city's most famous statue.
After a few steps, another statue: Beautiful Mother, the little gentleman who offers the hat:
We entered the Cafe Mayer, which is right behind it, but we didn't think it was anything special, maybe because the service was terrible.
In the square, another statue: Napoleon's Soldier.
We passed by Old Town Hall, Franciscan Church and Monastery and we even tried to get into the Primate's Palace, but it was closed. There is a room there called Hall of Mirrors, which is a scaled-down version of what exists at Versailles, which was where Napoleon signed the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805.
It started to get dark and we went back to the hotel, because it was freezing cold, with temperatures below zero. We rested, looked for restaurants on TripAdvisor and got ready to go out. We ended up going to the third best restaurant in town, Zeleny Rodriguez, which surprised us. The service, the suggested dishes and the Slovak wine were perfect. And best of all, was the bill for all this: 35 euros for the two of us! Perfect 🙂
Day 3 – Wednesday (12/31/2014)
Last day of the year and last full day in the city. We ate our super breakfast, made checkout and off we went to our second hotel, the Art William Hotel. Well, we had to change hotels, because when I made the first reservation at the previous hotel, the plan was to spend New Year's Eve in Prague. But, after researching the attractions and hotels in the other city, we gave up and thought it would be better to stay at Brats. Since our hotel was already full for the 31st, we had to leave. It's always annoying to do that. checkout/checkin, but at least this hotel had a cooler room. The hotel area is strange, because it is inside a shopping mall, but the room makes up for it!
We left our things and walked to the Grassalkovich Palace, which is the residence of the President of Slovakia. Built in 1760, it has a baroque garden that is open to the public even when the president is there. It's all very beautiful, especially with so much snow around. We felt like children again! 🙂
We walked to the Church of St Elizabeth, or Blue Church, which is so beautiful on the outside and certainly the cutest one I've ever seen (and maybe one I'll ever see). It looks like a doll, with the perfect blue details. Just look:
We continued walking towards the Danube, passing several interesting buildings. On the riverbank, there were many cool statues, with plaques only in Slovak, unfortunately.
We walked across the bridge until we reached the UFO, an observatory with a really cool restaurant, shaped like a spaceship. We were unlucky and had to wait in a huge line because of a group of students of almost 40 people who were in front of us. The worst part was that the line was outside, so it was almost impossible to keep a good mood after waiting for 1 hour. The view from up there is beautiful and really worth it (it cost 13 euros for the two of us), but the snacks we ate at the bar, as well as the wine, were overpriced. They have a fancier restaurant too, which requires reservations. Check it out later if you want to go.
We bought two bottles of sparkling wine, which according to the saleswoman at the liquor store were the best in the country (11 euros per bottle). We went back to the hotel to rest for the super New Year's Eve night in Bratislava and tried a sparkling wine: really good! We got ready for dinner at the only restaurant open around midnight, the Bratislava Flagship Restaurant, and despite its strange hidden entrance, we loved the experience. When you enter the restaurant's door, which is located on the sidewalk of a square, you are taken back in time by the decor of a typical Slovak village. As you enter, you come across a few different things, until you reach the main hall, which has a wonderful energy. We ordered several things to eat and thought everything was great, as was the service. It's not a fancy place, far from it, but it was worth it. It may be super touristy and all, but I felt Slovak...hahaha.
From there, we went back to the hotel to get the other bottle of sparkling wine and headed to the main square. We were stopped by guards, as were several other tourists with drinks in their hands, since glass is prohibited in the concert area. Thank goodness our hotel was close by, because we went back to leave it there. We headed to the main square, where a local rock band was performing. It sounded a bit like Paralamas/Skank/Capital, so it was cool. Too bad the guys didn't sing a song I knew!
We asked a few people about the fireworks and went to the banks of the Danube. (Can you believe that some idiot told us to go to a square on the opposite side?) We got there around midnight and it was really crowded. A presenter welcomed the tourists (eeeeee!!!) and did the countdown in Slovak. The fireworks started to the sound of Mozart, right above our heads. I think they were coming from boats that were on the river, but I'm not sure. They lasted about 10 minutes (I think) and were beautiful. I think the impressive classical music in the background helped to make the moment more magical…
After the professional fireworks were over, some people started setting off silly fireworks and balloons. It was crazy! We left there in a hurry, afraid that something bad would happen, until we got to that square with the embassies. You know that not-so-attractive skating rink? Well, it turned into a dance floor! We jumped in there and joined the party with the tourists and locals. I thought it was great to dance on the ice and, to our surprise, we didn't fall. We saw a lot of people there with glass bottles, so we understood that there must be some restricted areas, like the square where the show was held. If we had known, we would have gone around another street and gone straight to the Danube, but anyway, we passed. Here's a tip, in case you ever spend New Year's Eve there.
Overall, I thought our first New Year's Eve in Europe was better than I expected. I didn't find the people cold and unenthusiastic, nor did I find the fireworks to be cheesy, as some people said. Of course, since it was really cold (I think it was -11º), we only managed to stay outside for two hours, but I thought it was a good experience. Of course, the fireworks weren't the same as in Copacabana and I didn't get to jump over the waves, as I always like to do, but it was worth it! Let's go to other places 🙂
Day 4 – Thursday (01/01/2015)
We woke up not too early, we did checkout and we took the bus to the train station Petrzalka, much smaller, which is on the other side of the river. This time, to our pride, we bought the tickets! 🙂
Want to know more about our 16-day trip around Austria, Hungary and Slovakia? Just click on the links below:
- Summary of the 16-day trip – see here
- Salzburg in 5 days – see here
- Hallstatt and Bad Ischl in 1 day – see here
- Melk in 1 day – see here
- Vienna in 3 days – see here
- Bratislava in 3 days – see here
- Budapest in 2 days – see here
If you want to know more about what to do in Bratislava, check out the options below from our partner Civitatis:
