Arriving in Bratislava

By airplane - to Bratislava airport:

There are cheap flights to Bratislava from London and various European cities on:

Ryanair

SkyEurope

This autumn (October), cheap flights will also begin on SkyEurope (at least) from/to Vienna from various cities. For example there will be cheap flights from/to Warsaw, which for over a year has had no cheap links from Bratislava (or Vienna).

If you'd like to get to Bratislava from America, however, the best bet is to fly to Vienna's airport, Schwechat.

(Air Slovakia flies to only a handful of places, and the only semi-useful European destination is Birmingham, England.)

• Getting from the airport to the city:

Bus 61 runs from in front of the terminal building (just go across the crosswalk outside the arrival hall, Terminal C), with connections to trams in the city center, and it terminates at Hlavná stanica (main train station). There is an automated machine by the stop that dispenses all types of tickets (including the two- and three-day tickets), and there is also a small kiosk/tabak next to the stop, where you can likely buy tickets (or at least buy something to get some Slovak coins for the automated machine).

By airplane - to Schwechat (Vienna) airport:

In general, flights to Vienna are not known to be particularly cheap, at least in my experience. New SkyEurope flights from/to many European destinations started up in October 2007, however. The Vienna airport (Schwechat) is quite convenient to Bratislava, however (about a 40 minute drive in the direction of Vienna), with frequent bus and train connections directly to Bratislava.

Here is a flight planner from the Schwechat airport website, where you can check to see from which cities you can fly to Vienna: Vienna flight planner

• Getting to Bratislava from the Vienna airport:

By train:

Not usually the preferred option (bus is), but many trains do pass through Bratislava on their way to Prague, Warsaw, Budapest and Vienna, so it shouldn't be hard to find a good connection. Here is a Czech ministry of transportation website where you can check both train and bus connections: Bus & Train Connections

If you are traveling within Slovakia by train, you can check how much the fare will cost on this nifty fare calculator: Train Fare Calculator

• By bus:

Scott writes: "EuroLines (http://www.eurolines.sk) operates from the terminal to the bus station in central Bratislava. It's 210 Sk one-way from Schwechat to the Bratislava bus station, plus they charge for each piece of luggage you put in the boot of the bus (I think this was around 30 Sk per bag). The Austrian company Blaguss also runs from Schwechat, with stops at Petržalka, Nový Most and Bratislava Airport (http://www.blaguss.sk/ba_wien.php). Fares are comparable to EuroLines, though I can't vouch for whether these are actually 'luxus buses,' as advertised (but I'll try them out next time I go to Vienna)."

There are many bus connections from Bratislava to destinations both in Slovakia and abroad.

Slovak Lines: search for connections

Eurolines: list of routes

Here is a Czech ministry of transportation website where you can check both train and bus connections: Bus & Train Connections

• By taxi:

Scott writes: "You can hire a taxi from Schwechat to Bratislava. Probably the best, or at least cheapest, is Schwechat Express (http://www.schwechatexpress.sk), which will take one or two people for 1390 Sk, with modest supplements for additional passengers." Otherwise, taxis hired run between 2000 and 3000 Sk (as told to me by my taxi-driver friend in Bratislava and locals).

Practical guides to living in Bratislava/Slovakia

Scott writes: "We bought the Bradt Guide to Bratislava and have found it helpful with most of the stuff visitors or expats want to know, especially before you go. The same author also has one out on Slovakia now, Slovakia: The Bradt Travel Guide, but I haven't picked it up or thumbed through it, so I can't vouch its usefulness. Another recent guide is The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia, which sounds like it could be useful, but I haven't used it yet."

Accommodation

For short stays: recommended hotel - Arcus - relatively good rates (ca. 60-80 euros!), conveniently located; also see dormitory Hotel Družba (820 Sk/night in September).

For longer stays: contact me for availability of recommended accommodation. (Expect to pay over ca. 300-400 euros for a one-room apartment.)

Dormitory: Hotel Družba, near the Danube, page in English; (820 Sk/night in September).

Apartment hunting: look here - http://www.reality.sk/ or http://reality.sme.sk/- price range, expectations

Dealing with landlords: expectations, communication, contracts

Getting around: Transportation

Recommended city map - very convenient in pocket or purse:

Bus schedules, transfer information (also in English): http://www.imhd.sk/ba/?lang=en

Recommended taxi driver: 0905 646 066 (personal friend), if not available then call 16 222

Bus tickets: get them in kiosks - they are mainly either 10 minute or 30 minute tickets now for 14 or 18 Sk (regular fare). They allow transfers from bus to bus for the amount of time purchased. Monthly passes little shop (like big kiosk) behind Hotel Forum at the intersection of Obchodná Poštová streets. Very complete information in English about tickets, how much they cost, how they work and where to buy them can be found here.

TELEPHONE

Bringing a cell phone from abroad:

Scott writes: "If you bring a U.S. phone that's GSM compatible (currently I believe Cingular/AT&T and T-Mobile are the only U.S. national carriers that use GSM), if you get your phone "unlocked" before you go (normally this requires getting a phone-specific code and instructions from your service provider), you can use the phone in Slovakia simply by buying a new SIM card. We went this route, visiting the T-Mobile store on Námestie SNP, and bought new SIM cards for 100 Sk apiece, which also got us 100 Sk in pay-as-you-go credit."

How to get a new local cell phone:

Instructions to come. Best option probably pay-as-you go variety, since subscription phones require long-term contracts (a year or more). I just bought a pay-as-you go phone for 1300 Sk from Orange (Sept 2007), which with tax and the credit came out to be about 1600 Sk. The credit allows you to call out for three months, and to continue receiving calls for a year.

Where to use internet in town for short stays:

In addition to the hotspot in the square in front of the town all on Primaciálne námestie, Coffee and Co. cafes offer free wi-fi, as does the First Slovak Pub on Obchodná ulica. There is also a well-established internet place on Obchodná ulica on its north side in a courtyard, towards Kollarovo námestie.

FOOD

Major supermarkets: Tesco, Billa, Kaufland, Lidl: good for some things, not good for others - in the center the major grocery store is the Tesco on Kamenne Namestie; there are also two Billas.

There is a smaller grocery store called "Teta" just behind the Tesco downtown, which is useful especially for claustrophobic people and those who don't like crowds (the Tesco grocery section is in a firetrap underground!). The Teta place has especially nice bread.

Vegetarian needs: modest but useful shop on Grösslingova (Červenej armady, if your landlord gives you a pre-name-change map of the city!)

Vegetariánske lahôdky a potraviny
Grösslingova 20
Tel.: 02/529 678 32

Herbal shop: Across from the vegetarian shop is a place specializing in herbal teas, remedies, essential oils, etc., which also carries Weleda products:

Natur Vital, Grösslingova 33, 811 09 Bratislava, tel. č.: 02 / 5296 3494

Herb supplier:

HANUS, Bylinné prípravky
Ľ. Okánika 2, 949 01 Nitra
tel. + fax: 037 / 652 48 64
037 / 733 24 79
www.hanus.sk

Rose writes: "Hanus supplies herbs for Natur vital, and the nettle I got from him is the best I've ever had. I don't know if he grows produce, beans, or flour -- the website might tell. I believe that Natur Vital gets at least two shipments/dropoffs a week from him."

I can also add that he has very good extracts (essential oils, such as Tea Tree, rosemary and lavender oils) at very good prices.

Herb lady (BYLINKÁRKA) at the "Miletička" open air market (see below): There is a woman who sells herbs (dried and fresh) at the "Miletička" market on Wednesdays. She leaves promptly by 2pm, so be sure to get there early. She has her stall along the central GREEN METAL (I think) WALL of the market - down the middle, the wall that divides the food section from the clothes section of the market.

Fruit and vegetable market (biggest open air market): "Miletička" - on Miletičova street (a convenient connection from downtown is trolleybus 207 from the Presidential Palace on the TatraBanka side stop); also has many Asians selling cheap clothing, as well as stalls selling diary products, raw meat, roasted chickens, bryndza cheese, Slovak fast food, flowers, bread, toiletries, etc. The main market days are Tuesday and Saturday, closed Sundays. Fridays and Saturdays very crowded. Go early for best selection and most sellers, by the late afternoon, things are wrapping up.

Pickle transaction at Miletička

Where to eat cheaply (or at least fairly well) in town

Unfortunately, the days of the old communist-era jedaleň-type establishments have pretty much come to an end, at least in Bratislava. They seem to share the fate of the bary mleczne in Warsaw. It often seems that although there are many new restaurants in the Slovak capital, there is still not much choice in what to eat: the restaurants are over-priced, and the food served is in my experience usually not much to boast about. Here is a modest list of restaurants that offer either inexpensive and decent food, or decent food at fairly affordable prices.

Old Tržnica: On Namestie SNP, the large, old, light-gray building with square and benches in front.

Bufet at dorms:

Sample menu with price, flyer from June 2007 for bufet at Družba dorm:

Academy of Sciences bufet, if you work there

Indian-type vegetarian restaurant (hare krishna):

Recommender cites large portions of good food at reasonable price (99 Sk for meal).

Divný Janko
Jozefská 2
tel: 02/5443 0418

11am - midnight every day of the week.

Miscellaneous Library Information:

Rose writes: "The city library only keeps SME for the last six months. The university library has Tyžden on open shelves going back 3 years, I think they said, and SME on open shelves going back 1 1/2 years. The rest are bound, and you can request them out of the stacks. A 30-day library pass costs 150 sk -- quite reasonable."

Summer reading room:

The summer of 2007, there was a novelty -- summer reading room (area/garden) with newspapers in Old Town: http://www.mestskakniznica.sk/rak.html

List of reading room's holdings: http://www.mestskakniznica.sk/oznamy/nacrak.xls

Rose writes: "...turns out to be a very nice garden with an elderly lady tending a stand of only the most recent editions of 12-15 periodicals. I didn't see any sort of door that looked like it led to a more official library. Nice place though, and cool, actually."

General info of municipal libraries:

http://www.mestskakniznica.sk/

IN ENGLISH: http://www.mestskakniznica.sk/english.html

http://www.mestskakniznica.sk/sluzby.html

Translation & Interpretation Assistance

Where to find linguistic help

Slovak lessons: options

1) University courses. The unit of the university dedicated to teaching foreign students the Slovak language. Positive experiences reported with this organization.

Centrum ďalšieho vzdelávania UK
Centre for Continuing Education CU
Odbojárov 10/a
820 05 Bratislava
Slovakia

tel: +421-2-50 117 731
fax: +421-2-50 117 703
gsm: +421-911 73 00 22

http://www.cdvuk.sk
http://www.ujop.sk

2) New "e-Slovak" course done by Comenius University as well, with several different levels (A1 & A2) according to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

3) Contact me for information about possibility of private tutoring with professional teacher of Slovak.

4) Brace yourself: private lessons at the university unit above, as well as at several other private language schools I called in June 2007, cost from 15-20 euros per 45 minute session! (Also be aware that when they say !vyučovacia hodina!, they do not mean an hour at all, but rather are referring to the standard "lesson hour", which is only 45 minutes.)

Slovak language learning: textbooks and dictionaries

DICTIONARIES: As you may have noticed, there is a dearth of good English-Slovak, Slovak-English dictionaries. I have no recommendation for good small dictionaries, nor large ones.

Rose points out a very noticeable and common problem in these dictionaries: "Here are cognates from a single page of my new dictionary (Pezolt): silo, silueta, simulacia, singular, sirup, skaut, skalp. This is out of about 25 words."

The only thing I can suggest is that the sooner someone gets good enough to use Slovak-Slovak dictionaries, the better.

Potentially good new Slovak-English dictionary news from Scott: "Martin Votruba, who teaches Slovak at the University of Pittsburgh, told me in the spring that he's finishing work on a Slovak-English dictionary, which I would suspect is a prime candidate to become the best of its kind (especially since Martin, though a native Slovak speaker, has lived and taught in the English-speaking world long enough to be sensitive to the needs of native English speakers trying to learn Slovak). I have no idea when Martin will complete it, and when it will come to press, but it's worth keeping an eye out for it."

The standard Slovak-Slovak dictionary, which I find very useful:

Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka, 4th edition. Bratislava: Veda 2003.

Here it is online, along with a number of other dictionaries searchable through the same search engine: http://slovnik.juls.savba.sk/

SERIOUS LINGUISTIC HELP: If you're really hard-pressed for an answer to your latest burning Slovak-related question, you can actually call or email the Jazyková poradňa: sponsored by the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Sciences:

"Jazyková poradňa poskytuje verejnosti svoje služby na telefónnom čísle +421 2 54431761-2 kl. 124 v pracovných dňoch od 8.00 do 12.00 hodiny a na e-mailovej adrese poradna@juls.savba.sk."

TEXTBOOKS:

1) Slovak for Slavicists, 2nd ed.
by Peter Baláz, Miloslav Darovec, Heather Trebatická
Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické Nakl., 1985.

Check for used copies at these links: www.abebooks.com or www.amazon.com.

2) Beginning Slovak
Oscar E. Swan and Sylvia Galova-Lorinc
$27.95
ISBN: 0-89357-214-4
1990, 522 pages, Paperback

http://www.slavica.com/

"This book, the first modern, full course of Slovak for English speakers, is intended for the first year of language study at the college level. It is also suitable for self study when used in combination with accompanying tapes. Computer drills are being developed for use with the textbook (both tapes and drills are available from Prof. Oscar Swan, Dept. of Slavic Languages, CL 1417, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260).

Each lesson, designed to be covered in approximately two weeks of study, consists of dialogues, grammatical commentary, vocabulary, exercises, sentences for translation, and a reading. Lessons are focussed on specific practical-use areas: greetings, family and home life, work, study, shopping, meals, and so on. Although conversations and readings are set in contemporary Slovakia, situations are chosen for their generality, their ability to apply to life in both Slovakia and the United States.

Grammar is presented matter-of-factly and explicitly, on a level adequate for understanding and making creative use of the conversations and readings. The order of presentation follows the order in which the grammatical topics arise naturally out of the textual material. The material is reinforced by ample and varied pattern-drill exercises, translations, and situational scripts for acting out.

The language in this book is modeled on the colloquial speech of younger educated speakers residing in present-day Slovakia. The student who masters the material in this book will be able to read, understand, and communicate with people in Slovakia, as well as participate successfully in summer-study programs at Slovak universities.

The book is richly illustrated with photographs, a map, ink drawings, and folk songs with music, as well as numerous jokes, humorous drawings, and other clippings from newspapers and magazines.

In the vocabulary grammatical information is given for the words, as well as the number of the lesson where the word is first used. A seven-page index concludes the book."

"The appearance of a new textbook by Oscar Swan is an occasion for joyful anticipation. One expects genuine, lively colloquial examples of the language under study, understated droll wit in the personality of the central dialogue persona (a literary mutation, one believes, of Oscar himself); an up-to-date presentation of social realia as well as grammatical explanations; rigorous, thorough exercises, including morphological drills, topic-oriented dialogues, target-language translations. And all of that is what we find in this delightful and capacious volume, which takes its place as by far the best introductory Slovak text for English speakers, ever." (SEEJ)

3) Ada Böhmerová, Slovak for you - Slovenčina pre vás (Bratislava: Perfekt, 2002) (about 430 Sk). Scott writes; "It's a useful primer, especially for folks looking mostly to handle everyday situations, since the book is organized into 14 topical lessons, for situations such as at the airport, at a hotel, etc. It has grammar tables in the back, as well as a glossary of vocabulary used in the book (but only from Slovak to English)."

REFERENCE GRAMMAR MANUALS:

Caltíková, Milada and Ján Tarábek, Prehľad gramatiky a pravopisu slovenského jazyka s diktátmi, cvičeniami a testami. 3rd rev. ed. Bratislava: Didaktis, 2004. Still available in bookstores as of summer 2007.

Pauliny, Eugen. Gramatika slovenská. 5th ed. Bratislava: Národne literárne centrum, 1997. Very difficult to find even used copies as of summer 2007.

FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN TAKING THE STATE EXAM IN SLOVAK LANGUAGE:

These are the recommended materials for preparing for its cultural component:

Slovenské reálie, Parts I and II. Bratislava: ÚJOP, 1996 and 1997. Can be ordered from http://www.ujop.sk.

Slovak bookstores:

Online:

www.artforum.sk: Major (only?) bookstore chain in Slovakia. Began as physical bookstore, now also sells through the internet (but I have never bought through the internet from them). Relatively intellectual in nature, lots of Czech books.

www.martinus.sk: Have bought successfully through their internet bookstore. Seems to be major internet bookseller.

Bookstore with foreign-language books:

Eurobooks, Jesenského 5-9, Bratislava (http://www.eurobooks.sk). Scott writes: "This is a bookshop devoted to foreign-language (and primarily English-language) books, which also sells online. They carry an extensive selection of travel guides (and not only for Slovakia/Central Europe), as well as foreign language learning materials (again, not just for learning Slovak), etc."

Looking for used books:

It seems to me that there are not many used bookstores around anymore in Bratislava.

Although I've found used bookstores on the internet in Slovakia who also sell through the internet, so far my most successful method of finding used books has been to put a free ad here: http://knihy.bazos.sk/.

People from Košice, Prešov (2) and Bratislava have answered my ads looking for old novels and language books. The way it works is this: you agree the price via email or phone, and the seller sends you the book COD. You go to the post office with cash when you get the slip notifying you the book has arrived, pay for it and sign a receipt. Try it - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

(For Polish books, by the way, I'd recommend the book section on the Polish version of Ebay, by the way, allegro.pl -- they have an amazing selection of used booksellers there!)

Research assistance: information and guidelines

Email: slavstuff at gmail.com