Slovakia: Bratislava

Just an hours train trip east of Vienna is Slovakia and the city of Bratislava. The walk from the train station to the historical centre of town took us through a dilapidated neighbourhood of Communist era buildings and squares. Disused tram tracks, cracked pavements, crumbling drab buildings, and broken fountains along the way. Being Easter Sunday, there was hardly anyone around which just added to the post-apocalyptic feel.

 We finally spotted some other life and found the Presidential Palace which was nice but not nearly as grand as the buildings in Vienna.

In the historical centre the buildings were much older and restored with cobblestone streets. It was very touristy, I think we only saw about 3 local Slovaks the whole time.

On the top of the hill overlooking the town was a castle which was pretty new due to the old one burning down and suffering various other misfortunes.

Bratislava Castle

The touristy parts of town are very clean and well maintained, however one street back it is obvious that there are big economic problems here with seemingly little money available for maintenance or infrastructure. These bits were probably more interesting though as the centre is a little sterile.

Looking across the Danube River you can see a strange UFO shaped restaurant atop the bridge pylon. It was probably a symbol of the success of communism when it was built, but looks a bit bizarre now. Also over the river were row upon row of precast panel communist era apartment buildings.

UFO restaurant on the bridge and endless Communist era apartments

 We walked past a guy in a restaurant eating soup out of a loaf of bread and thought it looked good for lunch. It was a garlic cream soup which was great, and the bread was really fresh. Strangely most people were just eating the soup and leaving the bread which was madness. Many restaurants seemed to have identical menus with prices varying according to how close to the main street you are. Ours was about half the price of the exact same meals at a place about 100m away, they probably come out of the same kitchen.

Soup in a bread bowl and schnitzel

If you're in the area then Bratislava is worth a look, with a nice mix of old town and interesting run down areas. The food and beer are great and everything is much cheaper than neighbouring Austria.

-Joe