Bratislava is underrated

Storyline: 2024 Fall trip to Europe

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Aug 30 – Sept 5

After 31 years I am back to Bratislava. It’s Alex’s first time. As mentioned in my previous post I have very fond memories of Bratislava, the Slovakian Tatras and Slovaks. This time we only visited Bratislava. It is our first stop across the ocean, and we needed a place to recover from the jet lag. It didn’t disappoint. Small in comparison to other capital cities, with population just under half a million, but very charming, full of life and friendly locals. And very clean!

For my older readers, especially those interested in history, you probably remember Václav Havel. Some may have even read his book The Power of the Powerless (1978). A writer and a philosopher he became the first president of Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

His presidency didn’t last long though. Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 from several provinces (with no previous connection) of the collapsing empire of Austria-Hungary, at the end of World War I (Bohemia, Moravia, Czech-speaking Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia). The two Slavic groups Czech and Slovak were the majority in the newly formed union. However, the difference between the two Slavic groups could not be easily erased. In 1992, after the second free election, Václav Havel lost the support of the Slovak deputies. Slovaks issued a declaration of independence. Havel resigned and later became president of the Czech Republic. 

Slovakia became independent country January 1, 1993 with Bratislava as capital. And so, one of the newest European countries borders Czechia, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, and Austria. Nowadays Bratislava is the sixth richest region in EU. Not all the country though.

Bratislava straddles Danube River with the old city nestling on the northern shore of the river and mainly new development to the south. It is dominated by its famous castle, a residence of the Austrian royal family until it was destroyed by fire in 1811.

It was largely restored by the Czech architect Alfred Piffl, who treated architecture from the point of view of an archeologist, preservationist, and historian. His work, though, wasn’t valued during the communist period.

I had booked accommodation near the old town and very close to the castle. It was also close to the bus stop from Vienna Airport to Bratislava. Our host was ready for us to arrive at any time before his posted 3pm check-in time on August 30th. But we were not ready to arrive early.

After a delay, Air Canada delivered us to the Vienna Airport around 9:30AM. Have to say that we fly with Air Canada regularly and despite many disgruntled passengers we’ve been always lucky with the service and well treated. First, we waited for the co-pilot who was arriving from Montreal and his flight was delayed. Then just before our slightly delayed take off, a passenger got sick and could not travel. Of course, you know what’s next. They had to retrieve his bags… Well not Air Canada’s fault, but this delayed us further. They compensated some time in the air due to favourable tail winds, but we still landed an hour late.

We were not in a hurry. First had to find a bus. Very convenient Flixbus that takes about 40 min to our stop in Bratislava. The one at 10:30 AM had seats available, but the driver accepted only cash. Although we had some Euros with us it wasn’t enough to pay for two tickets. And he was leaving, so no time to book online.

We didn’t think the exchange rate at the airport was favourable even at their ATM. Next available bus to book online was at 1PM. We booked our front seats and sat in Costa Café at the airport. It is a well-known chain is Europe. We were fed on the airplane so just sipped cappuccinos and explored the somewhat smallish Vienna airport. The bus was full of noisy, loud, young Austrians going to party in Bratislava for the weekend.

Apparently, this was the thing. We’d see many later, stag parties, groups of young people, and more. After all it is closer than some parts of Vienna, with convenient transport and cheaper than their home.

Bratislava and Vienna are the closest two capitals in the world. The bus drive took about 40 min. We walked up the hill to our accommodation on a quiet street. Lovely one bedroom apartment with a small balcony. Our task for the day was to make sure we had the necessities for our stay.

Grocery shopping very close by, and then crash.  Little did we know, but it was their public holiday weekend. September 1, which fell on Sunday, is their Constitution Day. We learned this on Saturday evening, while trying to plan our visits.

But on Saturday morning (August 31), clueless of this holiday, we headed out towards the old city. First things first, we needed an ATM for some euro. And what are the chances to meet someone living in Manchester on our way to an ATM? Well, we met a lady originally from Bratislava, who currently lives in Manchester. Alex and she had a nice chat.

Then we meandered through the Old Town’s cobbled streets for hours, the light breeze cooling us little in the heat. Around noon it was about 38°C according to one of their city thermometers. Time for refreshments! There were so many bars, cafés, and restaurants in little alleys here and there.

We walked into Coco Bar Café and Brunch as it looked quiet. That is where they told us that there were music and food festivals some 25km down Danube and everyone was there. Except for some tourists like us, I guess. Steak tartare was on their menu. We shared this and a salad. Sangria for me and local beer recommended by the servers for Alex. We were surprised that they had steak tartare, but later we’d see it on almost every menu. Apparently very popular in Bratislava. Another thing we noticed everywhere was Thai Massage. This would follow us into Vienna and Budapest. Looked like there was Thai massage on every corner of Central Europe.

Down the road, close to the river, we found interesting scenes of traditional folk dancing and singing and re-enacting the old lifestyle and history. We enjoyed mingling among the locals many of whom speak English, so no problem getting along. We still didn’t realize that all this was part of their Constitution Day celebration.

There were children’s choirs and dancers from different Slovakian regions. And they all were good. We listened and watched until they finished. Then there came a comedian, but since our Slovak language wasn’t that great (non-existent for me – A), we decided to try the strawberry gazpacho in the Rio Restaurant that was actually facing all the activities.

Back home (our apartment for the week) Alex looked up the Castle, which was on our activity list for Sunday. We wanted to know the ticket cost for visiting it. That’s when we discovered that it was their public holiday. During this day the Castle and adjacent Parliament were open to public and free.

And so, the next morning we lined up with everybody else, mainly Slovaks in from elsewhere in the country to visit the Castle where exhibits of the Slovak National Museum are located. It took us a while, but it was well worth it. Very impressive! The Castle Hill, sitting on the Danube River, has seen some of the greatest Empires and historical events on its grounds. The land of kings and queens, invasions, and reformation, this city is layered with history.

We went through security (we were visiting the Parliament after all), our bags were searched and we were scanned. As we approached, I remembered our visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg the previous year, where they scanned our passports, and the Ceausescu Palace in Bucharest where they literally took our passports and returned them to us when exited. Not thinking about visiting a parliament this day, I had left them home and now I worried that we had wasted our time in line. But luckily for us, no ID was necessary.

We carried a bottle of water. How else one would survive that heat! It was in the small backpack Alex carried. They had great approach. “Drink a little”, the soldier/guard said to Alex. Alex had a sip of water and was let go. We also observed the soldiers picking little kids from their parents and helping them up into the military vehicles exhibited around. Kids loved it. And Alex joked “They train them young here!”

We spent lots of time in the castle museum. I was impressed by the fact that the Bulgarian brothers Cyril and Methodius, inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet, were well recognised there. As a mater of fact, the preamble of their constitution says “… Mindful of the spiritual bequest of Cyril and Methodius and the historical legacy of Great Moravia…”  This we saw later in their parliament. Zoom in on the photo if you are interested of all the text. It was a day well spent. Had some munches in the castle café before heading to the parliament. Great views from there.

Noticed that the roof of the newer buildings along the river had green, “living” roofs.

Exiting the Parliament, we noticed that we had walked up and down the entrance steps but never noticed a street leading to them.

Hmmm, does their PM walk to his work? What about foreign dignitaries? I walked and asked one of the soldiers guarding the grounds. He pointed up the street and now I noticed there was a road at the other end. Very friendly people.

By the way Slovakia has the world’s highest numbers of castles per capita. After all it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

With most of the nearby cafés and restaurants closed for the holiday we headed out to the old town for early dinner (or late lunch if you want).

Next day we walked to their big modern mall out of the city centre but close to the river. I needed a new watch. We walked through parks and old city streets, Alex using his google maps for orientation. Gone are the days when I’d take him to a city, no map in hand, and tell him just to trust my intuition about the European cities. With a phone in his hand and google maps he has taken over the leading part. What did we do before Google Alex, I’d often say (I, too, was used to using paper maps. The problem with those is that they can’t help tell you where you are, so it’s harder to figure out how to get from there – wherever “there” is – to your destination. However, I grew up in places where the roads were primarily laid out in grids. Diana has always been better than me navigating around unorganized street layouts. In old cities, I get lost much more easily than Diana – A).

We had already decided that we’d take the Twin Cities Line fast catamaran to Vienna when the time came. Walking on the river bank we located the boarding quay. But due to technical reasons the boat was not running until a day before our departure. Let’s hope they fix it.

In one of the parks, I found a monument in the memory of Bulgarian soldiers fallen for Slovak freedom. Did I mention that the Slovak language is very close to Bulgarian? I could understand a lot of their conversation. But again, with a phone in hand and Google translate, there is no language barrier anywhere anymore (notwithstanding some weird, amusing and potentially insulting errors in the translations – A).

After finding an inexpensive watch in the shopping mall we turned back and found a nice restaurant by the river. They didn’t have sangria. After all we were in Slovakia not in Spain. And so, for the first time since Venice in 2016, I tried an Aperol sptitz. It wasn’t as sweet as it was in Venice years ago. Although not cheap, their lemonades were fantastic. Writing this over two weeks and 3 cities later I can tell the lemonades they had in Slovakia were the best. Yes, you could get a beer cheaper than a lemonade, but the varieties and qualities were a cut above.

Also, we found the servers very engaging, entertaining, and also curious. (They didn’t demand, or even request tips, but they earned them, vs in Vienna, where in a café the server demanded 10% tip for a coffee and a piece of cake or so. Things have changed in Europe after Covid. We all know the servers in Europe are paid a living wage, vs in North America.) In Bratislava though, the servers would talk to us, answer our questions, smile, recommend…

The guy at that place by the river told us that he worked for two years and saved to go to a resort in Cuba, as he had heard of people doing in the past. And finally, this past February he went in Cayo Sta. Maria. What a disappointment this was. We’d been there years ago when things were good for the hotels. Now at least in Canada we know – don’t go to Cuba. But the news has not reached Europe. Although there is little food, no coffee and often no hot water, the hotels are still selling what they can to whom they can. The guy told us he had to go out of the hotels area and pay 10 euros for a cup of coffee. And we know from our friends that it is much worse than that for the Cubans.

After the late lunch (or early dinner) we walked by the blue church, took some more photos, and called it a day.

The following day we crossed the Danube, walking across the UFO bridge (Most SNP – “Most”=bridge). I remember this bridge and have photos of it from 1993. The cost of visiting the observation deck alone would be half of our dinner bill in a restaurant on the south shore of the river.

But this was for later. First, we found a café (apparently a chain, since we saw a few in the old town), where we had our brunch, great crepes. After that walked over the river on the pedestrian part of the bridge. Nice stroll on the Danube’s south bank. There were a few pubs, restaurants and even a brewery in ships anchored on the south side.

We were looking for a fish and chips place based on Alex’s Google research. Never found it, but found another nice restaurant, called Au Café (go figure) and decided that its location is great for night pictures of the old city and the castle.

During the day we even took a photo of the boat we’d take later to Vienna. Hurray, it’s working! Returned for dinner and evening shots from that side of the river.

After dinner we walked back on the bridge and through the old town for more evening shots. Every pub, restaurant, bistro or café was full.

We literally had a great time in Bratislava. Last day was another walk to parts we hadn’t been and packing our small suitcases ready for the boat trip.

Writing this over two weeks later, in rainy- and cold-day in Budapest I can tell we enjoyed the warm weather with the light breeze from the river, the friendly people and the lovely walkable city. Sorry Rick Steves, but you are definitely wrong about this city. (https://www.islands.com/1642187/rick-steves-most-least-favorite-places-europe/ )

It may not have the cold spires of the catholic churches rising to the sky, but it has warm and friendly people, rich history, and a vibrant old town centre.