A Day Trip to Bratislava, Slovakia
A Day Trip to Bratislava, Slovakia
Slovakia. A relatively small Central European country of 49,000 square kilometers and a population of 5.4 million. Their currency is the Euro and they speak Slovak. You may be wondering why one would even think to go to here.
The answer?
It’s capital city, Bratislava, is only an hour by bus from Vienna, and makes a good day trip.
I am currently doing a two week intensive course on Eastern and Central European politics in Vienna and Budapest, and I decided to make the easy journey to Bratislava because when am I ever going to have the opportunity to go to Slovakia of all places again?
So, Saturday morning at 8:30 found us boarding a Flix bus from the Vienna bus station to the central bus station of Bratislava. I fell asleep in Vienna and woke up an hour later in Bratislava.
When we arrived, we walked up to the Bratislava castle, which has been around in some form of restoration or another since the year 907 AD. The current form the castle is in is due to a restoration done in the 1950s following World War II.
Bratislava Castle
One of the main gates outside of the Bratislava Castle
Bratislava Castle
Standing in front of the Bratislava Castle
We admired the outside of the castle and then bought 4 euro tickets to see the Slovakian history museum inside its walls. Not gonna lie, the museum was not super impressive. Not because Slovakian history isn’t cool, but because it was so weirdly curated. Some items hung on the wall with no description, and of those with a description, only half had them in English. It was also an odd mix of historical artifacts, artwork by a contemporary artists, photos of the city, and artifacts from the Neolithic period.
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- A view of the city and castle turrets from inside
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- A view of the city and castle from inside
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- Kendall in front of one of the objects on display in the museum
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- One of the things on display in the museum
After the museum, we went to the Old Town of Bratislava, where the buildings are charmingly bright. We wandered around the quaint streets, admiring the colors and architecture.
One of the main streets of the Old Town leading to Michael’s gate
The main square of Bratislava
My classmates in front of the Primatial Palace
The Old Town Hall building in Bratislava
The Presidential Palace of Slovakia in Bratislava
The gate of the Presidential Palace
A view of the ‘UFO’ bridge
St.Michael’s church
A side view of St.Michael’s church
We then grabbed some lunch at the Enjoy Bistro, a cute little table service restaurant featuring plush couches around tables and fresh food. I had buckwheat risotto with pumpkin and parmesan along with some mulled wine to warm me up.
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- Mulled white wine at Enjoy Bistro
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- Buckwheat risotto with pumpkin and parmesan at Enjoy Bistro
After we were contentedly full, we took a little walk to the Blue Church of St.Elizabeth. That thing is aptly named, because it is bright Tarheel blue. I absolutely adored it. I’m not one that is overly impressed with ostentatious gothic and baroque churches, so this cute little blue church stole my heart.
The blue church of St.Elizabeth
We then walked back to the center of town and grabbed coffee, or in my case, a brownie at Urban Bistro. It was a super dense brownie with raspberries in it that was super yummy.
A raspberry and chocolate brownie at Urban Bistro
After refueling at Urban bistro, we headed back to the bus station to catch our 4:30 bus back to Vienna. It was a simple and relatively short day, but it gave us the perfect amount of time to explore a beautiful new city in a new country. I am incredibly thankful that I have opportunities like this to say “you know what, I think today I’ll go to Slovakia!”