BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

2015-12-12, 17:42, JASON

STAY: HOSTEL BLUES

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This is the trip of all trips, what started us off really traveling. It started -- I'm serious -- about picking the cheapest flight from London. We lived about 5 minutes walk from Victoria Coach Station, making it easy for us to take red-eye bus rides and early morning flights out of Luton, Stansted, or Gatwick. Needless to say, we've had our fair share of chavving in the morning along with the hen dos and stag parties. Onwards then.

We had never stayed in hostels before, and we had our fair share of being apprehensive about staying in them. But, after this one, it was just smooth sailing. We got into Bratislava early in the morning, and proceeded to take the bus into the center to check into our hostel. We arrived, were greeted by this incredibly Slovak (at the time, what I imagined to be Slovak) girl. She said Thorin's "Da Kujem", "thank you", was in a good Slovak accent. She was Czech or something, but obviously flirting. The only reason is because he used Da Kujem again later, and the waiters didn't understand him. But, the point is you try.

They give us a recommendation to try two things. First, Brindzove Halusky. Even on this day of writing, nearly two years since the experience, we still joke about this. Thorin's not a cream sauce guy (the irony..). Understandable: it's saucy, it sits heavy, and grainy in the mouth. He'll try everything once, but, still, the cream is not the dream. When they brought out the Brindzove, you should have seen his face. It's a dish covered in sour cream dressing, with Slovak cheese, over potato dumplings of sort. It was a small dish, but I was so full by the end of it. Mention this to any Slovak and they will love you. It's like kudo points. A random Slovak I met in Singapore said I "probably didn't know where Slovakia was." So, I dropped the Halusky shell on him and became drinking buddies. Cuisine unites worlds, people.

The other dish was Kapustnica, which is a sauerkraut and sausage soup. This one was divine. It tasted like a perfect warm dish that you would have in a Slovak winter. Flavors were good, just the right amount of sour in your soup, and the sausage topped it off nicely. So folks, try these two (among many others) in Slovakia when you get the chance. Top it off with a jug of that good Slovak beer. 

What would I say about the city itself? The old town is small, and walkable within a few hours. The sights are standard as well: your standard European church, the buildings-around-a-square look, an old fortress (Michael's Gate is the famous one), castle (Bratislava Castle) as well as a war monument (called Slavín). While walking to the war monument, you pass by some other embassies (Chinese, U.S.) which are of course, on top of a hill. How would I describe the architecture? As you get to Central Europe, the buildings are still grand-ish, but not in the same way as your old western European churches, etc. Rococo style, with a lot of pastel yellow. The intricacies are not all there, but the framework still screams European to me.

To backtrack, there is one unique thing about the old town that stood out. There are a series of sculptures in that are just 'men doing stuff.' For example, a bronze-something-or-other statue resting by a bench, a bronze-something-or-other man popping out of sewer, one's a photographer, etc. It's a cute installment. Other than that, take a look at the pictures to see what we saw:

That night, the hostel lady tells us of this really cool blue church to go and visit the next day, so we oblige. We ask around how to get there, go around some shady parts of town, and finally arrive. Was it worth it? Probably, yes. I don't think you'll see many blue churches in your life. They come once in a blue church. Hold on, let me get my dad to tell that one. 

From Bratislava, we took a train into Austria. Apparently, Bratislava and Austria are the two closest capitals in Europe. I think Thorin mentions that again in his Austria post.