I awoke at 6:48 am to the loud sound of a Serbian guy snoring in the bunk across from me. But it wasn’t until 9 am that I’d managed to pack up, eat the hostel breakfast, and start riding.
Today’s ride was pretty boring. The normal route was under maintenance so there was a large detour that took me on some busy roads past endless and uninspiring wheatfields. The highlight of the ride was meeting an Australian family that was on a day trip from Vienna to Bratislava. The dad and I rode together for 3km or so.
He told me how he’d spent four years straight traveling overland around the world. He saved up as a bartender (he even lived above the bar) in London for a year, then off he went for the next four to slow travel and work. He talked about being in Ireland for the end of The Troubles and having experienced other world events at a personal scale.
Returning to the humdrum of one place after four years on the move must have been quite the shock. I didn’t get to ask him about it though because he decided to hang back with his family – fair enough – and I zoomed onward toward city center to find a room.
A warning to riders who are sensitive to loud noises: the way into Bratislava is, mercifully, separate from cars but holy shit is it loud.
I was hungry as hell so I fired up my HappyCow app as soon as I made it into Bratislava. Lucky me, a spot with rave reviews called Vegan Kiosk was nearby. I had the Tempeh Burger. Yuhm. I ended up back there for dinner too and had the Classic Cheeseburger, and a slice of their sweet bread. Yuhuhm. This place gets 10/10 from me. I recommend their Tempeh Burger without reservation but I’d avoid the panini, it does not compare to the other items on the menu.
Between meals, I found a craft beer pub where I thought I’d sit down for a pint and search the internet for a room. €23 and a couple hours later I had made four Slovakian friends and drank a lot of really good Eastern European beer. One of the two couples were into cycling. The guy was a bike messenger and the woman a photographer. They suggested my next tour should be around the Baltic Sea. I’m in!
I rode with this couple for a few minutes toward my hostel then said goodbye. My first night in Bratislava was a success.
