It took an hour to get out of Budapest due to roadworks being on a bike I managed to bypass some of it, short ride on the freeway after that to Bratislava, the border was a non-event, slow down and ride through there was no one there just some abandoned buildings, 230km, 2:55hrs.

According to my online research I thought I needed a Vignette for my bike but when I went to buy one the guy at the service station did not have any then he called someone and said bikes don’t need a vignette in Slovakia and Czech.

Bratislava, a smaller city population 460,000, reminiscent of Ljubljana with the castle on the hill and the names of the countries are similar enough to get people mixed up Slovakia and Slovenia and in Slovakian, Slovakia is Slovenska hahaha. Not a lot of traffic on the roads and the drivers are sane. No metro, only trams and buses a bit confusing because of the language, easier to just walk. First rain in 52 days and 15c have not seen weather like this since Switzerland.

The old city is well preserved, the castle was burnt down a while ago and recently rebuilt so its a new building which houses the History Museum which has a few photographs, paintings and miscellaneous stuff.

Free walking tours is something else I discovered they last about 2 hours, though they are not really free as a tip (5 euro, work that out) is expected, about 20-50 people usually turn up, a good introduction to the city and they are in English. The one in Bratislava was done by a guy from Brisbane who has lived here for 4 years.

http://unitedeuropefreetours.com/

Tip – Visit the restaurant/microbrewery Bratislavsky Mestiansky Pivovar to the right of the Crowne Plaza on Drevena Street.