Bratislava, Slovakia

On the afternoon of Tuesday 2nd July 2019 I flew to Bratislava, Slovakia. Any trip where I get to cross a new country off my list is a good one, and I had heard a lot of good things about Slovakia so was excited about the next couple of weeks.

I arrived at the airport in Bratislava and managed to find a bus to drop me off near my accommodation. I have no idea how I used to travel around Europe without a smartphone and the use of Google Maps and/or Google Translate! I had booked a self-contained apartment and it was fantastic, conveniently located about a 20 minute walk from Bratislava's old town (its main attraction) and also close to the railway station.

The bathroom mirror did do rather strange things to my eyes!

The rest of that evening was spent settling in and stocking up on some supplies. There was a huge Tesco supermarket a 12-minute walk from my apartment, so I headed there first. 

My route to the supermarket took me through Freedom Square. It was a pretty derelict rundown place, left over from the Soviet era. That fountain is the biggest in all of Slovakia, but hasn't been operational since 2007. Apparently it would cost over a million euro to restore it.

 

On Wednesday I packed my bag with everything I needed for a big day of exploring, and headed to the Old Town.

The first major sight I hit was the Planet of Peace fountain, with the presidential palace behind it. The spray from the fountain was very welcome as despite it being pretty early in the morning, the temperature was already getting up there.

I really enjoyed wandering around the old town, it was full of gorgeous buildings. Bratislava is sometimes referred to as a mini-Prague, and I could see why the comparison gets made. It does churches especially well!

 

 

The church of St Elizabeth was my favourite, it was absolutely gorgeous.

Below is the original Slovakia National Theatre building. I loved the mister you can see in the left of the picture, I walked through several times to help cool down.

The Primatial Palace was also beautiful. 

I had a lovely time just wandering the streets and cobbled alleyways of the old town.

 

 

Bratislava has a lot of sculptures and works of art dotted around the old town. My favourite was the well-known 'man at work' sculpture.

For a different perspective I paid the small entrance fee to climb up Michael's tower, which you can see in the above pic. This gave lovely views over the rooftops of the old town.

Next I walked across one of the many bridges spanning the Danube. From the bridge I got some nice views looking towards the castle on the hill.

I was heading for the 'UFO Bridge' which is the 7th largest hanging bridge in the world.

I took the elevator up to the 95 metre high viewing platform for some more spectacular views.

 

 

From here I walked back to my apartment, tired after a full-on day of exploring.

The next morning it was back to the Old Town, where I carried on up the hill to the Bratislava Castle.

I bought a ticket to explore inside. There was heaps to see over several floors and I ended up spending most of the day there.

 

From the towers you got some lovely views over Bratislava

 

Lastly I explored the grounds and gardens

 

I had a fabulous 3 days/nights in Bratislava, it was a great place to kick off my Slovakian adventure.