I relaxed in the apartment for a substantial amount of time on Saturday and then a group of us planned to head to a coffee shop to work on our blogs before going to the Naschmarkt to buy food for a picnic in the park that evening. We got bread, cheese, jam, fruit, and wine, all of the essentials for a great summer picnic. We played music and sat on a blanket in the park. It was such a great evening with lots of new friends, good food, and great tunes.
That night we decided which train some of us wanted to take to Bratislava for a day trip the next day. We left the apartment bright and early the next morning and headed for the train station. The train ride to Bratislava was only a little over an hour and a one-way ticket costs less than 10 euro.
When we arrived in Bratislava, the city was pretty deserted by the train station, but once we got closer to the city center and the tourist area, there were lots of people. Bratislava had a much older feel compared to Vienna. The streets were cobble stone and many of the buildings looked much older than the older buildings of Vienna. I really liked how busy and bustling the streets and alleys around the city center felt and how many people were out and about at different cafes, restaurants, and shops. We decided to look in a few souvenir shops before searching for a place to eat. The souvenirs were all adorable and had a folksy type feeling, which I really liked.
We ate at a restaurant that someone had seen in a Youtube video about Bratislava. The video said it was a great place to try the famous Slovak dish, Haluski. Haluski is a dish made of pasta-like dumplings in a rich sheep cheese sauce, sometimes with toppings like different kinds of meat. We came to the consensus that haluski was tasty for one or two bites, but then it became too rich and we wanted to eat something else to balance it out. At the restaurant we noticed that the prices in Bratislava were a lot less than the prices in Vienna. Our entrees were about 6 euro each, which was basically unheard of for a sit-down restaurant in Vienna. The beer was also significantly cheaper than in Vienna.
After lunch we walked around more. We hung out in a really cool bookstore, looked inside some churches, and climbed a big hill before heading back to the train station to buy our return tickets and catch our train back to Vienna.
There wasn’t a ton to do in Bratislava, but it was a fun day trip and I’m really glad I decided to go, especially because now I get to say I’ve visited Slovakia. Visiting three countries in my first trip to Europe sounds pretty great to me and I’m glad I’m taking advantage of the fact that I’m in a place where it is so easy to travel to other countries for day trips or long weekends.
After we got back to Vienna around 7:30 that night, I tried a chicken doner sandwich from the Berliner Doner stand about 3 blocks from our apartment. Possibly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life and only 3 euro! I know that when I leave Vienna to go back to the states, I will definitely miss the cheap, accessible, delicious street food.
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