Bratislava

From Vienna, we went on to a neighbouring city of Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. It just took around an hour from Vienna to Bratislava by train.

Slovakia is not in the eurozone yet, and so we had to change currency in the station. Apparently, it is cheaper to withdraw directly from Euro account rather than getting from the currency exchange shop so we did just that.

The streets and piazza are similar to the Italian towns, however the signboards use local language. Prices are significantly cheaper on the town outskirt with and significantly inflated at the city center.
After going to the cathedral we stopped for lunch. Looking for some traditional dishes we ended up with potato noodle topped with goat cheese and a sparse decoration of meat. It turned out to be pretty good, although extra meat topping wouldn't hurt.

A major landmark in Bratislava would be the castle. It is located on a hilly part of the town. We went up, only to realise that the castle was closed due to construction work. The weather weren't very friendly as well at that time as it was raining a lot.

Vienna (1)

Back to travel log. Just before I submitted my thesis, I planned a short trip with a friend to several neighboring countries. It's possible because of the convenient Schengen visa which I got for my trip to Italy this time.

We went northeast, towards eastern european countries. The first stop was Vienna, the capital of Austria. The train journey took a total of twelve hours where we spent our whole night.

We first stop at the opera house. Vienna was a renowned cultural center before and so opera flourished. We got in just in time for the guided tour after having a quick wurst lunch. I'm not a big fan of opera, but the 30-minutes tour was informative and felt like a breeze.

Then we went around the city center. I like the bright color they use for buildings, they brighten the mood, so unlike the gloomy buildings in the UK.

The main streets and platz were beautiful. They're good place to stroll around in a good weather.


At some point, we decided to stop by in one of the restaurants for some local dish. German sausages are common in Austria. But one of their famous speciality would be wiener schnitzel. It's breaded and deep fried meat in thin slices. They have big portions of these served with potatoes. It's really a good mix.

As it was summer at that time, the sun stays longer. We didn't realise it was almost six in the evening as it was still quite bright, and we might not make it for our next stop: Mozart House.

Mozart once lived and worked in Vienna, thus the house he used to live in become a tourist attraction. We did not manage to get in since the they are closing, only a quick snap from the outside.