Part 2: Bratislava!

If you were with me for part one then you’ll know I was sad to be leaving Budapest. It was an incredible city and one I want to return to but it was only part 1 of a mini Eurotrip discovering four European cities back in 2014.
I couldn’t stay sad for long because soon enough I was using the last of my Hungarian Forints to buy a train ticket to Slovakia.

So what did I really know about Slovakia? Absolutely nothing. I knew Ljubljana was nice and that it had some beautiful lakes and scenery.. wait, wait, wait. That’s Slovenia not Slovakia!

Alright, so I didn’t personally get confused –  football goes a long way to broadening my geographical knowledge but they’re both two small European countries and a lot of people genuinely do confuse them. It’s not a great start for Slovakian tourism, is it? “Oops, wrong country”.

You’d think that would be the worst of the struggle that Slovakia has but alas, it isn’t. At least in scenario one you’re stealing some of Slovenia’s tourists too, right?
The bigger issue is that some of Slovakia’s fame is unwanted fame – so the chances are if you have heard of Bratislava/Slovakia it’s probably negative.

It’s a sad reflection on the influence of Western culture. You see what the Western world can do for tourism in places like Croatia for instance – an influx of tourists all wanting to walk the streets of Game of Thrones’ “Kings Landing”. Croatian tourism has soared because of it!

However if you’re a small country like Slovakia, Slovenia or Croatia how much do you need that Western influence to be a positive portrayal rather than a negative one?

“Wait, is it Slovakia or Slovenia with the lakes?”
“Slovenia. Slovakia is the one where Hostel was filmed”
“Isn’t that the horror film where they torture tourists?”
“Yeah, do you want to go?”
“Let’s go to Slovenia instead shall we?”

Bratislava found fame in the two American films ‘Eurotrip’ and ‘Hostel’. Eurotrip depicted it as a miserable hellhole and whilst I haven’t seen the latter I’ve heard enough about it to know the damaging reputation it has had on Slovakia. Unsurprisingly Slovakian tourism nosedived following the release of Hostel in particular. No apologies for the horror pun but tortured tourists doesn’t scream “come to Slovakia”.
In contrast Hostel was a huge success and went on to release follow-up films.

There was a huge backlash to the film, it caused a lot of offence in Slovakia for the way the country had been portrayed. Not to be deterred the Slovakian tourist agency invited director, Eli Roth, to visit Bratislava / Slovakia to show how nice it was. A show of hospitality which was snubbed by the director.

It makes me sad that the influence of the West can have such huge repercussions for smaller countries reliant on tourism so I’ve since awarded myself the title of “unofficial ambassador for Slovakia”. It’s an opportunity to balance the scales a little in Slovakia’s favour.

“So Mr Ambassador, what was Bratislava really like?”

Well let me start with the obvious, I’m writing this post (or am I?) so I escaped Bratislava torture-free. Success! So at the bare minimum, if I convince you of nothing else I can put that myth to bed – no torture!

You’ve had the background so now back to my trip..

I hopped on a train to Bratislava, well Prague actually, so my first task of the day was to stay awake and get off in the right city! If you know me well you’ll know I have a bad habit of falling asleep on trains so that was easier said than done. Not that waking up in Prague would have been disastrous but Bratislava was the intended destination for my train journey.

It was a nice train too – small-confined compartments that, if you’ve seen the films, reminded me of Harry Potter (without the dementors). I shared my compartment with a couple of guys but it was a nice bit of privacy and made it feel more like a first-class experience. I could have easily dozed off. I’d love more trains like that in the UK, particularly given the train fares accompanying any journey here.

I admired the scenery plus importantly stayed awake and was soon arriving in to Bratislava. As I entered the train station a huge banner reading “Welcome to Slovakia” greeted me. Despite all of the negative things that I’d heard prior to my trip it was an encouraging start to my time in the city.
Shortly after I was arriving at my hostel, that’s right – I braved a hostel stay in Bratislava!

Still to this day the hostel remains one of my favourites that I’ve stayed at. It was in a good location, had a friendly vibe to it, decent sized dorm rooms and was nicely decorated. The bar area was somewhere easy to socialise and all in all I’d thoroughly recommend staying at the Blues Hostel if you’re ever in Slovakia. Apparently they have live music on occasions too!
The receptionist checking me in was super friendly and offered a few recommendations for a first-time visitor which I appreciated.

I’d arrived a little later than I would have liked so quickly dropped off my things and made my way in to the old town to have a quick look around. In reality I was mostly interested in finding somewhere to get some dinner and soon found a restaurant that appealed. Despite being the end of October and being a rather chilly day I still found myself sat outside, it just adds to that European experience right?
With a parasol over my head and outside heaters it wasn’t actually too cold and I enjoyed a nice dinner.

The downside to being the end of October is that it gets dark quite early, I’d had a small glimpse of Bratislava but I hadn’t had enough time to familiarise myself with where things were. Rather than get lost in the dark I decided I’d just head back to my hostel and perhaps find some company to enjoy the evening with.

I got chatting to some guy from Argentina at the hostel bar and we shared a couple of beers together before some woman came over and asked if we were joining the pub crawl. It was a bit of a no-brainer for me, I was definitely up for meeting some new people and experiencing Bratislava’s nightlife in the process.
The Argentinian was less keen and I had little luck persuading him so we had one more drink together and then went our separate ways.

The host signalled it was time to go and off we went in search of bar number one. There were only 3 of us from our hostel but I was assured there’d be others joining us at the first bar (there was).
The bonus to being so few of us initially was I quickly got introduced to the other pair, two Finnish girls traveling together. My grandmother was Finnish which has always given me an interest in the country so I instantly perked up at discovering where they were from. I was grateful for Finnish company and a chance to hear more about life in Finland.

At the first bar we joined up with a decent sized group containing Americans, Canadians, Australians and fellow Europeans. Many drinks and many bars followed before winding up at our final destination – a nightclub where we were then left to party for as long as we liked.
I wasn’t planning on being out late and it wasn’t long before I knew I’d had too much to drink and I sensibly called it a night.

Let me start by saying this was my first official pub crawl, of course I’d gone bar-hopping before with friends and stuff but it had always been self-guided pub crawls. In this instance I was a little naïve and I just followed the tour guide throughout the night without paying much attention to where we were going and suddenly wound up at our final stop without having any real idea of where we were or how to get back to my hostel.

No big deal. I jumped in a cab and got myself to bed, right? I’d love to say that’s what happened but in spite of having no idea where I was, drunken Jason knew better. I hadn’t been in Bratislava long enough to familiarise myself with the city but off I went on foot anyway trusting my sense of direction – I figured I had a rough idea of the direction we’d come from and I’d recognise something sooner or later.

Now in my memory it wasn’t long before I was walking alongside what felt like a motorway in the middle of nowhere. For clarity let me add Bratislava is a really small city and I can’t have walked that far – to back up that logic I flagged down a taxi pretty quickly so I wasn’t that far from civilisation but for dramatic effect we’ll go with how I remember it.

It was pissing down with rain, I was drunk and the further I walked the more hope that seemed to drain out of me. Eventually I admitted defeat and I managed to flag down a taxi driving by. I have some sympathy with the taxi driver who found himself picking up a drunk, drenched and lost little Englishman who couldn’t speak the language – no doubt slurring my words in telling him where to take me to.

I say some sympathy because whilst I was living up to every stereotype that Europeans have of the English, I’ve no doubt he saw an opportunity too. I was 95% soaked because of the downpour and the only bit of dryness left seemingly had “MUG” printed on my forehead.
Having had a little doze in the back of the taxi (I’m a sleepy drunk) I was soon waking up just outside of my hostel with a taxi driver demanding payment.

I can’t remember what the taxi fare was but he could have charged me anything and I’d have been none the wiser. I didn’t give it much thought in the moment but I’m certain he overcharged me for that taxi fare – to top it off I know I left a tip too at the inconvenience of picking up a stranded drunk. I woke up the next morning with my wallet feeling much lighter than I would have liked! Oops!

On the plus side I’d had a really good night, Bratislava’s nightlife hadn’t disappointed and I didn’t wake up feeling particularly rough so I was up at a decent time to go and properly explore Bratislava.

The weather was still miserable but I made my first stop of the day a walking tour of the city. I’d been a little disappointed with my tour guide in Budapest and this couldn’t have been more of a contrast. It’s one of the better tours I’ve been on and the guide was really knowledgeable / passionate about the city whilst adding a dash of humour along the way. I got talking to one of the other guests on the tour which was an added bonus and helped me enjoy it a little more.

The tour covered most of the old town with the only real absentee the castle. Unsurprisingly I made that my next stop, it’s not a typical castle in appearance I suppose but it easily stands out and is so recognisable. Even better, you can walk around a lot of the castle grounds for free so it’s a must visit on any trip to the city. It’s said you can see Austria from the castle grounds, probably on a clearer day than the one I was there for but I’m not sure how you’d know where the border is anyway as the Danube river effortlessly flows from one country to the next.

I had a walk by the city walls and then popped my head in to a nearby cathedral to temporarily escape the rain. After a little look around I headed back in to the rain and had a further wander through the city. I did so with my Bratislava-tinted glasses on.

Parts of the old town are really pretty and some of the architecture is stunning but I can’t pretend the city is as easy on the eye as its, perhaps, more illustrious neighbours. However there was something about Bratislava that I couldn’t help but admire. Maybe Budapest was more pleasing to look at but there was an authenticity about Bratislava.

It had this European charm about it that I found irresistible but more importantly I felt like it was a city that every day Slovakians lived in. The people were really friendly and there was a homely feel to the city. There are areas that look a little rundown but there wasn’t ever a moment that I felt unsafe in Bratislava and if anything it just endeared the city to me more. There was no pretence about Bratislava, it wasn’t trying to be anything other than itself and it meant the personality of the city shone through. There was no catering to tourists here that you find in other big cities.

After wandering for a while my thoughts turned towards food and then having a couple of beers in a bar before calling it a night. I wanted to get to Vienna for a reasonable time the next day so it wasn’t a late one (I was sensible this time).

I left Bratislava the next morning pondering if I’d ever go back. It’s a small city and I’ve probably seen much of what there is to see, there’s little reason for me to return and yet there’s a part of me drawn to returning to Slovakia’s capital.

Don’t be mistaken, it’s not the greatest city in the world but it’s one I’d thoroughly recommend not overlooking if you’re visiting that part of Europe. Budapest and Vienna are great, I hear the same of Prague too but Slovakia might just surprise you! Personally I loved it and I hope our paths cross again.

For now though it was time to leave and head onwards to Vienna!

Stay tuned for part 3!

Jason