Day 39 (8/1/10) - Bratislava (Following The Danube)

On Friday we decided to give Bratislava another try. At least now we knew the deal with the train station, so we got there in time for the 8:25am train. Although our tickets were only valid for the Thursday, we thought we'd try them anyway and play dumb if caught out. It wasn't a problem on the way there with the two conductors who checked (the way back was a different story, but let's continue in chronological order).

So we caught the train across to the Slovakian capital, which took about an hour. It was snowing heavily when we got there, so we took a taxi with the fastest meter ever to a coffee shop our hostel in Vienna had recommended, Next Apache. The cafe is a bit hard to find if you don't know it's there; all there is by way of an entrance is a small wooden door cut into a wall (just inside what looks like an apartment complex). Once inside, however, it is hard to not be charmed by this cozy cafe/bookstore.


The hot drinks we ordered came in large mugs and were very cheap. We spent an hour in there reading some of the books (they pride themselves on having a large collection of English ones); we were tempted to stay longer, but the snow soon slowed so we were on our way.


I had downloaded an MP3 audio tour online, so with our iPods loaded and armed with a map, we began our self-guided walking tour around the old city. The first point was Bratislava Castle, where we had views of the new city across the Danube.



From there we visited a couple of churches and stopped for more hot chocolate at Cafe del Via (where the mug sizes gave Next Apache a run for its money).


We walked for a few hours, stopping at the eleven points on the tour including St Martin's Cathedral, Old Town Hall, the Main Square, the Opera House and Primate's Palace (where the Mayor resides, not to be confused with a monkey house).



After three hours of trekking through snow and sludge, we rewarded ourselves with lunch at the Slovak Pub. The pub is popular with students due to its cheap prices, and its rooms represent a walk through Slovak history.




We were finished with the town in time for the 5pm train back to Vienna. We were called up on the tickets by a Slovakian conductor who couldn't speak English (we had to pay 4 euros) but the conductor at the Austrian end (after giving me a long look) decided not to enforce payment at that end. So we were quite lucky.

We celebrated our successful train-catching and last night in Vienna with some drinks down at the hostel bar.


Then it was time to pack up once more. Which brings us up to Budapest, which Nik will update you all on soon.