Bratislava

I could not believe I was about to subject myself to another five hours of train travel after sixteen hours a day earlier, however this was my chance to see Bratislava.


The station seemed typical of what you would expect in Eastern Europe - organised chaos. I quickly grabbed a map and set off to look at the old town and historic sites. Along the way I managed to walk past the palace of Slovakia's leader when the changing of the guard was taking place.


I managed to find one of the places that Lonely Planet recommended for traditional local fare. Further analysis of the map help me formulate a plan of attack for this whistlestop tour. The man at work was quite amusing, the opera house a stunning piece of architecture as described, however the castle was interesting.


I had left the best until last in the hope of being able to spend some time in the jewel of Bratislava's crown. The only issue was that the castle was undergoing a ful renovation so you could not get in and look around. The museum was open, however I had read that it was ordinary with the exception of being able to climb one of the castle's towers from there. Once I was informed that this was not available I decided to give this a miss as well. Also interesting was the fact that this castle was never really used from a Slovakian perspective. I read that the Hungarian royal family were there when the Turks occupied Budapest, also that the original castle burned down and the current version was built in the 1950s. I guess every city needs an icon or landmark and in Australia we are blessed with many that are natural and man made.

With a bit of extra time up my hands I had a look in a couple of shops. I realised I had no idea how to say hello and goodbye, so used the tried and true "ciao". I also managed to pick up the six dollar t-shirt that B-Money and I had been searching for the entire trip.

Rush hour back at the station and a woman who had pushed her way past me went down like a bag of s&^% about ten seconds later. I swear I had nothing to do with it, however did join the other locals having a good chuckle at her expense - due to the karma.

A crowd of people had gathered around the departures board and were waiting for a platform to be announced. I realised this was for my train so I joined them. Normally this would be one of those annoying things that you put down to being in a less developed place, however I recalled the exact same thing happens at Heathrow.

The train was so packed that I had to use one of the emergency makeshif seats that you unfold from the wall. After a few stops I managed to move into one of the compartments and really was feeling the Euro train travel experience.

Back in Budapest, I managed to get to the place I had tried the evening before. A funny thing happened which was they served my main course about a minute after the entree, so it was backed up and sitting on the table. Afterwards I had a couple of beers at a local bar, and while I was keen for more, I realised was in for a big one on the following evening, so some rest was appropriate.