February 14-17: Bratislava, Slovakia. The crew: Me, Erik, Avi (of course, my partners in crime), Ingvild, and Adam. The theme: What happens when you combine 5 exchange students with a city where you can buy 5 beers for 4 euros? (Translation: $5) Madness...

Erik and I had wanted to travel east for awhile, and when we found out that we could fly to Bratislava roundtrip for 20 euros, we decided that was our destination. We convinced our friends that it was a fabulous idea, we all packed our 15 kilos, and took off for Slovakia.

I've been asked a few times: "Why Slovakia?"
Answer: It's cheap. Oh yeah, and I've heard Bratislava is a beautiful city.

We spent most of our first day on the castle. It was raining, but the castle was definitely worth it, and it had a great history museum inside (However, I'm pretty sure I was the only one thrilled with the awesome display of armor and weapons from the Thirty Years War)

Since it was raining, and we were desperately in need of sustenance, we decided to seek shelter in this very cool restaurant we found downtown. It was originally a wine cellar...

We sat down at 2:00. By the time we emerged it was dark out and we had consumed a few more beers than we had intended to. In addition, I think I angered the obnoxious Americans who sat down next to us when they asked if the kitchen was slow that night and I burst out laughing. We were the only people in there, how slow could the kitchen be?! What morons.
Anyway, that's our waiter seated at the end, teaching us Slovakian. We were almost fluent by the time we left. haha


Suffice it to say, our long night had only just begun. I think the rest of the pictures from this infamous night in Bratislava are best saved for another time...

Back to the somewhat cultural end of our adventure. The next day was beautiful- I actually saw sun for the first time in about a month- so we walked around the city.

Changing of the guard, Slovakian style

The Slovak Natioanl Theater




The Old Town Hall, and the square where we were almost run down by about 3 thousand Japanese tourists taking pictures of their embassy, which was located to the right:

The "Pink Palace," I think our Norwegian wanted to move in...

Adam standing on the "Man at Work." We weren't sure what the deal was, but I'm fairly certain that this guy gets stepped on a lot in cheesy tourist photos like this one.

The castle from down by the Danube. Yes, I was reunited with the Danube River, which I live next to in Ulm last summer.


As I said, we really lucked out with the weather after that first day. I haven't seen blue sky like this in a loooooong time.

Our last day, killing time in a restaurant before catching our flight home...

This picture is so appropriate: Bratislava, it was fun, but we're outta here.
All in all, I had a fabulous weekend, and yes, Bratislava truly is a beautiful city.