BRATISLAVA - SLOVAKIA

First thing I did on arrival in Bratislava was crash out, the last few days had been hectic late nights, early mornings and all day walking. Did however manage to get to the castle before sunset. Also done a timelapse video from my dorm room looking towards the castle.

Just like in the previous hostel it was one of them places where you go straight to the bar and instantly connect with people. I went out with a group of 5 for some local food, we went back to the hostel for a few more beers. There was talk of going out after but I was still very tired by that point.

Bratislava is a city that the average person could see all the sights and walk every street in the old town in one day, some people even just go as a day trip from Vienna. I joined the 2 hours guided walking tour round the old city which wasn’t bad but my concentration span was lacking a bit this time.

During the afternoon I walked to the top of the hill where the memorial was for some great views of the city.

At night I had 2 choices join the bar crawl or join a group of 5 who were going to see a band. Hostel bar crawls nearly always have the same ending, you go from bar to bar with a small group of people and end up in a big club. One goes to the bar, one goes to the toilet etc and before you know it you have wasted half the night walking around looking for everyone so I thought I’d have a change and opted to see some live music with the group of 5.

The heavy metal style of music definitely was not my thing but it was not a bad evening and ultimately better than being lost in a vast club. We went back into the old town and split up into 2 groups after a couple of bars.

I had one full day left and having exhausted the city sights I got a bus out of town to Devin castle. To be fair there did seem to be a lot of walking / national park areas outside the city.

I did have the idea of walking the 8-10 miles back to the city but with the after effects of the previous nights alcohol went against it.

I did a short walk round the town and back along the river. On the way I spotted a fairly large snake which did make me jump a bit. Later research showed me it was probably this type which is non venomous but I wasn’t to know that at the time.

I had burned out on sightseeing so I had a lazy final afternoon followed by a sleepless night followed by having to get home from Stansted airport with a main railway line closed. Overall it had been a good trip, Milan was a bit of a let down but Vienna and Bratislava made up for it both with seeing things during the days and socialising at night.