Birthday party

Even I can see the keys to a new apartment on the horizon and I should rather choose tiles, floors etc., I really can’t survive without trips. So a few days ago I bought tickets to another unseen destination. It will be an one-day city break. And this reminds me of my birthday trip to Bratislava.

Just before Christmas there was kind of polskibus.com tickets’ sale and I had a thought that I didn’t want to spend my January birthday sitting in a front of the computer, doing my everyday quite boring job. So without any longer reflection I bought one ticket to Bratislava, because I had never been there before. A journey was supposed to start 6 or 7 pm. a day before birthday, so I was supposed to be really early morning in my favourite day of the year. And it happened like it had been planned.

In Bratislava I was around 5 am. Hmmm, it was dark, cold, a bit pouring and every shop was closed, even McDonalds, so I couldn’t drink a waking up coffee. Without any brilliant solution I started wandering around. Because it was dark I didn’t notice Čumil looking at the city from a sewer drain, even twice or three times.

Čumil

Then there was a dawn and light and I could see the beauty of the Old Town, small one, but “cosy”. Without any order I saw: Michael’s Gate, St. Martin’s Cathedral, Paparazzi statue and Napoleon statue on the main square close to the Bratislava’s Town Hall. After a strongly needed coffee I went for a walk, up the hill where the Bratislava castle is located. It is really an outstanding feature of the city, especially now, after renovation, when it was painted white, so in the sun it is shining above the city. When is a perfect air clearness there is a possibility to see Austria and Hungary from the castle’s hill.

Most Slovenského národného povstania bridge with UFO restaurant

I didn’t visit a museum inside the castle, because I wanted to see main parts of Bratislava in a day light, so I went to have sushi for a lunch (as a real Slovak food!) and to see Slavín, which is a memorial monument. It is the burial ground of thousands of Soviet Army soldiers. It was constructed between 1957 and 1960 and I was laughing that communists had chosen the best place in Bratislava: Slavín is situated on a hill amidst a rich villa quarter of the capital and embassy residences close to the centre of the city!

Bratislava castle seen from Slavín

After climbing, twice, I was so tired that I needed to rest. The relaxing part took place in the Bratislava Transport Museum, where two nice gentlemen told me a lot about an exhibition. In two exhibition halls in the museum there are just under 100 motorcars, 25 historical motorcycles and numerous technical accessories and I fell in love with some of them.

Old Tatra before renovation

When I finished exploring the museum it was dark, so I wandered a bit in the Old Town, because it is even more lovely place in the lantern light. Then I ate Bryndzové halušky — potato dumplings with bryndza sheep cheese and bacon, one of the national dishes in Slovakia. Mniam, mniam! And I drank a beer called Zlatý Bažant, which wasn’t that good idea — I was supposed to spend 11 hours in a bus… I survived and that’s why I am going to make my travel dream come true that way again. Guess where? Or you can wait a few weeks for the answer.