Vienna 2010: Bratislava Day Trip

We had planned a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia back when we decided to go to Vienna. Bratislava is only a one hour train ride away from Vienna. But since daylight was an issue, we wanted to get an early start. So we met up in the lobby of the hotel at 7 AM and made our daily trek down the street to the café for pastries and coffee. There was a subway station near the café, and we bought a two day pass, knowing that we would be using the subway for the next two days.

So looking at the map of the subway and where the train station was that we needed to get to for the ride to Bratislava, we determined that it was rather simple to take two lines to get to the train station. However, at the second stop, we looked at the map and thought that the train station was within walking distance. So we took the stairs up to the streets and quickly found ourselves lost amongst a construction zone. We saw the train tracks, but no train station. Eventually we asked a construction worker where the train station was but he did not speak English nor did he know where the station was even after looking at a map. So we retraced our steps and got back to the U-Bahn. Once there we followed the signs that led us to our stop and soon realized that we needed to take the S-Bahn (Stadtschnellbahn" (meaning "urban rapid railway")).

Lucky the subways and trains come at least every five minutes, and when the S-Bahn arrived our stop was just one stop away. This time we saw the train station and quickly walked there and bought four round-trip tickets to Bratislava. The train was leaving in 10 minutes so we didn’t have long to wait. Once on the train we found some nice comfortable seats. There were plenty of open seats as the train was not crowded at all. The trip to Bratislava took about an hour. This was the express train, which did not stop at all stations, but we did stop several times to allow other trains to pass by on the shared tracks.

We arrived in Bratislava around 11 AM, I believe, and once we left the train station we knew that the city center was a short 15 minute walk away, mostly down hill since we were waling towards a river. Our first unusual experience in Slovakia was a mentally disturbed man who was walking along and yelling and spitting on the ground. We purposely walked fast to avoid him. Soon we found our first stop, a bright-white palace. At this time the weather was cold but the sun was out. After taking a few photos we continued towards the city-center. The night before, my sister-in-law had mapped-out a few sites to see, so we at least had a destination – the oldest street in Bratislava. Along the way, there were many interesting buildings to see.

Our first destination was “the oldest street in Bratislava”. Now that may not sound too interesting, but just the journey of trying to find the street turned into an adventure. We found the general area, and the streets defiantly looked old, but we never know for sure which was the actual oldest street. Along the way we took many photos, and in some cases had people walking by looking at us strangely.

Our next stop was a castle on a hill. Reading up on the site, we knew it was under construction and not open, but still worth visiting. The castle sat atop a hill, so we walked up steep streets to reach it. Once there, the views of the city were spectacular. We could see the river below, the “UFO” tower and the brightly painted Soviet-style buildings across the river. Once again, these sites would have looked much better in the sunlight, but it was actually starting to get colder and darker. We ended up in souvenir shop where I bought my standard magnate to add to my collection on my refrigerator.

It was lunch time and we were all hungry. So we walked back down to the historic city center and looked for a place to eat. We wanted to eat at a restaurant that served local food, but somehow ended up at an Irish Pub. As it turned out, the food here was excellent! The meal was much better than the one in Budapest, and even the local beer was slightly better.

When we left the restaurant we realized that the weather was becoming dark and cold. We once again ended up in a Christmas market, when it started to rain. We all had umbrellas, which kept us dry but not necessarily warm. It was starting to get dark, so we knew we had limited daylight. We found an information center where we finally got a local map. Reading the local guild book we had, we knew there was one more site to see – the blue church. There were actually signs that were labeled “Blue Church” that we followed and soon found the church that was very indeed, painted blue. We took many photographs of the church and its blue paint, and even though the church was closed, the front doors were open and inside we saw that it was just as blue and took more photos.

At this point we knew we had seen all that we needed to see. So we headed back to the train station. The rain stopped and we put away our umbrellas, but it was still cold. The walk back to the train station was all uphill, which wasn’t that steep, but after days of walking made our legs feel quite tired. Once at the station we found that we had just missed a train, and had to wait for over an hour for the next one. Surprising, the wait went by rather quickly, and when our train arrived it was on track #1, so we were able to walk to the train directly from the first floor of the station. We had expected that the train would be busier since it was “rush hour”, but once again there were plenty of open seats. The train left right on time, and like before, we had our tickets checked twice.

The train seemed to make less stops on the way back, and we arrived in Vienna in less than one hour. Now that we knew the how to get back to our hotel, the trip took less time. Take the A-Bahn to the U-Bahn, two stops and transfer to another line and pretty soon we were at our hotel. Having eaten a hardy lunch, we didn’t need a dinner. So our plan was to meet down in the lobby at 8 AM the next morning. This allowed us time to sleep in – somewhat. I was surprised at how tired I was and found myself falling asleep by 8:30. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving day, and we had no specific plans other than to see sites we had not yet seen and have nice Thanksgiving meal.