Friday, November 24, 2006

Bratislava

Last weekend, my roommates and I went on a weekend excursion to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, which is only an hour-long trainride from Vienna.
We arrived just as they were adding the final touches to the Christmas decorations and were there for the first lighting, which made the streets seem just a bit magical.

This is the National Theater, of which we all loved the silver roof. It faces one of the main squares, where one of the Christmas markets is currently being set up.

I do not know the name of this church, nor the square where it is located, but I loved the atmosphere. And, the church is directly across from our favorite discovery, the chocolate cafe, which is pictured below.

Grassalkovich Palace, home of the Slovak President.

Bratislava Castle


The view from Bratislava Castle, foggy yet still amazing.

And here it is, the "Schokocafe" (Choco Cafe), where you can drink any variety of hot chocolate. And by that I do not mean warm milk with some cocoa flavor, but actual creamy liquid chocolate. The perfect treat on a cold, gloomy November day.


This is a small store that we discovered and instantly fell for. We could have spent hours looking at all the knick-knacks offered here.

This was our hotel, the colorful, odd, crazy, fun Hotel Spirit. We were pleasantly surprised when we received a two-story, five-bed room with four (!) balconies with a spectacular view of the city instead of the small four-person room we had booked.




It was my first visit to Bratislava, and I was pleasantly surprised by the city and what it had to offer. It is the perfect location for a daytrip from Vienna and I would highly recommend stopping by during the Christmas season.

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