Hi there,
We took advantage of our last full day to go to Bratislava. The bus ride cost us 5 euros each way. The bus was super new and clean.
We got to Bratislava and got off right next to the river. The scare was seeing everything covered in snow. It was beautiful, but what scared us was thinking about how cold we were going to be during the day.
We started the tour in the direction of the center, and everything looked impeccable. Around 10 o’clock there was no one on the streets. The city is known for its outdoor bar culture, but that’s more towards the summer.
Through its cobblestone streets we went to Michael’s Gate, which is the only remaining medieval gate in Bratislava. Below the tower, there is the zero-kilometer point of Slovakia that shows the distances from there to other cities.
Here there are narrower streets and many that still preserve the medieval style, the best known is Kapitulska street.
We went into the churches that we found along the way and there were all the locals, at mass. It was Sunday. The only ones who were walking on the street were the few tourists who had gone on the bus.
Bratislava gives you more the feeling of being in an old city than Vienna and what I found most curious is that for such a small city, it has a lot of statues, each one with its history. The most famous is that of the Čumil that was installed in 1997 as part of an effort to improve the look of the city that had always been marked by communist architecture and decoration.
I really liked St. Martin’s Cathedral or Obrazáreň pri Dóme (its name in Slovak) which is an abandoned church. In 2000 an association began to replace the windows with drawings of local schools. After several years these images were destroyed by climate changes and in 2015, they were replaced again, these are the images we see today.
After touring the entire center, we stopped for lunch at a place called “RE:FRESH Music Club & Restaurant” and we went in because there was a sign outside saying that both vegans and meat lovers were welcome. The waitress had a beautiful accent, it reminded me of the Van Helsing movie. The menu was great because it marked with symbols what was vegan and what was a Slovak specialty.
After lunch we went to see the Bratislava Castle. The entrance costs 16 euros and it was recently renovated. From the mountain it is on you have a super nice view of the city.
Inside the castle is practically empty and what is there is not worth it. It is better to see it from the outside and enjoy the views of the city.
One thing that caught my attention is that when I went to the bathroom, there were papers on the floor since the dispenser didn’t work well; if you tried to grab one, it would fall off a lot. I passed by the side since I had not been the one who had thrown them. But a girl who went to the bathroom, on the way out, collected all the papers and threw them in the trash. This gives a lot to think about the civility and education of the people on this side of Europe.
Finally, at night, we went to see the church of St. Elizabeth, commonly called the blue church. It’s a 15-minute walk from the historic center of Bratislava and is nothing like the rest of the city’s architecture. It was built during the 20th century and has a Hungarian Art Nouveau style.
Before going to the bus station, we stopped by the Lidl. We bought coffees from the machine; In Vienna the coffee cost one euro and here 0.50. So, with our hands warm from the coffee, we went to catch the bus.
I loved this city. It is beautiful and its architecture makes you travel back in time. I emphasize, as in Vienna, the education and civility of the people.
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