Not like in the movies.
Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, is only a 40 minute bus ride from Vienna. You can get there even faster if you take the train. Unfortunately, the city has a bit of a reputation. Most people know about Bratislava because of its appearances in a few well known movies. Almost every time I told someone this summer I was going to Bratislava, one of these two movies came up: Eurotrip or Hostel. Eurotrip represents the city as a dirty backwards place where only a few pennies will buy you a stay at a 5 star hotel with plenty left over for tuxedos and fancy meals. Hostel represents the city as a backdrop to horrifying torture. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case for us.
True, our hostel wasn’t the prettiest place, but our one night stay didn’t require anything too fancy.
When we arrived we walked a few blocks to the old part of town. A walking tour was set to depart shortly so we decided to join. A university student led us around town telling stories about the history of Slovakia, the era under Communism, and how special it was to finally be recognized as its own country.
Town Hall
“prettiest building in the city”
Crowns on the street denote the coronation route.
Home of the President
The Blue Church
After the tour we walked up the hill to the castle.
We also had some really good ice cream here and went on a looong and fruitless search for Taco Rey, a veggie friendly taco shop. There’s no greater disappointment than thinking you’re getting some fresh veggie tacos and then sitting down to (expensive) vegetable broth for dinner.
We had low expectations for our visit. Mostly due to the movie references above and the very few pages dedicated to the city in our Lonely Planet. I think that both of us were pleasantly surprised at what we found. We were glad we included Bratislava in our trip, but also glad it was only one night.
xo, jill
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