Continuing the "Hostel" trail

To continue on my trail of “Hostel” I headed to Bratislava where the movie was supposedly based, however quite the contrary to the movies perception the town is quite attractive and the people are really friendly. The first day I went walking around the old town taking in the sites and what I can only describe as a “smurfy” church.

This church is pale blue and white in every simple aspect, as I said I could think of nothing other than smurf church. After this I took in a few more of the sites making my way to the castle which overlooks the city and the UFO style bridge tower that taints it. The bridge also offers a view over the rest of the new city, built in typical soviet fashion with building after building of rectangular blocks, atleast they are painted nice pastel colours.

The next day I walked around the castle which is quite strange as its almost like a castle built in the new age, all shiny and white. The castle is also surrounded by nice grounds that are lovely without being spectacular. Walking back to a brewery on the way to lunch we checked out the street art that Bratislava is famous for. The statues include a doorman welcoming you to a hotel, a man peeking out of a pothole posing while working and a hidden photographer embracing his identity as paparazzi. The photographer was also nicely placed behind the corner of a bar by the name of paparazzi!

After yet another fine goulash, its easy to like the cuisine here despite it being a fraction heavy, we headed out to the castle ruins. The ruins are an easy bus ride out of town but unfortunately we arrived just in time for the castle doors to close – can’t help but be frustrated by non-peak times. Still we had time to walk around the castle and take in the gorgeous setting right on the Danube river watching the sunset and peering up at what napoleon left of the castle on the hill. Despite the fact that the castle is incomplete it has a look about it that makes it nicer to me than the restored castle looking over Bratislava. After a few beers and photos of the castle I was ready to head back to Vienna. Just to make things even more bizarre the guy that was in the dorm with me just happened to be the owner of the Loft hostel in Budapest, a hostel which I had been sort of working at last Christmas. A guy I had talked to a few times on the phone but never met…..small world hey?