Bratislava

[stiffler]

Avoid it fullstop it is a shit hole with f**k all in it.

Heard that.

With one qualification (below), I'd have to disagree with that, on the basis of a long weekend at an NI football match.
Certainly Bratislava does not compare with Venice or Rome etc as "must-see" European cities, but neither is it a "shit hole with f**k all in it", either.
As it happens, I stayed on a day after the other fans had left and toured "properly" i.e. as a normal tourist. I found it to be a pefectly pleasant, if unexceptional medium-sized Central European city, cheap, not too commercialised or overrun with other tourists. The beer is very good (and good value) and the food is OK, if unexceptional. And btw, the girls were some of the prettiest I have seen anywhere (and I've travelled a fair bit!).
Tbh, in Irish terms, it may not be quite up with Dublin as a destination, but it's got at least as much going for it eg as Derry, Belfast or Cork and is streets ahead of any other Irish town/city (imo).

We're going over in October for the match but we're staying in Vienna and taking the train on the day ... anybody got any idea about the closing hours in Bratislava, might become an all-nighter and back on the train in the morning

One piece of advice to you and your fellow fans:
There is an "Irish" bar called The Dubliner in the city centre. DO NOT GO NEAR IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, DRUNK OR SOBER, DAY OR NIGHT, ALONE OR IN A CROWD. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW/MEET OUT THERE TO DO THE SAME, THEN TELL THEM AGAIN.
When the ROI team was out there a few years ago, some fans were badly beaten by bouncers/gangsters, totally withouit warning or provocation.
The same happened to some NI fans three years ago.

P.S. Before you think that I am being dramatic, or have got some sort of personal grudge against the place, that is not so - I never went near it myself. It may be explained, however, by a conversation I had with an Irish guy, then living in Budapest, who knew Bratislava well.
Apparently certain local "security firms"who supply door staff to bars and clubs etc  are actually front companies for the local mafia, who run protection rackets. Every now and then (presumably to keep the owners compliant), they will set a gang of hoods, tooled up and in quasi paramilitary unifom etc, on unsuspecting punters. Apparently The Dubliner suffers more than most because it is so central and attracts so many tourists, stag parties and football fans etc i.e. allows the thugs to make their point, without upsetting the locals or the police.

so were you recommend to eat/drink in the city centre?

[fitzroyalty]

I went to the Dubliner and had no problems; though subsequently heard it was a really rough spot, however when I was there all the staff were female. Fully agree the Slovakian women are hot. That said however the place in general really isn't up to much, the old town is nowhere near as impressive as the likes of Prague or Krackow for example; the nightlife isn't great and the few attractions that are there aren't really worth going to (if its a touristy trip you're after). The beer is good, food was rank! One or two nice icecream parlours though.

[charlie stubbs]

I went to the Dubliner and had no problems; though subsequently heard it was a really rough spot, however when I was there all the staff were female. Fully agree the Slovakian women are hot. That said however the place in general really isn't up to much, the old town is nowhere near as impressive as the likes of Prague or Krackow for example; the nightlife isn't great and the few attractions that are there aren't really worth going to (if its a touristy trip you're after). The beer is good, food was rank! One or two nice icecream parlours though.

did u take a lady for an ice cream fitz?

[Capt Pat]

I was there once touring around eastern europe, I spent a few days and walked around town a bit and that looked ok. A good number of statues of famous Slovaks that I never heard of around the central streets and a castle on a hill that i didn't check out because of a sore foot I had and didn't want to walk up the hill. It is not the worst place in the world but everywhere else in Eastern Europe is better.

Do you write travel guides in your spare time?

It is just my sore foot was more memorable. It seems to be a place for the cheap beer but there really isn't a whole lot else going on there.