Bratislava - Weekend by the Danube

On this trip we set out to explore Bratislava over a weekend. We being Dave, Joe, Mark, Leon and myself. None of us knew much about Bratislava, other than it is the capital of Slovakia and it sits on the Danube not far from Vienna.
First, we explored the old city. There were many beautiful old buildings, shops, bars and eating places and a few touristy things scattered around.

We sketched out a circular walk for our main day, first calling at Bratislava Castle. The castle overlooked the Danube and we retreated inside as it was raining. The lower floors had some stonework displays and descriptions of how the castle had been renovated in the 1950s. Going up the stairs there was a couple of floors that were largely empty, but on the top floor there was an exhibition to the Slovak artist Martin Benka. He died in the 1970s but had travelled widely outside Slovakia and his paintings reflected this. There were also some roman artefacts in the basement, an unsolvable puzzle and good cake in the café.

Outside it had stopped raining and we looked out at the Danube with the famous UFO bridge. We headed down there, noticing an interesting restaurant that we would return to that evening. The UFO bridge is also called THE BRIDGE OF SLOVAK NATIONAL UPRISING or just the ‘new bridge’. It has a bar high on its structure resembling a UFO. We took the lift up then climbed the stairs to the top of the bridge. Though it was raining again there were great 360-degree view of the city and the river.
To the east of the new bridge lies the old bridge. It had been blown up by the Germans in 1945 and rebuilt by the Russians a year later. In 2008 it was dismantled and reopened in 2016. Now bright green it serves pedestrians, cyclists, trams and scooterists.

From high on the UFO bridge, Leon had spotted something unusual below. There were large numbers of people in the park below fighting with swords and firing cannons and guns at each other. We went down there, and sure enough there was a big battle going on in the park. There were explosions as the cannons were let off with large clouds of smoke wrapping the park. The Slovak assailants were dressed in period costume, some in armour, some in traditional dress and a good crown had gathered to watch. It was all free and very unexpected. They were re-enacting the Battle of Bratislava, a baroque skirmish from 17th century when Bratislava was held under siege.

For night time entertainment we explored the old town finding various bars. Our favourite was the Goblin bar which was full of young Slovaks partying and enjoying live music. The guys finished off with a kebab. The night life was busy enough to be entertaining and not too wild with not many stag parties showing up.

The next day after speaking to an American traveller we searched out the ‘Blue Church’ a gorgeous art nouveau building to Saint Elizabeth a princess of Hungary. Inside a ceremony was in progress and the inside was as beautiful as the outside.
Our weekend was over and we’d had some fun, just time to buy some presents for those back home at the open air market.

Видео Bratislava - Weekend by the Danube канала Northern bloke travels