Bratislava

2014/08/01

For starters those who don’t know what or where it is – Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. I’ll leave it up to you to Google it more.

Got to the Twin City Liner terminal early (intentionally) so went across the road and had a McDonald’s Cappuccino and toasted sandwich for breakfast, both of which were nice. We boarded at about 8:30am for 9am departure, I made sure I got a seat at the window so could see things. Once the boat was moving you could move around. It was pretty cool and went lank fast. Here are some pics of that (and a video of course).

Boat I took (pic I took yesterday)

Check the wind in my hair, think I’ll have a shave tonight as looking a bit rough and is annoying me a little now

Fishing houses on the side of the Danube

This was the Hydrofoil I wanted to take but was an issue with luggage so never did, was pleased with my option still.

Wondered why these bouys were travelling so quick on the river, no they not, they are to designate lanes and the river is going fast past them not the other way round

First 5 or so rows are reserved and cost more

Cabin before everyone got on, I was about 4 rows from the back

Food and drinks for sale at the back of the boat. I really took the pic cause of the 2 hotties, LOL, ja ja I know

We passed a largish town on the river to our right, I think called Samorin, and then saw Devin Castle (or ruins thereof) as well on the left.

Samorin

Devin Castle

Got here and I headed for my hotel, was about a 20min walk and a little up hill but not too bad, I’m staying at the Loft Hotel Bratislava got here and they said I could only checkin after 3pm. So emptied my bag of valuables and put it in storage and headed out sightseeing.

Loft Hotel Bratislava

I walked the town area end to end (well I think I did anyway), well the old town and main tourist bits anyway. Here are some pics of the town (I have some amusing pics with me in them but will post those at the end of this post). I’m not going to describe all the pics as a) I don’t know them off hand and b) I don’t have time

Prezidentský palác

Prezidentský palác Guard

Prezidentský palác Guards

Slovak National Theatre

Market

After all that sightseeing I was a bit hungry so checked out this place in the old town called Ventúrska Klubovňa that had a Lunch Menu as follows:

Soup / Carrot cream with ginger 0,25l
Menu A: with soup / Fried cod, parsley potatoes, yoghurt-lemon dressing 150g E3.49
Menu B: with soup / Viennese roast beef, baked skin potatoes 150g E3.99

If you didn’t have the soup (which I didn’t have) then you could take E0.49 off the price. I also had a beer a Zlatý Bažant 12%, I only had the 0.3l as I knew I had to walk and do more later so didn’t wanna be too dehydrated and knackered. The food and beer was REALLY REALLY nice. They only newly opened up on 15 July 2014 so that was good for me. They had free wifi there so could catchup with a few people and help out a buddy with something back at work.

Picture didn’t come out too well colour wise, but believe me, I’d have had that any day at a restaurant for a dinner main meal

After that I did a bit more round the old town area and then went up to the Castle which was lekker tiring as was all uphill and today it is 32C here so I was sucking down on my water big time.

Bratislava Castle

Bratislava Castle Gate

I looked for an found the one restaurant a buddy had told me about called Modrá Hviezda is basically in the cliff, unfortunately they have a function from 7pm tonight and that’s a bit early for dinner based on my big lunch, so going to give that a skip tonight, I did check out what it was like inside, very cool.

Modrá Hviezda Outside

Modrá Hviezda Inside

Bridge over the Danube

Bridges over the Danube

Then was back through town to see some more.

Cumil

Bike stand

Had a really nice double scoop ice cream as well to cool me down, didn’t get a sugar cone as didn’t think would be worth it as didn’t last long, LOL.

Ice cream statue

Yummy ice cream, I know the one flavour was hazelhut the other was some cookies chocolate something or another

Feeling pretty weary I headed back to my hotel late afternoon and checked in fine. Hotel is very posh, you need to use your room key to access the lift and then again on the floor and then for your room, guess they don’t want people roaming the hotel. There was a complimentary minibar which is pretty cool. Breakfast is at 7am. I want to try take the 7:53am-10:25am train tomorrow to Budapest so will probably check out before breakfast then have chow as they open at 7am the head to the station, is about a 5-10min walk from here so will leave say 7:30am latest to figure out how to get my ticket etc.

My hotel room, E60 for the night (used booking.com) including breakfast

The free minibar – not bad hey (2 sparkling water, 2 still water, 2 beers, a Pepsi and some peanuts)

So incase there was something I was missing I went downstairs to check the minibar story, ja is all free, sweet. Went into restaurant to check out the dinner menu, heard some guy talking about some 100 free beer promo, so asked what was the story there. Yup, they were giving away 100 beers free this afternoon for whatever reason. Free beer you say ?!?!? Yes please !!!

FABRIKA The Beer Pub

Beer #1 (Lager 11 Pivo Kras)

Beer #2 (Unfiltered 12 Kras Weizen)

Down the hatch

Beer #3 (Kaltenecker Chopper IPA)

Dinner (burger looks small due to the perspective of the photo, it wasn’t – it was massive. FABRIKA beef burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce and pickled gherkins served with curly fries. SUPER NICE !!!

Me and FABRIKA The Beer Pub waitress ... she was super nice. Don’t I look pleased with myself not that there is any reason for me to be (unfortunately – LOL)

After I got back from dinner I Had a nice soothing bath to relax my body this evening which was just what I needed. Not going to head out again tonight, seen what I was planning on seeing here, enjoyed Bratislava, is a nice place.

Now for a few amusing (I think) pics.

Me giving Cumil a hand

Just relaxing

Copy cat

Weird folk

Weird folk - Oi, I see your hand there, who you trying to feel up ... keep those crazies away from me

Not quite the bike riding I was doing in Munich ...