Once arrival at Bratislava, we took an overpriced taxi to the Hostel Blues. There we checked into a room and were able to drop off our stuff. At this point we were both pretty hungry so I asked some of the guys there at the hostel where a good place to eat would be. They gave me a coupon to a local pub, so we made our way over. The place was pretty tasty, and I was impressed that everything in the menus had the price as well as the metric mass measurements of what you were getting. I got some tasty dish with grilled peach with melted cheese on grilled chicken with some sauce and fries. Not bad prices either even without the coupon. I wanted to drink a lot of water since it was pretty warm outside, but they only came in small 3 deciliter bottles which were more expensive than a huge glass of beer. Afterward, we hit up a local grocery shop to get some food for the next morning, spent some time at the computers writing emails, and went to bed. The following morning we got up and went to get some breakfast. I asked the host at the desk where a good place would be to eat breakfast, and they told us to go just a ways down the street. There was a little café / coffee shop on the street corner which had a nice outdoor seating. We got a spot, and I ordered some breakfast sausage and hot coco. The hot coco was delicious, dark, and rich. The sausage was more like steamed hotdogs, and wasn’t very tasty, even with the spicy mustard that came with it. Didn’t seem all that good for breakfast. It was going to be a hot day, so we then made our way out to the Natural Science/History Museum. We went through 4 floors of various exhibits. The third floor had lots of fossils, animals, and minerals. There was a worker there who followed me around and insisted upon explaining various things to me in Slovakian, and perhaps had a 10 English word vocabulary. I was able to sneak away successfully a few times. At the top floor there were all sorts of geeky science displays which I found the most entertaining.
Afterward we made our way around to find a place to eat. Several of the places in my guide book were not open, or non-existent, so we just wandered around until we found a place to eat. An outdoor restaurant caught our attention, but there was no seating outdoors. Inside had plenty of tables open, so we got one near a window. We weren’t terribly hungry due to the heat, so we ordered some salads. The waiter was somewhat rude, and the service was terrible. The salad was very disappointing and pathetic as well. Canned olives, lousy cheese, and they gave us the incorrect dessert from what we ordered. From there we made our way over across the river to the mall where we were going to watch Inception. There at the mall we had some time to kill, and they had many lego displays of large characters. Some were extremely impressive. Soon we made our way upstairs to the cinema and got tickets. It was in English but had subtitles, great movie nonetheless. We then walked back to the Hostel that evening in the dark. The castle looked neat all lit up. On the way back we stopped at a shopping center to pick up some groceries for the next day, and other food items.
The next day we ate some bread and jam we purchased the day before for breakfast. Then we headed on out to check out some more local attractions. According to the hostel bulletin board, there was a neat lake mentioned which was only a 20 minute bus ride away. Since it was the beginning of a very hot day, Kate and I decided to hit it up. We got on the correct bus number, but it was somewhat confusing to find out which stop to get off on since their stations weren’t labeled very well. Thankfully Kate spotted the one we needed to get off on, and we managed to find a trail that led to Drazdiak Lake. When we arrived at the shore, we saw many people at various beaches, but we eventually found our own little spot away from some of the crowds and families. The sun was out, it was warm, and the water was just perfect. We got into the water and spent some time swimming around and drying off in the sun. We stopped to rest for a bit and I spotted something moving in the water, like the head of a turtle. As it got closer I noticed it was moving in a strange way. It was a snake! I was fascinated seeing a snake swimming so well, out so far from shore. It was heading straight for me, and I got a little closer. It seemed to swim directly at me for a brief moment, and I halted my advance. It then passed by silently, made its way towards shore, and actually was jumping out of the water in attempts to get on a log. I had never seen a snake leap before, let alone, leaping off the surface of the water! While sunning myself I noticed I had a massive insect bite on my hip. I then felt another bite in a similar location and a horsefly was attacking my flesh. I stunned it with a blow from my hand, then removed its wings, and tossed the fly into the water in front of me. I sat up, and watched it paddle around attracting various small fish which were too timid to attack such a large meal. Eventually a large trout came by and made quick work of it. After a few more swims around the island, both Kate and I made our way to shore, got dressed and departed. I got some ice cream, and Kate got something to drink. We both were tired and exhausted from being in the sun all day, along with the swimming. I had expected we would have got sunburnt a bit more than we did, but we both were fine.
The next day I decided I was going to take a trip on out to Devin Castle on my own and let Kate get caught up on some of her work. I got on a bus, and was surprised on how easy it was to get there. I was almost feeling ambitious enough to hop on over to Austria, which was only a few more kilometers ahead, though I didn’t know of any busses that went that direction. I approached the castle and paid admission. This castle was pretty simple, and was more of a self guided exploration. There were various displays with written signs in various languages including English. One section of the ruins looked very interesting yet was roped off for repairs of some sort. I saw two young ladies who were taking photos of each other, and I offered to take their photo in hopes of having them take one of me. This was done, but using very few words and mostly hand gestures. They were polite though. I explored most the ruins taking photos along the way, and even saw some photographer shooting a model dressed in very little clothing. At this point I felt sorry for her, since the air temperature was dropping, and it started to rain. By the time I reached the gates, it was pouring a good amount of rain. It let up slightly as I wandered around some more outside the castle walls and along the river. I took a few more photos, but realized that to make any progress along the trails, I would need a bicycle, and all the rentals were closed. Besides, it was really wet and rainy. I made my way back to the bus stop, and hopped on back to Bratislava. When I returned, the rain had let up a little, and I returned to the hostel where I met with Kate, and we went out looking for a place to eat. We settled at a local restaurant that we had heard of earlier. The restaurant was a converted dance hall of some sort. I noticed that water was once again rather expensive, but saw that their locally brewed “cola” drink was far cheaper. I ordered a large glass of it, and the beverage wasn’t very carbonated, and had a similar taste to Pepsi, but it had lots of different spices to it, almost like herbs. I enjoyed it. The food was tasty, and very filling.
Later that evening we met up with a free tour historic around old/new town Bratislava. Our tour guide was very informative, and spoke great English. There was quite a bit of historic moments in Bratislava throughout the years, and especially during various conflicts. The tour was free, but it is customary to tip, so I gave him the remainder of currency I had in my pockets. (maybe $5 worth) Then we made our way back to the hostel, and I stopped by the grocery store to get some breakfast food.
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