Day trip to Bratislava

August 6 2015

So after tearing myself away from the comfort of Vienna, I knew my second “major city” was Krakow. I have never been to Slovakia before and [interesting fact #1] Bratislava and Vienna are the two closest country capitals in the world! So why not- let’s make a day trip out of it.

I took the same bus company as I had taken from Graz to Vienna, Meinfernbus. Bus left on time at 830AM and arrived in Bratislava an hour later. First stop was to the train station to figure out transportation to Krakow for the night and store my pack for the day. 

I hadn’t eaten ANYTHING all morning so I was dying and decided to go to a very overpriced by TripAdvisor recommended restaurant for some potato dumplings and beer!

Disclaimer: I was a bit off today. For those of you that don’t know, I have a ten year old dog named Rufus that means the world to me. I found out that he is no longer able to walk. He has a degenerative disease that has been progressing affecting his control over his back legs. Now he spends his day outside in the yard laying around and then sleeps in the laundry room at night… He has no control over his bladder so restricting where he is makes clean up easier…. Anyways, I was very very upset during my time in Bratislava for my poor pup. It made for a less active day than normal for Camila traveling standards.

It was approaching noon so the heat was becoming unbearable. Decide it was time for a coffee and people watching.

As well as some exploring where I burned my legs trying to casually pose for a photo by a fountain. :|

Whenever you travel, I 100% recommend walking tours. I found out that Bratislava had a (free but you should leave tip) walking tour at 1430 which was GREAT because I honestly knew almost NOTHING about the history of Slovakia (do you?). For countries that you don’t know much about OR if you don’t have so much time, actually in all cases, you should find out if they have a walking tour.

Had some fun posing with some statues:

Did you know that Slovakia became its own country in 1993? Crazy how recent it was. One of the things that I have found so powerful and moving from many of the countries I have been to is that they have such recent history that you can still feel the effects of. Like WWII and Communism is so ominous in the places I have been. It’s like the city is trying to pretend it wasn’t a big deal but if you turn over any stone there is evidence of it everywhere.

Here's some food for thought: Better warm in jail than cold in freedom.

It is the mindset that many pro communists, or even just older people that were living during the communist era, have. Things weren't great during communism, but they got a lot worse before they got better once communism fell. More on this in a future post.

How goofy is this cathedral? They call it "blue church" for short. Created in the time/style of Gaudis work in Barcelona.

So when I was walking around before the tour, I noticed this ridiculously long line… for an ice cream shop. I asked the tour guide about it and she was like oh yeah it is actually voted top 10 ice cream places in all of Europe. So of course this is a cultural cuisine opportunity :P

These are the shorts that are ALL the rage in Europe. So that means they are coming to an American store near you!

After watching the sunset (sweating… sorry I am gross) at the castle (which has been rebuilt like three times because it has burned down to the ground for several reasons). It is really interesting to just look at the city from a distance. It looks "old" but it doesn't have the grime or spirit of an old city. Also you can see some communist blocks in the corners of the photo. Ominous.

Time to go to the bus station and then if you don’t know what happened that night I will direct you here :

http://thxfortheadventure.blogspot.com/2015/08/so-this-happened.html