Festive Bratislava #1 - The Christmas Market

Hey, fellow Steemians!

Christmas is a time of joy and happiness, a time to share with your families and friends. It could also be a perfect time to travel! You don’t have to spend the Christmas Eve in an airplane but taking a short trip a week or two before may be just what you need. With the holiday season approaching, you can experience the city you’re visiting in a different light. Europe is perfect for doing city breaks as you can pretty much get anywhere in an hour or two by airplane. As for us, we found rather cheap tickets to Bratislava (like €15 cheap) and we said, why not? We’ve never been to Slovakia and that looked like a great opportunity!

After we landed and passed the security procedures, we caught a bus from the airport to our Airbnb. Taking bus is a really cheap and convenient way to get from the airport to wherever you’re staying since it’s operating frequently and costs only €0.90. As soon as we reached our apartment, we left our bags and headed to the center.

If you’re staying somewhere close to the Bratislava old town, you probably won’t need to use public transport as everything is located within walking distance. After about 5-10 minutes of walking from our place, we got to the center. The entrance to the old town is marked by Michael’s Gate, the only gate still standing from the medieval times and also one of the symbols of Bratislava. The streets past the gate boasted many restaurants, bars and shops all nested on the ground level of beautiful medieval and baroque buildings.

What we immediately noticed was that the city was not at all touristy. Sure, there were foreigners here and there, but we really liked how genuine it felt. Everything was garnished with Christmas decorations and everyone around us looked relaxed and in a festive mood.

When we reached Hlavné námestie (which translates to Main Square), we found ourselves among dozens of food stands where people gathered to get a taste of Slovakian cuisine. If you ever find yourselves in a European city during the Christmas period, by all means, visit a Christmas market and try out some local food. With so many fast food restaurants growing like mushrooms after the rain, street food stalls selling local delicacies are slowly disappearing and this is a unique opportunity to eat something different.

We tried so many different kinds of food here and for meat lovers, there are many choices. At cigánska pečienka stall, we ate sausages (served with mustard and bread) and pork in a bun (with mustard and onions). Both were very delicious. Pair this with mulled wine or tea to warm yourself up, and you’re good to go for the rest of the day!

Most of the prices are pretty reasonable, usually 2-4 euros for food and 1-2 euros for drinks.

Another good meat choice is roasted pork which can be found in the second part of the market, located in front of Slovak National Theatre building (just down the street from the Main Square). This choice is a little pricier and is paid by the gram. The price is €3.80 per 100 grams (around 200 grams is a good measure if you take bread and some side dish).

If you don’t eat meat, you can try lángos - an Eastern European specialty made of deep-fried dough, topped with sour cream and cheese (just be sure to double-check the ingredients before buying, since sometimes the ham is included).

There are also many options for dessert. Good choices are lokše, thin pancakes made of potato. They are pretty similar to French crêpes, especially when served with a fruit jam or chocolate filling. You can also try nut or poppy seed strudels, but be cautious as they are quite big and sugary (and also very delicious if you have a sweet tooth like us).

Yet another option is trdelník. If you visited Hungary or Romania, you may know it as kürtőskalács or chimney cake (we stuck with the latter name since we weren’t confident enough in pronouncing the former xD). It’s a kind of bread-ish cake, rolled around a stick, grilled and dipped in sugar and another topping (like chocolate, cinnamon, cocoa etc).

In the evening, the market gets even more bustling! There’s a stage and if you’re lucky there might be a band playing or some other kind of activity. But even if not, many locals will flock here and everyone would be in a great mood, just chilling out, eating and drinking.

Thank you for reading and hope you liked this post! See you in 2018! :)