Hello fellow comrades, it is me, Ashley. It is nice to meet you. Allow me to briefly interrupt your regularly scheduled posts by Kelly to bring you my take on our time in Bratislava. And, because I am a white girl born in the 90’s here is a link to my blog if you feel like reading more of my ramblings. Don’t worry, Kelly is safe and sound–she’s writing a post for my blog as we speak. She also told me to tell y’all to go to my blog to read my post about Budapest because she isn’t going to write one (am I being used??) Ok ok, now that the introductions are over, let’s get on with this Slovakian tale of freezing wind and roads that lead to nowhere.
Our story begins on Wednesday–we left our cottage under the Budapest castle and headed to the bus station to catch out afternoon bus to Bratislava. We went round and round that bus station looking for our yellow bus and no thanks to an unfortunately unhelpful Information desk lady, we found the bus and went on our way. I wish I could report back on the beauty of the Hungarian countryside but alas, I was either asleep or watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets the entire time. You’ll have to ask Kelly about it.
We arrived at our tenth floor penthouse apartment, wept at the view of the city, and then scurried out the door to take advantage of the remaining daylight before the sun set at 4pm. We walked through Old Town, admiring the smattering of random statues and remaining Christmas market stands. We ate a traditional Slovakian dumpling dish and were borderline held hostage by a waitress who just really wanted us to order more food.
There was a seasonal ice skating rink outside the restaurant and I was able to convince Kelly and Kaine to go ice skating with me, which I realized was a terrible mistake as soon as we realized that we had to know our European shoe sizes. We were definitely 100% the only native English speakers at the rink (and possibly the city) so after one of us fell (I won’t say who) (it was Kelly), we realized that this could end poorly so we decided to find some mulled wine instead.
We went back to the apartment to warm up and then rallied to go back out into the cold to grab a beer. We walked into a small bar on a little side street and were “greeted” by a waitress who wasted no time telling us that the kitchen was closed. That’s quite alright, Miss, we’re just here for beer! Can’t get rid of us that easily! We sat in the 90% empty restaurant and enjoyed our beer, until we noticed two men ordering food. Apparently the kitchen is only closed to American students, we’re onto your tricks, Bratislava!!
We woke up the next morning bright and early and began our trek to the castle at the top of the mountain. The castle is the highest point in the city so while you would think that it would be easy to get to, you would be wrong. We walked along a sidewalk that turned into nothing more than a narrow passageway along a major road, we walked into a tunnel for about half a second before we decided that it was not really intended for pedestrians, we walked through tour buses full of more non-English speaking tourist sites, but then we made it to the castle! The view was as spectacular as it was cold–rumor is you can also see Hungary and Austria from the top. We took the worst selfie in the history of selfies at the top and then walked around the castle grounds. We walked down a path that went straight into some apartments??? It was the most nonsensical tourist attraction I’ve ever been to. But alas, these three master’s-level students figured that former Soviet madness out. We then walked back down into the city center to the palace via a sidewalk that seriously just ended midway through and about 34 crosswalks. At the end of our Escher inspired walking tour, we grabbed lunch and went back to the most Eastern Europe bus station ever to catch our bus to Vienna.
Overall, I would recomemend stopping by Bratislava the next time you just happen to be passing through Eastern Europe. It was a small town with incredibly inexpensive beer and charming cobblestone passageways. True you may end up walking into underground tunnels only to immediately turn around, but that’s a risk you’re going to have to be willing to take.
breaking the chain 