Weekend Getaway: Vienna and Bratislava

Hungary is really nicely situated smack in the middle of Europe, making travel to surrounding countries super easy. I've been traveling a lot for family reasons, and not for sightseeing -- so, when my friend Jasmine suggested a trip to Vienna to explore the world-famous Christmas markets, I jumped on the idea-- and added a stop in Bratislava. We invited the rest of the Fulbright crew, and surprisingly seven people wanted to come!

When I told the ticket lady in Budapest that I wanted seven tickets to Vienna, and she said "Yeah, you and everyone else!" (more on this later). The only space left was on a train at 6:30 in the morning --ugh! The upside was that we got to Vienna with plenty of time to explore. Of course, none of us had done a lick of research prior to going on the trip, so we googled it on the spot (what did people do before smartphones?) and headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral, which seemed like as good a place as any to start. The cathedral was beautiful, but crowded -- as to be expected on a weekend.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

None of us being the worshiping type, we continued walking through the streets of Vienna until we stumbled upon a Christmas market (albeit not the one we were looking for.) It was really, really cold that day, so most of us took the opportunity to eat or drink something hot. I introduced some of my friends to kartoffelpuffer, or potato pancakes, which were a huge hit.

We then made our way to a palace that we basically picked at random from a list of Vienna highlights, called Hofburg. It was HUGE. At that point, we were basically walking icicles, so we went inside and bought tickets to the trio of inside exhibitions. These included a collection of an inconceivable amount of plates, cups, silver, and gold; an exhibit dedicated to Empress Elisabeth of Austria, otherwise known as Sisi; and a recreation of the royal apartments, completely furnished (including a replica of the Hungarian coronation crown!). All the exhibits were really interesting, and it was a nice way to warm up. I probably would have still paid the admission fee to just stand inside a heated area, but it was nice to get some culture!

Hofburg Palace. It started to snow several seconds later.

Just a normal amount of gold...

By this time, we were all pretty hungry, and we wandered around until we found a nice Italian place to eat, where I inhaled an entire delightful pizza.

From there, we went to our final destination in Vienna, the thing that brought us there in the first place -- the Christmas market in from of city hall. It sprawled as far as the eye could see! It was beautifully decorated and lit up, just pulsing holiday cheer. The only thing was, the Hungarian ticket seller was right-- apparently everyone was at this market. I have never seen so many people in my life! There were lines for everything! It took a good 20 minutes to get a cup of mulled wine, and just as long to return the cup. And the funniest part was that most of the people there were Hungarian! We probably heard more Hungarian than English and German combined. Well, after about an hour of this, we had had enough. I'm glad that I experienced it, but I would like to never experience a crowd like that ever again.

Entrance to the Christmas market.

SO. MANY. PEOPLE.

The market left us exhausted, so we decided to say goodbye to Vienna and make a move to our next destination, Bratislava, where warm beds awaited us for the night. We took a tram to the main train station and hopped on the next train to Slovakia (they run every hour).

Arriving at the main train station in Bratislava was a very different experience -- the station was much more run down (even compared to Budapest's stations) and the signage was terrible. Well, either that or our brains were too fried to read. With difficulty, we eventually found the tram that took us to our hostel, where we had booked a dorm room just for us. There, we gratefully put on pajamas and fell into bed, exhausted.

After a good night's sleep, I was awake and ready to explore Bratislava the next morning! Again, none of us had done any research so we began just walking around. Bratislava is a much smaller city than either Vienna or Budapest, so it was pretty easy to find the center of the city, where we sat down for a hot breakfast. 

Then, we wandered around the quaint Old Town, where we discovered lots of shops, old buildings, and even a statue of a friendly dude coming out of a sewer.

"Cumil the Sewer Worker"

Further east of the old town, we paid a visit to the Blue Church. This was the only thing on my list that I specifically wanted to see in Bratislava. Eleven years ago, I visited a place called Mini Europe in Brussels, where they have miniature models of famous sights from countries all over the EU. I remember seeing the Blue Church model and making a mental note to go see it in person. It only took me a decade...

So colorful and cheerful! Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside because they had Sunday services going on.

From the Blue Church, we walked back through Old Town (stopping at another Christmas market, of course) and continued on to the western side of town to climb the hill to Bratislava Castle, which overlooks the city and the Danube. The castle itself is a sight to behold, but we didn't behold much of it, because the blustery winds at the top of that mountain were very quickly giving us frostbite. Once again, we sought refuge from the cold in the exhibits inside. The inside was an odd combination of beautiful baroque interiors with very modern furnishings and artwork. There's also an old Crown Tower which you can climb to the top, to get a lovely view of Bratislava -- and at the bottom was another replica of the Hungarian coronation crown (It's true what they say about imitation being the highest form of flattery).

Hello, Bratislava!

After thoroughly exploring the castle, we descended back down the hill and found a place to eat a traditional Slovakian meal (which is not that different from Hungarian or Austrian meals.) I chose a plate of potato gnocchi smothered in cheese and bacon bits. YUM.

Finally, the time had come for us to return to Budapest -- and we were ready, at that point. It had been a really enjoyable two days, but very intense, too. I was happy to return to my apartment and enjoy peace, quiet, and warmth. I hope you are all enjoying those same things! From Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava, happy holidays!