Bratislava

I said farewell to Charles this morning, who is returning to Italy. Since I have quite a bit of time in Vienna, I felt that day trip to Bratislava would be a good use of time. I was last in Bratislava in 1992, and don't actually remember is being very exciting. Nevertheless, time changes people and since I was only seven years old at the time, I though I'd give it another go.

The short train ride from Vienna only took 45 minutes, and I was soon in Bratislava. Upon arriving, I changed $40 USD, thinking that the prices in Bratislava would be similar to those in Vienna. I was wrong! Everything was dirt cheap. I got about 950 SK for the USD, and only spent about 200 SK, which includes lunch, a snack, a coffee and entrance to three museums. Leaving the bus station was a bit awkward as it is not located in the center of town, and a bus or tram needs to be taken from it. Labling for the transportation was bad, and so I got on the first bus that pulled up. Thankfully it went in the right direction, but I didn't get off at the right stop and ended up going over the bridge into a forest of communist-era apartment blcoks. I managed to catch a bus going back that stopped in the old town.

Bratislava's old town is quite nice, though small, and was swarming with tourists and locals wearing traditional dress. Beyond a few small museums and the castle, there really is little to see in Bratislava. I visited two small museums in the old town, both of which were quite good, but nearly empty. After spending a couple of hours in the old town, I walked up the hill to the castle, which was swarming with tourists. There was a tourist market selling tacky tourist stuff, and traditional music being played. The castle itself is a giant museum featuring a variety of exhibits. An exhibit on prints there was far better that whan we saw in the Albertina. I had a snack of fatty dumplings in the tourist market, which were rather disgusting, but are apparently the Slovak national dish. By this time, after only spending four hours in Bratislava, I felt that I had seen all that there was. I had some troule finding the right bus back to the train staion, but made it back, and ended up arriving in Vienna at around 5. Overall, I feel that Bratislava is a good day trip from Vienna, but is certainly not worth more than that amount of time.