Blog ≫ 2022 ≫ Midlife Eurotour part six - Bratislava
I can start with some dictated / transcribed stuff I did when I hit Bratislava. Some repeated chatter here about Vienna, then actual description of Bratislava after that.
Just had a really nice stop for a coffee in Bratislava. I'm sitting in the shadow of the castle now. This is a bonus stop on this holiday. This is a detour within a detour. I always originally planned to try and fit something extra in, a day in Slovakia probably, but then I wrote it off as being too much of a rush, too much for risk. I found Vienna wasn't as interesting as I'd expected yesterday so I thought I might as well give it a go. I got to the station. Didn't have a pre-book ticket or anything. So bought myself a ticket to Bratislava. Slight confusion here, that I hope is not going to be my overriding memory of this bit of a trip. I bought what turns out to be a travel card type thing that gets me to and from Bratislava and around on the buses but I didn't realize this is what it was, and I bought two of these thinking I have to buy a return ticket as well. So only a small amount of money wasted (sixteen euros) but at least it was very easy to get here. It's an hour on the train, and then there's a local bus from that station into the centre. Soon as I got to the centre I walked up to the castle. The place really stands out. Bratislava seems to be on a hill with the castle at the top looking over you. 1. I left my bag at the station. I got a locker at the train station and I've left my main bag there so hopefully that will still be there when I get back... Only three euros to leave the bag for twenty-four hours. Luckily there were a couple of brits there doing the same thing, so we gave each other confidence here.
The castle has been built up over lots of different periods. Some of it's really old going back to like 900. I think it had quite a lot of work done around 1300 and then there's a big old rebuilding as a palace at some point. Then the whole thing burned down and it was rebuilt in very modern times. So a bit like Warwick castle I think, in the way that what you're looking at is not as old as what you think. The exhibitions and inside of the castle seems to be closed today so there's nothing to pay for, so I just had a walk around the grounds. It's very nice and I'm stopping for coffee, then I'm going to go and look for a beer. Oh and look for some new reading glasses because I've broken mine, so I hope they is easy to come by here as back at home.
Heard from Clare, she's around her dad's doing online check-in for their trip tomorrow. Spoke to the boys last night too. They don't seem overly excited for the holiday though. More interested in what's on TV. I hope it all goes smoothly with them getting to the airport2. I know they've had fresh new holiday haircuts. Something I should have done. I'm looking a bit of a mess. I know I'm still in the same clothes I left home in. I did wash this T-shirt at least last night. Let it dry in the hostel, so I think it's doing quite well. I'm planning to throw this one away on the train to Rome.My next steps here are walk around, and a drink, and something to eat. I got to be back on the train back to Vienna I'm guessing about 5pm, but I think that will still leave a lot of hanging around at the train station. Then I'm on an 11:20pm sleeper train. This is the one I'm really looking forward to. I have my own cabin with my own shower, I think. Though I wonder about that because I did see showers in the corridor on the last sleeper train, and they were locked. I wonder if you have a special key and you have to go out into the corridor to use it, or is it en-suite somehow. I will find out.
Last night I went back to the pod hostel quite early3. Watched some TV and had a couple of drinks inside the pod, and really pleased with that pod hostel, that works really well. It's just a fancy bunk bed but it's really good. It's a really good concept. As Clare pointed out when I showed her video of the thing, it's exactly how they sleep in the TV show Red Dwarf.
Before that I went out for dinner in Vienna4. Went away from the centre. I'd looked up a vegan food sort of near me. I found a place called Zweitbester, think it means second best. It wasn't a vegan place - guy on the table next to me was eating raw beef - but they did have a vegan meal. It's a burger, but it made an interesting change for it not to be beyond burger fake meat burger (even though I love them). It was old style bean burger, made of vegetables and a crispy crumb. That's good, and had a nice cocktail too. House cocktail called Bob's House made with some homemade chili and pineapple rum. It had a bit of a whiff of cleaning product about it but it was nice. I was going to get another one but started to feel a bit bad about splashing out on cocktails for myself, with my family at home.
Before that, but I haven't really been that impressed with being a lot of Vienna. Probably that it's just not my taste. It seems quite a snooty place, so not being interested in classical music or opulent shopping and that, there was less there for me than I thought. Plus it was a religious holiday of some sort so lots of things were closed. I did find a really good bar I liked and then looked really DIY as if it had been built out of pallets on the side of the river. I expected to see lots of places along there but this was the only one that's open. I sat there and had a couple beers last night.
I went in the fancy coffee shop that I was aiming for - Cafe Central - and it was nice but it wasn't really worth queueing to get there. It wasn't expensive when I got in there. I had a coffee and then a Kaiser Spritz (wine and sparkling water and juice). I only went to say I've been there, because of this famous place where famous people had been.
Right Time to leave this cafe right under Bratislava Castle, first to pay. Need to find out, if they take Euros here5? And can I pay on a card6? I might have ordered a drink here with no way of paying for it. Also is there a toilet7? And then onwards!
That was a lovely cafe right outside Bratislava Castle. I thought it would be expensive for the location but it was only two euros for a coffee which came with water and a biscuit.
After there a walk around the town which is really old, nice, pedestrianised. I went in the oldest shop in Bratislava, which is part museum part actual working shop. I bought a couple of small bottles of local wine, which I could have on the next leg of my journey, and a tiny bottle of chilli sauce too.
Then to look for food, and I saw a place offering craft beers and plant based food, what is not to like? It was a bit of a trendy place really called "Brixton House", so probably not super authentic Slovakian, but good. The craft beers were actually local ales, very nice indeed! I had a sour beer, accompanied by some potatoes. I was only after a side dish rather than a full meal, and it was better than "some potatoes" sounds. Tiny baked potatoes, with quite a lot of salt, and two different dips for them. I sat outside so overlooking "the square". Most of the other voices I heard around me seemed to be tourists too. Didn't spot until I was heading out that they had some good looking vegan cheesecakes here, but I didn't want to spend too long in one place anyway, too much to see.
Still very hot here, so nice to find a public artwork thing that is an arch you can walk through, spraying a fine mist. Art that cools you down! They have one of these in Dover now apparently. Much appreciated.
I found a nice looking courtyard with signs offering local beer, so I headed in. The courtyard had tables and a little kitchen, a chef cooking food from not much more than a shed. Quite fish heavy I think, there was nothing that tempted me, but I had just eaten. I think there was table service but I headed back to the inside bit for a look. Had to go down some steps through a door that would not normally be tempting to be honest. The bar was nice though, no-one else in there, only the few people sat outside. And they didn't have the beer advertised outside but I did get a local IPA, and took it back outside. Again, of the four or five people sat down here at least one of them was from the UK.
I found my way back to the bus that could take me back to the station. I stopped in some more gifty-tat shops for a look and bought the boys some sweets. If I did not buy my new backpack flag patch in the earlier shop I definitely bought it here, as I have one, ready to stitch on. I got back to the station and brilliant, I could open the locker, and my bag was still in the locker. That was always at the back of my mind, that the locker would have just popped open at some point and all my luggage be stolen, or I would fail to open it when I needed to...
I'd messed up the return train time slightly, I was looking at the arrival time of the train rather than the departure, so I had an extra half hour to wait. There was a Tesco oppposite the station so I went there to get a drink and snack for the train and to see if I could get my reading glasses. Still no joy but I bought some superglue here instead to see me through. Beer is super cheap in Slovakia, some bottles were down to about 30p. I just picked one that was in the fridge at Tesco, and so paid maybe 50p for it. I couldn't find the Desperados red wine fruit combo I'd had in Prague, but still found something new. Fixed my glasses on the train, sort of. They don't fold up any more but at least they stay on and I can read when I need to. Clare will bring me another pair from home...
Back to Vienna, and to look for my train, and it took so long to come up on the board. I was back with plenty of time to spare, so a lot of hanging around. Then a bit of confusion, I got this email
Departure at 19:23 Arrival at 09:10
Detailed Information About Your Journey
Due to a delayed train provision, a seat car has had to be used for this train instead of the couchette numbered 411. Affected Passengers with a reservation are kindly asked to contact the train attendant or ÖBB customer service at 05-1717-9. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
I'm really hoping this does not affect me, it does not seem to be my carriage number, I have an actual bed this time, not a couchette, but why has it been sent to me? At this point I'm a bit scared to go and find a bar in case I get too relaxed and struggle to fight my way onto the overbooked train... If I do have to struggle onto the departing train it will only add to my Snowpiercer8 fantasy, there's always a silver lining.
The train was delayed, and delayed some more, and finally I have a platform to head to. Then the same thing with the last OBB Nightjet train, they kept adding another ten minutes to the estimated time, I think it was delayed by over an hour again in the end. Also, there was a very helpful board up showing where to stand based on your seat, and what each carriage is. My carriage is showing as couchette again and not the carriage with beds in.
Eventually it arrived, and everyone's piling on and finding their seat. Time to say Goodnight Vienna! Maybe there's more of a scramble than usual because of the couchette / seat mix up? Still hoping it does not affect me. About to find out but better save that for the next post.
Estimated 512 cups of coffee from my barista pro8 probably comes to £2.02 a cup (including actual coffee and now servicing8 but not the 'leccy).
- Editing this after and trying to work out what the transcribed "Please stands out really a bit about the hill over" might have meant
- Of course it did, they left so early...
- I'm repeating some content now but that's because I wrote up my final day in Austria from memory before I got round to importing this dictated / transcribed bit which I did at the time. Thought about using the word "contemporaneously" there but then did not...
- Yep still going with things I've already said but remember this was dictated near the time.
- They do take Euros.
- It was two euros for a coffee, don't think I even did put it on a card.
- There was a toilet inside the cafe, which is good, as there was also one outside that I'd have to pay for and I don't think I had any more change...
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