Bratislava is a city that doesn’t really get a mention when people are travelling. Neighbouring capital cities Vienna, Prague and Budapest tend to get all the attention. And it’s a shame why that is the case, as Bratislava has a lot to offer.
We travelled out on my 24th birthday, and got off to plane to approximately 28°C temperatures. We figured out the route to our hostel and set off on a bus. The area near Brickyard hostel where we were staying didn’t look like much, but looks can be deceiving and it was handily located near the train station and just a brief walk from the Presidential Palace and the old town.
The first day was pretty lowkey as usual – do a little exploring, go for a walk, grab some food and catch and early enough night to do some exploring the following day. We had found a small restaurant off the main shopping street for food, where a stein of Pilsner Urquell cost me €2.30. I was taken aback with how cheap a LITRE of beer had just cost me. The food and drinks total for both of came to less than €20, we did a bit of a pub crawl back to our hostel and made our last stop in Dungeon bar, about a third of the way between the Presidential Palace and our hostel. It was a lively nerd bar with maps of Middle Earth and Westeros painted on the walls, and an Adventure Time mural. 
Dungeon was cool, and a round for me and Amy (a 0.5L of beer, wine and 2 jaegerbombs) came to under €5. The price of alcohol was a big factor in me falling in love with Bratislava, but the chill vibes of the place were another.
The next day was an early-ish start to do the tourist attractions and up to check the castle out. After what seemed like a never ending hike up the hill to the actual castle, we were finally there. The scorching sun on the bright bricks of Bratislava Castle left it blinding. We grabbed a quick drink in the castle courtyard to catch our breath, before exploring the grounds of the castle.
After the castle, the zoo was next on our agenda. I’m really torn on a personal level about the ethics of zoos, but due to human nature a lot of the animals in zoos would be extinct and without people paying to visit zoos, they would simply not be able to look after these animals. The zoo offered a great range of animals, and is the only zoo outside of Dublin that I had ever visited. It was my first time (first which I can recall anyway) seeing a bear IRL, and as it’s my favourite animal – I fanboyed.
After the zoo, we returned into Bratislava for food/drink. We had recommendations of a few bars to try – first was Uisce Bheatha (Irish for whiskey). It was the first Irish Bar I’ve ever been in that didn’t focus on being Irish – no shamrocks, tri-colours or The Dubliners blasting on the speakers: just expats having the craic with one another. The barman there told me Bratislava is a hidden gem in Europe and not to tell too many people about it… I’m sorry.
The other recommendation was from a craft aficionado for Le Senk craft beer bar, which I’m saddened to say has now closed down, with a new venue called Treppe occupying where it stood. If you sat outside, which was nice in the evenings/night the beer garden offered a lovely view of the UFO Bridge and river Danube.
Prior to heading to Bratislava, we looked up the distance to Vienna and decided to spend a day in Vienna (€14 return tickets on the train). Sadly we left this to our last day in Bratislava, as I’d have loved to spend another day taking in the ambience of the city. Vienna was gorgeous though.
A maybe hour and a half train journey had us in Vienna – and our first stop was food. We went to the famous Cafe Central – which had some of the most (in)famous figures of the 20th century as guests during its time as a restaurant. The menu alludes to figures such as Tito, Sigmund Freud, Josef Stalin, Leon Trotsky and scores of German/Austrian writers having visited, and unsurprisingly omitting Adolf Hitler who was known to have been a regular. 
The menu was a little pricey, but not much more so than your average spot. I had a lovely soup dish. The cakes and baked delicacies looked AMAZING, in hindsight we probably should have stretched our budget to have dessert in Cafe Central as well.
Next we travelled through the streets to find a market we had read about on Culture Trip, but due to the heat – we just grabbed a drink and watched one of the games from the 2018 World Cup for a bit to cool down. The sights walking through Vienna city central are exceptional. A gorgeous city on par with Paris. Baroque architecture greets you at every turn.
We eventually ventured to the Prater area of Vienna, which included a Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and a variety of amusement rides. We went on a raft type ride through water hoping a few splashes of water would cool us down – it did temporarily. Then we checked out the Ferris wheel to see Vienna from above, before beginning to venture back to Vienna Hauptbanhof to return to Bratislava.
We were saddened to find out the restaurant on the UFO bridge was booked out – but common sense should have told us to book in advance ourselves. We ended up eating in a traditional Slovak restaurant in the old town – which was probably a lot cheaper, before venturing on our last pub crawl of the first part of our trip. You can read about the second part of the trip (Prague) here – but enjoy the comparison of Bratislava at day vs at night below. 
