September 5, 2025 • 10 mins
"Pint-sized Bratislava has the unique distinction of being the only capital city in the world wedged by three countries. Just inside the border of Slovakia, the city is also sandwiched by Austria and Hungary. You can lay your eyes on those three countries from various perches around town."
"Bratislava’s old town is a little bon-bon, a perfectly formed tangle of twisting cobbled streets, studded with pastel-hued 18th century buildings. But far from simply being an urban relic from a bygone age, the Slovakian capital has an unmistakably cosmopolitan, contemporary feel and quirky personality, best exemplified by its infatuating public art installations."
Read Mike's full article here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from news Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
At b twenty one past eleven on News talks'd be.
Our travel correspondent is Mike Yardley.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning, Good morning Jack. I have an inquiry into
the race about refullable water bottles. Oh please, now, just
a consumer advisory note to you. I'm a big fan
of refullables. I always travel with one, but I have
seen so many people, when not boarding the plane, hoist
the overloaded carry on into the overhead bin and the
(00:41):
bottle falls out like an unguided MISSI isle and clout someone.
So take your bottle out before you hoist your bag up.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Very good to you. I also think that people forget
that that bottles can be pressurized very easily, and some
of your issues if you don't go up the lead
very well, and then mid flight, all of a sudden
you notice that the luggage compartment is leaking onto you.
That can be a bit of an issue as well.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hey, I was mentioning El Salvador to Kate, so El
Salvador sounds Salvador is one of two places that kind
of sticks in the back of my throat. The other
is Btislava and Slovakia, because they are two cities that
I've traveled to that I've never set foot outside. And
so I've been to I've been to San Salvador to
(01:24):
the airport, but I've never set foot outside of the airport,
and I've been to Slovakia. I've been to Brettislava, but
I only passed through Bretislava on a train, so I
think I was I must have been training from from
Budapest to Budapest to the Czech Republic, maybe yeah, and
so you know, kind of going up there by the
Danube and maybe maybe tracking the western border of Slovakia.
(01:47):
But I've never never set foot outside the train in Bratislava,
and I just remember crawling through the city that terrible
feeling like it looks so beautiful and inviting, and thinking, well,
I'm just going to have to come back. So anyway,
I'm glad that you were focusing there this morning, because
You've got lots of fantastic little tips for breezing through Buttislava.
And there is a kind of geographical quirk about the
(02:09):
Slovakian capital.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Right, Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to be stood corrected here, Jack,
But I think Bratislava is the only capital city in
the world which is surrounded by three countries which you
can actually see with your own eyes. So obviously Brattislava
is the capital of Slovakia, but to the west you
(02:33):
have got Austria, like about thirty minutes away by train,
and then you've got Hungary to the east. So like
when you're standing at say Bratislava Castle with a bit
of a perch, with a bit of an aerial view,
you can see those countries from downtown brattaslavor.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Because n yeah, Vienna must be super closed, right, Like,
that's just it's about the Danube.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
That's right. Yeah, I think it's a forty five minute
train ride from Vienna.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, okay, and then the Danube continues down into an Hungary,
and so that's sort of there's a little there's a
little dog leg, isn't there that comes right right near
the border. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh, that is very Yeah, but it's also a reminder
that obviously, given its position, it's been a bit of
a punching bag for numerous imperial powers over the centuries
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, yes, there's certainly a history in that
part of the well So what communist relics grab a
lot of attentionon in Braslava these days.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, obviously there's plenty of brutalist tenement blocks still foresting
the city, but there are two particular landmarks which I
just find extraordinary. The first one is the Ufo Tower.
So this was perhaps the Communists' greatest contribution to Bratislava's
street scape, and it's on the southern bank of the Danube.
(03:56):
The Ufo was a futuristic statement tower that they built
in the sixties. In fact, I don't think it was
finished until the early eighties. It took forever to be
not off, but it's the tiniest member of the World
Federation of Great Towers, which does include Auckland Skytower. But
this Ufo Tower, this is such a cool thing. So
(04:17):
you've got this shuddering elevator ride up to the rooftop
and there you can see Austria in Hungary and the
other hand me down, which I think is just so weird.
The Slovak State Radio Building. This is the most bizarre
Soviet architectural statement. It is an upside down pyramid descending
(04:40):
into a massive concrete bunker. God knows what drugs that
are architect was on it is the weirdest site.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, okay, amazing. So where should you hit if you're
in the old town?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes, the old town is such as harts Deealer I
recom it's one of the best old towns in Eastern Europe.
It's fully pedestrianized and you just want to linger there
because it's a showcase of the mastery of Slovak town
planners from about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and somehow
they jam packed a whole city's worth of churches and
(05:14):
shops and palaces and museums into a handful of blocks.
You know, it's really compact. It's like a bon bon
and just a tangle of twisting cobbled streets with all
of these pastoral hued eighteenth century buildings. Really really cool
and very contemporary. You know, it's not just a living museum.
(05:34):
It's got a real good, vital energy about it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
There's the good public art.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah. In fact, I reckon this is part of the
seduction of the old town and it was very much
a Bratislav post communist era, wanting to sort of shake
off that long shadow, so they spent megabucks on lots
of perky art installations, but quite grandiose in places, but
(06:03):
I reckon the best of the lot. As Kummel, he
is this road worker peering out above the pavement from
a manhole, and the whole thing is rendered in bronze.
He was actually beheaded as shortly after he was installed
by vehicles inadvertently driving over him. So he's now got
(06:24):
a man at work road sign next to him to
help with his self preservation. But it's that kind of
quirky humor in the street art that just speckles Brattislava.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Ah, well, how about this. We got an email just
before you joined us saying Jack, Brettislava is an amazing
place to visit. We were really taken with the outdoor sculptures,
many of them and bronze. I hope that Mike talks
about it this morning. So there you go. Paul will
be very pleased with that. You clearly have similar tastes.
Are there some hospitality highlights you'd recommend?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah? Well, first of all, if you don't want to
share Brettislava with Stagdo and Hen parties, avoid Brettislava on
the weekend because it is a European hot spot for
stagnoos and n parties. But a couple of tips. If
you head into Bratislava Castle. On the main road to
the castle, there is this very cool bar called Carba Bar.
(07:17):
It's actually more of a cafe than a bar. But
what I like about it is it's part hipster and
then part retro Soviet. You know, it's got that sort
of vibe to it, with a lot of memorabilia from
the era, and it's all housed on the ground floor
of a communist era apartnent block. Very cool little place.
(07:37):
The must try Slovaki and dish would have to be halushki,
which are those KNOCKI like potato dumplings, smothered and melted sheeps,
cheese and fried bacon. Not exactly Michelin star material, but
cheap and cheerful and very satisfying.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, what about coffee and cake? Any go to ah?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yes, there is this place called Conda Conde Torre Cormuth
and it actually turns two hundred old two hundred years
old next year. This cafe Jack is like walking into
a Rococco jewel box. The wall and ceiling frescoes are unbelievable.
The carvings, the porcelain, the antique furniture, it's insane. But
(08:21):
best of all, the cakes. They are all steeped in
tradition from the Austro Hungarian Empire, so you're sort of
eating what the Habsburgs were eating a couple of centuries ago,
swans shaped shoe pastry buns, which are just pumped with
caramel cream. They look too good to eat, but I did.
(08:42):
And then you've got to nibble on things like dough
bosh torta, six layers of chocolates and butter cream. And
the berry stacked rum cakes are really good too. I
could spend all day ye contact, yeah, yeah, yeah, they
might be.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I might have to bump that up to the very
top of the list. I think the places to go,
and what about the Museum of Vita Culture. What's so
appealing about it?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh? This is the onest thing. So I thought, oh well,
I'll go and learn about the history of Slovakia and wine.
But it actually doubles more like a booze barn, because
in the basement it's like speed dating with wine. If
you want to, you can pay thirty euro and you
can taste your way through seventy two wines and one
hundred minutes seventy two you yeah, you are, but I
(09:32):
mean you don't have to go through all of them,
but you can if you want. You can have seventy
two wines in one hundred minutes. So I wonder if
host Responsibility might have skipped over Slovakia.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeh yes, yes, very good. It sounds amazing here clears
just likeness. The text Mike to say, Jack really loving
walking down the Butterslava memory Lane this morning. We were
there in twenty nineteen and everything Mike says just makes
me want to go back. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Very cool, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
We'll make sure that all of your tips for a
breezing through Butterslava and Slovakia are up on the News
Talks He'd website for.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from news Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
At b twenty one past eleven on News talks'd be.
Our travel correspondent is Mike Yardley.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning, Good morning Jack. I have an inquiry into
the race about refullable water bottles. Oh please, now, just
a consumer advisory note to you. I'm a big fan
of refullables. I always travel with one, but I have
seen so many people, when not boarding the plane, hoist
the overloaded carry on into the overhead bin and the
(00:41):
bottle falls out like an unguided MISSI isle and clout someone.
So take your bottle out before you hoist your bag up.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Very good to you. I also think that people forget
that that bottles can be pressurized very easily, and some
of your issues if you don't go up the lead
very well, and then mid flight, all of a sudden
you notice that the luggage compartment is leaking onto you.
That can be a bit of an issue as well.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hey, I was mentioning El Salvador to Kate, so El
Salvador sounds Salvador is one of two places that kind
of sticks in the back of my throat. The other
is Btislava and Slovakia, because they are two cities that
I've traveled to that I've never set foot outside. And
so I've been to I've been to San Salvador to
(01:24):
the airport, but I've never set foot outside of the airport,
and I've been to Slovakia. I've been to Brettislava, but
I only passed through Bretislava on a train, so I
think I was I must have been training from from
Budapest to Budapest to the Czech Republic, maybe yeah, and
so you know, kind of going up there by the
Danube and maybe maybe tracking the western border of Slovakia.
(01:47):
But I've never never set foot outside the train in Bratislava,
and I just remember crawling through the city that terrible
feeling like it looks so beautiful and inviting, and thinking, well,
I'm just going to have to come back. So anyway,
I'm glad that you were focusing there this morning, because
You've got lots of fantastic little tips for breezing through Buttislava.
And there is a kind of geographical quirk about the
(02:09):
Slovakian capital.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Right, Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to be stood corrected here, Jack,
But I think Bratislava is the only capital city in
the world which is surrounded by three countries which you
can actually see with your own eyes. So obviously Brattislava
is the capital of Slovakia, but to the west you
(02:33):
have got Austria, like about thirty minutes away by train,
and then you've got Hungary to the east. So like
when you're standing at say Bratislava Castle with a bit
of a perch, with a bit of an aerial view,
you can see those countries from downtown brattaslavor.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Because n yeah, Vienna must be super closed, right, Like,
that's just it's about the Danube.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
That's right. Yeah, I think it's a forty five minute
train ride from Vienna.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, okay, and then the Danube continues down into an Hungary,
and so that's sort of there's a little there's a
little dog leg, isn't there that comes right right near
the border. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh, that is very Yeah, but it's also a reminder
that obviously, given its position, it's been a bit of
a punching bag for numerous imperial powers over the centuries
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, yes, there's certainly a history in that
part of the well So what communist relics grab a
lot of attentionon in Braslava these days.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, obviously there's plenty of brutalist tenement blocks still foresting
the city, but there are two particular landmarks which I
just find extraordinary. The first one is the Ufo Tower.
So this was perhaps the Communists' greatest contribution to Bratislava's
street scape, and it's on the southern bank of the Danube.
(03:56):
The Ufo was a futuristic statement tower that they built
in the sixties. In fact, I don't think it was
finished until the early eighties. It took forever to be
not off, but it's the tiniest member of the World
Federation of Great Towers, which does include Auckland Skytower. But
this Ufo Tower, this is such a cool thing. So
(04:17):
you've got this shuddering elevator ride up to the rooftop
and there you can see Austria in Hungary and the
other hand me down, which I think is just so weird.
The Slovak State Radio Building. This is the most bizarre
Soviet architectural statement. It is an upside down pyramid descending
(04:40):
into a massive concrete bunker. God knows what drugs that
are architect was on it is the weirdest site.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, okay, amazing. So where should you hit if you're
in the old town?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes, the old town is such as harts Deealer I
recom it's one of the best old towns in Eastern Europe.
It's fully pedestrianized and you just want to linger there
because it's a showcase of the mastery of Slovak town
planners from about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and somehow
they jam packed a whole city's worth of churches and
(05:14):
shops and palaces and museums into a handful of blocks.
You know, it's really compact. It's like a bon bon
and just a tangle of twisting cobbled streets with all
of these pastoral hued eighteenth century buildings. Really really cool
and very contemporary. You know, it's not just a living museum.
(05:34):
It's got a real good, vital energy about it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
There's the good public art.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah. In fact, I reckon this is part of the
seduction of the old town and it was very much
a Bratislav post communist era, wanting to sort of shake
off that long shadow, so they spent megabucks on lots
of perky art installations, but quite grandiose in places, but
(06:03):
I reckon the best of the lot. As Kummel, he
is this road worker peering out above the pavement from
a manhole, and the whole thing is rendered in bronze.
He was actually beheaded as shortly after he was installed
by vehicles inadvertently driving over him. So he's now got
(06:24):
a man at work road sign next to him to
help with his self preservation. But it's that kind of
quirky humor in the street art that just speckles Brattislava.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Ah, well, how about this. We got an email just
before you joined us saying Jack, Brettislava is an amazing
place to visit. We were really taken with the outdoor sculptures,
many of them and bronze. I hope that Mike talks
about it this morning. So there you go. Paul will
be very pleased with that. You clearly have similar tastes.
Are there some hospitality highlights you'd recommend?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah? Well, first of all, if you don't want to
share Brettislava with Stagdo and Hen parties, avoid Brettislava on
the weekend because it is a European hot spot for
stagnoos and n parties. But a couple of tips. If
you head into Bratislava Castle. On the main road to
the castle, there is this very cool bar called Carba Bar.
(07:17):
It's actually more of a cafe than a bar. But
what I like about it is it's part hipster and
then part retro Soviet. You know, it's got that sort
of vibe to it, with a lot of memorabilia from
the era, and it's all housed on the ground floor
of a communist era apartnent block. Very cool little place.
(07:37):
The must try Slovaki and dish would have to be halushki,
which are those KNOCKI like potato dumplings, smothered and melted sheeps,
cheese and fried bacon. Not exactly Michelin star material, but
cheap and cheerful and very satisfying.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, what about coffee and cake? Any go to ah?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yes, there is this place called Conda Conde Torre Cormuth
and it actually turns two hundred old two hundred years
old next year. This cafe Jack is like walking into
a Rococco jewel box. The wall and ceiling frescoes are unbelievable.
The carvings, the porcelain, the antique furniture, it's insane. But
(08:21):
best of all, the cakes. They are all steeped in
tradition from the Austro Hungarian Empire, so you're sort of
eating what the Habsburgs were eating a couple of centuries ago,
swans shaped shoe pastry buns, which are just pumped with
caramel cream. They look too good to eat, but I did.
(08:42):
And then you've got to nibble on things like dough
bosh torta, six layers of chocolates and butter cream. And
the berry stacked rum cakes are really good too. I
could spend all day ye contact, yeah, yeah, yeah, they
might be.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I might have to bump that up to the very
top of the list. I think the places to go,
and what about the Museum of Vita Culture. What's so
appealing about it?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Oh? This is the onest thing. So I thought, oh well,
I'll go and learn about the history of Slovakia and wine.
But it actually doubles more like a booze barn, because
in the basement it's like speed dating with wine. If
you want to, you can pay thirty euro and you
can taste your way through seventy two wines and one
hundred minutes seventy two you yeah, you are, but I
(09:32):
mean you don't have to go through all of them,
but you can if you want. You can have seventy
two wines in one hundred minutes. So I wonder if
host Responsibility might have skipped over Slovakia.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeh yes, yes, very good. It sounds amazing here clears
just likeness. The text Mike to say, Jack really loving
walking down the Butterslava memory Lane this morning. We were
there in twenty nineteen and everything Mike says just makes
me want to go back. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Very cool, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
We'll make sure that all of your tips for a
breezing through Butterslava and Slovakia are up on the News
Talks He'd website for.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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