Up with a hotel coffee and shower – Pension Petit has very comfortable beds but the shower is a little poor (make our old one look pressured!)

Out the door to root around the streets: walk through Michael’s Gate to the busy area towards Main Square

There’s a Starbucks! Dave’s eyes light up at the prospect of a long coffee ????

The streets are filled with several tours at a time, thankfully we have one booked later

We pass Čumil (or Rubberneck), a statue of a “man at work” poking his head from the gutter – he’s unfortunately lost his head twice and now there’s a sign for him (always a reason behind a sign needing to be there!)

Stroll on until we reach where we can see the Slovakian Uprising Bridge (or more fondly known as the UFO Bridge)

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt for some noms and anothet pick-me-up

Met in front of the 18th century Plague memorial (which wiped out Bratislava by 40%) including statues of the first Christian Hungarian king

Clear influence from being conquered by Austrian-Hungarian empire for 1,000+ years and even the capital of the Hungarian kingdom for 200 years!

A holocaust memorial: very interesting to hear of the remorse and hard-to-accept skeletons of being a “fascist puppet state” during WWII…

Even difficulty currently with the stance of the people being split, the current Russian invasion of Ukraine being 50% in agreement with Putin…

Unfortunately, there’s apparently a lot of fake news and, as a result, Russian-sympathetic opinions. It seem to have originated as envy/interest that they were the first Slavic country to be independent back in the day (also, we’re told that that’s the reason for the blue, red and white flag colours in this region)

We pass several points of interest, including multiple statues (of people who visited once and just to increase tourism), along with religious landmarks

It’s also a city that’s claimed many names over the years with the range of visitors: known by German’s as Pressburg and Hungarian’s as Pozsony – an Eastern Europe metropolitan city

We make it to Bratislava Castle where you get an amazing view!

From the top you can see two countries that border Slovakia: where you see the wind farms, it’s Austria, where you see the refinery (or playfully named Mordor, like LOTR), it’s Hungary

Down from the castle at the end of the tour we go hunting for beer, after a brief walk along some of the city walls and a Jewish memorial exhibit

Finding a bar with more than 2 people in it is seemingly difficult – even tho it’s after 5!

Go to Factory Pub for a pint (or two) of Pilsner Urquell (a Czech lager seemed fitting as we are in former Czechoslovakia) – the bartender even bargains Daisy down from attempting to order a glass of wine!

It’s food time again… off to a curry house – Red Chilli – and we’ve got high hopes with that name and not having been able to find an Indian in over a week ????

The options of spice: European, medium or Indian ????

Food verdicts:

• Garlic naan – a little bit thin but good flavours and fresh
• Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM) with indian heat – good amount of chicken tikka, solid indian flavour; strong tikka, chunks of tomato that are both sweet and spicy; good red sauce and good level of spice – Dave’s favourite
• Chicken Karadi (jalfrezi alternative) with indian heat – strong capsicum flavours, not tomato-y, tender chicken, authentic Indian spice flavours with a kick; each bite reveals a different flavour, some lemongrass, some cardamom, some citrusy – Daisy’s favourite
• Beers – a bit sad – Cobra tastes like it has spent some time being warm, the on-tap pilsner was a bit rough but both fine to help cool some of the heat – which was perfect – exactly the spice level we expected for Indian spice

Overall, Red Chilli is approved by Davesy ✅

We find Barrock (a rock bar, it’s all in the name) which is all about English rock – very good playlist, and the drinks aren’t bad either