Bratislava

August 3, 2024

Today we decided to sleep in. It didnt work very well for me, I was up before 6am, but it sure was nice to not have to rush to get ready to go somewhere this morning. We took our time getting ready and then headed to the little bakery down from where we ate lunch yesterday. We got some danishes for after breakfast – a cheese and fruit one.

Our breakfast place was quiet on a Saturday morning. PB got a ham and cheese croissant, tea and orange juice. I got scrambled eggs that came with a piece of toast. Slovakia LOVES onions, so of course there were LOTS of onions in my scrambled eggs. The food was very good.

After lunch we headed back to the Airbnb because I spilled some egg on my shorts, wouldnt normally be a big deal but there was some sort of oil and I didnt want it to sit on the shorts until I have time to wash them. After I washed out the oil I dried my shorts with the hair dryer before we headed out to the river.

We decided to walk towards Hungary (from the top of the castle hill you can actually see Hungary and Austria). We ran out of the bike path and decided to walk over the river and walk back on the UFO bridge. It ended up bring about a five mile walk and it was beautiful. It wasnt yet hot and being close to the water definitely helps stay cooler.

After the walk we went to get some gelato. We stopped at Anderson, after Hans Christian Anderson since the gelato place is right behind the statue. After gelato we had to head back to the Airbnb and check out. We grabbed our bags and headed to luggage storage in old town so I could store my bag. It is the only bag check in the old town area, so of course it was more expensive at seven euro. Once I was bag free we headed to find lunch. We walked around for a while before we found a restaurant just off the main square. The wind had picked up and things were flying, but we stayed outside to eat because it is so nice out. And when in Europe, its nice to eat outside and enjoy the people watching.

There were somme guys at the table over from us that must have been on a bachelor party or something. One of them passed out on the ground and his friends just left him while they continued to eat. After a while they dumped water on him and he woke up, but immediately went back to the floor to continue to lay down.

Lunch was over and we decided to go find more gelato. We love gelato and as PB says “I like the ratio of gelato stores to size of this town.” Bratislava has significantly more gelato shops than Prague does. We enjoyed our last gelato of Bratislava in the main square before heading over to the palace.

I think we were both a bit disappointed by the palace, we got to see such a tiny little portion of it and PB is horrified by their upkeep and protection of their tapestries. We were in and out within about 25 minutes.

With my bag in tow we headed towards the train station with plans to stop and get some snacks for the train. We got some of their “string cheese” and a couple different candies. it was about a 20 minute walk to the train station, up hill of course. On the way we encountered two of these sheep milk vending machines that also sold the string cheese.

There was no indoor seating for the train station, so we were forced outside as we were about 35 minutes early. We got lucky and a seat opened up in the shade. We headed into the station with about 20 minutes to go until departure and our train had just arrived and they were switching signage. We were able to get on and into our seats early – which was nice because they were running the AC in the car.

It is a four hour ride from Bratislava to Prague. I used my time to blog and get a couple cat naps. PB read and got in a little cat nap. We got in around 830pm and headed to the hotel. I decided to head out to take in the bridge and town all lit up at night. It was INSANELY busy. That is one of the worst parts of coming to Europe in August, EVERYONE else is coming to Europe in August.

I didnt stay out long and came back within the hour and headed to bed. We get to sleep tomorrow as its supposed to rain in the morning and we do not have a timeline to attend to.