Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic. It is also a mere 40 miles or so from Vienna, and not much further from Budapest. In fact, that is what sparked my visit here. Back in December, I was thinking about where I wanted to go for my next trip - I am almost always thinking about my next trip. I decided on Budapest as a destination and a week and a half for my duration. Well, then I thought about what I could do around Buda for a week or so and discovered that hey! right along the Danube river are 3 national capitals: Budapest, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Vienna, Austria. I had me an idea.

After reading an Eastern Europe guidebook, a trip began to take shape. I wanted to end my trip in Budapest. Logically then, I should fly into Vienna, make my way to Bratislava and from there on to Budapest. Hmm. That still left a couple of days. I started looking into the Slovak Republic. Slovakia has been independant since 1993 only because the Czech Republic couldn´t believe their good luck that the Slovakś wanted to be independant, since all of the wealth lay on the Czech side of the border. I discovered that this land was the frontier of the Ottoman-Christian battleground and is dotted with over 300 castles. It is undeveloped when compared to other European states, but has a disproportianate number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I thought that this bore looking into and decided to spend a good chunk of my trip in Slovakia.

Accordingly, from Vienna, I boarded my train and was whisked off to Bratislava, without even needing to pass through customs or to have my passport stamped. I arrived at around 9pm at the main train station. The directions from my hostel, Downtown Backpackers, was to board bus number 93 from in front of the station and ride it 2 stops. Easier said than done. It took me a couple of tries to locate the bus stop. Then, the next 93 wasn´t coming for about 15 minutes. I used that time to attempt to purchase a bus ticket. There were a good dozen machines that looked like parking meters. Like parking meters, they only accept coins. Currency exchanges do not trade in coins, only paper. I had a huge wad of useless paper money and no bus ticket. To add insult to injury, while I was figuring this out and trying to shove a bill in the ticket dispenser, a man standing right next to me let loose with a loud fart. Lovely. I decided to try inside the station for an information booth, etc. No luck. There was a tabak stand, which I approached thinking that like in Vienna, they might also sell bus tickets. Nope. So I bought some water, thinking to get change. The vendor gave me back paper currency and just kept shaking her head when I pointed to the huge pile of coins clearly visible in her drawer. After that joy, I went outside the station to see my bus pulling up to the stop. Ack! I ran and barely jumped on before it took off. I had no ticket, but luckily no one checked. I say luckily because it is a 70 USD fine to be caught on the bus without a validated ticket - you must buy the ticket, which is good for 10 minutes, ahead of time and then validate it in a time and date stamp machine on the bus.

After 2 stops, I got off of the bus and looked blankly around the stop. That took me to the end of my instructions and I had no clue where the hostel was from there. Luckily, I picked the correct direction on the first try and found the hostel almost immediately. They had my reservation so that was fine, but I almost wish that they had lost my reservation. The place opens into a bar. It is filled with smoke and incredibly loud. The dreadlocked guy working the reservations desk seemed to know very little about anything. Not bus tickets, train times, restaurant locations, laundry, etc. etc. He was cute, but not much help. He did succeed in checking me in though. I dropped off my bag, made myself a cheese sandwich from my Viennese provisions and settled in with my book. I was asleep by 11:30, thinking that I´d get an early start in the morning and catch the early light for some photos.

The best laid plans of mice and men... 3 drunk New Zealand boys came stumbling and laughing into the room at 4am. They proceeded to turn on the light and to loudly start rehashing their night. Great. I got up, went to the bathroom, came back, put in my ear plugs, and finally asked, "can you please be quiet?" They eventually turned out the light and went to sleep, but this was no better. 2 of the 3 were champion snorers, one on the bunk above me and one on the bunk across from me. Earplugs could do nothing against such a concerted attack. Then their somnambulant forms began releasing gas. I was still awake at 7:30am, which is when I had planned to get up and explore Blava. Instead, I finally got back to sleep and didn´t get up ´til 9:30. The charming fellows in my room did act as alarm clocks. When I say that I got up at 9:30, I really mean that they did. They started throwing things at each other and calling each other names and laughing like hyenas. Apparently, no one ever taught them a little thing called consideration for others. When I got up and went off to the showers, one apologized for waking me up. I pointed out that actually not only had they woken me but had then kept me up for 3.5 hrs. They found that very amusing and told me that that's what hostels are all about.

Well, my hostel is also filthy. The showers were disgusting. Nor do they serve any sort of breakfast. The downstairs bar was still filthy and smoky from the night before. I got out of there as quickly as possible and made my way to Old Town. Ahhh. Finally, some beauty. I wandered without a map or a definite destination, but still managed to see the major sights: Michaelś Gate, Bratislava Hrad (Castle), and St. Martin's Cathedral. Almost everything is under construction, which is what I assume the guides mean when they say that Blava is undergoing a "renaissance", but it's charming and looks to be even better when the construction is complete. I enjoyed my wandering, especially after having a (bad) croissant and a (good) cup of coffee. It is amusing that Blava is also having a festival this weekend and I heard some awesome music by 4 musicians with huge heads, literally - check out the photos!

The castle was nice, but it is closed for renovations and strongly reminds me of similar "historical" edifices in Russia that have all been built over the last 20 years. Yet, even knowing that it is nowhere near historical, the castle is still beautiful. By then, I had worked up an appetite. I had passed a Mexican restaurant near the main square and decided that a quesadilla sounded like just the thing for lunch. That was a big big mistake. When I got to the restaurant, all of the sidewalk seats were taken. I should have moved on. Instead, I sat at a table with a view out the window. Then, the waiter never came to take my order. I finally flagged him down after about 20 minutes. I really should have left, but I had chosen my meal and really wanted it. I ordered. He immediately brought me an opened bottle of Bonaqua (was it really tap water?) which I drank. The thought of paying four dollars for tap water and having to start over somewhere new is the only thing that kept me there over the next 1/2 hour. Seriously, 30 minutes. That was when my waiter appeared to tell me that they did not have my cheese and spinach quesadilla and that I would have to have ham and cheese. I told him that I am a vegetarian and asked if I could just have a cheese quesadilla. He got a strange look on his face and disappeared. I assumed that meant yes. I did think that it may be that the quesadillas are not actually made on site, just defrosted, which would entail them picking bits of ham out of my cheese quesadilla, but I carefully didn´t ask, preserving my veggie hear's plausible deniability. Then, 15 minutes later, he brought me my quesadilla and potato salad (don´t ask, it seemed like a good combination). However, my quesadilla and guacamole had turned into quesadilla and spaghetti sauce. They don´t seem to have fully grasped the concept of salsa here. I called the waiter over and asked where my guac was. He said that the ham and cheese quesadilla came with salsa. I said, yes, but I ordered the cheese quesadilla that came with guacamole. He asked if I wanted guac to which I gave him an exasperated, "yes!" The food was OK. Definitely not worth the 20 dollars I paid for crappy mini quesadillas and a side of potato salad, but OK. I had to wait another 10 minutes after finishing my meal for the check, during which time the lady behind me loudly passed gas. I´m beginning to think that Slovakia's state motto should be The Land of the Speaking Ass. Then I see that I have been charged for the guacamole which was supposed to be part of my order. That was it. I was already pissed by the lack of service and opened bottle of water, the crappy food, and the foul odor - now I wasn´t going to take it anymore. I confronted the waiter and he insisted that the charge remain. I could have spoken with his manager and blasted them, but I was too angry to hold it together. I paid for the meal and told him, "You are a horrible waiter," and walked out to the sound of him asking me why I would say that. What a joke. I guess that this is another reason not to go to developing countries - they also have developing wait staff. Needless to say, I left no tip. Let him drink my leftover marina sauce/salsa if he wants a tip.

After that debacle, I felt sick to my stomach from the conflict and needed to chill, so I stepped into a lovely indoor courtyard and sat myself down in the internet cafe. Thereś nothing like blogging to soothe the savage breast.

Downtown Backpackers actually offered a pretty good 2nd night. I got to meet a very cool French chef from Brittany. He works at one of the resorts there and works 9 months on, 3 months off. Nice. He commented on the fact that he never meets working class Americans abroad. I tried to explain the difficulties of buying a thousand dollar plane ticket on a minimum wage budget, but he still seemed dissatisfied. I felt obscurely guilty for not being a blue collar worker. Brotherhood, fraternity... it is always fun to get the Socialist point of view. I also chatted up 2 US students from Tulane and Loyola who are studying in Dublin and Brno, Czech Republic. It seems like the only people traveling from the US are students, and here I thought that I timed my trip to avoid the summer/winter school holidays!

The two Louisianians headed off to Sub Club for a drum and bass set, and I headed off to sleep not sorry to be leaving Bratislava but happy to have seen it. The next morning, I needed to be up early to leave for my big three day hike of the Carpathian mountains!