After a few days in Vienna, it was time to get back on the rails, and head to my next destination. The next stop was to be Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, but to get there was going to take 2 days and 2 nights of train travel – so I decided to stop off as much as I could on the way (made so much easier by my Eurail pass, which meant that I could just hop on whichever train I wanted, with the only constraints being the sleeper trains, where I had booked compartments).
En-route to Bratislava!
Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is less than an hour away from Vienna by rail (it’s actually situated right on the Slovak/Austrian border) and seemed to me like a great idea for a breakfast stop-off – so I headed out early from my apartment in Vienna and hopped on a train!
Back in 2024, I had visited the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, which I had found to be quite fascinating – and so I figured it would be interesting to see how the capital, based right over in the west – differed. The train took just under an hour, and it was only a 30 minute walk to the city centre – a walk which took me past a few interesting buildings, including the Presidential Palace!
First few sights of Bratislava, including the Presidential Palace
The rainclouds and fog that hung over the city gave it a bit of a grim, dreary vibe, which exacerbated the dirt on some of the buildings, but if you look past it, you’d see that this city is very much like its Austro-Hungarian counterparts.
Once you reach the Old Town, you’ll notice Bratislava Castle overlooking the city from a hill – whilst I didn’t get a chance to walk up there on this visit, I’m told there are great views to be had.
Bratislava Castle overlooking the city
The streets of Bratislava’s old town have been rebuilt over the years following the Second World War, but there is still a cool charm to them – and it has a similar atmosphere to other cities like it (strangely, Zagreb and Vilnius come to mind).
Some shots of Bratislava’s Old Town in the morning – it was incredibly quiet!
There are some fascinating bits of street art to be found in Bratislava, including one I’d been wanting to see with my own eyes – Man at Work (also known as Čumil). This sculpture, created by Slovak sculptor Viktor Hulík in 1997, features a hard-hatted man leaning out of an open manhole on the pavement – it is really quite clever!
Man at Work – by Viktor Hulík
After quite a bit of wandering, I decided it was time for a coffee, and took a seat in FigoFood, a café just off the side of one of the streets in the old town, in a small inner courtyard. Awesome location, also awesome coffee – what more could one ask for. I stopped off a supermarket on the way back (jam donut = acquired), and eventually returned to the train station, just in time for a train to Budapest!
A great coffee at FigoFood, and the beautiful courtyard the cafe was located in
Bratislava has a totally different vibe to Vienna, which I enjoyed, and is different again from Kosice, which has a bit more of the ‘eastern European’ feel to it. If you’re in Vienna and you’re looking for a day out, or you just happen to be passing that way, I’d say that Bratislava is definitely worth checking out!
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