How Dead is Bratislava?

We spent a few nights in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. The smallish city has a few nice pedestrian streets, a few expensive bars lining the river, a small castle, and a “UFO Bridge.” But overall we found the town boring, expensive, and lacking much of the charm of the other cities we have been through.

The UFO bridge

In fact, in talking to other backpackers since, it appears that Bratislava has developed quite a reputation as the town everyone wishes they had not spent time in. Not because it isn’t a perfectly acceptable city, but when compared to the other fantastic cities, towns, and attractions of Europe, Bratislava’s mere ordinary-ness leaves a lot to be desired when traveling. It’s hard to put a finger on why it leaves something to be desired – every Slovak was very nice to us and clearly proud of their young country. But without great attractions, and with restaurants that appeared to cater more to diplomats on expense accounts than ordinary people, Bratislava had a distinct lack of charm. And nobody wants to settle for “Meh?” when you have only a limited number of days to travel.

Bratislava streets with castle

One of Bratislava’s attractions is a statue of a man in a sewer.

A cool church – nicknamed the Smurf Church.

And the answer to the title’s question: so dead that during a mid-week pub crawl the pub crawl leader acknowledged there was nothing at all going on in the city, and so we were going to have to sneak into an on-campus discotheque at a nearby university.

Jami survives as the only girl on the pub crawl

The half-empty university club

Amusingly, despite being fairly sleepy Bratislava bars love wrist bands, giving the night a Cancun-esque flair.