I was never dreaming about visiting Bratislava, but sometimes things just happen. I’ve never been in Slovakia and when I had a chance to buy quite cheap tickets with promotion, I decided to go somewhere new this time. And here I am, in the capital of Slovakia for a short weekend trip. Before my flight I made a research and marked some places on the map which I should visit during my stay. They were not a lot 🙂 and I thought that 2 days would be quite enough (for me) to see all the marked places. Just to mention, I had 3 days trip 😉 Today I’m going to share my honest opinion about this place, but it will be my subjective opinion (you may find it else for yourself 😀 ).
I had an evening flight and arrived to Bratislava around 8-9pm. In just a 25-30 minutes I was already in the city center. Public transport was the best here. If you want to reach the city center (old town area), you can take bus N61 from the airport, then change to tram 4 or 9 (depending on your final stop). For this trip you can buy a 30min validity ticket directly from the bus, using special terminals and pay with your card by just tapping it. The cost for this ticket was around 1 eur. Where else you can travel from the airport to the center with this price? 🙂 So, I came to the hotel, which was in the old town area, checked in, and didn’t go out. A good rest was much needed.
In the morning, after the breakfast it was time to go for sightseeing, yeeey 🙂 And the first place I decided to visit was the Bratislava Castle. A small historical remark about this place:
The Bratislava Castle has been inhabited since the late Stone Age. Its first written record dates back to the year 907 AD. The Coronation Tower, located in the southwest of the Palace, was built in 13th century and it is standing till tuuay. Dung the reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437) the castle underwent a radical Gothic reconstruction. After 1526 the castle became the seat of Hungarian monarchs. Under the reign of Maria Teresa (1740 – 1780) the castle was transformed into a luxurious Baroque residence. In 1811 the castle was burnt down and its reconstruction was only undertaken in 1953. The Bratislava Castle is currently> administered by the Chancellery of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and houses the Museum of History of the Slovak National Museum.
The castle itself was quite big, with countless rooms with different exhibits to show. You may see here royal rooms with small quantity of furniture left, a chapel, porcelain, dresses. But you can also see numerous samples of golden jewelry dating back to 1600 BC, the oldest swards and stone & bronze tools, human scull from the end of the early stone age, historical documents and much more. You can walk the steps up to the tower to have the panoramic view of the city or can go down to the underground and walk on the remaining ruins on which this castle was built. I would surely love to see more royal rooms and furniture, to imagine how people lived here, but definitely I enjoyed the 2 hours that I spend in this castle. 
Next to it, in a small hall there was a temporary exhibition (with a separate ticket) dedicated to Marie Antoinette. A small historical walk on the fashion at that time, showing the replicas of her dresses, how they changed by time, what kind of new atributes she started to use in her garderobe, from the very simple to the splendid dresses. At the end of the hall you can see her final she had in the prison before her death/execution. But except the dresses and wigs you can see a magnificent example of a jewelery necklace she had, how it shined in differenc angles. This was generous. Imagine how expensive it was at that time, that is valued today around 30mln eur!
The castle has also a garden around where you can come to walk under the trees, spend lazy time or enjoy the view over the city. From here you can see one of the main attraction of Bratislava, an UFO tower standing on a bridge over Danube river. This is a high standing tower, looking like a real UFO (the way we use to “know” it) and works as an Observation deck. If you want, you can pay around 10 eur for the entrance and have a nice panoramic view to the whole area. I’ve heard that there is also a restaurant on top, so if you want to have a dinner or a drink with a view, you are welcome to spend your money here 😀 But I decided to look at it from this point and have my lunch in the Old town. When you come to a new country, it is always good to try something local. The main typical dishes for this place were a cabbage soup called Kapustnica (no, thank you) and another one – Halusky, which was small potato damplings (just like gnocchi in Italy) coated in a goat cheese bryndza. This was my choice and I really enjoyed it until the last piece. 
After the good meal it was time to stroll in the streets of Old town. It is generally not big. Several streets crossing one another, full of tourists, souvenir shops and restaurants. One of the main places to pass was the Michael’s Gate, an 800 years old clock tower which again offers a nice view over the city.
Another very famous place is the Cumil Statue which is a prominent symbol of Bratislava. It depicts a cheerful man peeking out from a manhole, resting his chin on his hands as he watches the world go by. The name Čumil comes from Slovak slang and means “the watcher” or “the observer.” Except this, you may see few another cheerfull bronze statues in that area.
One more iconic landmark in Bratislava is the Blue Church. This is a pastel blue colored church from the 1900s, which look like a part of a fairy tale castle. Some people compare it also with a cake you want to bite 🙂 When you come close, you will notice that everything is blue here, even the interior, included benches. The church is usually closed, but they keep the main doors open so you can what’s inside behind the door.
If you’re tired of the city noise you can always find a garden to hide. One of these places was the Presidental Garden, which was right behind the Presidental Palace, and was open to everyone. There were a lot of people chilling in this garden, under the bloomed chestnut trees. The garden had also areas with the colorful tulips and other flowers, which gave the place a nice view. This was not a big garden, but could be a good choice for a refreshing after a hard day.
Overall everything and every place in Bratislava is quite walkable. I used public transport only from/to the airport. The rest of the time I was just walking from one place to another. As promised, this should’ve been a honest review of Bratislava as a travel destination. In my opinion, this is a one day visiting city, as all these activities I shared above were done just in one day. Of course, you can always find lots of museums to visit, but the ones I checked didn’t pick my attention. So, for me, one full day was totally enough for visiting the main highlights of the city. I would not come here just to return again. But in the maintime it could be a good hub for traveling to another destinations (e.g. Vienna is just 1h drive). I also had a one day-trip from here to another place, about which I’ll tell you next time. Don’t forget to check out later about this upcoming short trip 😉
My Life in Travel 