Figjam's Epic Adventure 'The Second Coming': Quirky Bratislava

31/7/12

1656 (localtime)

Bratislava, Slovakia

Written on a Train travelling from Bratislava to Kostice (Spis Castle) listening to Pearl Jam!

Arriving into Bratislava on the 29^th of July I had absolutely no idea about the country at all. I had no idea to the extent what currency they used, was it the Kroner like in Czech Republic, or maybe something else! Like I said I had no idea, and sometimes if you go in like that, as in with no expectations often it can end up being quite a pleasant experience.

Anyway, so I arrived by bus from Vienna in an absolute mega thunderstorm, I had booked a hostel/hotel for only 11 euros, which was the cheapest in Bratislava, but the directions they gave me to get there were absolutely rubbish. So I ended up having the bus drop me at the last stop, the airport.

Like I said it was a thunderstorm, so it was pissing it down with rain! Once I got undercover I started to put on my jacket and put the waterproof cover over my bag and also finding out what currency Slovakia use, luckily it was Euros, as I still had some spare and as I was doing this I got chatting to a 65 – 70 year old Slovakian guy! I asking him if he spoke English, fortunately for me he did, I then proceeded to ask him how to get to my hostel; I had some rough directions, of suburbs and trolley buses I should take, he was fantastic, he made sense of it all and I eventually made it to the hostel and was given my key to dump my stuff.

I made my way up to the room, and it was something out of a movie. Super sketchy place, with “White Power” stickers over the walls and doors, I dumped my stuff, and headed into town to check it out.

It was a Sunday Dusk and nobody was around, so I wandered the streets seeing everything at night, it was really nice taking some cool photos of the city all lit up!

Once I got back to my hostel, I pretty much passed out and tried not to think of someone breaking through my door with an axe screaming “here’s Johnny”.

I was woken pretty early the next morning, as the sun was shining right into my eyes at 8.30, time to get up then I suppose!

Had a quick shower and again headed into town. It would have been only about 3 hours of walking until I realised that I had explored the entire city, Bratislava as a city is quite small. It’s such a bizarre city, very quirky! Every corner you turn there is something different happening! For example, I turned one corner and there is a copper statue of a guy coming out of a man hole in the ground, every step you take you have to be careful because the pavement in Bratislava is very uneven and a twisted ankle can be a trip ender.

Bratislava as a city was very bizarre and very weird! But still, quite enjoyable! Check out the photos!

I found a nice little coffee shop where I saw some English looking guys watching the Synchronized diving, I got chatty with them, and they told me that in 30 minutes they were off to the Cinemas to watch the new Spiderman! I pretty much invited myself along, as it was the first time I’d been to the Cinemas in about 2.5 – 3 years! And with the price of 4.50 euros, it was a Bargain!

The movie was awesome, as some of you already know I think Spiderman is pretty cool, and I’ve been reading the comics recently so its great to see it on the big screen.

Afterwards we walked back into town checking out all the beautiful Slovak girls along the strip, we grabbed some beers and walked up to the top of the castle and kinda watched the sun go down. It was a great way to see my time in Bratislava off.

So now I’m on a train to Kosice to check out some Castle called the Spis Castle – again I don’t really have any idea what it is about, but I’m staying with a couch surfer guy, so hopefully ill get a rough idea off him about what is happening!

See you next time!

Steve – GO THE AUSSIES!