Last October 27 to 29 was our autumn holiday so some interns and I decided to go to neighboring Slovakia and Hungary to make use of our 5-day break. From Ostrava, Nicoleta, Jana and I took the Student Agency bus to Brno and then another bus to Bratislava. The entire trip took us a total of 6 hours including the stopover in Brno.
Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, was our first stop. We arrived around 11:00am and were met by Nico's Moroccan friend, Amine, who is there for Erasmus. We immediately went to the city center to look for Hostel Vegas. I loved the hostel's location and to think a very comfortable bed in a very clean dorm room for 6 people only cost 10 euros per person, which already includes breakfast. After dropping off our luggage, we set off to the streets of Bratislava. It was a warm sunny day, perfect for strolling around.
Amine first took us to see the Grassalkovich Palace, the official residence of the president of Slovakia. Then guess what happened after I took like five photos of the presidential palace? My Sony Cybershot DSC-T77 camera crashed! Gaaah! Most of the photos from this post are from my friends.
We continued strolling some more and saw this cute red antique car, which offers city tours. Since it was so irresistibly cute, we all agreed to pay 10 euros and hop in for the guided tour. There was nobody else in the car so it felt like a private tour for the four of us. This is the old man driving the antique car. He kept on smiling while driving.
The tour took us to lots of places in the city but I can't remember all the names. What stuck in my mind though was the Slovak Radio building due to its unique inverted pyramid shape.
Another highlight during the city tour was the Bratislava Castle. The castle itself was not really picturesque, nevertheless it gave us one of the best views of the entire city.
After we had lunch, we walked endlessly around the city center. I noticed that there weren't many tourists roaming around Bratislava. Maybe because there's not much to see. Sure there are small art galleries and cafes in the cobblestoned area of the city, the so-called Old Town, but it is so small compared to Prague. Nevertheless, Bratislava is not as hideous as it was depicted in the 2004 comedy movie, Eurotrip. The movie made the city appear like it was dormant and war-torn. But from what I actually saw, it is quite cute. I especially loved the quirky statues around the city center.
Mid-afternoon, we had coffee and sweets at Coffee & Co. Along Obchodna Street, we saw this random guy with a placard "FREE HUGS". We willingly gave him hugs. Poor guy, maybe he had a bad day at work or something.
Just before sunset, we headed to the Nový Most, the same bridge we saw from the Bratislava Castle earlier that day. Afterwards, we went to this famous hangout place in Bratislava, the Slovak Pub to get some drinks. We ended our day with a late dinner at a Greek restaurant.
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