We booked a short stay in Vienna with the main purpose to visit the Christmas markets. However, being an avid traveller and trying to travel to as many countries as possible, I did some research to discover that Bratislava is a 1 hour train journey away from Vienna. This seemed like a no-brainer and although we were only in Vienna for 2 nights, I knew that we somehow had to incorporate a trip to Bratislava, Slovakia into our travels.
We arrived in Vienna central station just after 2pm and after checking into our hotel and having a brief snoop of the room, we were back at the station buying tickets for the 3:30pm train to Bratislava. The train journey was easy despite some train issues, meaning that we had to transfer to another train. Although, the new train came fairly quickly and we were soon arriving in Bratislava around 4:45pm.
When we arrived in Bratislava, it was already fairly dark due to being Winter so we weren't able to witness the beauty in the daylight, however I'm sure that it was equally as impressive in the evening and the array of lights somehow made it feel more magical. Our first trip was walking from the station to the castle whist stopping at tourist attractions such as the presidential palace and various different churches along the way. We also found a beautiful bridge where the trams run through, which was beautifully lit up in different colours. The walk to the castle was about 40 minutes (we took a few detours) but with all of the beautiful and fascinating scenery, the time soon passed and it wasn't long before we were standing in front of a stunning, pure white castle. In the evening lights, the castle glowed in a beautiful light mist which was breathtaking to see.
The castle is a very impressive size and took us a while to walk around it, whilst enjoying the surrounding scenery of boats and cars travelling across the lakes and bridges. Once we had finished taking pictures and wandering around the castle, we made our way to the main area of town which turned out to be a lovely walk full of beautiful scenery including unique alleyways and stunning markets. We did a bit of shopping in some of the market shops that we came across and ended up purchasing a little model of the Bratislava castle to commemorate our evening there.
Once our shopping trip was complete, we visited the statue of 'Cumil the Sewer Worker', as shown below.
This statue is particularly popular amongst tourists and tells the story of a sewer worker taking a break from his underground job. Locals like to explain how he tipped his top hat to the locals that would pass by whilst he was on his break. The sculpture is very special and it is definitely a must-see if you're lucky enough to visit this amazing city.
Once we had seen the local statue, we popped for a bite to eat in a local McDonalds where we appreciated the difference in their menus compared to those that we have in England. We devoured our brie and cranberry bites, drank our fruit punch and shared some fish and chicken snacks that were equally delicious. After the excitement had passed from discovering these special items on the menu, we decided to take a walk around and visit a few bars/pubs. The first bar we went to was a cocktail bar which served very unique and interesting cocktails. Mine even came with dried meal worms on top which, although I liked the creativity, I found a little off-putting so we only had the one cocktail (which was nice once you got over the fear of having to stare at mealworms each time you drank). We then headed to a jazz bar where we enjoyed rum and cokes whilst listening to some incredible LIVE Jazz music.
After a couple of drinks, we decided to make our way back to the station to catch the second to last train home. However when we arrived at the station, we realised that our train back to Vienna was cancelled and the people at the station informed us that the next one was the last one of the night and was in 2 hours time, although they couldn't guarantee that the train would be running due to issues at Vienna station. After a small panic and lots of researching into nearby hotels for the night, we decided to explore a little bit more of Bratislava and hope that the 11pm train would be running as normal. As we left the train station we took a walk to see more of the presidential palace that we weren't able to properly appreciate during our earlier walk to the Castle. The palace was lovely and very calming and I'm glad that we were able to go back to fully appreciate it. Once we were finished at the palace, we took a stroll along the main road and found a lovely little pub where we decided to have some hot chocolate and baileys which were absolutely delicious! They were served with lots of cream and my favourite biscuits, lotus biscuits! We were able to enjoy a couple of these delicious drinks and take in the calming atmosphere of the pub before making our way back to the station in the hope that the last train to Vienna was running. To our happiness, shortly after we arrived at the station, the platform was announced for the train home which was a great relief and it wasn't long before we were making our way back to Vienna.
On the train I was able to fully comprehend how incredible it was to be able to visit Bratislava from Vienna and I also felt extremely grateful and privileged to be able to say that Slovakia was my 27th visited country, and what a country it is!! The people in Bratislava were so friendly and welcoming and the food and drinks were delicious, alongside experiencing the most stunning architecture. If you're ever in Vienna or you are planning to travel to Slovakia, I couldn't recommend Bratislava anymore! You will not regret visiting this amazing city.
Bratislava, thank you for being incredible. I hope to be back one day :)