Bratislava Recap

6:00am Wednesday morning: I wake up 20 minutes later then I want too, most likely due to the fact that we all went out the night before and I didnt go to bed til 3. Keep in mind the bus is leaving Nepliget station, not exactly right around the block, in an hour at 7.
6:03: I stumble into Corey's room and yell at him to wake up.
6:05: I jump into the shower to try and wake up.
6:10: I get out of shower, Corey gets in shower.
6:18: Corey and I are running around getting dressed and packing up our backpacks.  I still had all my stuff in from my flight so I basically threw everything onto my desk and packed money/passport/change of shirt/language book.
6:25: About to walk out the door when I realize I dont have my camera.  I run back and grab it trying not to wake Dan up in the process.
6:27: Walking towards the elevator when I ask Corey if he has his passport.  He says "oh crap," and runs back and gets it.
6:30: We leave the apartment building and start walking toward Deak Ter, where we are getting on the "Red" line, or so I thought.
6:38: We arrive at the metro station, and I look at the metro map while heading down to the red line to make sure its the right one.  I don't notice a Nepliget stop, so I check the blue line map, and of course its there...6 stops away.
6:41: We hop onto the blue line hoping 6 stops doesn't take longer then 15 minutes in case we have to look around for the station once we get there.
6:50: I am getting nervous because we've only just arrived at the 4th stop.  Two more to go.  I'm worried the bus station won't be right there and I will have to ask someone.  Ugh
6:54: We arrive at Nepliget metro stop, and Corey immediately sees signs for buses and "Orangeways," which was the company we were looking for.
6:58: We board our bus to Bratislava and find our seats in the very last row.
7:01: Bus leaves the station.
7:20: It is announced that they will be showing Wedding Crashers in Hungarian with English subtitles, woo.
7:33: Corey falls asleep.
9:15: I wake Corey up.
9:34: We arrive at the bus station in Bratislava. Wooo.
9:40: Trash is talked about how shitty the bus station is.
9:44: We look around desperately for signs and or guidebook/map stands to no avail.
9:47: Corey and I wander aimlessly out of the bus station onto the street, with no plan.  The one thing I thought we could have done a little better was PLANNING aka writing down what bus/tram to take to the city center, where to eat, what to see, etc etc before we left.  Guess that's what happens when you book the trip the day before, go out the night before, and wake up to late the morning of...
9:49: The walk begins as we start to go toward the Castle that we saw on the way in, hoping to find a nice little breakfast shop on the way.
10:00: After walking by about 6 coffee shops that served no food at all, not even pastries or croissants, we happen upon a nice little place that actually has a menu.
10:04: We order coffees.
10:10: We finish our coffees.
10:20: Pondering why our waiter has yet to bring us over food menus as we watch him walk by and look at us a good 5 times.
10:22: We finally are given menus, I order an omelet with peas, mushrooms, and something else while Corey orders the Vienna plate; some slices of ham, cheese, tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs.
10:23: Our waiter gives us a basket of bread, but we were smart and asked if it was complimentary or extra charge. Of course it was extra charge, so we decided not to eat it to stick it to the man.
10:36: We finish our breakfasts and pay, and head back out to try and find the city center.
10:40: Luckily it wasnt that far away, and we finally found signs showing us exactly where to go and what was near!
10:45-4:15:  We explore the city.  The main touristy area of Bratislava is called the Old Town, and that is where you can find most of the historical buildings and whatnot.  We visted the Primate's Palace, Michaels Gate, Grassalkovich Palace, the National Theatre, Bratislava Castle, Novy Most, Saint Martins Cathedral and crypt, walked by dozens of different embassys, explored cobblestone streets and alleys and alot of walkways on Castle Hill.  We had lunch at a Slovak Cellar restaurant, and Corey and I both enjoyed a creampy cheesy potato soup as a starter, while Corey had the schnitzel (given its proximity to Austria not surprising), while I had some bacon and onion dumplings.

4:15: Hop on a bus for about a 20 minute ride over to the municipality of Devin, where the remain's of the famous Devin Castle are.
4:33: We arrive in Devin and are greated by a towering cliff side with bits and pieces of what used to be a castle on top.  It is pretty impressive.
4:37: Walking up towards the entrance to the top, a guard tells us that they are closing for the night.  We look at the hours and it is supposed to be open until 5pm, so I am a little angry we cant go up there for at least a few minutes to look around.
4:38-5:35: Corey and I decide to explore the area beneath the cliff that is open all day, and let me just say it was an extremely beautiful area.  The Danube roars by and the Morava river empties into it right below the castle.  I didnt realize this at the time but everywhere I looked across either rivers was the the territory of the country of Austria.  Found that fun fact out when I got home later that evening.

5:35: Caught the bus back to Bratislava city center.
6:00-7:15: Sort of meander around the old town.  Corey was on a mission to find cookies gelato because he had seen a sign for it earlier in the day.  We found the place, but unfortunately they didnt have any, so Corey had a small let down.
7:20: We arrive back at the bus station for our 730 departure only to find that there werent any Orangeways buses hanging around.  Nervousness comes over me that maybe it left earlier or was heading to a different station in Bratislava, but after 25 minutes of checking schedules and talking to other passengers we are sure it is just arriving a little late, and sure enough it does.
7:55-1030: Board the bus and drive back home to Budapest.

All in all, I'd say the day was a success. We felt that we had seen all the important sights that needed to be seen, and both of us came to the conclusion that any longer then two days in Bratislava on a sight-seeing trip was too long.  It can all definately be done in a day, especially at the pace we were going at, but taking a normal pace to it and spending more time at each place or in a museum would get you a good two days worth of exploring to do. The city itself was a surprise to me, as I didnt think it would be as built up as it was, but there were still reminders all over of its soviet/communist past in the architecture across the city.



Future travel plans update: On Saturday, the API group gets to go to the town of Szentendre, 20 minutes north of Budapest.  Sunday we are heading off to the Buda Hills for a short train ride and a hike to an observation point.  I will update again detailing those journeys.

Until then...