Bus to Bratislava!

I woke up Saturday morning, got ready to go, finished packing and then headed downstairs to check out and to get breakfast before taking off for the bus station. I thought I had figured out how to get to the bus station on my own, but I asked the reception just to be certain as I didn’t want to be wandering around Vienna with all of my things lost with no idea how to get to my bus. Turns out, I was a few or more blocks off, which wouldn’t have been the end of the world had I still been able to find it, but as there is no guarantee of that, I’m glad I asked! They had printouts of how to get to all of the major bus and train terminals in the city which was nice. I just needed to take 2 U-lines (subways) and get off at Stadion and I would be right where I catch my bus! I thought I was going to have to take a different subway and walk a few blocks, so it was nice to find out I didn’t have to do that. I had my last breakfast at the hostel and then made my way to Westbahnhof to catch the first U-line. I had bought a 24 hour pass the day before so I could still use that. Transferring U-lines was easy and before I knew it I was at Stadion! I got off and walked around the building (as my instructions from the hostel told me) and voila! There was the bus terminal. Pretty sweet! I got there about 11am and my bus wasn’t until 11:25 so I just sat down and waited. This particular bus pretty much just travels back and forth between Vienna and Bratislava. My bus.

When I booked my ticket online I selected my seat (front row so I could see better) but there were only like 10 other people on this bus (think Greyhound) so I really could have sat anywhere. The bus was really nice! It had leather seats, free Wi-Fi, free hot drinks and a free personal entertainment center where you could watch movies, listen to music or watch the map. Since the ride was less than 1.5 hours, I just watched the map and listened to music on my phone. We stopped at the airport to pick up some more people and then we were off to Bratislava! The ride was pretty uneventful…we just passed a lot of country and wind turbines, but it was pretty. My hostel in Bratislava was kind enough to provide suggestions on how to get to the hostel from different spots in the city so I got off the bus at the first of its 2 stop in Bratislava, which was just at a city bus stop that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere lol I was really glad the hostel provided more info cuz I would have been so lost without it. I had to buy a ticket to ride the bus, but it was only €.7 for 15 minutes so it was really cheap. Then I got on bus #80 towards Kollarovo Nam. Luckily I saw someone else validate their ticket once they were on the bus so I just followed suit. The bus ride was about 10 minutes and then I had to walk a few blocks to the hostel, but they provided really good directions so it was easy. I checked in at the hostel and made my way to my room. I am staying in a 10-bed dorm this time (I was in a 4-bed girls only dorm in Vienna) so it already had a different vibe. There are 2 rooms (although there’s no door between the two) with 3 bunk beds in one and 2 in the other for a total of 10 beds. I picked a lower bunk this time to try it out since I was an upper bunk last time. I made up my bed (the hostel provides linens) and got things settled. It didn’t appear that all 10 beds were taken which would be nice.

At this point it was almost 2pm so I headed downstairs and asked the reception for a recommendation on lunch. Tommy (reception) recommend the Slovak Pub for some traditional Slovak food and told me to try the dumplings. I had read that potato dumplings were a Slovak national dish so I was excited to try them. The Pub was really busy so I took that as a good sign. I ordered a beer, potato dumplings with sheep’s cheese and bacon (branching out again!) and a creamy garlic soup which is supposed to be another pretty traditional Slovak food.

The potato dumplings were delicious! If I’m being honest, they reminded me of mac n cheese lol the dumplings are small and more like little pasta than Asian dumplings so that mixed with the cheese and you basically have mac n cheese. The garlic soup wasn’t all that good though. It was VERY garlicy and was just a little overwhelming even for someone who loves garlic.

After lunch I walked around the city a bit- it’s actually quite a small city so it’s easy to see a lot in a short amount of time. I stumbled upon a festival going on in the main square where all of these kids dance groups were performing. The performers ranged in age from probably 4 to 17 so obviously the younger ones were just adorable and the older ones were really good. Most of the songs they danced to were in Slovak, but 2 groups performed to Grease and Chorus Line so that was entertaining. I stayed and watched them for at least an hour and then continued walking around.

Eventually I made my way back to the hostel and decided to do laundry as it was free (you just had to pay €1.50 for the soap). I skyped with Sterling for about an hour after I put my clothes in and then started blogging so I didn’t realize how much time had passed but I realized that it was taking a long time. I checked when I had called Sterling and my clothes had been in the washer for over 2 hours! It must have spun my clothes at least 15 times. Each time I thought it was going to be the last, but it just kept going! I tried everything to get it to stop and unlock the door- paused it, turned it off, pry open the door, turn off the power- NOTHING WORKED! The washing machine took my clothes hostage!! Finally, after like 15 minutes of trying the door magically unlocked and I was able to get my clothes out. They were practically dry at this point from all of the spinning, but I put them in the dryer (on a timer!) and then headed to the bar to check it out. The bar was empty except for 1 other person and the bartender. The other guy was from Brazil and the bartender was from Bratislava. The bartender has worked at the hostel for 6 years and is now the bar manager. He also is currently living just across the border in Hungary because it’s way cheaper to live there, which I found interesting. He said he doesn’t speak Hungarian or know much about Hungary, he just lives there and pays taxes lol eventually some more people came in and I talked to a guy from the Netherlands that was traveling around for his 2-week spring break. He had actually been to Seattle and Olympia as he had a friend in Olympia and they visited Seattle just for the day but he said he had done all of the touristy things like Pike Place Market.

My clothes were finally done after this (this had become almost a 4-hour ordeal!! For one load of laundry!) so I brought them upstairs and got my outfit ready for tomorrow and then got ready for bed. As I was lying in bed a couple came in and looked at me in my bed and the girl above me in her bed and seemed very confused. They told the girl above me that they had put their sheets on that bed earlier today, but she said that the bed was empty when she got here so they went and asked reception. Reception came up with them and apparently the cleaning lady had cleaned the wrong two beds (we aren’t assigned a bed number here like at the last hostel, which seems it would make this kind of thing happen often). The reception deduced that the bed across from me was supposed to be emptied (we are supposed to take our sheets downstairs when we check out) so she stripped it and the girl from the couple set up her bed there while the man had to take a bed on the other side of the room. I offered to move, but it still wouldn’t have put them in the same bunk so they declined. I was happy about that since I was ready for bed and didn’t really want to move lol then it was off to bed…until 4:50am when 3 of our guy roommates got home and were very loud- they were having normal conversations in the middle of our room! It was very rude and annoying.