I like this place

The things that you find when you are travelling. This light cover is in Postova st in Bratislava
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I had a long day on the train to get from Decin to Bratislava. The train was of course on time to Decin having come from Berlin to get there (those Germans and their efficiency!) but was rapidly late once it entered the Czech Republic. They did manage to make up some time though and I was only 10 minutes late into Bratislava. I found the hostel without too much trouble given that it is just around the corner from the train station. After checking in, I headed into the old town to see what there was to see.

Looking up at the Castle from the stairs
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The old town of Bratislava isn't huge. You can walk around the whole thing in a couple of hours but it is really cute. It has a real lived in feel to it that I felt Prague was lacking. There were Slovaks in the old town, getting on with their lives ignoring the tourists. I walked around the windy streets which are even easier to get lost in than Prague (believe it or not!) and finally decided that it was time for some dinner. Bratislava has a lot of choice compared to the rest of Slovakia. There were plenty of cafes with menus that would not be out of place in Western Europe and plenty with prices to match as well. I finally decided on a place recommended by the lonely planet that had a nice little garden out the back where you could sit. It was really nice. Good food, good service (such a rarity in Slovakia) and a pleasant atmosphere. It was far and away the most expensive meal that I had in Slovakia at $22.50 but that is hardly an extravagance.

One of the statues in the Old Town
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I  continued to wander the old town for a little while longer after dinner before having an icecream and walking back to the hostel which is about 15 minutes from the old town. I arrived back to find that the dorm which had only had me when I arrived now had four others. I had a hot shower and went to bed to read my book for a while but fell asleep fairly quickly.

The next morning I was up bright and early because I only had the one day in Bratislava. However, one day is really enough unless you want to go out and see some of the surrounding sights. All of the interesting things in the city are focused in a very small area so you can get between sights really easily and quickly.

Fountain in one of the main squares in Bratislava
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I started by going to the wharf to try and buy a ticket on the ferry to Budapest for the next day. I went to the information desk in the passenger port and they told me to go up the river further to another ticket office. So off I set only to find the other ticket office only sells tickets to Vienna not Budapest and that I had to go back to the other office again. At this point I decided to give up for a while seeing as I needed to find an ATM before I  could buy a ticket anyway and was in need of a drink and a sit down. So I headed up to the castle instead as I was almost there already.

No prizes for guessing this is the Blue Church
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The castle itself is kind of unattractive. Plain and utilitarian are two words that come to mind. It's set up on the top of a hill overlooking the old town and has fantastic views from the terraces surrounding it. The castle itself is home to several museums that I didn't bother going to and the buildings around it are used by the government for various purposes. You are free to wander around the grounds and the castle courtyard during the day and into the early evening. I walked around the terraces and took lots of photos of the view and a couple of the castle before heading down the other side of the hill (down the very large number of steps) and back into the old town.

View over the Danube while going on the ferry
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I made a brief detour to the post office to send some stuff home. I was surprised at how cheap it was given the volume of stuff I was sending. A box weighing 2.3 kg was less than $35 and will arrive in less than a month (supposedly anyway). Given that it costs $1.20 to send a postcard to the same destination that's pretty good I feel. The post office staff didn't speak any english but were very very good at charades and managed to explain the forms I had to fill in to send it off.

With a much lighter bag on my back, I headed into the collection of old buildings and looked at the town hall and the palaces and the churches. Many of the churches are locked when there isn't a service on but usually have glass doors that you can look in. I was going to go to a museum but decided that since it was such a lovely day I would stay outside and enjoy the sunshine (given that it such a rarity in Europe). I headed back down to the port and managed to get a ticket for the boat. I was surprised that they give you a worse price if you pay in local currency than if you pay in Euros. With most of my local currency now gone, I headed off to find more things that you don't have to pay for.

One of the old castles that you pass while on the ferry. It is the former capital of Hungary
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The blue church isn't in the old town but on the edge of it. It was built in the early 20th century in the Art Nouveau style and is just adorable. It is supposedly the church to get married in in Bratislava. The entire church pretty much inside and out is blue (hence the name) and is devoted to St Elizabeth of Hungary. It was initially attached to a school. The school is still next door and is now a state run affair. It's a beautiful building too but is in terrible need of renovation. The far side of it is still painted blue like the church.

Another castle on the Danube
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From there I went to the Tesco Hypermarket (it's more than a supermarket) to get some supplies and spend what little Slovak money I had left. OMG, it is the biggest supermarket I have ever been to. It was enormous. It was like the tardis, there was definitely not that much space under the building. You go down into the basement and just when you think that you have reached the end there is another section off to the side. If you can think of something edible you can probably buy it there (finding it may be your only difficulty). I was very excited because they not only had sundried tomatoes but also chickpeas (it is funny what you miss when you are away from home). I headed out of the store with a collection of things to do me for four meals and a wallet with virtually no money left in it.

After dropping the things off at the hostel and having a quick lunch, I headed over the river to a large park and shopping complex called Aupark. It is quite a nice walk across the Novy most (once you find the walkway anyway) and you get some good views of the old town from the bridge. The walkway, by the way, is suspended under the main part of the bridge. You access it from down at the end of the long square at the bottom(river edge) of the old town. The park is huge and a really nice place. It's got heaps of grassy areas (that you are even allowed to walk on), seats, fountains, playareas for kids. You can ride your bike, rollerblade, play soccer, it seems to be one of the few places where you can do what you like. Behind the park is the big shopping centre which is just like shopping centres everywhere. I had a quick look around. It has a food court which smelled pretty good, lots of big and little shops, a couple of supermarkets and large pharmacies and a cinema complex. I contemplated going to the cinema but there wasn't anything that I wanted to see on in english. They dub all their children's movies (basically anything that gets less than an M rating) and subtitle all their adult movies. Unfortunately, the movie that I would have like to see starts next week.

So I sat in the sunshine in the park for an hour or so and people watched while writing in my journal. It was very very pleasant. Once the sun disappeared behind the high rise apartments, I decided that it was time to head back over the bridge and to the hostel. I cooked myself a lovely dinner (it was good to have an oven) and then packed my stuff again (it fits a lot easier now that I've sent the parcel!) ready to move on to Budapest in the morning.

This morning, I just walked down to the port and got on the boat to Budapest (which of course was 30 minutes late). The trip was really good if expensive. The boat was smaller than I expected but moved along quite quickly. There isn't an area where you can sit outside but there is a viewing deck in the middle of the boat where you can stand and look at the view. Unfortunately for those like myself who are vertically challenged this means standing on your tippytoes for a prolonged period to be able to see anything.

The first section of the trip was quite dull as you pass through industrial areas. You then get to the lock which is actually worth going out to watch. We dropped a huge distance in the lock but strangely enough you could barely even feel it, even though we dropped quite quickly. Once through the lock the scenery improves vastly and it is worth spending most of your time outside. There are a couple of castles on the sides of the river that you get to see and lots of pretty little villages. Very scenic and you see far more than you do on the train or bus.

The boat stops near the Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest which is fairly central to most of the accommodation options in town. I don't think the boat would be worth it if the weather was bad but is definitely a good way to travel if the weather is fine. Stay tuned to hear all about Budapest.