BEFORE YOU BOOK YOUR TICKETS

If you already know you want to come to the Polyglot Gathering 2018 (good choice!), then let us help you with some practical decisions:

BUY YOUR GATHERING TICKET

Reserve your place at the Polyglot Gathering 2018 right away to get the best price: HERE

WHEN SHOULD I ARRIVE / LEAVE?

This is what you should consider before deciding about the dates of your trip:

1. The Polyglot Gathering dates

The event itself takes five days, from Wednesday 30 May (starting at about 6 pm) to Sunday 3 June (ending in the evening, at about 6 pm). You can, of course, only buy a ticket for the weekend or for just one day, depending on your time possibilities. We recommend attending the whole event as this will give you plenty of time to make friends and learn a lot of new things.

Plan your trip so you don’t miss these great opportunities to make friends if you can afford to steal more days out of your life back home. Also, Bratislava itself is a great place to hang out and/or work from cafés and coworking spaces.

3. A little trip around Slovakia?

Bratislava is nothing like the rest of Slovakia. What about getting to know the famous Slovak Tatra mountains, hike a bit in the popular Slovak Paradise (Slovenský raj) national park or see the largest castle ruin in Central Europe, the Spiš castle?

Slovakia has a lot to offer. See if you can find some travel buddies among the participants at the Facebook event page?

4. Get to know more of Central Europe!

Will this be your first time in Central Europe? If so (and even if not!), it might be a great idea to visit the nearby capitals and cities!

HOW DO I GET TO BRATISLAVA:

By plane:

• Bratislava airport: only 15 minutes away from the city center, accessible by public transportation (buses 61 and 98). Ryanair and Wizzair are the biggest low-cost airlines operating at the BTS airport.
• Vienna airport: just 45 minutes away from Bratislava, with buses running every half hour or hour (starting at 4 euros one way). Much more airliners to choose from.

By train: The Bratislava main railway station (Hlavná stanica) has a direct international connection with Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin and even other cities and countries around Europe. Look up the best connection at cp.sk

By bus: The main bus station is called Autobusová stanica Mlynské nivy, and has direct connections to many European cities. Look up your connection at cp.sk

Once in Bratislava, you can reach the venue by bus – you can check timetables on imhd.sk. The name of the closest bus stop is “Ekonomická univerzita” (the precise address of the venue can be found on the Contact page).

WHERE WILL I STAY?

Every participant takes care of their own accommodation. Bratislava offers numerous options as for hotels, hostels, Airbnb flats etc. (Hostels cost approximately 10-15 EUR per person in dorms, double rooms on Airbnb are about 20-30 EUR per night).

If you want to stay with fellow Gathering participants in a shared Airbnb flat or in a hostel, you can find them at the Facebook event page.

WHAT WILL I EAT?

There will be a two-hour lunch break every day (1-3 pm), and the lectures usually end at 6 pm, while the evening program starts at 7:30 or 8pm directly at the venue.

We offer lunches and dinners directly at the venue in the university canteen. The meals are prepared specifically for Gathering participants and need to be booked in advance. When you will be registering (HERE), you will be asked to choose a meaty, vegetarian or vegan option. You decide which day you want which meal, so you can even combine the canteen meals with Bratislava restaurants.

However, please bear in mind that there are not many restaurants close to the university, and you will most probably need to use public transportation to get to them. Also, most participants usually opt for the venue meals and so it’s a great opportunity for even more networking and language exchanges 🙂

There is a little Tesco Extra store close to the university and some buffets directly at the university.

The price of the meals:
Lunch: 5,90 EUR: soup, main dish, salad, dessert
Dinner: 4,90 EUR: main dish, salad, dessert

All meals have three variants: meaty, vegetarian, vegan. However, you have to opt for one for the whole stay, it is not possible to combine the variants. (A little tip: the vegetarian/vegan queue at the canteen is considerably smaller so there’s almost no waiting time. What about trying out a vegetarian/vegan week for a change? 🙂 )

WHAT WILL I DO FOR FIVE DAYS?

Oh don’t you worry about that! 🙂 You’ll have:

• interesting lectures to attend
• a Board Game zone to play in
• a No-English zone with hammocks to relax in (ohne Englisch zu benutzen, porque queremos disfrutar de otros idiomas, pour ne pas toujours utiliser seulement l’anglais, потому что это же Встреча полиглотов, i przecież rozmawiać w innych językach jest takie ciekawe! Práve preto sme vymysleli takúto špeciálnu zónu, a všem se to loni moc líbilo. Eble la tuta evento devus esti sen la angla…)

• a Bookcrossing zone to get rid of your old books and get some new ones for free
• a Coffeebreak zone to enjoy a free coffee in between lectures
• a fun Evening program with polyglot games, multilingual concerts, multicultural cuisine
• hundreds of interesting people to meet! (Last year we had 460 participants and we expect more this year.)