At this point I’m about halfway through my 30th birthday present to myself – an 18 day trip through new countries in Europe, with the goal of hitting 30 countries by my 30 year. So far I’ve spent time in Germany (Frankfurt and Munich) and Austria (Salzburg and Vienna), and now I’m onto my 26th country, Slovakia. I took the 1 hour and 9 minute train in mid-day from Vienna. I made the mistake of booking some trains at night, and while it’s great to not miss part of the day, you don’t get to see any of the countryside. After the first trip, I made it a point to always book towards early morning or later afternoon so I could see everything along the way.
When I arrived, I hailed a taxi from the train station to the Sheraton, as it looked like it was about a 20 minute drive. Unfortunately I didn’t research the exchange rates or how much a taxi should cost, and ended up totally getting taken advantage of and paying about 4x what I should have. As a note, ALWAYS make sure to research these things ahead of time – the train ride is a great time to jot down simple things like that, as well as plan out itineraries.
The Sheraton is located in a super cool newly developed area of the city called the Eurovea. There is a huge shopping mall with everything you could possibly want to buy, as well as a ton of really cool restaurants and bars located right on the river with tons of outdoor seating. It’s also only about a 15 minute walk to the center of Old Town, so it’s perfectly located for everything you’ll want to do during your trip.
The first thing I did after settling into the hotel, was walk over to St. Elizabeth’s, also known as the “Blue Church” for obvious reasons as you can see above. It’s definitely one of the most unique churches I’ve seen in all my travels. The inside is very simple, but all of the pews are the same blue color as the outside of the church with very simple gold detailing. It’s incredible.
The building next door was also absolutely beautiful – it had incredible detailing, like this flower built into the fence. It actually looked like it may have been an elementary school as there was a small playground inside the gates.
After the Blue Church, I walked about 10 minutes over to the main square of the city where you’ll find Maxamillion’s statue/fountain. The square was absolutely beautiful, and actually had a small festival going on the day I was there with a live band and a bunch of tents selling various food items. This was definitely the most tourist-filled area I went during the trip. A lot of the places I walked were pretty empty of tourists which was kind of nice – many of the other European cities can feel overrun with visitors, but for the most part in Bratislava I felt like I was around locals.
As I was wandering around near the square, I found a Jesuit church with a service happening, and I walked in to take a look. The church was very simple, but it was cool to finally see a church that had an actual service as opposed to a ton of people walking around taking photos. Overall I felt like that was a theme of this city – less tourists.
I passed under St. Michael’s gate, and it’s supposed to have one of the best views of the city from up above on the balcony. I could see a guy up on the balcony under the clock, but I couldn’t find the entrance. Not being able to find the entrance would become a theme on this trip, and after walking around a bit, I got frustrated and was getting super hangry so I decided to find food first and then revisit trying to enter in.
Everything I was researching said that the Flagship Restaurant was the best for authentic Slovak food and beer, and a super interesting atmosphere. I opted for the pirogi with bryndza sheep cheese, which is a traditional item that originally came from Russia. The pirogi are filled with cheese, then topped with cheese, sour cream, dill, and what tasted almost like pork cracklings. It was absolutely delicious, and a nice change from the constant sausage I was eating in Germany and Austria. I asked them which local beer they recommended, and he told me the 11 Degree beer was the best option. Apparently this place gets pretty packed during weekends, but during the week outside of typical lunch time it was pretty empty. After finishing my meal I wandered upstairs to take some photos, and then as you leave, make sure to peek into all of the smaller beer hall rooms, the smoking room, the gift shop, and the super random room with a bunch of birds in it (actual birds in cages – they make a lot of noise!).
A few blocks away is one of the largest Synagogue’s in Europe. I walked by, but you couldn’t go in as all the gates were closed as opposed to the churches. It was a bummer to not be able to see the inside, but nice to finally see another religion represented in the trip. Afterwards I went back to St. Michael’s gate to try to get upstairs, and finally found the entrance (it’s literally right next to where you walk under the gate, so I have no idea how I missed it the first time), but unfortunately they closed at 5 pm instead of 6 like I thought, so they weren’t allowing anyone back up. If you’re in the city, make sure to prioritize this one earlier in the day.
Fun fact about Bratislava – they have a ton of random statues throughout the city, and for the most part, no one knows the reasoning behind them. The most interesting of those is the “Man at Work” statue. It’s a man resting halfway out of a sewer opening in the ground on a random corner of the street in Old Town. This was another popular tourist spot, so you’ll have to wait your turn to take a photo, but definitely a must see while you’re in the city.
Another really unique statue to find is the Hans Christian Anderson statue located closer to the river. It’s a great stop as you’re headed to the Most SNP bridge, the castle and the St. Martin’s Cathedral. The street it’s on is also a super popular street with a ton of restaurants and bars, and is a great place to stop and eat again or grab a drink/a coffee.
The St. Martin Cathedral is another famous church in the city, so I walked up to take a look. It’s situated right in between the Most SNP bridge and the castle, so while it isn’t anything overly spectacular, it’s an easy stop along your route to either of those must see spots.
Afterwards I walked across the Most SNP Bridge. They have a tower with an observation deck on top, so I wanted to head up and get some cool views of the city. I got to the other side of the bridge and for the life of me couldn’t figure out how to get into the tower (again, not finding an entrance seemed to be a prevalent issue for me in Slovakia). Below you’ll see that I did finally get in, but having not been able to find it the first time, I snapped some photos of the Castle and then wandered off into the park at the end of the bridge.
The Sad Janka Kra’la park is right at the bottom of the bridge, and it’s super beautiful. I did one loop around the bridge, mostly to see this super cool gazebo that was in the middle of the park. There were a ton of families out walking there kids and even a big group of folks doing yoga in the grass near one of the fountains. I definitely felt like a local while walking around. After spending about an hour in the park, I tried again to find the entrance to the observation tower, still couldn’t find it, googled it, and google maps told me to go back across the bridge and made it look like there was a separate entrance on the other side. I walked back, couldn’t find anything on that side (because google was wrong), and figured I’d walk around the castle since I was already there.
The climb up to the top of the castle is basically all stairs, and the views are totally worth the climb. It was also fun to see all of the locals doing their workouts running up and down the stairs – it reminded my of my Coit Tower runs I do in San Francisco. I sat down on a bench and the top and googled how to get into the observation tower. I finally found a review on Trip Advisor that gave pretty good instructions on where the entrance was. I walked BACK over the bridge, and turns out I was literally standing in front of the entrance previously, but I hadn’t noticed it since the whole area was under construction.
I finally entered in, paid the entrance fee, and headed to the elevator. It was seriously the most terrifying elevator I’ve ever been in. As you can see from the photo above, the side of the tower is CROOKED. So you get in the elevator and it goes slightly sideways as it goes up the tower – plus its mostly shaking the entire time, the ceiling was only about a foot above my head, an it was super cramped – you could probably fit 4 people max inside. The final stairs to get up to the observation deck are also in the slanted base, and I was experiencing a ton of vertigo trying to walk up the very ladder like three sets of stairs.
Once you get to the top, the views from outside are absolutely incredible. The deck itself is pretty small, but it looked like they really monitor how many people can go up at a time which is good. Notice that I’m hanging onto the side of the ledge for dear life because I’m absolutely terrified. Afterwards walk back down the stairs to the the main observation deck.
The main indoor observation area has a bar and restaurant – the restaurant requires reservations, but they do have a few open seats where you can just grab a drink. I sat at an empty table for about 10 minutes and couldn’t get anyone to help me, plus I could feel the tower swaying a bit in the wind, so I decided to get the elevator ride over with and head back down. Before I did though, I went to use their restroom. Going to the restroom here is an ABSOLUTE MUST. The photo doesn’t even do it justice. You are literally looking out over the entire city from the stall. Super cool.
Afterwards I thought about hitting up a Tesla themed coffeeshop with an icebar downstairs, but it was starting to get pretty dark and an icebar seemed like something that would be a lot more fun in a group. The Tesla themed coffeeshop is supposed to be pretty cool, so if you aren’t in a rush, I’d recommend stopping in.
I walked back across the bridge and decided to walk back to my hotel along the river. As you head back, you’ll pass the Slovak theater, which an absolutely beautiful building to snap a few photos of. As you get closer to the hotel and into the Eurovea area you’ll walk through all of the restaurants and bars along the water. Around sunset they were all packed, with lots of music and hookahs.
At night the fountain in the square has some cool lighting, and there were a bunch of kids playing in it. I decided to stay in and grab food at the hotel – it’d been about a week of straight sausage and pirogi, so I caved and ate a cheeseburger from room service in my Sheraton robe. I did order the Slovakian wine though, so it was still a “local” experience.
Every train I’d taken so far in my trip left on an hourly schedule or even more frequent in some cases. I’d checked google and noticed that the trains all had the same minutes on them, so I naively assumed it was every hour. I arrived at the train station to buy my ticket and then found out that it was every TWO hours and I’d managed to arrive about an hour and 15 minutes too early. Since Bratislava is a smaller city, the train station is also pretty small, and really doesn’t have any seating at all. I stood around in the lobby area for about 30 minutes with my bag just waiting for the schedule to tell me which track the train to Budapest was on, and luckily it was track 1 which has two benches – I was able to snag one since I was so early.
I was STARVING at this point, so I went into the little kiosk at the track and bought something called a Burek Mixicky and what I thought was a Diet Coke – lesson learned, Diet Coke isn’t a thing in Europe, and Coca-Cola Light tastes TOTALLY different. Whatever it was I ordered was absolutely delicious – basically a Mexican meat pie.
The one thing I wanted to go see but didn’t, was the Slovak War Memorial. It’s a bit outside of the city, and I didn’t have quite enough time for the trek before my train to Budapest. It’ll definitely be on my itinerary for next time. Anything else I should add or questions about your upcoming trip? Let me know in the comments!
