Blogs from Bratislava Region, Slovakia, Europe - page 26

3 meals, 3 countries. Breakfast in Budapest, Lunch in Bratislava, Dinner in Vienna. Today we had to pay a really hefty fine to cross the boarder from Hungary to Slovakia - 2 cans of Coke. Both countries are part of the EU so border crossings are usually just a formality. The guard came onto the bus, looked up and down and saw Nev was drinking a Coke and said he wanted one. Of course Brad gave him one, then stopped and said he wanted 2. So Brad gave him another and he waved us through. No passport check - nothing... but the Cokes. Only in Slovakia for a total of a couple of hours. We barely even set our feet on the ground but our bums were solidly planted on the seats. All we did was ... read more

March 26, 2006 (Sofia, Bulgaria) Shannon: With less than 14 days to go before we head to Dublin to meet up with family and 2 countries to cover before our plane takes off from Bucharest (Romania), we’ve realized that we’re going to have to pick up the pace to get there. With that in mind, last night we took a sleeper train to Sofia (Bulgaria). It wasn’t exactly our most comfortable ride. Leaving the station at 10 pm, the Bosfor Expresi crosses the Turkish/Bulgarian border at the insane hour of 2 am, which means a rather bleary-eyed trip through customs. And four hours after that - with a short train ride across the “no man’s land” in between borders - we were finally cleared through both Turkish and Bulgarian customs. Not exactly how I usually spend ... read more

Got to Bratislava late at night no idea which way to go to get to the hostel.. then i met and american dude that was on the same bus who had no idea where to go either so we wondered out to the road then stood at the corner with our crappy map lookin like stupid tourists.. then a local asked if we were ok and pointed us in the right direction.. at this point the locals seemed cool but the city didnt.. after wonderin around takin a few wrong turns we found the hostel.. wasnt the best hostel no curtains and poorly made beds and not the best staff ,but it did.. after arrivin at the hostel me and the american peter went out to a bar the girl from the hostel reccomended.. it was ... read more

My plans have changed and I want to let everyone know about it. First of all...my plan when I left Canada was to spend the last three months on a cruise--eleven weeks. It would have left from England the first week in January, go south along Europe, down the coast of Africa, around Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, through the Middle East, through the Suez Canal and back the England. There were over 30 ports of call. It was to be the highlight of my adventure. Rather than give you a blow-by-blow of everything that went wrong with this cruise line, I'll copy the letter I finally sent to the owner of the company. I've taken out the names as they finally came through with a refund. "I am a Canadian travelling in ... read more

I made it to Bratislava and enjoyed my time there. It seemed like a smaller, less hectic version of Prague. It had some great architecture, great food (more on that later) and the people were very nice. For me, going to Slovakia was one half of a journey to see where my ancestors came from. Poland was from my dad's side and Slovakia was from my mom's. Although I didn't make it to the towns where they came from, I got a better understanding of why they were the people that they were. My grandmother told me that I was Slovak, not Czech, because the Slovak people are more humble (save your comments, please) and come from a more rural area than the Czechs. I went to an exhibit at the Castle entitled "Until the bride ... read more