The plan to go was hatched earlier in the week. Some guys on my floor suggested that we should go there for our first trip. It's only a 5 hour bus trip, so we could make it there and back in a short weekend. I figured that it was time to make my first trip and Bratislava seemed as a good of a destination as any. It was close, foreign and it would be a good trial run for further traveling. The final group consisted of myself and 5 other people and the plan was to leave Friday night, arrive around midnight, find the hostel and go out. On Saturday, we would see some sights, buy a return ticket and go out again. Sunday was reserved for coming home.
The bus left the station in Prague at 6:30 and was set for an 11:30 arrival. Earlier that day we had all woken up at 8:00 to take our intensive Czech final and had been in class all day. I figured I would need to get some sleep on the bus to prepare for the night ahead, but after a 25 minute nap I couldn't go back to sleep. Of course, it didn't help that the bus was playing some George Clooney movie dubbed in Czech. The movie was ridiculously loud. I had my iPod blasting and I could still hear it playing. Then the bus driver decided to crank up the volume even more. I had my iPod playing full volume and I could still hear the damn gunshots and explosions. When the movie ended the bus quieted down. This is the point when I began to think about the highways in central Europe.
I've seen a few fictionalized representations of Bratislava, none of them positive (Hostel, Eurotrip) and I did very little research on the city. Other than the picture of the city on Wikipedia I had no idea what the city would be like. So, arriving at the Bratislava bus station at midnight my impression of the city was a blank slate.
Stepping of the bus I was immediately questioned my decision to go there blindly. The place was abandoned, dark and quiet. We had very little idea of how to get to our hostel and it was not within walking distance. As we began to wander I started to get a feel for the area. The city is not too different from Prague or, I think, most other European cities. However, in comparison to Prague at midnight it was eerily quiet and decrepit. I couldn't tell if things were under a perpetual state of construction or decay and there was absolutely no one around. The best way to describe the city, day or night, is that it has a "Balkan" vibe. It's vaguely reminiscent of war-torn Bosnia.
We finally found a tram and then got off on the wrong stop. This led to an hour long search for our hostel. Arriving at a little after one o'clock, we immediately headed back out and went to a bar. The area we stayed in was fairly modern with paved streets, a Tesco a across the street and a tasty "Kebap" stand around the corner. The ensuing night was filled with random adventures. Perhaps the best was an incident where some guys came up to us on the street who we thought wanted to fight. Turns out, they just wanted to play rock paper scissors. At one point we passed a family photo studio except all the demo pictures were just slutty pictures of women.
The next day we went to Bratislava castle and old town. This was a refreshing change from the area where our hostel was located. Old town Bratislava is very similar to old town Prague but much quieter and with a smaller tourist presence. Most people still speak English and things are relatively cheap but, as Ben in my group would say, it's "Prague Lite". Bratislava castle was under construction but had some good views of the city and the Danube River.
That night we had big plans. We wanted to go to a club in an abandoned nuclear fallout shelter, go to a club on a boat and go to a club with a slide in it. Before hitting the clubs we decided to go to a bar and get dinner. We had a nice waiter but for some reason he put us in our own private room and then blocked it off. Some people came in and sat down but our waiter actually came in and kicked them out. I don't know what the deal was. Before we left the waiter also recommended some clubs, but he said that the boat club was just filled with 40 year old Austrians.
The first stop was the fallout shelter club. They were having a techno show there that night and we went to find it. After a 45 minute odyssey we found this place literally on the side of a highway. You enter the building into a small tunnel lit bright red. Then, you pass through 2 large metal doors. As I walked deeper and deeper into the club I realized that there was only one way in and one way out. When you come out of the tunnel you are in a cavernous area with a large bar and dance floor. The atmosphere was wild. The lighting is only strobe lights and lasers with wild techno playing. People were dancing in ways I've never seen people dancing and the clientele in general was just very interesting. After some wild techno raving we headed out to the boat club.
Once again getting lost trying to find the boat club, we ran into some guy who was also trying to get there. We joined forces and kept looking and all of the sudden it hit me. The guy with us was old, probably middle aged and had a German accent. Shit! This guy was a forty year old Austrian! I guess the waiter was right. It turned out that the boat club had set sail or something because it was not on the river where it was supposed to be.
Finally, we made it to a pretty nice dance club right across from our Hostel where we spent the night dancing to such international superstars as Katy Perry and Tupac Shakur. Waking up on Sunday, it was raining so we went and grabbed some lunch. At this point in the trip I figured most of the ridiculousness had ended. I was wrong.
Most places were closed so we were forced to go to an art gallery/restaurant. We had a nice waitress but either she didn't understand English or was playing a cruel joke on us because she gave us nothing that we ordered. Any time you spoke to this woman you were rolling the dice in terms of what you would actually receive. Kyle ordered an omelet, got fried cheese with ham and then when the waitress walked by she said, "Omelet!" and started laughing. Meanwhile, the worst light jazz I've ever heard was blaring from some damn stereo. After lunch, we killed some time at the Hostel and then headed to the bus stop for the ride back.
Bratislava is an interesting place, completely different from anywhere I've ever been; including Prague. I'm glad I went with a blank slate because the time I had was unique and nothing could really have prepared me for it. I had a completely original and fun experience. I can't really recommend it yet because I have no other basis for comparison. Hopefully my subsequent travels will be as interesting.
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