We woke up early in our hotel in Prague and headed down to Czech Out (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!) Unbelievably the same young girl who had checked us in answered the door, in her pyjamas. A 24 hour reception was good for us but not so good for the one member of staff! We checked out and went in search of the subway station. Once we had worked our way down to the subway (it seemed deeper in the ground than the tube in London) we couldn't work out how to pay for a ticket to Florenc Station, where we were catching the bus to Bratislava. With the train arriving we hopped on and hoped we didn't have to explain ourselves for not having a ticket!

Fortunately, it must have been way to early for any train conductors to be about and so we got off at Florenc without a fine (or worse!). We asked a woman where the bus station was and she gave us a rather quizzical look...then she turned and pointed to the single biggest sign you have ever seen "AUTOBUS". We thanked her, rather embarrassed and went in search of our Eurolines Bus.

The journey would take 4 hours to Bratislava which would leave plenty of time to look around before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Germany. For 11€ each though, we certainly couldn't moan - especially when we were only joined by about 10 other people and had lots of space and free bottled water!

At the border our passports were checked twice within 10 yards: once by a Czech border guard and then by his counterpart in Slovakia!

Once in Bratislava we managed to leave our luggage at the coach station and headed into town by bus. We followed the crowds in to the city centre and were amazed at how different it was here, compared to Prague even though they were both in the same country not too many years ago.

Bratislava was dirtier, less attractive and (too our amazement) more expensive. However, we couldn't stand around and moan so we wondered about viewing some of its better sights. We posted a postcard back to the UK and headed back towards the coach station to collect our belongings.

Turecká is small village at mountains with a few habitants, good pub and interesting actions in summer and winter too. Do you know that there is organised every year in August the famous World Championship in the cooking of dumplings with sheep cheese - the traditional slovak meal?
And in winter there is the  race on special sleds - krnacky. Loll, this word is not easy neither for Slovak speaking. Krnacky was the special sleds - for bring the wood from mountains.  I added one picture from the net.                  

It´s a long ago when I was a student.... Last Friday I was walking (with little nostalgy) in the streets of Bratislava, where I passed 5 years of my studies at university... and I decided to take my lunch at 1. slovak pub at Obchodna stret. And as you can see, it was a good choice! The concept of the 1. Slovak Pub is to present Slovak history and things authentically Slovak at one place. Its individual rooms present eras ranging from the old pagan times up until the revival era of the 19th century. The 1. Slovak Pub has, in its short history, become one of the favorite spots for college students. It s the first, and probably the only pub in the world, where you can get a free soup for an A on an exam. The pub has 8 rooms which are dedicated to famous slovak historical persons: 1- Stur Room 2- Room of Poets 3- Janosik’s Room 4- Bernolak’s Room(bar) 5- Room of St.Cyril and St.Method 6- Pribina’s Knights’ Room 7- Cottage 8- Terrace The Stur Room is dedicated to the Slovak intellectuals of the 19th century. These men collaborated closely with and playeda crucial role in coding of Slovak grammar and making it our offical language. They were the driving force behind the Slovak national revival. The Room of Poets is dedicated to Slovak writers and poets. Its walls are partially covered with excerpts from the works of renown poets, including the poem by Janko Matuska whose text became the lyrics of our national anthem. Janosik´s Room is dedicated to the Slovak prince of thieves, who according to the legend stole from the rich and gave to the poor. At first Janosik studied theology, but later became a thief. This legend became a theme for several movies, similarly like that of Robin Hood. The Bar - in Bernolak´s room you will find portraits of the most noteworthy protagonists of Slovak history: - set the foundations of the Slovak language; we pay tribute to him for his diligent work and notable contributions. - warns us with his upwards raised finger to honor true v lues and to drink responsibly. The Room of St. Cyril and St. Method- the patrons of Slavic Europe who brought Christianity and the first written form of the old Slavic. They convinced the Pope to make it a lithurgical language in which masses could be held. The Pribina´s Knights´Room brings us back to the time of the old Slavic warriors mostly thanks to its table in the shape of a cross where guests can sit like Pribina´s knights did centuries ago. There are 12 seats at this table, which is the number of knights in Pribina´s order. There are 500 seats at he Slovak Pub in total, because according to the legend this order had 500 soldiers. The ceiling shows symbols typical for this time period. The Cottage is the greatest pride of the Slovak Pub. It is the original wooden house of the Pavelica family from Hybe,the Liptov region of nothern Slovakia. It was reconstructed here at the Slovak Pub, using 80% of the original material. The pictures on the wall depict sheep husbandry and manufacturing of traditional Slovak products. We encourage you to try our national Slovak dishes, specifically Halusky, our famous potato dumplings covered with bryndza (Slovak traditional sheep cheese) and sour cream. The Terrace depicts the pagan era of the old Slavs, especially with its huge oil painting of the Slovak king . The smaller paintings depict the pagan gods Perun, Morena and Vesna. There are different types of original Slavic fort walls shown on the walls opposite the fireplace. So, it was a short entry about slovak history, from internet site of the 1 slovak pub. I was there only 2 times and always was eating very good traditional slovak meals there(and was drinking quite good beer - PIFKO). And even if you are student, you can choose also from following meals : FREE soup + small KOFOLA from A mark from exam .................. FREE Kofola 0,5l + larded bread 70g ................................ 1.16 EUR Poor student lunch (0,33l soup according to offer, larded bread 70g ) ............ 1.16 EUR Lunch of student after pay day (100g fried cheese, tartare sauce, fried potatoes 100g)........ 2.62 EUR Student garlic soup in loaf ................................... 1.63 EUR Lunch of student who want to disport himself to his girl-friend (For 2 persons 2x0,33l soup according to offer, 2x breast of chicken sauté 100g, bread), served in one plate .......................................... 3.29 EUR and of course - the beeeeeeeeeer (PIFKO) CHEERS!

..It was our first travel to Low Tatras and i choose Ski Zahradky in internet site...good location,easy to reach with car..at one day we have two big tours-hiking to Chopok and walking to Demanovska Jaskina Slobody (Cave of Liberty) and it was smashing nice... at hotel we has a very good food and good serviss at hotels restaurant...

About a year ago after being active on travbuddy for 2-3 months, I couldn’t even imagine how many travbuddies I would meet the following year. Besides TB meetups while travelling myself I met many of them when they came to visit my own hometown Bratislava. From May on there was somebody almost every month. In October that were Ana and Raquel from Portugal.

Ana contactacted me about 2 weeks before her trip if I could give her some tips about Bratislava. Of course I did that and I offered to show her around if I will have time while she’s here. She was supposed to come with a friend during the weekend, that made everything much easier. Couple of days before their arrival I went swimming with my Swedish friend Dan, who lives in Slovakia at the moment and is a travbuddy already as well. While talking about our plans for the weekend we found out that obvioulsy I wasn’t the only one on travbuddy Ana contacted. Well, we’ve been showing travbuddies around together several times, we could do that on Saturday as well.

I sent Ana my cellphone number through trvabuddy and on Friday evening I recieved a message that they should arrive in Bratislava Saturday afternoon by train coming from Budapest. She would send me another message when she knows the exact time of the arrival.

According to her second message that was suddenly 4:20pm. I agreed to meet Dan at the train station few minutes before, but due to the fact that I missed one tram, I arrived just in time. Dan was already waiting with 2 friends from his office. Kiia fro Finnland and Stano from Slovakia, I knew them both already. The train from Budapest seemed to have arrived already, we couldn’t see it on the screen anymore, damn. I shouldn’t have written Ana before that they should wait on the platforma s I didn’t know the right platform. Then another message arrived...Ana and her friend were already here, so I messaged back if they could come to the main hall. We’ve been waiting a bit and then Stano offered to go to check the platforms if they could find them, while I would stay in the main hall. About 2-3 minutes later I saw a girl approaching and recogized Ana according to her profile pictures. She told me that she has to wait for her friend Raquel who was getting the tickets for the other day to Prague. I didn’t know that Raquel was a travbuddy as well, she admitted actually that she hasn’t been very active. I helped them to get the schedule for the trains to Prague at the information desk, meanwhile Dan, Stano and Kiia were back.

Ana and Raquel had a reservation at the Blues Hostel in the center, I knew it already thanks to other travbuddies who stayed there in the past. There was unfortunatly no direct bus or tram from the station, we would have to walk afterwards anyway, so I suggested to walk the whole way, it wouldn’t take us more then 30 minutes and the weather was fine. During the walk (we helped the girls with their luggage a bit) we got to know each other a little bit. I got then a new nickname from Raquel...“bastard“...hahaha. If you travel a lot you become a „bastard“, good to know, haha. Of course she din’t mean it in a bad way, she just envied me a bit, hehe. Would like to know when I reached the „bastard“ level...and which level comes next.          

We brought the girls to their hostel and waited till they checked in. They needed a little rest so we agreed on meeting later again. Meanwhile me, Dan, Stano and Kiia went into a cafe in the old center to get some coffee. Kiia had to leave us after a while, be she meant she would join later again. About 2 hours later I recieved a message from Ana again, I suggested to meet on the Main Square directly in the old center. We took the girls around and showed them the main sights of Bratislava. The Slovak caital is not that big, has just half million of population. The center is nice, but not compact and not that big. Ana and Raquel were hungry anyway and wanted to try some Slovak specialities. They heard about „Slovak Pub“, would have considered to take them there anyway. Even if the girls are not really big beer lovers as they admitted, they joined us when we ordered a „round“. And they ordered some of the most raditional Slovak dishes: „bryndzove halusky“ and „bryndzove pirohy“. Bryndza is a traditional Slovak soft sheep cheese and is often used in our traditional dishes. Tastes unsual for foreigners, Ana and Raquel meant that they liked it...maybe they said the truth, maybe they were just polite, hahaha. While we were waiting for our food, there was an electricity outage and the whole place got dark. The first time in my life since I’ve been coming to Slovak Pub. At least it didn’t take long. Meanwhile Kiia joined us again and came with her Slovak boyfriend Milan as well. We became a bigger group already.

After the dinner we left the place and decided to find some nice pub in the old town to sit down. Kiia and Miland had to say goodbye, unbelievable but true, Milan had to work on Sunday. The rest of us ended up in a pub close to the Slovak National Theatre having some last beers. It was fun having Ana and Raquel around, we did joke quite a bit together and don’t even ask which crazy things Stano and Dan were doing. That were some really strange noises, haha. I just hoped the girls enjoyed their evening in little unknown Bratislava, the following day they would be visiting already the famous Prague.   

From Budapest we took the train to Bratislava. It was the first rainy day on our vacation. Wet, wet, wet. We planned to stay in Bratislava during the day and continue our journey in the evening to Vienna. At the train station we dropped our luggage and walked to the old city centre. Bratislava is small but very cozy. The many statues in the city is the mark of Bratislava. Too bad the weather was not supporting, so we didn’t have dinner in Bratislava but continued our trip to Vienna.

Budapest - Bratislava by train is about 2 hours 40 minutes

Bratislava - Vienna by train is about 1 hour

You can also travel from and to these cities by water (hydrofoil on the Danube) check for prices and timetables at touristinfo and hotels.

Have been to this ski resort only once but had a good time. The resort is very beautiful, skiing in deep powder, surrounded by trees always is! Being a beginner it was perfect lots of blue runs to bomb around on and several reds to try to improve. I stayed at a new chalet run by a British couple which was brand new, so was spick and span, with all the mod cons. Although there is not much nightlife in the village, there are a number of good restaurants and bars. We ended up eating at a different place each night and had some great food. The pizza place in the village centre is the liveliest of the lot with a good atmosphere and a very friendly owner. If you ever fancy trying somewhere new than you could do worse than go to Velka Raca. Check out www.chaletslovakia.co.uk which is where i stayed give them their dues it was a good base for a great holiday.

It was 2 weeks before my big Latin America trip, I was slowly getting into the right travelling mood. Couldn’t believe that it was getting so close already, I’ve been pretty busy with work and doing the preparations though. At that time two travbuddies were supposed to visit Bratislava independently from each other and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet them. Liz from UK was coming with her friends for a stopover on the way to Budapest on Thursday (leaving Friday) and Marius from Romania would be in Bratislava during the weekend.

I was supposed to meet with Liz and her friends Thursday evening first at 6:30pm as I wouldn’t manage to leave the office earlier. Later I received a message from Liz if we couldn’t meet later, apparently there were some problems to get the right taxi as one of the guys was sitting in a wheelchair. Well, I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but Bratislava is really not the friendliest city to people in wheelchairs. I have a good friend in Germany who’s sitting in a wheelchair as well and we had some little troubles as well when he came to visit me. But the fact that there was no taxi at the airport able to transport a wheelchair sounded just bad. Somehow they managed to get to their hotel suddenly even if they had to improvise a bit as I heard afterwards. It was around 8:30pm when I arrived at the agreed meeting place in the front of the president’s palace and I saw Liz waving. There she was, sitting on the side of a fountain together with her 3 friends, had no problems to recognize her at all, though the wheelchair was an extra hint.    

After the greetings and introducing to each other I quickly remembered my Bratislava TB ambassador duties ( haha) and took over the “oh so” responsible role of a guide. Had to be a bit careful this time as steps were a no go with the wheelchair. Our first stop was a tobacco shop. My new friends used an expression for cigarettes I didn’t know, but realized quickly enough that I didn’t know what they meant, haha. The cigarettes are getting more and more expensive every year in Slovakia , but they are still cheaper then in Western Europe . Though I’m a non smoker I knew where the specialized tobacco shop was…thanks to previous foreign friends who expressed the same wish. Nevertheless, we arrived late…some 7 minutes after the shop closed. Late. Bad luck. We walked slowly direction the old center and talked meanwhile about everything possible. As everybody seemed to be pretty hungry I tried to shorten the guiding tour and to get us to some place with good food. The problem were again the steps. Unfortunately many of Bratislava ’s restaurants and bars have   the same characteristic. They are either down in the cellers or up in the first floors of the buildings. Then I had the saving idea, Primi, the place where I celebrated my birthday was accessible also for people sitting in wheelchairs. Couple of minutes later I arrived there with 4 starving English buddies. And guess what…the place was full!!! Damned, it looked bad. I looked quickly around, there seemed to be a free table further by the bar, but we had to get down some 4-5 steps. Well, the hunger made us handle this obstacle and soon we were finally sitting by a table. The dinner was fine, the portions quite big…too big for some of them, haha. After the dinner the guys felt quite tired (they’ve been travelling since early morning) so we just did a walk to their hotel below the Bratislava castle. We said goodbye, they were supposed to travel to Budapest the following day and I had to work. Isn’t life unfair sometimes? Hahaha…  

Unfortunately I have no picture from this meetup as I borrowed the camera to my parents just a couple of days before. Bad luck.

It was Saturday afternoon when I recived a message on my cellphone. It was travbuddy Marius. He was in Bratislava ’s Irish Pub “The Dubliner” watching a football match of his favourite team the Celtics. I messaged him back that I would be there in about an hour. It wasn’t the most pleasant summer Saturday, rather a rainy day, not too cold though. I entered “The Dubliner” and asked myself if I will recognize Marius quickly. Well, he did recognize me quite quickly, haha. He was standing by the bar and waved me. The match was still going on, so Marius ordered us two beers. I was honestly surprised about his English, it didn’t sound like from a foreigner…it sounded British. Despite this fact Marius assured me that he has never lived there…wow.

Later on we went to another pub where we could sit down. The weather outside wasn’t anyway the best one and Marius did already some sightseeing on his own. We talked a lot about many different things, really enjoyed it. We finished the night in Slovak Pub where we went afterwards. Here we got something to eat and some further beers. It was a nice evening and night, I honestly enjoyed hanging out with Marius and talking. If I get to Cluj Napoca in Romania one day, I will contact him for sure.     

I wasnt at all impressed with Hostel Blues.After being taken there by Martin(cheers mate) at around 2 we werent allowed to check in because they werent ready.Which if they tell you check in is before then,i expect to be allowed to check in.Then when we were checking in the price started to rise, suprise suprise.Like the city tax. This hostel has stag nights there too which is a nightmare as there was a spanish lot when we were there which was extremely anoying and loud. But on a positive note you can watch dvds in the common area if you just ask!And the place was clean enough.

Tren en dirección a Bratislava. Sorprendente ciudad con un casco histórico bonito y bien conservado. Restaurantes de diseño y edificios con modernos patios interiores. Un placer pasear por sus calles en busca de las curiosas estatuas que decoran el centro de la ciudad. Gran castillo en lo alto de la colina desde donde se divisa el Danubio y, en la otra orilla, decenas de edificios tipo nido construidos en la época comunista para dar alojamiento a los obreros.

The grouchy conductor who had taken our tickets the night before woke us politely the next morning in time to arrive at Bratislava and gave us our tickets back.  We jumped off the train (we were the only ones getting off) onto the tracks.  I tried to get a photo and almost got run over by a freight train going through.  My conclusions so far are that train travel is much more private and comfortable than planes if you have the time.  However, it’s nerve wracking sometimes if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I need to explain why we were going to Bratislava in the first place.  Originally we were going to meet some US friends there and then travel together to Budapest and on to the tour through Croatia.  Bratislava was just to be the meeting point after they flew into Vienna.  They had made the apartment rentals for Bratislava and Budapest for all of us and I hadn’t really paid much attention.  They’re fun to travel with and wherever they wanted to stay was fine with my husband and me.  Then the other couple had back problems and the trip just wasn’t feasible for them.  I scurried around and booked trains but left the apartments as had already been arranged.  I did downgrade from 2 bedroom 2 bath places to 1 bedroom 1 bath where possible.  However, it never occurred to me to question the original decision to go to Bratislava. 

Now here we were at 5:30 am in the Bratislava station, not meeting anybody and the apartment wouldn’t be ready until 11 am.  We got a taxi to the apartment, just to know where it was, took a look at the building and wondered what we’d gotten ourselves into this time.  It was a Soviet architecture building and it hadn’t aged well.  Posters had been put up and torn off the walls, kids had tagged the building.  You know the look. 

We retreated to the main square and went to the only place open at 7 am - McDonalds.  Over a verrrrry leisurely breakfast (4 hours worth) we sat surrounded by our luggage while I worked on this blog.  After a while a young man at the next table stood up, took the vase of artificial flowers off his table (to make room for food) and offered them to me.  I laughed and accepted them.  Over the next few hours, he kept presenting me with flowers from the surrounding tables until I had all the flowers in the room.  As he left McDonalds, he said to my husband, “I love your wife.”  My husband replied with a smile, “So do I”.  No wonder I’ve been with this man for 44 years.

Anyway, back to the apartment building at 11 am and standing there surrounded by luggage while we waited to see the lodging.  The owner, Maria arrived and showed us a very nice apartment on the second floor.  It was clean, modern and had lots of space.  What a change from what we were expecting after seeing the outside of the building.  Wait until our friends hear about this rental!!!!

Because we had liked Bratislava so much the previous night and felt like we needed some rest (this was a holiday after all), we decided not to head to Devin Castle and just stay in the city.

It was sunny and warm, for the first time on this trip. We had breakfast at 'Sybila' on Kapucinska, and then, to avoid the problems of the previous day, bought bus tickets to get to the train station the next day.

And then we just walked and enjoyed the compact city center of Bratislava and its many, often hilarious bronze sculptures. We walked down Michalska, went to St. Martin's Cathedral, back to the Town Hall and the Primate's Palace, the Slovak National Theatre and then along the river to the famous Blue Church, which looked like a wedding cake from a Disney movie.

We returned to Hviezdoslavovo Namestie, where we had lunch and then decided to head up the hill to the castle.

The view from up there was nice, but the castle itself was undergoing renovation work and was consequently off-limits and rather boring.

After a while, we went back down and to the hotel for a shower.

We had a rather uninteresting dinner, but afterwards retreated to the Parada Bar, and enjoyed the summer evening with a beer and a glass of wine, watching the people walk by.

Bratislava was the big question mark of this trip. We didn't really know what to expect. We didn't know if it was a good idea to stop here for a day. Well it was. We fell in love with this little big town. It wasn't overrun with tourists yet, prices were moderate and everyone was extremely friendly, even if we sometimes hit the language barrier. I have a strong feeling we will be back some day.

People we met here:

Martin(Slovakia),Tyler(Canada),Hanie(No idea),Wayne(England),Dan(Sweden)

Accommodation:

Hostel Blues

We had another early rise today at 4.30am to catch the connecting trains to Braitslava,the best thing was we had our first air-conditioned train,it was heaven.When trying to find out where to find tickets and finally finding the place we realised that it was cheaper to buy returns than singles.Very Strange.

When we arrived in Bratislava we were met by Martin(Skydiver) and he was great,he helped us find our hostel and he even carried Staceys bag for her,which was stupid of him seeing as her bag was ridiculously overpacked and heavy(Women for you)he would of been better off carrrying my bag.haha.When we got to our Hostel they started adding on charges and we couldnt check in for two hours which was extremely anoying.But we dropped our bags off in the luggage room and Martin took us on a small walk around the town.

The that evening we went with Martin to the cinema to see Indiana Jones,which was good seeing as the film wasnt dubbed.Althought there was a very strange advert for Gillette with a baby doing kung fu.haha

The next day on the advice of Martin we had a day trip to Vienna.Which i have a seperate entry for.

On our last day in Bratislava we had our first big travbuddy meet up.We met Martin,Wayne and Hanie and then Martin took us on a walking tour of the city pointing out all the key places.Credit must go to Martin for making our time in Bratislava very interesting.Then that evening we went for a meal and a drink at the Slovak pub.The food was great and the beer.The only problem was i struggled to see for about a week afterwards due to Hanies persistant flash photography.haha

August 23^rd • 25^th

Like in Budapest, I arrived here early in the morning but at least here the bus station was in the walking distance from the hostel I checked in, Hostel Blues that is (review available as well). I was planning to stay in the Slovak capital for 2 nights and if the opportunity occurs to make a quick run to Vienna which is about 70 km away.

Bein' a wee bit tired after 2 nights of very little sleep - one was spent on the road and the night before was also with very little sleep as I stayed up till around 2 am and had to wake up around 5 to get my bus connection - I decided I’m just gonna chill on my first day in Bratislava. Of course that didn’t stop me from making a wee tour of the place, check a few pubs, try some local food, stare at some local beauties, find a place to see my team playing (we won 3-0 btw) and meet a local travel buddy that showed me around and of course had few drinks with him as well (cheers Martin!). So that’s not quite what a chill day means but I had a great day and at the end of it I was lookin forward for the next one and the quick run to Vienna.

Positive things about Bratislava… Well, there are lots o' them. I loved the statues which are spread throughout the city, loved the buildings and the small streets, the relaxed and friendly people, the great beer, the girls. I was stunned later by Prague and its beauties but the enormous number of tourists flocking to the Czech capital makes the atmosphere there be a little bit like… McDonalds. Bratislava it’s not like that and still has its own perfume and very own atmosphere, especially if you go where the local people are goin (fully recommend the Slovak pub on Obchodna Street • great food and drinks. Also a non alcoholic drink I loved was Vinea • white grapes juice, you find it everywhere).

As for minuses, well, probably too many UK stag parties wanderin about. Other than that everything it’s just fine.

Located 2-3 minutes away from the old town square and very near to a Tesco store, hostel Blues is a very clean and nice hostel, located on Spitalska. Always very busy and full of people, its more like of a party place. Beside a pretty decent kitchen and internet they also have a bar, where the reception is as well, and where you’ll always find people ready to join you for a drink and chat. They give you magnetic cards for access into the building, CCTV and safety problems are out of the question. I paid around 22 euros for a night in a dorm and it was very clean, great showers and clean toilets. They have 85% rating on Hostelworld.