Trip to Bratislava: Main Station and Presidential Palace

From the main station to the presidential palace

Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia (which is not Slovenia) is a small Central European city located near Vienna, the capital of Austria. I advised my girlfriend to fly from Taipei to Vienna, because I think VIA is the best airport in this area (and close enough to Slovenia) and I thought we could spare a day and pay a visit to the nearby Bratislava, which is only 65km away from Vienna.

Bratislava (370.000 inhabitants) is small compared to Vienna (1.7 million inhabitants), but still bigger than Ljubljana (280.000 inhabitants), the capital of my home country Slovenia. My girlfriend and I took the train from Vienna (Südbahnhof Ostbahn) at 13.25 and arrived in Bratislava's Main Station (Hlavná Stanica) about one hour later. Prior to our trip, I had made a map for our tour (click on the map (via GoogleMaps) on the left to enlarge to 1360×1460) which was very helpful, so I'm sharing it here, it may be helpful to you, too. Bratislava's central part is small enough to be explored by foot, but best is you reserve an afternoon to see the historic center, the castle and try some of the local food. That's what we did and let me show you what we saw during our Bratislava adventure. This is part 1: Main Station, Štefánikova road, Presidential palace.

✰ Bratislava Main Station (Hlavná Stanica)

Bratislava's main railway station looks awful. I seriously expected more than what we saw and even, when I had fears, it may look bad, I have not thought it looks that bad. It's certainly not worthy of a capital city of a young aspiring European country, that wants to be seen as modern and developed (I could say the same for Ljubljana's main station, but at least we're currently building one of the most modern stations in southern Central Europe). When it comes to Bratislava's Hlavná Stanica, the first thing you notice it's small, old and not very clean. The inside is "ok" (partly), but the outside is really a shame. And I say that because some parts of Bratislava are really beautiful (wait for my next post about the historic center) and it would only make sense that visitors, who come to this city by the train, get a good first impression upon their arrival.

The inside of the station is full of shops with overpriced food and drinks. The girls at that "Hostels Information" counter were helpful (and the only friendly people we encountered that day in Bratislava!). They told us where we can get our luggage stored.

Úschovňa batožín or the luggage storage service at the Hlavná Stanica is where we stored our luggage (we paid 3.50eur) and left for the city center. The man, who took our bags, wasn't friendly, but at least the price was cheap. There's also a toilet nearby, but my girlfriend said it was dirty.

In front of the main station's building are many obscure people.

I wonder, who was the architect of this masterpiece building.

The buses drop people off here. And many taxis are also in the area.

This is the way to the center.

People paste ads on every pillar here.

A pity I can't go to the Red Army Chorus concert, looks promising.

Šancová road leads out of the center. Nice modern building on the left.

Pražská road, leading to northern Bratislava (out of the historic center, which lays in the southern part). On top of the hill is the famous 200m tall Kamzík TV Tower, one of Bratislava's landmark buildings. See the big gorenje ads on the facades of the buildings on the left? Gorenje is one of the few Slovenian companies, that's known around some parts of Europe. They are producing home appliances and is currently one of the 8th largest manufacturers in Europe in this field. Don't you feel proud, when you see a company from your home country being successful in another country? Well, if you're from a tiny country like Slovenia, you do.

✰ Štefánikova road

This is a long road that leads to the Presidential Palace of the president of Slovakia, as well as to the historic center. Nothing special to see here, you just have to walk like 10min to come to the famous palace.

You'll only see cars rushing by on the Štefánikova road.

Pozor! Padá omietka! sounds similar in Slovenian. We say Pozor! Pada omet. And it means be careful, the facade is falling off. This trash can caught my attention. Someone managed to tuck in an old umbrella between the pillar and the can: Amazing.

There was also a weird uncle walking in front of us, when we walked along Štefánikova. He had a big cross on a necklace hanging down from his chest to his tummy. And the cross had a small blue light at the center. He just smiled, when he passed by. There were also a lot of graffiti in this area. Bratislava in general is full of graffiti (unfortunately Ljubljana, too, but not Vienna), which is a pity, because it makes the city look bad.

✰ Presidential palace (Prezidentský Palác)

This is a park behind the presidential palace. People read books here or rest.

The Presidential Palace of Slovakia is also called Grassalkovich Palace, after a Hungarian count, for whom it was built in 1760. We walked around the park a little, took some photos and returned to the Štefánikova road.

Štefánikova road again.

The front side of the Presidential Palace of Slovakia.

✰ Hodž square

Modern Tatracentrum, a building of the Tatra Bank.

Slovakian auntie taking a nap near the Presidential palace.

My girl on Hodž square near the Presidential palace.

There's a huge intersection on the Hodž square (Hodžovo námestie).

We've seen the Bratislava castle for the first time from here.

And then we left for Bratislava's beautiful historic center, where we also had the pleasure to meet a very rude Slovakian waiter. This and much more in the part 2 of our Bratislava trip. Stay tuned...

Go on my Bratislava Tour NEXT: Michael's Gate

Related: [Slovakia is not Slovenia][My Travels][All photos by MKL, 2010]