RV Roadtrip – Bratislava, Slovakia

As time was of the essence, we didn’t get to linger in Budapest for more than just a few days. Next on the agenda was a visit to Bratislava in Slovakia. Again, we would only have a few days before we needed to keep the rig moving north and our date with the ferry that would take us to Sweden.

It was a couple hour drive from Budapest to the camping in Bratislava but then there was some sort of roadwork delay and then we missed the exit for the camping! So a couple hour drive turned into more than we were expecting. We had to choose our route carefully as we needed to avoid drifting into Austria and paying a large road toll fee and possibly being fined for possibly being over our stated weight limit (though I doubt we are, we didn’t want to risk finding out for sure).

Going through the old border checkpoint.

Crossing the Danube again.

Autocamp Zlaté Piesky was an interesting site. Located outside of the historic center of Bratislava, the camping sits on a large lake, has little bars and restaurants and plenty of cabanas to rent. What the camping doesn’t have is defined pitches so it’s a bit of a free for all, our least favorite type of camping. 

Once we staked out our spot we started to notice some odd anomalies with our fellow campers. There were at least 3 massive and brand new caravans parked in the general vicinity, all with UK license plates and all with a gaggle of children running amok. None of the caravans seemed to have dads, only moms who tended to yell at the top of their lungs at the children, and not in English, ever. The caravans had the plastic wrap still on the furniture, complete outdoor kitchens set up and even outdoor washing machines and dryers setup, clearly here for the long haul. (Much later we were told these might have been Irish gypsies who apparently have money? We couldn’t figure it out.)

And then there was this – 

Getting into Bratislava was very straight forward.  Just outside of the camping was a tram stop and a few minutes later we were in the heart of the old town area.

We had a lovely wander around the old town and ended up having lunch at a spot called Cafe Verne where I had an excellent Hungarian goulash that was super tasty and slightly spicy and a very refreshing cold beer (or two). In my enthusiasm about the goulash I accidentally tipped the waiter 50%! Oops. (It was only a 10€ tip but Shani wouldn’t let me live it down for quite a while)

Nom Nom!

Wish you were beer!

Here are a few interesting facts about Bratislava courtesy of Wikipedia.

• The first known permanent settlement of the area began with the Linear Pottery Culture, around 5000 BC.
• About 200 BC, the Celtic Boii tribe founded the first significant settlement, a fortified town.
• With a population of about 430,000, it is one of the smaller capitals of Europe but still the country’s largest city.
• Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two sovereign states.
• Bratislava receives around 1 million tourists every year.

Here are some more shots from Bratislava, unfortunately we had an overcast day –

We spent the afternoon wandering around the pedestrian only old town taking in the sites. As we were on a tight time table we needed to move on the next day which was too bad as we quite liked the town and it was so easy to get to from the camping.

Stay tuned as we swing into the Czech Republic for a day, visit Krakow and push through Poland on our way to Lithuania.