One of the perks of living in Europe is the endless possibility to visit unique places within a few hours, all around you.
One of perks of living in Berlin is the fact that you are perfectly in the middle of this amazing continent. That sounds the perfect deal to weekend getaways… I picked Bratislava to be my January’s escape. Why?
Pocket-sized Old Town + nice Opera + a castle + good food + beer. Too good to be true!
The first stop was a night at the Opera. A great excuse to dress up elegant.
The National Opera
A quite nice choice is also enjoy a feast of beer and goulash or halušky, sheep cheese dumplings. You can’t say no to beer and local delicacies! I recommend the beautiful Pilsner-Urquell pub for the evening (conveniently closed to the Opera, and they don’t mind if you’re overdressed for a pub).
Even if all the shops are closed on Sunday, the city center is quite lively and rich in tourists. There are, however, some quite street, perfect for taking pictures. A trip to the castle is essential to have a better grasp of the city.
What strikes is to see how small the old town is, and how different it’s from the new part of the city. And even striking feeling comes when you look at the other side of the river, and see coloured block: Communist architecture excels in Bratislava, indeed.
Small peak to the Old Town red roofs from the Castle
And the view of the castle from Old Town.
Here some postcard-perfect snaps of Old Town. So charming!
A special thank to the brutal Communist buildings. And the UFO Tower on the bridge. 🙂
Valanzo 
That’s a lovely read! I’m putting Bratislava on my travel list, as I always seem to travel through Bratislava, instead of visiting it!
Hope that you enjoyed Bratislava. We lived there for one and a half year and are now revisiting the city from time to time. There is a lot more to see than people would believe. 🙂
You probably didn’t have time to see more in 25 hours, but there i actually one more castle. Devin Castle is only 20 minutes away from the Bratislava Castle with the local bus. 🙂
I absolutely enjoyed it. I need to come visit with warmer weather, to enjoy the river more, and check other stuff outside Old Town. I read about Devin Castle on my travel app Triposo, but timing was not on my side. Yet, enough to like everything I saw and tried 🙂
If you return the Devin Castle should really be on your list. There is also a WWII bunker just south of the city ar the Slovak-Austrian border that is really interesting. We will publish a post about that one as soon as we find the photos we took while there 🙂
Nice post, I will listen your recommendations!