Euro-Adventure Bratislava, Slovakia- Day 3

Well, we tried to get up earlier.  I actually did because I was uncomfortable that I just decided to get up.  It was about 6:00am when I did and Chris was snoozing away.  We finally got moving around 8:30 and started our day.  This was our first breakfast at this hotel and it was a strange one. But it was enough protein to hold me for a while......:-)

Chris started with cereal.  I am NOT a cereal girl.  He mixed something with something else.....I think it might have been questionable after the first taste.....haha.  It wasn't long before he was getting a plate of the strange breakfast too...

It case I had not done so before, I posted some pictures of the breakfast room........

This is a picture of the cereal bar......

We got finished our breakfast and decided to make our way to the city center by a different route....this was a new scene that we had not seen before....

We got off the subway surface car at this stop supposing that our destination was just a short walk away.  It wasn't.  But the view was lovely.....:-).  This is an ancient castle wall in the background.....

We walked over an overpass for pedestrians, caught our breath after having made the hike up the hill and I stole this shot of the old wall that fortified the city many moons ago.

this is the view from a different angle.  I thought it was quite nice.  Makes a difference being up high like this..

Chris spotted a space ship in the distance....haha.  It reminded me of the Space Needle in Seattle....:-). Well, maybe a martian observation post too.....:-)

We made our way down to the next bus stop and I noticed this placard/Crest thingee.  He was busy reading the bus schedule....notice the legs under the crest....:-).

We were on a side of the city where we had not been.  Therefore, we saw things that we had not seen.  This old church was one of them.  This time, we didn't get caught in a Mass.....:-).

I was personally feeling like I had just had the workout of my life going up and down stairs.  So, I let him go without me to read the inscriptions that were behind the gate.

this is a closer look at the altar area.....

We left there feeling like we could use some coffee....You have to be careful to look down the side streets when in Europe.  You don't know what you might miss if you don't.

We got further down the street and around the corner and was able to have a better shot of that building.  We were tired and decided not to venture down the street.  I think that steeple is attached to a different building than what is appears to be.....
 

We were too tired to go any further without taking a break and McDonald's  was about as far as we got....

We had to get the biggest cups they had if we were going to make it!....ha.  Well, I actually got next to the biggest one...:-).  It was pretty good, but then they use espresso for just about everything....

this was one of the nicest buildings in the city  It was erected in 1907.  I think it's just an apartment building since we couldn't find any other information about it.

This white building is connected to the pink one.  This was a nice park that we decided to take a break at before continuing with our "walk".  We sat for about  30 minutes watching sparrows fight over a left over piece of bread until one little guy finally took off with the whole thing in his beak!  I couldn't believe it...haha

This fountain was right in from of us and it was pretty cool too.  There are some beautiful buildings and fountains in the city, but by it being the capital city you would expect them to take better care of things than they do here.....

 Our destination was the natural history museum for which I only have about 6 shots.  This was the first exhibit that greeted us.

I had never been eye level with a giraffe before!  Msde me feel "tall".......:-)

Now, who is that guy!  I think I have seen him somewhere before, but he didn't have curly, white hair....:-)

I thought is was one of the most interesting part of the museum.....

Since I had never seen these bikes before, I tried to get the description tag for those of you who might be experts on vintage motor bikes and mopeds.

This was really nice.  I could see me on something like this if it had a bit of a backrest.....:-).

Here is the description......

And lastly, there was this one......

here is the description.....

I took a shot of the museum as we walked away from it........

We walked down the promenade and stopped for a bit since we had just spent a couple of hours on our feet in the museum and discussed dinner and our plans for tomorrow.

We had a view of the "space ship" that we had seen earlier. The sky began to change and I was positive I did not want to get caught in that rain that was coming.  My new umbrella didn't look like it would hold up under a heavy rain fall.

After making plans to get some dinner, we continued across the street through the park and came across this memorial to Slovak soldiers who had given their lives in times past.

Funny to look across the way and in front of the Philharmonic building was a touch of San Francisco...ha.

We made it to the bus stop and decided to ride until we found someplace interesting to stop and eat.  We passed Bratislava Castle on the hilltop on the way.  We didn't have a chance to visit it as it was late in the day.

After riding almost 30 minutes in the wrong direction...haha....We got off the bus, asked directions and got straightened out.  We had ridden clear out of town! On the way back after we got on the RIGHT bus, we finally saw some single family homes nestled in the hillside.

by now, we were famished and the rest room was screaming my name!  We decided that we would just go back to the hotel and eat there.  We made our orders and watched the chefs do their thing in the kitchen on the fabulous closed circuit television.

Funny, but we could not see everything they were doing and I think that was deliberate.....:-).  Chefs have to guard some of their secrets....:-).

Now, I don't remember what exactly this soup was, but I think it was squash with smoked trout and basil pesto.

LOLOL........and there you have it!

I kept trying to get him to put the smoked fish "in" the soup with the pesto, but he wanted it to last and decided to eat it with that fabulous bread that had sunflower and caraway in it.

then we ordered desert and stared at the television screen to see what was going to happen........

Desert # 1 Rubarb in whipped cream with a tartlett, liquid chocolate and a chunky shaved lemon ice.

Desert # 2 Was a ball of chocolate cake that was filled with liquid chocolate with cherries and vanilla ice cream,,dressed with a cherry sauce and topped with mint.  We groaned as we pushed away from the table and headed toward the elevator.  And that is when it hit us.........

Our reservations for the Czech Republic start tomorrow.  So, this was in fact our LAST night in Bratislava and not Thursday.  But wait, there's more!  Remember the laundry????  We were to pick it up THURSDAY AFTERNOON.....YIKES!!  Fortunately, Eva (our laundry lady) had given us her home telephone number.  The only problem now was that we didn't speak the language well enough to communicate the mishap of scheduling.

We rushed over to the front desk and asked the service agent if they would assist us with this.  They were kind enough to help us with the translation and explain to Eva that we needed the clothes tomorrow whether they were done or not.  If not, that was fine, we understood it was short notice.  she said no problem, we could pick them up by 11:00 am.  Thank God!

So, this is the end of our time in Slovakia and we have seen and tasted some interesting things while here. We hope to see you tomorrow in the Czech Republic!

Until then..........:-)

Euro Adventure- Bratislava, Slovakia -Day 2

I would love to tell you that the day started with a roar.  But the truth of the matter is, it was 10:00am when we finally crawled out of our "nest" and started the day.  Chris has a client who is from Slovakia and she told us that we only really needed one day to see the city.  Since we had three booked and were exhausted we slept in. Once we got ourselves moving, we needed to make a trip to the bank which happen to be right next door to the hotel.  We were going to need some euros...

Chris had scanned the map and found out where there was a laundry that could wash a load of clothes for us or we could wash them ourselves and it happen to be one right around the corner from the hotel about a city block away.  We started out in that direction and it started to rain.....

So, we get there and of course there was a HUGE language barrier.  So much so that we resorted to "Charades" and drawings to get the message back and forth....hahahaha.  We were pointing to our legs and then pulling on our shirts, etc.  She was speaking in "Slovick" and we were speaking in English....hahaha.  It was clearly NOT working!
By now, all three of us are cracking up laughing.  At one point the poor lady put her hands over her face and shook her head....haha.  Then she " Ah!"  and she reaches for a piece of paper.  This is where Chris waxed artistic and drew a pair of pants....she said "ah"!  and then he drew a shirt (such as it was), and then she nodded her head yes! Next was the underwear.....she motioned NO WAY!  LOL.....

Then we asked if we went and got the pants and shirts, could she have them ready for us tomorrow.  "NO".  haha.  OOOOK.  Soooo, how about Wednesday......nope. Friday.  FRIDAY!?  We didn't even want them starched....haha.
  

Well, ok....how about we just skip this and buy an umbrella?  haha.  Ok  6.00 euro.

We got the umbrella.

ok, back to the clothes.  It was impossible for us to get the clothes back on Friday since we were to be in Prague, Czech Republic on that day.  We talked her into Thursday and she said there was no way.  Then she paused, motioned for us to be quiet and she went to the door and closed it.  We understood her (through Charades) that she would take the clothes to her own home and personally wash them for us and have them ready for us Thursday.

 She gave us her phone number and we told her what hotel we were staying at. After realizing that she had to work, we told her that we would come back and pick them up from her Thursday afternoon.  She was fine with that.  she had "drawn" the price for each piece of clothing earlier during our charades.  So, we knew what it was going to cost.  It was a fraction of what the hotel wanted to charge us!  We told we would be back in a few minutes with the clothes!  So, off we went back to the hotel to sort out the pants and t-shirts and take them back to her.

I couldn't help but notice how run down the city seemed to be.  It was very dirty and the people had a hopeless look in their eyes. Although Eva, our laundry lady seemed to be full of laughter...:-).

We made it back to the laundry with her clothes and got all of the pieces counted.  She started laughing again when she saw me taking her picture.  We offered her more money to do the clothes since she was going through such trouble, but she only wanted what she would have charged had she done them at her place of work.  The total cost 13.00 US dollars.  At the hotel, it would have been 6.75 per t-shirt (8 shirts in all) -$54.00, 2 sets of pj's -$16.00 each, 1 pair of jeans-$15.00 US.  total cost (without underwear) at the hotel would have been over $100.00 US!  We we VERY happy to pay her the $13.00....:-).

Well, you know by now we had certainly worked up an appetite having missed breakfast.  We caught a bus after purchasing some three day passes and found this restaurant.   I ordered a Pepsi which was the strangest tasting Pepsi I had ever tasted...ha.  The menu was mostly in Slovick and I was feeling adventurous!

We STILL have not figured out what I ate except the rice part and the greens that were on the plate, but it was delicious! I even shared a piece with Chris.....:-)

Chris had chicken and.......something....eggplant and.......??? haha.  He didn't like his! haha.  So, I felt sorry for the poor guy and gave him some of my mystery food and I ate his eggplant and....???

This is a shot of the restaurant which was almost deserted.

This is a frontal shot.....

Did I mention that it was in the basement?  I tell you that you cannot go ANYWHERE in Europe without having to climb stairs at one point or another...

We finished our lunch, and climbed the stairs back outside.  The resturaunt seemed to take up more space outside then it did inside.  This is ONE side of our bistro.

ok, time to start the day!  It's after lunch already... We waited for our subway surface car to take us to the historic part of town.

You could not miss the fact that the city was not well kept.  There seemed to be no street sanitation or care for how things were falling apart.  I was sad for the people as it usually indicates that the government has left the people behind.....:-(.

Of course once you reach the touristy areas of town (which was only about 2 miles away), it was a bit cleaner.

It reminded me of other European cities that I had visited in the past with the little hideaway places off the main streets.

This whole area was dotted with wood work shops of some sort or another....

For some reason this wooden carving had a Peruvian feel to it ........I think it was the hat....:-)

You can barely see it, but there is a restaurant hidden on the left side of the picture.....

We both wanted some coffee and refused to do the McDonald's thing after having come so far.  We saw this place and settled in for about an hour....

It is quite a nice place which prides itself on being "green".  The shops goes clear to the back which is hard to see from the street.

They even had ice cream.  But I didn't get any......

 Instead, we decided on this piece of cake that appeared to be mostly "cream"...ha. Oh my.  Well, we got the one piece and decided to share it instead of getting one each.  Glad we did.  It was quite rich and turned out to be coconut cream AND cream!

I find it to be the most unusual thing that when you are served coffee and you ask for an "Americano" they give you a small glass of water with it.  After tasting this coffee which she said she put milk in, I NEEDED the water! It was strong.  I believe it is actually expresso and they give "Westeners" water to help dilute it some...It was fine after I added some sugar.  But I ended up drinking the water instead of adding it to the coffee.

Cool buses running through the city center.  But I didn't see these nice ones a few blocks from here....

After finishing our snack, we made our way closer to the city center.  Along the way I decided to change my large umbrella for something smaller.  I took these pictures as an afterthought after returning to the hotel.

And this is it in its compact form, much easier to get through TSA on our return to the US.

Love the flags.  I should have them surrounding my house.....:-).  Helps with keeping a world view....

We passed a very old church that we peeked in and saw this.....:-).  I was glad they were not in service yet as I was not sure it was a "tourist" place or not.  Some are; some aren't. this one was not as it had locked, iron gates for either keeping people out or keeping them in once they got there...ha

We traveled on down the street noticing that the narrower streets reminded me a bit of Saltzburg, Austria only not nearly as beautiful.  And maybe a little like Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Scootard is steadily snapping pictures of the fountains and other things around him....enjoying the view...:-).

At one point, we came upon this poster.....I thought..."wow, his future ain't looking so bright!"....

We saw in the distance a building that drew our interest......

and as we made our way in that direction, life was going on with a news channel doing an interview. Chris wanted to get me to stick my head in and wave.  uh... no. lol.....
 


This is a closer look at the building that we were drawn to.....

 And a beautiful fountain with who seemed to be the same guy we saw in the last 3 countries we have been to slaying the same dragon.  This time it had three heads.....haha...  wow.  It must grow a head every time we see it!

 Loved this gate way....

No idea who this guy was, but he must have been important and undoubtedly dead by now....

This placard seems to be original from it creation.....

This is the town square......:-).  This really does have it's old charm preserved.  But sadly, it cannot be seen anywhere else in the city where we have been so far.  Hey!  I know that guy.....:-).

Although this building had obviously undergone some restoration, it had been in this very spot since 1558.

Some of the original placards had been preserved......

As we traveled on we came across some stalls where the merchants were selling their wares...
These were all made of straw....Now, where is that guy from OZ?

I turned my head for only a moment and Scootard was headed inside the church.  I was not sure if they were in service or not as time had passed since we had visited the last one..

It was very quiet and we wanted to be respectful.  So, this was the only shot I took before the service started and the priest arrived.  And THAT happened so quickly that we didn't have time to leave.  So, there we were.  Sitting in a Catholic Mass being spoken in the Slovick language, not understanding a word.  I was glad that I had had some understanding of the mass and didn't stick out like a sore thumb.  Well, at least not for that reason...ha.  But, it was clear to me that one of the young priest that came out with the older priest somehow KNEW that I didn't understand a word.

 He looked a me a few times and chuckled...haha.  After a couple of times of that, I looked at him and mouthed ..."what?!"...ha.  He put his head down and smiled and chuckled again...haha.  I leaned over and told Chris "he knows that I don't know what I'm doing"...hahaha.    I knew enough to know that if you are not baptized as a Catholic, they do not want to serve you communion.  I whispered to Chris that when the people began to line up to received communion, we needed to quietly slip out.  So, we did....:-).

We made our way back outside where I laughed about what had just happened.......:-).  Priceless....ha

There's that guy again!

The town square was busy with artist and musicians doing their thing.  This guy was a one man band playing something from the Beetles era.....:-)

Believe it or not, it was approaching dinner time by now.....This guy waved to us on our way......

This guy was hanging out in the sewers when we went buy........

And THIS guy decided that he wanted to have a chin wag with the guy hanging out in the sewer!

I don't know these folks, but somebody decided to make their acquaintance.

And it wasn't me!

We stopped here for dinner.....I would tell you the name if I could remember how to say it! 

The dinner crowd had not arrived yet......cool.

Since I had eaten that "mystery meat" at lunch, I decided to stick with what I knew for dinner. The menu was written in Slovak, German, English, and Italian..

Here's mine.....

And his turned out to be fried cheese.....ha.

We finished dinner and started for our subway surface car....This beautiful building was in view.  It is the Slovak theatre..

This is a shot looking from the entrance point of the theatre.....

And then we passed this building which happen to be the Slovak Philharmonic. I wished I had been able to attend an event there during our stay...:-(

This is the view of the building once we got past it.  It is massive and takes up a full city block.

Every culture has its heroes.  I figured these folks had to either be important or represent some important event in their history.  But I didn't see a placard....

We made it back to the hotel safe and sound and you know who began to "tune up" for his shower....you know how some folks like to make music in the rain.....:-)

I think he lost his tuning fork!......

Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling.. I'm happy again!!

And so, my friends...here ends a wonderful, but short day.  Tomorrow we are looking forward to more adventure, more delightful food, and the pleasure of sharing it all with you!

See ya then!....:-)