Slovakia

The joy of being in Europe is that you are often times only a short bus or train ride away from an entirely different country. This morning Laura and I decided to catch a bus for 11 Euros roundtrip to go to Slovakia for the day! Bratislava is only an hour away from Vienna, so we were just like, 'why ever would we not do that?' (This is the cute way Nathy would speak).

We read that the buses were hourly and knew that there was a bus at 930 and 1130 AM, so naturally we assumed there would be a 1030 AM bus as well. We get to the station at 10:10, buy our tickets, and the lady informs us that the next bus is in fact at 11:30 AM. So with some time to kill, we ask for a suggestion of what to do. She tells us about a mall that is 'one stop away', but she didn't specify a direction. So we took the U-bahn one stop in the direction that we had just came from, wandered aimlessly, didn't see any mall, and then took the U-bahn forward two stops to go one stop in the other direction from the bus stop (hope that makes sense). There we found the mall as soon as we got up the escalators. We got some breakfast food, which usually consists of yogurt and maybe something else. I finally found my Kiri cheese and bread stick combo snack packs. Probably designed for 8 year olds but I LOVE Kiri cheese and I only ever see it in Europe (and Egypt. That was unexpected). Then we went on a search for spoons, and ended up taking miniature ice cream spoons from some ice cream shop that was just opening up and had their spoons out. Very thrifty of us.

By then it was time to head back to the bus. The bus left right on time and literally took exactly an hour to get to Bratislava. It dumped us off at the city center, and we spent the day...guess what....wandering! What do we always do? This all must sound so incredibly repetitive. Sorry.

Bratislava was sweet though! Such a cool day trip. It started off by me really having to go to the bathroom. For the first time on our whole trip I paid to go to the bathroom; it was only 20 cents so it wasn't bad. It's worth writing about though because apparently my 20 cents rented me a Western toilet AND - AND - literally 3 pieces of single-ply toilet paper. Excuse me, but honestly, who can accomplish anything with 3 single-ply pieces of toilet paper?!?! What a joke. Luckily, yours truly ALWAYS carries toilet paper with her, for reasons like this. Enough bathroom talk...

It was hot and sunny and it was a weekend day so there were lots of people out walking, eating ice cream, selling stuff, performing, touring...it was very lively. In the city center there was some kind of event going on where there was a big stage set up at one end of it. People and groups took turns singing, dancing, and playing music. The best was this dance troup of young to adolescent girls performing to...Michael Jackson. It seemed somehow a little inappropriate, but downright hilarious to watch. They adolescent girls were in all black with one white-gloved hand, and the seriously young girls were in all white with one black-gloved hand. It was outrageous.In the middle of the square were tons of stations for kids that basically were like coloring-book stations. Some of the tables also had chess sets on them for the big kids. On the outskirts of the square were all the touristy vendor shops selling everything under the Slovakian sun. After the city center, we walked through a restaurant/cafe area and under St. Micheal's Gate, which is one of the last original gates to the old city. Then we walked around the outskirts of the Old City and eventually ended up at the castle. You can walk into the castle grounds and get really great views of the Danube River and of the Old City of Bratislava. Other than that, there wasn't a ton to see in the city, it was really just a fun place to walk around for an afternoon. The city does have a lot of statues up around it which are neat to see. One in particular, called the Working Man, is very famous (somehow...? I think just because people liked it the most). It is a man coming out from the sewer resting his chin on his hands and smiling. I have to admit I haven't seen a statue quite like that before.

After our self-guided and thoroughly uneducated tour, we went to go sit at a traditional Slovakian restaurant in a sunny cafe area. I got something called Devil's Toast which was really interesting and delicious. It was a big, thick piece of bread with some kind of tomato sauce on it, chunks of pork, and then cheese over the top of it. It was very filling. We also tried traditional Slovakian beer (of course) which tasted terrible. OK not terrible, just plain and watery, and, well...terrible, compared to Belgian or Munich beer. The waiter also brought a bread basket which we happily attacked especially after I found olive oil and vinegar on the table. When we got our bill it was more than what we were expecting. Our waiter seemed really nice and explained to us that the bread actually cost a euro. Ok, not a big deal, we did eat it all...He walked away and I was redoing the math again in my head and it just wasn't tying out. I grabbed a menu and saw that what I ordered was 6.5 euros. So I walked up to our waiter who was in a group of 2 or 3 other waiters and asked him very nicely to please explain it to me again. It was a little awkward but if there is one thing I hate when traveling it's getting ripped off. And if I somehow wasn't getting ripped off, I wanted to understand why, because the numbers just weren't tying out. He understood my question and went away for a second. He brought me another menu, where my exact same meal was listed at 7.9 euros!!! I told him that was a little weird, because I bought my meal with the understanding that it was only 6.5 euros (yeah, I'm frugal, I know). He explained to me then that what he was showing me was a "new" menu and I had been looking at an "old" menu. As politely as I could I told him, "You should really consider putting the "new" menus out on the table, so that people know what they're paying for." SERIOUSLY. After that I dropped it - I was full and 1.4 euros is nothing to get too upset about. I was just very confused.

To prove that we went to Slovakia, even if just for a day trip, I got my plate and Laura her shot glass. I've never seen a plate like the one I got in Slovakia, it's really cool. Their traditional ceramics are really pretty so I was excited about that. Then we ended up having a few extra minutes and I needed to mail a letter back to the States. We found Bratislava's post office which was quite hidden and through many series of dark double doors. The lady spoke no English and I played charades with her and managed to get an envelope and a stamp to the United States. Success.

Then we headed back to our bus, which again, came and left right on time. So impressed with everybody's public transportation EXCEPT for Seattle's. Blah. We went back to Veronika's flat in Vienna to regroup and get ready to meet up with Heather. She was able to pawn off adorable little Hegan to the Husband for the evening so she could come and have a girls' night out on the town with us. We met up with Heather around 10 as dressed up as possible (i.e. jeans and a clean shirt, cute shoes optional). Heather wanted to take us to some "beach bars" along the Danube River but they were all closed because it's not late enough in the year. It wasn't cold out and we had a great stroll along the river at night. It took us about 45 minutes to figure out where we wanted to go that would be open - a Mexican place in the city center area. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the city center, but Heather couldn't remember exactly where the restaurant was. The area is so full of tourists that asking people wasn't very fruitful. Obviously Laura and I had no idea. We knew we were close by and in the right place, but somehow it took us another hour of wandering to find this place!!! The good news is that I really loved walking around such a busy, people and light filled area on a Saturday night in Vienna, it was very, very pleasant. Also, since we didn't order our first drinks until 12:30, we saved quite a bit of money since the bars close at 2 AM (we thought they stayed open later, but we were wrong). Laura and I split a pitcher of a deliciously fruity strawberry daiquiri and we girl-talked for the next hour or so. Then we went to a couple of other bars but since they were all closing Heather hopped in a cab with us and helped us get home (so we avoided any more Night Line drama)! It is always a treat to have other people go out and about with you and show you around and help speak the language for you...:) So we had a good time paling (is that a word?) with Heather - she is full of interesting stories, and since she is an American living in Vienna she has some different perspectives that are also really fun to learn about.


Quotes:
"You should really consider putting the new menus out on the table." - Me, to the Slovakian waiter.

Accomplishments:
Day trip to Slovakia - CHECK!

Travel Tip:
Keep an eye out for awesome day trips!
[I think these are getting lamer and lamer as this trip goes on...]