Bratislava is a destination I had never even heard of until I went nutso on eBay and bought around 25 European guide books just because they were a dollar each.  I cannot express just how uneducated I was on Europe before I started making plans to see it.

Many books will tell you that Bratislava is not worth an overnight stay.  Now that I’ve been there, I can also say the same thing.  But you know what? I like being able to say “It’s not really worth an overnight stay” and have me saying that be based on me doing it.  I love all the knowledge I gained on my trip, even if it’s only stupid little things like that.

This overnight stay ended up being perfect since I found a 24-hour sale and got a full sized apartment for only $72.92.  The hotel was named Mamaison Residence.  There was free use of washers and dryers.  This was the perfect stop to catch up on things like laundry and sleep.  They even have a computer with internet in the lobby for those of you (ME!) who don’t travel with a laptop or smart phone.

I left the Prague train station and had to spend the rest of my Korunas before leaving since they were going to be worthless once I left.  Since I had planned out my budget so carefully, with the cost of everything I wanted to see, including transit, including food, including things like coffee or water or soda or whatever…plus a bit extra for “just in case”, I ended up leaving with enough to buy three packs of cigarettes, a huge bottle of Diet Pepsi and two ham and cheese croissants to take with me.

On the train, someone was in my reserved seat.  You don’t need to reserve a seat from Prague to Bratislava.  But I had one since I had bought my ticket online and it came with a reservation.  I am sure I overspent on my ticket bought online as well.  But it was important for me to have purchased as much as possible before I left.  I don’t really have anyone back at home I can call should I come across any problems.  So for me, the more I had booked and paid for before I left, the better I felt mentally.

When I arrived in Bratislava, it was POURING out. I don’t mean rain, I mean POURING.  My first mission was to purchase a 24 hour metro pass.  There was a machine but it kept spitting out my money. No one spoke English.  News stands didn’t sell 24 hour passes, only individual tickets.  I then tried to take a cab but they were asking for too much money.  I know this because on my hotel’s website, it listed how much a cab should cost.  The prices I were given were three times that.

So this left me with taking a bus to a tram.  But I don’t want to take a bus to a tram because I can’t purchase a metro pass.   I start having a meltdown.  Finally I start yelling at myself “JUST BUY A ONE WAY TICKET YOU DOOFUS” “OKAY I WILL. STOP YELLING AT ME”

I get on a bus, completely soaked.  I take the bus to a tram to my stop.  I knew exactly how to do this because I had researched it before going.  I get off and try to read my map to find my hotel.  It’s POURING out and my map is getting soaked.  A woman sees me and while she clearly does not speak English, she walks over and holds her umbrella over me, points to my map and gestures for me to hand it to her. I do and her face lights up with recognition and she motions for me to follow her.  I do and she leads me the one block to my hotel, the entire time holding her umbrella over me.   Her kindness has not been forgotten.  I’ve found myself offering help to tourists occasionally back in my hometown of NYC.

Key word “occasionally”.  I’m not THAT changed.

My hotel was a one bedroom apartment and it was gorgeous.  It was the nicest place I stayed this entire trip.  It had everything including a full kitchen and air conditioning.

Room view, how cool is this:

I opened my suitcase and found out that everything inside was soaked.   No worries, there is FREE laundry facilities downstairs.  Here is where I learned a very useful tip:  when using public laundry facilities in Europe (or anywhere really), check the lint trap on the dryer.  It wasn’t until after an hour when my clothes were still soaked, that I whined to a friend via email and he taught me this trick. I tried again and once I cleaned out the lint trip – voila – DRY CLOTHES!

While waiting for my clothes to dry, I walked around a bit and took some pictures.  Note the lack of swarms of tourists.  I’m not sure if that was because of the rain (which had ended by the time I was taking these) or if it’s the norm here.

Obligatory casino picture:

Bratislava may have not been a place that grabbed me, making me scream “WOW!”  But I would much rather spend any day doing laundry in Bratislava than to spend any hour doing it home in New York.