Bratislava, Slovakia

We had breakfast in the hostel this morning and then caught the bus early from Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia for a day trip! It only took about 1 hour on the bus.

We arrived around 10am after the 1 hour bus journey and opted for a different MO today, downloading a self-guided online walking tour rather than being led by a physical guide. The online walking tour (from a blog called Nomad Epicureans) has 19 stops with descriptions of the history of each site. We enjoyed this method and made stops along the way to look into shops.

We started at the main bridge called the UFO Bridge or the Most SNP (short for Slovenského národného povstania, which translates to “Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising” which commemorates Slovakia's 1944 resistance movement against the Nazis). The saucer restaurant over the bridge really does look like a UFO and is a strange sight! The bridge was built in the 70s and caused a lot of controversy as much of the historical parts of the city including the Jewish Quarter had to be destroyed to build the bridge. This bridge crosses the Danube (making this country number 4 where we have seen the same river!)

We then walked to Hviezdoslavovo Square which is one of the main squares in the city, filled with restaurants, many statues of famous people and the Old Slavak National Theatre which is quite impressive. We visited a few other sites before visiting the Blue Church. It is said that Hans Christian Andersen drew inspiration from the Bratislava architecture and the blue church definitely exemplifies this! The church looks like something out of a fairytale and it is really is as blue as the name suggests. All of the mosaics contain blue tiles and even the pews in the church are blue. It was officially closed when we visited (it has quite bizarre opening hours of 7-7:30am and then 5:30-7pm), we were able to walk into the main entrance of the church and see inside the church behind closed gates.

After the church, we headed into the old town to walk the more touristy streets and of course visit the bronze statue of 'The Watcher’ (Čumil) - a man peeping out of an imaginary sewer hole. It is the most photographed site in Bratislava! There are different theories as to what the statue represents- some say that it represents a soviet spy during the communist era, others say he is simply looking up girls skirts as they walk past and others say he is an underground worker. We took a few photos with Čumil and the sign next to him (which was erected to stop people driving over his head!)

We continued by seeing some more significant buildings (with a very interesting mix of architecture) in the Hlavné Square which today houses many different country's embassies and the Old Town Hall. On the front of the Old Town Hall, which was built in the 14th century, there is a cannonball embedded into the wall which was shot by Napoleon's army during the seize of Bratislava in 1809. Very cool! We wandered around to the Primate's Palace which is a beautiful large pink coloured building which was previously the winter palace for the Primate of Hungary in the 18th century. We visited a few more churches, palaces and charming, cobble-stoned streets around the old town.

We visited St Martin’s church which was enormous and a very typically Gothic Roman Catholic Church. It contains a 300kg gold crown on the top of the steeple to signify that 11 Hungarian kings and 8 Hungarian queens were crowned in this church from 1563 to 1830 (Bratislava was the capital of Hungary after the Ottomans occupied the areas in the 16th century and it remained the capital for over 200 years).

We then walked along part of the old medieval city walls. These walls previously surrounded the whole city but Empress Maria Theresa had the walls taken down to develop the city in the 18th century.

The final stop of our self-guided tour was the famous Bratislava castle where we stopped for a sandwich in the castle grounds. We explored the beautiful gardens and made our way down the hill for well earned drinks in the old town after all of our walking! Gab had a Kofola for her first drink - this is a soft drink which looks similar to Coke but contains more of a liquorice or herb taste. It was created during the communist era as Coca-cola was banned. It is still popular today in Slovakia! Daniel enjoyed two different steins of beer and Gab enjoyed a wine as well. The drinks are so cheap in Bratislava - about $10 for the four drinks. We also then had an ice cream each and went for a walk to the UFO bridge to enjoy a last view back to Bratislava and the castle.

We then walked to the bus station to catch our bus back to Vienna.

We got back to the hostel in Vienna around 7pm, made ourselves dinner and chilled out after a busy day!Leia mais