Euro Adventure- Bratislava, Slovakia Day 1

Well, we woke up this morning in full anticipation of a great transition from Budapest to Slovakia.  I actually woke up two hours early, but mostly because the bed was so firm that I had to get out of it..  But since I was awake, I started packing the few odds and ends that were still sitting around.  When hubby woke up, we went down for breakfast thinking that we had to leave the hotel about 10:00am to make the train.
I was kinda glad we were leaving as I was beginning to get bored with the breakfast........
Scootard was happy though....I think food is one of his love languages.......:-)

The hotel told us to let them know when we needed a cab and they would call one for us......  But once we found out that check out wasn't until noon and it was only 8:30am, we opted to go back to bed after breakfast and try to get a nap before starting another adventure!

The plan was to have the taxi driver take us to the station where we made our morning walks to and we would get public transportation to the train station that would take us out of the country.  But when we asked the taxi driver how much it would cost to take us all the way to the train station, it was do-able.  We were on our way!

The city was having an annual marathon run and some of the traffic had been detoured.  I was glad that the driver didn't charge us more because we had to go a round-about way to get to the station.  But we got there in plenty of time to catch a 1:25PM train to Bratislava.......:-)

This would be my last glance of Budapest, Hungary as our luggage was being removed from the trunk.....:-(.

The cab driver bid us farewell and safe journey and we headed for the other side of the station with all of our lugggage.....

 A lady approached us and offered her assistance.  We told her that we needed a ticket to Bratislava and she had us follow her...She then went over to a machine and gave us a number.  I guess we had a bit of a wait in front of us.  It was about 12:40pm.  I was hopeful that we would be able to grab lunch before we set out on this near three hour journey into the next country.

I guess Scootard got bored because he started doing a little jig while standing in line waiting to be called ......

After about 20 minutes of waiting, we finally got our tickets and made our way to the restaurant for lunch.

Apparently, this diner has been around quite a long time and people used to be quite dressed up when they traveled and came in here to eat.

It took us a bit longer than I had like to get some service and I was keenly aware of the time passing us by.  We did look over the menu while we waited and made our selections.

Scootard ordered some kind of crepe thingee (but the Hungarians call it pancakes) in a red paprika sauce. I wasn't sure he was going to eat it at first.

I mistakenly ordered Cordon Blue, but meant to order Chicken Kiev.....:-(.  Oh well.....

After our meal, we had about 10 minutes to get to our train.  Thankfully it was on track 7 and we were standing by track 5.  The longest walk was to our car which was NOT in first class....ha

Once we got our trip underway, the countryside was beautiful and I felt like I wanted to skip through it.  Then I thought about all of that Cordon Blue I had just eaten and the thought quickly faded.....

I enjoyed the view, but was looking forward to making our arrival and getting some much needed rest....

Along the way, this castle like think presented it self to me on the hilltop.  I have no idea what it was....

most of the stations along the way were so tiny...and I was keenly aware of the need to learn yet another language in a very short period of time.

I managed to get a couple of shots down some of the village streets as we went flying past them.

The Danube River kept right on rolling along and would go on into other countries through Europe as well.

 We were coming up on another station and this one was painted pink! ha.  I thought of a friend of mine who loves pink....haha.  You know who you are! ha

Most of the housing along the way were old high rises with no frills or comeliness.  So, it was a bit of "eye-candy" to see something other than that when we passed these homes......

After a quick glance at my watch, I knew we had to be getting closer to our destination....the excitement was building....

The next thing you know ( after a bit of a snooze), we arrived in Bratislava, Slovakia eager to see what it was going to be like and very aware of the need to do laundry!  This shot is outside of the train station.  Our hotel is one city block away....Seemed like an eternity getting there.

We made it!  Over broken sidewalks and uneven walk ways, but we finally made it to our hotel in Slovakia...:-).  The lady at the front desk was quite helpful with information in regard to taxi's etc.

While Chris was getting us checked in I decided to take a few snap shots of the lobby and dining areas.

We were going to be on the first floor this time which was really the second floor...ha. The room is quite nice!  Wait til you see the bathroom!
 

And the cool thing  was that as soon as we closed the door behind us, the television came on all by itself with this on the screen.

 and now for the bathroom......look closely, what do you see on the far right side of the screen?  Keep in mind that I was standing IN the bathroom when I took the picture.......hahahaha

Ok, here it is from a straight on angle.  That is NOT a reflection!  The wall the separates the bathroom from the bedroom is glass.  That's right...glass!  There is a "modesty curtain" that can be pulled over it if you so choose.  Cool -eh?

When you come to hotels like these, you have to be careful of what you use in the room. The refrigerator can be expensive if you choose to even take a bottle of water.  One bottle of water can cost upward of $4.00 US.  And that's for a 16 0z size.  I don't know what that is in mls.
 

But wait!  There is good news to report.  Remember when we blew the transformers?  Well those were the things that would have helped us recharge my camera batteries.  But low and behold, my troubles are over!  There is a fancy, schmancy hair dryer thingee on the wall with a switch that will accommodate my battery charger!  And I had already blown through one of them......YAY!!  I plugged it in right away.  It was truly and sincerely dead....It has charged up just fine.  One down with one to go.
 

 After getting settled into the room, we went down for dinner and decided to stay in after that and get some rest.  Here is the dining room that is used for dinner each night.

Same room, different angle.....

And this is our table......:-).  A girl could get used to this stuff!

Chris ordered some Oxtail broth soup with beef and something green in it the looked like a burrito..I'm sure it wasn't.  but I had a taste and it was very good....

The bread that they served us had sunflower seeds (or something like it) and rye in it.  And what appears to be butter is butter and some kind of cheese to spread on it.  So, I did! It was excellent. I looked up at Chris and said, "there is a chef in the kitchen".  You can always tell the difference between a cook and a chef.  Or at least I can because I have a food service background.

But get this!  See the guy in the white jacket.....yeah, he's the chef in the kitchen!  They had a closed circuit television trained on the kitchen so that we could watch them prepare our meal.  I could not believe how easy these guys made it look....

It is quite an impressive kitchen too.  Looks to have a lot of bells and whistles.....:-).

 Chris's food came. He ordered a salad with chicken......

I seem to be on a Risotto kick for some reason.  But this had oysters, mushrooms, parmesean cheese, spinach and other spices.  Excellent! Chris did give me some of his chicken so that I could have the protein my body requires.

After dinner, I was too stuffed to eat desert..But you know who decided to go for broke.....:-).  After some time pasted after having had put in his order, he wondered what was taking so long.  I told him they are making your desert right now.  Go take a look......:-). He was describing what he saw and I was explaining what was actually happening....:-).

And after they were done, I said...ok, here it comes..........
.Now, that doesn't look like much but let me tell you.......Well, I'll let "him" tell you........

This is what I call "The Approach".........

"The contemplation".......

"The moment of truth"......

"The Ecstasy ".........

The Finale".......by the way, that brown bowl is made of chocolate....... and was filled with strawberry mousse and topped with fresh mint.  That had to be the BEST chocolate, I have EVER tasted.  We agreed that it had to be Swiss made.  IT WASN'T  HERSHEY! haha

I walked, and he danced back to the room......It has been a good start to another adventure!

See ya soon!!