Country 7: Bratislava, Slovakia

Vittoria
Mar 19, 2018
3 min read

21 Days On The Road ~ Location: Bratislava, Slovakia ~ Transportation: Bus

After 11 days in Vienna, it was finally time to hit the road again and resume our travelling schedule. Our next destination was Bratislava in Slovakia. It only took one hour of bus and the weather was absolutely miserable.

The bus dropped us on the side of a highway, and our hostel was 30 min walk from there, alongside the motorway, walking pass a shopping mall and a lovely park (very random thing to find next to a highway), across a green metal bridge, and through the town. We arrived exhausted and soaking wet because it didn't stop raining one second since we left the bus. We were carrying all our bags so when we finally reached our hostel, called Patio Hostel, we were really happy to take them off and settle in our room.

We booked one bunk bed in a 6-bed-dorm and it was the very first time I stayed in a hostel. The place was spot clean, the beds almost brand new, the sheets scented of fresh laundry, and the communal areas were really nice and tidy too. When we entered our room we were greeted by two of our roommates: a guy from Hong Kong on spring-break from his degree, and a 65-year-old man from Bratislava. As soon as I saw him I thought sleeping was going to be tough because people of a certain age are known to snore, and I didn't know the half of it.

Anyway, that's when things started to go sour: we went to a local Tesco to buy some groceries and we bought some potatoes, cauliflower, bananas and different typed of canned beans. We went back to the hostel and started cooking in one of the communal kitchens but when finally dinner was ready everything tasted weird. The potatoes had an acidic twang, the cauliflower seemed off, so we threw everything away and ate some of the food I received in a goodie-bag from my mom for my birthday. So we had vegan chocolate, crisps and bread-sticks for dinner, with a side of canned beans.

Sleeping was a tragedy! Around 10 pm everyone was in their beds and the snoring contest began. We weren't too concerned at that point because we were watching some tv and we thought by the time we were going to bed they will all be sound asleep. NOPE! The snoring went on till 4 in the morning, because the old man would wake up every hour to go to the bathroom, or turned in the bed grunting and coughing, and that would wake up the other two guys who would snore once again to fall asleep. It was hell! At 6 the old man woke up, walking up and down the room like a rhinoceros, opening the lockers to find what sounded like shredded metal; and the whole charade started again at 8 when the other two woke up.

We gave up on sleeping and decided to have breakfast, which was ruined by the bananas we bought the day before that even though were barely ripen, tasted like they were on their death bed. We resorted to snack bars from the goodie-bag and rushed out the hostel. The longer we spent out of the hostel the better we felt. The awful experience started turning around and the whole thing didn't seem so bleak after all. We decided not to let it effect us and just have a good time.

In the end we loved Bratislava, the city is so beautiful and there was so much we saw and experienced.

Here you can watch the video about our time in Bratislava:

Our itinerary included:

~ Patio Hostel

~ Blue Church

~ Monumentálne súsošie štúrovcov

~ Victory Monument

~ Man at work

~ Old Town Hall

~ Michael's Gate

~ Clarissine Church

~ St. Martin's Cathedral

~ Bratislava Castle

~ Balans Bistro

Since we knew that buying food wouldn't be an option we decided to treat ourselves to an incredible Vegan Burger from the restaurant Balans Bistro. Hands down the tastier burger ever. I know I say it every time, but what can I say? It gets better and better.

The next night we actually managed to sleep better because there was less snoring and one of the guys who was contributing to the noise left that day. Sometimes a bad day it's just that.

Final warnings: Even though we started with the wrong foot Bratislava did make a great impression on us! You don't need more than couple of days to see the city and get its vibe, and I am glad we did and gave this city the chance to shine.