When I arrived, I headed straight to the old town where I would meet up with a free walking tour. It ended up being around 3 hours but was still interesting and informative. Already though I was running out of time as I was eventually catching a train later to Vienna. I quickly climbed the hill to see the main castle and it was a really interesting view from up top. On the side of the river that I was on, you could see a range of different buildings, old and new but across the river it looked like apartment building after apartment building, all in various colours. I definitely got the sense of communism just by looking that way as this was the main type of accommodation for the working classes in communist times.
After that, I had just enough time to grab a meal. I found a place in the old town that seemed to brew their own beer so I took advantage. I also tried their local dish called bryndzové halušky and it was pretty tasty. It was like a pasta/gnocchi with sheep cheese and bacon.
Bratislava was an interesting city. It gets a bad rep because of the movies Euro Trip and Hostel supposedly, which is unfortunate. If you don't know the movies, one pokes fun at the city and the latter is a horror film about some travellers who stay at a hostel...and you can guess the rest. It's a bit run down with the remnants of being a former communist country but I would say its worth putting on your list and visiting. The time I spent was probably enough but I'm still glad I went.
So Sunday evening after eating the bryndzové halušky, I took a short hour train over to Vienna. I was getting in somewhat late, so after checking into my hostel, I just chilled and planned my out my next day.
It was another walking tour to start the next day. Before the tour though, I went and grabbed some breakfast at a nearby coffee house. The Viennese are quite known for their coffee and their own version of the cappuccino. It was pretty good I guess.
For the walking tour, I found the lady more so just taking us to random spots and talking about the history of the city..which is fine but I don't think I took any pictures while with the group. I also didn't realize up until this point that they speak German in this country. Am I dumb for not knowing that? After the tour was done, I went and took some snaps of St Stephen's Cathedral, Hofburg Palace, and others. Then I went to this awesome sausage stand that the lady had pointed out on the tour. I got this massive sausage in a bun and a beer and I was thoroughly enjoying Vienna.
My next stop was the Schönbrunn Palace. Very similar to Versailles in terms of its lavishness and massive garden. The sun had come out at this point which made my time spent in the gardens all that more perfect. If you had read my post from Paris back a while ago, you may know that I was in love with Versailles and I was very much enjoying this palace as well. If I'm rich one day, I want to have an unnecessarily massive garden to walk around like these ones.
Afterwards, I headed back central hoping to see at least one of the museums in the MuseumsQuartier. They were too pricey for my taste so instead, I caught the views of the Parliament building, City Hall, and Belvedere Palace, another lavish palace and gardens to stroll around in.
I also went and grabbed some coffee at another cafe with some apple strudel. The strudel was very disappointing and I swear it had peas in it. I could be very wrong and they could've been raisins or something but overall, it was not very good. For dinner, I went and grabbed some schnitzel at the Naschmarkt - their main market place.
For my final day, I visited the Central Cemetery. A weird spot to visit, but here lied many famous Austrians and musicians. The most well known in my books, Beethoven. They also had a memorial for Mozart as his grave is in an unknown spot at a different cemetery in Vienna. Other names you might recognise that were there: Strauss, Schubert, Brahms. I can't even express the endless amount of graves there were in the cemetery but it was eerie at first, but then turned into a more peaceful mood.
I thought Vienna was great and I would definitely visit again. I don't think it really gets talked about enough. There are so many stunning buildings, the people are nice, the food is good, and there's lots to do.
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