All I knew about Slovakia before I arrived was that it was considered Eastern Europe, therefore has Beautiful women and cheap beer. Both are true, although there is more to Bratislava.
I arrived on Tuesday afternoon after finding my way to the hostel from the train station. Hostel Blues is awesome! It’s an old 6 or 7 story building which is done up inside and costs around €20 ($25AUD) a night in peak season. They have free wifi (which is really fast), a great kitchen/dining area, live blues music once a week and a really cool bar/common area which makes it easy to meet people & chat. The staff are lovely and I hope to see a couple of them in Oz someday. I would definitely stay here again!
I went on a couple of bar crawls which were €13 each. This includes endless beer and wine for the first hour at a funky little underground rock bar, and 3 other bars with a shot on entry. They passed around a bottle of the local spirit at the last bar which is around 50% alcohol but I politely refused knowing dam well what would have happened… apparently it tastes a little like Gin. That was enough for me. I met people from all around the world on the first tour. It was pretty fun!
After a failed attempt in Budapest I had another crack at meeting people on couchsurfing. This time I sent out a few messages to locals who looked cool to hang out with, no couch requests. A day later Vierka wrote back saying she’d love to show me around the city and take some photos. Also a Motogp fan, although a Rossi supporter, we had a lot in common and chatted non-stop. She took me around the old town part of the city and showed me the castle. Sunday night Vierka took me out in her car and we went up to the TV station tower. There are 2 restaurants and a bar in the tower. We went straight to the top for a coffee and watched the sun set over Slovakia, A pretty relaxing sight. We had a good chat and relaxed overlooking Bratislava. It was one of my favorite parts of this city! We went and checked out Slavin, which is a statue and monument area high above the city also. It’s built in commemoration of the soldiers who fought and died in the wars. I think it was for Russian soldiers but I’m not 100% sure. This couchsurfing thing is turning out to be alright!
With photos in mind and a free tour running twice a day I headed to the 11am outing. Timmy who runs some of the tours is from Brisbane and has been living in Europe for the last 8 years. He studied something to do with Slovakian history and knows more about the city than the city itself!! The tour was fantastic and it gave me a new reason to visit cities across Europe. Instead of wandering aimlessly around a city with a camera, there are free tours (which ask for a well deserved tip) running in a lot of cities across Europe!
I ate out most days and drank beers at night. Beers at the hostel were only €1.30 or $1.50 for a 500ml can. In a supermarket beers are between €0.50 and €1.20. The good and popular beers sell from €0.80. All beer cans here and what seems like Europe come in 500ml cans or bottles and are sold separately. It’s great for comparing prices. In Australia bottles are all different sizes, which makes it hard to look for value for money. Food was cheap: a slice of pizza the size of a small pizza at home costing €2. A local meal/entree of cream and garlic soup served in a loaf of homemade bread costs €2.80.
I enjoyed Slovakia with the numerous ice cream shops, cobblestone streets, beautiful weather (30-40 degrees daily), cheap F&B, pretty girls and the friends I made.
- There are florists everywhere in Budapest, Bratislava and Brno. It’s considered necessary to bring flowers when invited for dinner.
- The government won’t pay for maintenance, there is a lot of disrepair.
- Min wage 320€ per month.
- National sport is Ice hockey.
- Large companies are based here due to the company tax of 19% including Craft, Amazon & VW.
- Staff at the hostel and McDonalds earn around 2.5€ per hour.
- Shots are 40ml, unlike Australia where they are 30ml.
- Restaurants still have smoking and non-smoking sections.
- Bratislava love their Statues.
- Bottle of Ballantine’s Scotch 700ml €15.89 or $19.25AUD.