Bratislava, Anyone been? Lots of us are taking over an Easy jet plane in February for a few days in Brat! It's gunna be great, 80degrees, sand, sun, long white beaches, palm trees, soooooooo looking forward to it.

Has anyone been? any recommendations of places to stay or go?

Taaa
:D

Where on earth is it?

Have I got my geography way of beam? I've been to what I thought was bratislava and thought it was in Slovakia in which case it's going to be bloody cold in February. Wrap up well and forget about sunny beaches. Just for my own peace of mind I've just done a search for Bratislava on www.dogpile.com and am sorry to say neeee...k you've got the wrong end of the stick

Take plenty of woollies, furs etc and wrap up very warm. It was very cold there by the end of August. :D

No. It's going to be hot and sunny and have lots of beaches with many many many beautiful women. :mad:

Don't make me angry. :rant:
:rolleyes:

Apart from tricking me into taking far to many warm clothes and implying they all eat potatoes, is it ok????
:D

Is there anything to do apart from drink Vodka??

:D

Yeah, I've been, although it was about 15 years ago (but from what I've heard it hasn't changed much....I used to live over there).

The river Danube flows really, really quickly through the city. There's an amazing bridge that looks like it has the Starship Enterprise hovvering above it, it's a restaurant.

The town is quite pretty, but to be honest, there's not much there really. A few handicraft shops and plenty of vodka places, that's about it. It's cheap though.

Spend half a day wandering round, then get on the train and go to Vienna which is only about an hour or so away. Much more to do there.

It will be bitterly cold and there won't be any tourist trade in February.

neee...k, it was really beautiful when I went there to present a research paper in 1995. By late August I was freezing in sandals and summer clothes but I am nesh. I think they have nice restaurants; I self-catered for dietary reasons and bought fruit/veg from the market or supermarkets.

Whether you take winter woollies or just your bikini is for you to decide. Personally I'd only consider the former.:D :D

COLD? :suspect:
No beaches? :suspect:
No scantiy dressed women? :suspect:

Nooooooo.

:mad:

It was a really beautiful and unspoiled place when I went. HOpe it still is. I'm sure you'll give us rave reviews after you get back. :D :D :D

nee...k good news and bad news. Good news is the conference I attended was at Banska Bastrika University, so please forget everything I said about being really beautiful and unspoiled.

The really bad news is Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia is on the Danube. My recollection is that it was like most other capital cities. As it is on the Danube in February it will be very cold, wet, slushy snow and in my opinion an altogether miserable time of the year for that sort of thing. On the plus side I think it is only 6 miles from the Austrian border and 13 miles from the capital of Austria, the name of which eludes me right now. (Failed CSE Geography :D )

Have fun :D :D

Originally posted by wendygs
By late August I was freezing in sandals and summer clothes but I am nesh.

Oh dear Neeeeeek.
Funny that your name and the word Nesh starts with the same letter.. :hihi:

I saw the danube in March, bloody fast flowing ugly wide river, which you'd be dead if you fell in.. ( Brrrrr...)

Going to these old eastern cities is fantastic fun though, food is generally fantastic and very very cheap. And the old Communist buildings and stuff is fascinating..

Come with us the muddy, about 30 people so far :) you can walk about in shorts and T-shirt pretenting not to be cold!

Originally posted by neeeeeeeeeek
Come with us the muddy, about 30 people so far :) you can walk about in shorts and T-shirt pretenting not to be cold!

I'll expect pictures of you enjoying the hot weather (in shorts & T shirt) just like when you came back from Goa :hihi: :hihi:

Originally posted by wendygs
I think it is only 6 miles from the Austrian border and 13 miles from the capital of Austria, the name of which eludes me right now. (Failed CSE Geography :D ) [/B]

Vienna (or Wien) as I mentioned in my thread above.

I'll expect pictures of you enjoying the hot weather (in shorts & T shirt) just like when you came back from Goa

I will bring you a coconut back from the beach. It may look a little like a potato but don't be fooled.
:D

saw the danube in March, bloody fast flowing ugly wide river, which you'd be dead if you fell in..

I shall swim in it in your honour :)

I'll be thinking of you and hope you understand if I want to be counted out rather than in :D

The bridge is very memorable. It's like something out of War of the Worlds! here (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/skweb/simon/large/bratislava/bridge.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sward.users.netlink.co.uk/cgi-bin/page%3Flarge/bratislava&h=224&w=419&sz=19&tbnid=evKao9AeI7YJ:&tbnh=65&tbnw=122&hl=en&start=3&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbratislava%2Bbridge%26svnum%3D10%26hl %3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN)

This post makes me laugh. Good old Brits, anything abroad and we think "heyhey".

I've been to Bratislava before with work. It has a nice old town but on the whole it has nothing to write home about. It played second fiddle to Prague in Czechoslovakia and after Slovakia became independent it found itself a capital city. The beer however is good, and like all Eastern European cities, it's dirt cheap.

(Nerdish comment here: Bratislava became a part of (Czecho-)Slovakia after WW1 when Czeck forces seized the town from Hungary so as to have a port of the Danube. Its population till then was a mix of Hungarian and Germans, and they got the boot after WW2. Interestingly, the town was called Pressburg until WW1, then was called Wilson after the US president, before being called Bratislava to make it sound Slavic).

Apart from that, lots of high rise flats.

If I were you, mate, once you've landed, get on the bus and go to Vienna, it's only about 30 miles away and is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY GREAT!!

My overriding concern is will they sell cider???

God, 3 days we are gunna be there in freezing conditions eating bloody potatoes. who's idea was it anyway.


:mad:

Cider??? Forget it. Lager and vodka.

But don't be so disparaging about the food. They can do things with spuds that you've never imagined possible!! As long as there's lard to go with them, that is.

FOR SALE. Easyjet flights to Bratislava.

Early Feb, beat the crowds. I have heard that there are many wonderful beaches, beautiful people, free beer, special price.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Originally posted by fhain29
If I were you, mate, once you've landed, get on the bus and go to Vienna, it's only about 30 miles away and is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY GREAT!!

nee...k that's an excellent bit of advice, Vienna is something else and well worth the time even in mid-winter. stunning.

Brataslava has a huge party scene now. A lot of artists from Europe and in particular the US who set up camp in Berlin for the cheap rent and the artistic environment have now moved on to Bratislava

I guess you need to know what yr looking for to find it, but a lot of cutting edge people in electronic music are now housed there.

I was told by my friend in Germany, that some of the less popular towns in Slovak Rep. still have megaphones on each lamp post, where the communist party announcements used to be made, but they just have music playing out of the ones that still work these days.

They said that the further into the country you go the more interesting it is. And if the beer is anything like as good as the Czech stuff, it'll be pretty fantastic.

went through Brat last Feburary on our way to the High Tatras for our SNOWBOARDING holiday.... pack warm, really really warm!!! :) we didn't stay in Bratislava long, just the train and bus station, everything has a very eastern block ex communist feeling to it.
however the people are fantastic, desperate to try out their English, the food is brilliant (more to the slovak cuisine than potatos and mushrooms) and the beer is cheap, exceptionally cheap, last year it was about 12p for a litre of budva!
have a fantastic couple of days but dress for snow!