Advent in Bratislava

I started my Advent or Pre-Christmas trip in Bratislava, in Hungarian Pozsony, which used to be a Hungarian city and is closer to Budapest than Vienna. Somehow, I had never been there before and was curious about this place, especially how it looks like in the Advent period.

I took a Flixbus from Budapest and rented an apartment not far from the city center. Actually, Bratislava is quite a small city, one of the smallest capital cities in Europe, and therefore it does not have any subway lines. However, it’s easy to get around by bus. I was surprised how nice my apartment was and how modern and huge the building where it was located. I felt very well during my one-week-long stay. It was totally fine that I had to work during the week and had time for sightseeing only at the weekend because Bratislava doesn’t have so many sights that couldn’t be seen and visited within two days. The main attractions are the Castle and the downtown. It could be enough to walk around the castle and enjoy the view from the hill a bit, but I had time and as the weather was cold and windy, I decided to buy a ticket to the museum inside the castle. After that I was ready to head towards downtown, walk around there, eat some lunch, and then enjoy the Christmas vibes in the markets.

Let me write about my impressions of the Christmas markets in Bratislava. There are two markets very close to each other in downtown, one of them is the biggest and most famous one in the city. I was surprised how nice that market was, how traditional and cozy. It wasn’t over-decorated, there were just enough lights and decorations, and they had traditional things such as wooden toys and a Betlehem. I just loved the atmosphere in this market and enjoyed walking though the long, but quite narrow place. It wasn’t only special and unique because of its traditional nature, but also because of its shape. I truly enjoyed the whole downtown area, with its tasteful, sophisticated Christmas vibes. I can only recommend it to everyone! It’s just a plus that Slovakia’s capital city is not as crowded as the Christmas markets in Vienna or Prague. I can understand now why it’s famous in this area.

Besides the Christmas markets, some of the sights in Bratislava are the Clock Tower, the President’s Palace and the so-called Blue Church, which is really beautiful and special. Although it’s a bit further away from downtown, it definitely worths a visit.

It was interesting for me to hear a lot of Hungarian, not just tourists like me, but also local people speaking my language. In one of the restaurants, the waiter switched from English to Hungarian, because he could guess I was from Hungary. In the castle, it was possible to buy the ticket in Hungarian, and you could hear that language basically all around. Luckily, almost everyone speaks English in Bratislava, at least in the center or in downtown, so you don’t need to be afraid of communication problems if you visit this city. And in case they don’t (especially elderly people), they are still nice and helpful, you just need to be a bit more cautious about communication… The city is similar to Budapest, just smaller, and the people were just like Hungarians, I think. I had the impression that I was travelling within my own country! Of course, the language is different as well as the currency, but they use Euro, which I am very much familiar with.

It was a nice and interesting feeling for me to visit a place and be in a culture which is so similar to my own one. And when it was snowing heavily as I left my apartment and later the whole city, I had the feeling that it was a real winter journey which continued in the Czech Republic.