Did you know that Bratislava is the smallest capital city of Europe? Well after its independence, it started carving an identity of its own. It's a charming city and we squeezed it in between our trip to Czech from Hungary. 

We stopped at Bratislava on our bus trip from Prague and our next bus ride was scheduled at 8 in the evening to Vienna. Basically we had less than 5 hours to explore whatever we could, with all the luggage (because the cloak room wasn't convenient) with me 5 months pregnant. This wasn't a babymoon, it was backpacking with a bump 😂

The bus stop itself has the Bratislava sign; which is so important (for people like us) to get clicked with. We walked to the old town from the bus stop. The Old town is a quaint 18 th century, pedestrian only place. Cobbled streets and exquisite architecture. Our first stop was the Blue Church. It was a true beauty and we were lucky to have listened to the ongoing mass. The entrance is free and this Hungarian Church of St Elizabeth is popular with the tourists and locals alike.

We then started strolling on the streets of the Old Town. It was evening and hence all the youngsters were chilling out. The vibe was relaxed and totally cool. We can never forget what it felt like, seeing all those cafes, jiving to the music playing.

We saw the Primate's Palace from outside (because time crunch! Duh!) The architecture of every Slovakian construction is magnificent. Then we saw the Michael's gate from a distance and the St Martin's Cathedral too. We then proceeded towards the most photographed thing of this city: Cumil.

Cumil, also known as Man at work is a brass statue of a worker peeing from a manhole. It's life size, and anyone can mistake it for a real person. There are so many theories surrounding Cumil. Some say he had been cleaning the sewer and had been peeping out to catch fresh air. While some say he's peeping from below to see beneath the women's skirts and so on. Whatever it is, Cumil is really unique. You can see hordes of tourists queuing up to take a snap. It's not much difficult to locate him; the crowd surrounding him can be easily spotted! 

The word 'Cumil' means 'watcher' in Slovakian language. There are other statues too, and these have been comissioned by the famous Slovakian sculptor Viktor Hulik in 1997, after the country's independence. The best way to find him is by foot. He's there is front of the Fishermen's Gate. This statue has lost its head twice because of careless drivers. So now he has his own sign 'Man at work'.

We then reached the Old town square where we had coffee and looked at the quirky souvenirs. Our final stop was the UFO Tower or the SNP Most.

The UFO Tower is an observation deck and also the symbol of Bratislava. The tower is 95 metres high and the elevator takes 45 seconds to go to the top. It offers 100 kms of line of sight from the top so it's definitely magical. However we didn't have time and hence could not go to the top. The SNP Most or Bridge is the world's longest bridge to have one pylon and one cable stayed plane. We raved over the entire area and kept on admiring the chill vibes of this city while walking back to our bus stop. It was one hell of 5hours of exploration!

This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023