My trip to Košice was extremely sporadic. Amy and I bought our tickets last minute on a RyanAir sale, and we just wanted to go away somewhere we hadn’t been before for a few days over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Ideally a city with little tourist activities to do, as we’d previously been to Eindhoven and loved just having a relaxing few days eating, exploring the city and incorporating in a bit of a pub crawl. We’d previously visited Bratislava, and it wasn’t overly expensive, so we opted for a return trip to Slovakia.
We arrived on the bus from the airport which dropped us off at “Námestie osloboditeľov” which translates as Liberators Square, where there was a communist war memorial, and just off this was the Main Street.
We had 30 minutes to kill before check in for our hotel opened, so followed our tradition of checking out the McDonalds’ menu abroad. We ordered coffee and these pastries, containing molten chocolate/caramel.
I must say, our hotel was very cool looking. The unusual architecture, mixed with the Pepsi logo on top, it felt like it hasn’t changed since immediately after the iron curtain fell. Inside Gloria Palac was like you’d expect too, old school decor, and spacious bedrooms.
We left the hotel in search of food and opted for what was essentially the Slovak version of a typical German Brauhaus. Consisting of local beer on draught, and a kitchen cooking up local Cousine. Here we decided to try a goats cheese dish, and paprika sausages, and share the plates amongst ourselves.
We had travelled over for St. Patrick’s Day, so it felt fitting to seek out an Irish bar to celebrate it in. I’ve had an interesting relationship with Irish bars outside of Ireland, but loved the one I visited in Bratislava, so “Irish Pub Diesel” must be amazing, right?
It didn’t quite sink as low as the pub in Warsaw that spurred my “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Irish Bars abroad”, but it felt as if the bar staff heard our accents and expected us to do a jig for them.
When we requested an Irish song (in a practically empty bar), the manager behaved as if we had threatened to ignite the Diesel that “Irish Pub Diesel” is seemingly flowing with. Next time I’ll just be a good little leprechaun.
Whilst in Irish Pub Diesel, some others from our flight filtered in, and we met a family of Irish-diaspora who are living in South London (who were tempted over by the RyanAir sale also, and the lure of cheap cigarettes).
Apart from St Elizabeth’s Cathedral, the largest in all of Slovakia, we didn’t have any tourist stuff planned. So when our heads settled a little from the night before, we embarked for the church, which is located in the centre of the Main Street in Košice. You can climb up to the top of the bell tower there, granting views of Košice’s skyline.
Košice is also home to the Lunik IX District, or slum, which is home to close to 10,000 Roma travellers living in inhumane conditions. Made famous by Bald & Bankrupt, and I head read of other travel bloggers visiting to various receptions, but going to see impoverished locals just getting by felt a lot like poverty porn. It doesn’t feel morally right to go and gawk at people surviving in poor conditions, so this was left off my itinerary.
After climbing down from the bell tower of St. Elizabeth’s, it was back to the regularly scheduled programming of food and drinks, sampling a hookah bar for the first time (overrated, though they served quirky cocktails) and late night pizza amongst an array of Slovak/Czech beer.
Some of the stand out venues include Central Pub & Restaurants, and whilst it’s mainly Czech beer options, the food is great. We ordered Slovak Prosecco here, from (the former Slovakian national team captain, and Napoli player) Marek Hamšík’s vineyard.
Red Nose Pub offered a great selection of beers, and Hostinec Pivovar is a great, more traditional Brauhaus (where we ordered our paprika sausages and goats cheese from). And the pizza stands as you walk/stumble back to your hotel are divine.
What I liked most about Košice, was that most of the attractions were all along the main strip with plenty of bars, restaurants and breweries serving food dotted along it.
Once you get the bus from the airport, it’s a very walkable city, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it for a brief, affordable weekend away.
