After our time in Vienna, we took a one hour bus ride to Bratislava. We knew we would be going to Budapest, but when we looked on the map, we saw Bratislava on the way so we figured we’d swing by for a couple days to check it out.

Bratislava is the capitol of Slovakia, which happens to have the 3rd largest growing economy in Europe. Not many people think about Slovakia as a happening place when you think about Europe, but we found it to be lively and fun. We spoke with some locals and found out that things are rapidly changing and the city is growing like crazy. We also found out Bratislava is a nightlife hot spot and people come from around Europe to party (especially the Brits).

On our first night in town, we found a food truck festival going on, so we headed over there for some dinner. The crowd was almost all young locals, out for a good time on a Friday night. We grabbed some local beers and checked out the selection of food trucks. There wasn’t really anything traditionally Slovakian, so we went for a “NYC-style” hot dog and some gyoza.

The next morning, we got a quick bite at a more traditional food truck (it wasn’t open the night before) and enjoyed a bacon, potato, yogurt, and “pasta” dish. The “pasta” was more like asian style noodles – it was very chewy and had a great texture. We really enjoyed it.

After eating, we went into the local market to see what was on offer. It was all local products you might find at a farmer’s market in Seattle and was cool to see the Slovakian version of it.

After the market, we went to see the famous Blue Church, dedicated to St. Elizabeth. This is not the oldest church in Bratislava (only about 100 years), but it is definitely iconic and very beautiful.

We wandered around Bratislava some more, taking in the Danube, observing the “UFO” on top of one of the bridges, and enjoying the sunshine and warm spring weather.

We also wandered up to the Bratislava castle. This castle was destroyed in the early 1800’s and rebuilt based on it’s original design in the 1950’s.We didn’t go inside, but enjoyed walking around the grounds and the courtyard, and taking in the views of Bratislava. It was such a beautiful day and we were happy to be outside.

We ate dinner at a local spot called Modrá Hviezda, which ended up being pretty tasty and the restaurant itself was really cool inside.

The next day, we packed up and headed off to Budapest. More on that coming soon, but first, a couple of random highlights from Bratislava: