Difference between revisions of "Bratislava"

From Hitchwiki
Earth > Europe > Eastern Europe > Slovakia > Bratislava
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 7: Line 7:
  
 
=== East towards [[Slovakia]] ===
 
=== East towards [[Slovakia]] ===
When going east you can take any bus because there is all the traffic going east. Still, people do not tend to pick up people standing on the side of the road. So practice your [[Slovakia|Slovak]] and ask at the service station.
+
Take tram 4 or 2 to the end of the line going east, the stop is called Zlaty Piesty. Cross over the big road to your right and walk down past the Porsche dealership. Hitchhike on the highway just beyond the bus stop. Its not the greatest spot, but there isn't any other.
  
 
=== South towards [[Budapest]], [[Wien]] ===
 
=== South towards [[Budapest]], [[Wien]] ===

Revision as of 18:51, 10 October 2010

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia.

Hitching Out

<map lat='48.131348836914204' lng='17.14141845703125' zoom='11' view='0' float='right'/>

North towards Brno or Prag

In the north of the city there is a small service station at the motorway going north to Brno. Take bus #34 or #83 from the old town, eg. from next to the Presidential Palace, to the bus stop Húščavova. The bus stop is directly after the bus turns left and crosses the hightway over a bridge. You need to indicate that you want to get off the bus at this station. In the worst case though, you can get off at the next stop Lipského and walk a bit more. When you leave the bus just walk back over the bridge and turn left and walk to the next traffic light to the station.

East towards Slovakia

Take tram 4 or 2 to the end of the line going east, the stop is called Zlaty Piesty. Cross over the big road to your right and walk down past the Porsche dealership. Hitchhike on the highway just beyond the bus stop. Its not the greatest spot, but there isn't any other.

South towards Budapest, Wien

Several options:

  1. When heading for Budapest you will see that the border is around 15 km from Bratislava. It is walkable (if you like that kind of thing) follow the motorway but be aware that once outside the city there are no petrol stations and only one parking place which is more or less between the border and Bratislava. The parking is far from ideal, very quiet, no services and so large its difficult to talk to drivers.
  2. Go to the shopping centre AUPARK, there is a OMV petrol station with lots of cars going to the motorway, try to get a lift to the first petrol station on the motorway named Jarovce

(I tried this option with a girlfriend. Enough cars, a lot of drivers speak English, but nobody is going to the motorway and everybody has a car filled with groceries, kids or a wife (MF))

  1. Not exactly hitching, but you can get a bus ticket to Budapest for 90 SKK (~4.50 USD) from the Student Agency on Obchodna Ulica. The place is, if facing towards the old town, on the left hand side of the street just before Postova Ulica, near the McD's/KFC and Slovak Pub. If you're under 26 don't forget to ask for the 10% discount.

The working and tested option

From the city centre take a tram number 2 or 4 in direction of Zlate Piesky, get off at the last stop. Then walk along the road around 15 minutes. When you see the beginning of the motorway with a sign Győr, Wien, on your right handside you will notice a petrol station. Go a few metres through bushes, and once you get to the fence, there is a hole in fence. Jump over it (its just one metre or something) and you are at the petrol station directly on the motorway. From there its VERY easy to get a lift to Wien, a bit harder to Hungary. Some people also go to Italy using this way to avoid paying for viniets for Austria, which are expensive.

Another possibility, that you might not think about on the first look of the map is a motorway-petrol station in the northeast of the city. Take Bus 63 (crosses the hole town) and get out at Tesco Lamac (next to a shopping center). Walk 1km northwards and you get to a bridge that crosses the motorway. Downstairs @ bridge and another 100m north and you're there.

West towards Austria

Walk south over the UFO bridge and follow the pedestrian/cycle path to the right. You will arrive at a bus stop on Einsteinova, standing at the front of the marked off lane will give drivers a place to pull over. The road splits shortly after, but both ways lead towards Vienna, so to catch all possible rides it's best to wait before the fork. It's not ideal as three lanes of traffic are moving quickly by. If you are unsuccessful, two bus companies operating between Bratislava and Vienna pick up right at that bus stop about every 15 minutes during the day. Also, there's an on-ramp from the bridge onto Einsteinova, where cars have space to pull over, Zenit got a ride there within 15-20 minutes.

Internet

By the river there's an artificial beach (just sand brought by trucks) sponsored by this cellphone company where you can use their computers for free, also the center has free wifi.