Day: 42

So all I really want today is to see the castle, wander the old town and eat another great Slovak meal. I grabbed my camera and a couple of lenses and headed out the door not even bothering to look out the window. I make it about 10 steps out the front door and turn around. It’s freaking cold and wet outside! I have been spoiled with beautiful weather the last couple of days. I go back to my room and change into my dirty Dickies, and put on my sweater, hoping the combination will be enough to keep me warm on the cold Slovakian April day. It wasn’t, but I was half way to the Castle by the time the driving rain started coming down and I’d be damned if I was going back. After a few wrong turns I made it up the hill to the castle which supposedly had a museum inside. Soaking wet I paid for my ticket (1/2 price for students of course, that card has already paid its way in my pocket.) wondering what I’d get to see in here.

I went up the 3 flights of stairs and wandered though room after room of Slovakian furniture and silverware. Boring (no offense to you silverware connoisseurs out there). Then I stumbled into what I found the most interesting, two rooms full of the history of Slovakian war and its weaponry. Mostly weaponry. It turns out for about 300 years, from the 16^th Century to the 19^th, Slovakia was a battle ground for the Turks, Hungarians and Europeans. This cause Slovakia to be on the forefront of war technology for that entire time period, it was not uncommon for everyone to walk around armed because they never knew when another battle would break out (there you go dad, I threw some history in). I can see why everyone here seems so peaceful now, hundreds of years of war drains it from a culture and only leaves room for Sunday afternoon walks and handholding, although I don’t claim to be an expert so don’t quote me.

I headed back to the hostel through what seemed to be sleet and went to my room dripping wet to do a little writing and shower (just to let everyone know, in hostels I prefer to shower in the afternoons for two reasons; 1: the usually have just been cleaned, 2: If I am leaving the hostel I won’t have to pack my towel wet in my bag) before my Slovakian meal that I am planning to eat later this afternoon.

I had a great lunch of more dark beer, mutton goulash and pork shnitzil, it was great. Since the weather was still crap, and I was too stuffed to do anything else I walked the ½ hour back to the movie theatre and saw Inside Man. After the walk, and the beer in the theatre (which I bought there for $1.25!), I was feeling great. When I went outside the wind had died down and the walk back was so nice that I even stopped to take a few pictures. I stopped by The Slang Bar, where on of the guys in my room said he may be, but no luck so I just headed back. When I got to my room I found 8 Mexicans, who have been studying in Germany, having a little party, complete with absinthe. I had a few drinks, but unfortunately not green fairies, just a bad taste left in my throat. We had to wrap the little gathering up around midnight when one of the hostel staff came up and told us we were being to load. I just went off to bed, I think some of them headed out for a huge night on the town.

Day: 41

6am: I wake up to the church bells and have to piss.

6:05am: I get up walk out the door to my room to the bathroom in the hall wearing only my boxers and the door to my room locks behind me. Damn.

6:06am: I pee

6:07am: I gently knock on the door trying not to wake everyone in the room.

6:15am: No one has heard me so my knocks get slightly more insistent. More church bells.

6:24am: I huddle in the corner near the door just hoping someone else has to piss soon.

6:27am: I am freezing and spend another few minutes knocking loudly. Still no one hears.

6:30am: Bells….argghhh

6:33am: Huddled in the corner once more.

6:37am: I think I hear someone inside moving around so I stand back up and a knock again.

6:39am: Still no one

6:41am: I pee again (nothing better to do)

6:45am: God damn bells won’t stop ringing telling me how much sleep I’m missing. I knock again.

6:52am: Some guy finally comes out to pee. He asks me “Were you locked out?” I nod, and he asks “Why didn’t you knock?” (I only responded with a sigh)

6:54am: Back in my bed where all the sheets have gone cold.

7:00am: More damn bells just as I start to fall back asleep.

7:02am: Finally fall back asleep.

I started my day today around 9 am after a rough twelve hours of sleep (sarcasm), but I felt refreshed and knew I should keep up with the relaxing vibe for a day or two more to get myself back in shape mentally. I took my computer downstairs and spent an hour in the common room writing up the last couple of days of blogs, then decided to head to a little café that I noticed had free WiFi and breakfast. I had Ham and Eggs and Tea, and an hour of free internet all for about $3.25. I was off to a good start for the day.

I had a few of goals for the day; do my laundry, take a walk, go to the movies, and take some cool nighttime pictures of the Bratislava Castle. I started with a walk to see if I could find movie theatres and times. I walked probably 5 miles, found a couple of theatres with movies tonight, and I was getting a little worn out so I headed back to the hostel to try to get my laundry done. This hostel has free laundry, but you have to go to the store and buy your own detergent, the girl at the front desk told me that the machine was free (they only have one that takes 2 hours) so I ran across the street and bought a box of Tide but unfortunately the machine was full already so I had a two hour wait until I could use it. I went to my room and took a shower and ran down the street to have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I headed back to see if I could wash my clothes yet and guess what? Yeap, someone took cuts! Well I gave up this goal for the time being and just washed a few things in the sink and hung them out to dry. I am ok with my sink-washed clothes for a few days.

It was only four in the afternoon but I decided to head to the big mall where the theatre was to see if I could find a new book to read because I finally finished Huck Finn. The selection of English books wasn’t great but I found a book of Hemingway’s short stories, which I took to the park outside and read while drinking a canned coffee drink and enjoying the great weather.

At after an hour of reading I headed into the trendy café inside the movie theatre and bought a ticket to Firewall with Harrison Ford (I saved a $1 because of my student card) which started in about 20 minutes.

After the movie I headed back across the Dunabe (the river) and spent ½ an hour getting my shots of the castle at night. Quite proud of myself for accomplishing 3 out of 4 of my goals for the day, I headed back to the hostel to check my email and the stocks I recently purchased (I’ve made like $400 on Google and Fedex in the last 10 days). I headed off to bed hoping to make it up the hill to check out the castle tomorrow.

(Oh and by the way, sorry I let everyone down and didn’t drink today.)

Day: 40

I woke up a little hung over from another rough night in Budapest, it was around 7:30am and even though I had only slept a few hours I wanted to get a train north as soon as possible. I gathered my stuff, returned my keys, paid my bill and headed off to the train station. After a few subway stops I arrived at the train station and realized that it was the wrong station. I checked a map and found that there were 3 train stations in Budapest and I was standing at the one that sent trains south, the one I want was on the other side of town two metro lines away. Bummer.

I finally arrived at the right train station around 9:45am and found the ticket counter and bought my ticket for a train that was leaving in one hour. I wondered around the train station spending the last of my Hungarian money on a couple of sandwiches for the train and a bottle of water.

The train ride was uneventful, I just slept and listened to my Ipod. When I got into Bratislava it was a beautiful day so I decided to walk the 2 kilometers to a hostel, instead of taking yet more public transportation. A few wrong turns later I got to the hostel, who told me they wouldn’t know if they’d have room until six pm, I asked if I could leave my big bag and headed out for three hours of wondering before I could find out if I had a place to sleep.

Bratislava is more my type of city. It has around a ½ million people, its clean, everyone seems to be a lot more relaxed and beers in a bar only cost $0.75. It was Sunday afternoon (I only know this because yesterday on the phone mom told me it was Saturday, which I didn’t realize) and all the Slovakians were out for an afternoon stroll and it made the city seem to have a real quiet peace to it. I just enjoyed my walk and around 5:30pm I headed back in the direction of the hostel to see if I had a bed for the night.

All full, I had nowhere to sleep. They did give me directions to another hostel about a kilometer away, so I decided to navigate for myself and two Canadian girls who also found out that they had nowhere to sleep. We talked about our trips and tried not to trip over all the construction here in Bratislava, until we finally arrived at the Patio Hostel, who had plenty of room and is actually closer to the city center. Score.

I was exhausted from the late night last night, the travel today, and the afternoon walking around in the sun, so I decided a shower was in order followed quickly by dinner and an early night in bed. For dinner I had a mutton goulash, tomato salad, and a chicken breast covered in potatoes, mushrooms and a cream sauce. It was tasty. I strait lined it back to the hostel and was in bed by 9:30. It was an early night, but I am feeling a little restored about my trip. I had spent to many days in a row in big cities (Istanbul and Budapest).