A Beautiful Day in Bratislava
For Australians, spending your afternoon in another country, then coming back home, is a pretty foreign concept. Yesterday, Mary and I visited Slovakia—for about half a day.
From Vienna, a relaxed train ride to the Slovak capital, Bratislava, will take you about 55 minutes. From there, walk 20 minutes and you’re in the historic city centre. Altogether, I think arrived around 2pm and then were home again before 8pm. In the meantime, we had a fantastic afternoon.
Planning the day trip in advance, even just a little bit, was a good idea. Rather than arriving hungry and disorientated, we only arrived hungry. We beelined straight towards the spot we’d picked out for lunch. Good thing we did, too. Bratislava Flagship Restaurant was superb! Relatively unassuming from the outside, the same couldn’t be said once you ventured indoors. An in-house brewery occupied the bottom floor. You got a pretty good glimpse in as you wound through the initial, very medieval-feeling corridor. Once you’d climbed the grand wooden stairs, an expansive, vibrant restaurant opened up ahead, with that perfect mix of coziness and buzz that characterises a welcoming Central European pub.
The history was fascinating. Originally, it was a monastery, and stayed that way for a long time. Under Communist occupation, the nuns and monks were sent away, and the monastery was no longer. In time, the beautiful building was converted to a theatre, then Cinema Prague. That name sounds like I’ve made a mistake. After all, this is Bratislava, not Prague! However, this cinema opened in the days of Czechoslovakia, hence the nod to the Czech capital. After the nations split, the interior was converted into the restaurant and brewery.
With all that in mind, I must say that the monastery-turned-theatre-turned-brewery had the kind of inimitable atmosphere you might expect. In the end, Mary and I stayed until about 5pm. We drank a few house-crafted beers, tried the local specialties—involving sheep’s cheese and potato dumplings plus garlic soup inside a bread loaf—played cards, and talked to our waiter. She was a third-year medical student in Bratislava, originally from Minsk, Belarus. The people you meet on the road never fail to fascinate. I’m not sure what should come to mind when I think of Belarus.
After lunch, we meandered down towards the Old Town. In the main square was a concert of some description. It sounded fun. The artist was clearly popular. Locals had flocked down to their square on their Sunday afternoon. Quite cool. Also very crowded.
We then set off for the castle (as you do in any European city I suppose). It involved a decent bit of climbing, but was undoubtedly worth the effort. Sunset was spectacular. The castle grounds, like any, were gorgeous. I think I saw a friend from Brisbane, randomly also there somehow. I’ll reach out to them later. The contrast between the seemingly untouched forestland over the Danube River, the neighbouring Communist-era infrastructure, and the mind-boggling UFO tower was impressive, all with the fading sun behind them. In the other direction lay the picturesque, quaint Old Town. It was spectacular. I was even in a T-shirt the whole time!
As we descended, St Michael’s Cathedral was lit up in light blue against the deep dusk sky. A half-moon split the scene between the aforementioned UFO tower.
Just like that, we wandered back to the station, hopped on the 6:50pm train, and were home. Mary raised an excellent point: catching a one-hour train from Brisbane might get you to Landsborough, or the Gold Coast. But nothing remotely comparable to hopping between two cities so diverse, and colourful, and unique as Bratislava and Vienna. What a privilege.
