To be honest, the only thing I knew about Bratislava came from the movie Eurotrip. When I was trying to decide where to go after Vienna, I noticed that Bratislava was only a short bus ride from Vienna. At first I jokingly proposed to go there, but before we knew it, me and the bf bought our tickets and were set to go!
I have to say, our first impressions of Bratislava weren’t the nicest. On our walk from the bus station to the hostel, everything looked run down and deserted. The whole time, I was thinking how we’re lucky we only planned to stay there for two days! Although fair enough, it was New Years day so everything was closed, which explained the ghost town vibe. And we did get there pretty late…
When we went out to explore the city centre the next day, I was pleasantly surprised about how pretty Bratislava actually was!
This is the second smallest apartment/doner restaurant in Europe! (the smallest is in Amsterdam)
One thing I only learned about once I was in Bratislava is that they use the euro…and while it was a cheap city, it was definitely not as cheap as Eurotrip made it out to be! Our hippie hostel receptionist recommended a restaurant called Slovak Pub, with great food for only 5 euros a dish.
The interior is pretty cool looking too!
From my instagram pics: Slovak potato dumplings and periogies!
It’s definitley popular with locals and foreigners alike.
A funny story happened during the night after we met up with my friend Tania. We were all sitting in our hostel room thinking how great it was to have the whole room to just the three of us, when five Venezuelan guys all checked in! They were joking about how the horror movie Hostel actually took place in Bratislava, and how likely it would be if it took place at our exact hostel…
A few minutes later, one of them wanted to leave the room and noticed that the door was stuck! We all took turns attempting to open the door and trying with our keys to unlock the door…to no avail! At that point some of us contemplated how safe it was to escape through the window, when one of the guys looked up the number to call the hostel receptionist, and moments later, they came and rescued us.
Definitely a close call! …or was it?
A walking tour also gave us a lot of insight on Bratislava that we didn’t know before. Well one thing I did know was that Slovakia used to be a part of Czechoslovakia before they split. Apparently during communism, they decided that Prague would represent the old, and Bratislava would represent the new…that’s why the old town in Prague looks so amazing, with all their old buildings intact.
Unfortunately for Bratislava, most of their beautiful old buildings were demolished by the communists, in favour of those creepy block buildings; during this time, they were suppose to be new and modern. That’s also why the old part of town in Bratislava, or in other words, the only pretty part of the city, is so tiny.
On the bright side, one building that the Slovaks didn’t let the communists destroy that was outside their very tiny old town was this beautiful church…
these photos don’t do it any justice!
It’s commonly called The Blue Church (no explanations needed!) and was created for Princess Elisabeth from her parents (her parents originally thought they were going to have a son, hence the colour blue).
It’s definitely one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen! The first time I saw it, I actually gasped a bit because it was sparkly and looked exactly like something out of a Disney movie! And the fact that it was built for a princess makes it not that far off from being a real Disney castle!
Another interesting fact is that because this church is such a popular place to get married at, the current waiting list to do so is over two years long! So if any of you are in love with this church as much as I am, I suggest putting your name on the list now!
I have to say, when it was time to leave Bratislava, I felt a bit sad. It’s definitely one of those hidden gems where people either don’t bother visiting, or go there somewhat ironically. It’s actually a very quirky city with an interesting history, so if you’re travelling around Europe, I would definitely recommend a stop here!
Have you guys ever been to Bratislava? How did you like it?