theatre of the absurd: Bratislava, part I - Intro, the Old Town and the Hrad

Surprisingly, we've come to the last part of this trip. That was a bit quicker than I'd anticipated, but then again I have had a lot of time to update. All in all I'm pretty pleased that I managed to catch up with my hitherto woefully-delayed posts, and now lookey here, I'm almost done with them. I've still got several left - Busan 2018 and Toulouse, but those are much smaller projects compared to the continentals.

I didn't take any pictures of Budapest during my transfer there, at least none that are share-able. I did worry a bit about D ruining my favourite city in Europe for me, but turns out he didn't. I don't think anyone can ever ruin Budapest for me - it was there before me and will be there for me throughout my life, and will be there after me. It was there before him, long before him, and will be there long after him, as well. Nevertheless, it was quite surreal, walking in that airport where, a mere three weeks ago, him and I had had an emotional reunion. I walked to the seats where we had sat down together, dazed in our mutual happiness and still in disbelief that we were together once more. Three weeks is not a long time, but neither is it very short, and a lot can happen in three weeks, and it did.

I took a regiojet from Budapest to Bratislava, my last city on my itinerary this time round, and it was really hot. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am not a fan of travelling during the summer, and I don't really rate travelling during the spring, either. I'd booked my regiojet tickets in Plovdiv, during my night there at the lovely Best Rest Hostel, and I vividly remember that night, actually; talking with that English guy, and having to cut our conversation short because I really needed to focus and book those tickets.

The regiojet was a hot 2 hour ride, not made any more enjoyable by the fact that I was forced to listen to an American girl's conversation on the phone. As far as I could tell she had met a couple at a hostel and they were going to be in Bratislava as well, and she really wanted to meet up with them but they weren't as keen, and for about 40 minutes I had to listen to her passive-aggressively attempt to cajole them into meeting up with her again - "I know you're both going to be spending a lot of time outside but I thought, maybe we could just meet for a coffee? It doesn't matter when or where. Whenever's good for you. I'm sure we can work something out." And many variants of this. I remember this so vividly because it just seemed so pathetic. Girl, just take a hint - no one likes a desperate hanger-on.

Was pleased when we finally arrived in Bratislava, which me and D had also been in about two weeks ago, as our (also regiojet) bus to Prague had stopped through here for an hourlong lunch break where he'd made some jokes about the non smoking signs ("Haha this is so Slavic") and gotten me a sandwich and some more Haribos. The city centre was about 25 mins walk from the bus station, which was pretty out of the way. They've built a really nice new AS which I think I've commented on in previous entries, but it really was a huge improvement on the old one, which was falling apart, dismal and very Communist. The new AS had free WiFi, nice shops and restaurants, and was clean and brisk and just very nice to be in. I really am rambling at this point, though, so back to the point - I walked there, at which point my Google Maps gave out, and I actually found myself slightly lost. Can you believe that I've successfully navigated nearly all of Europe, from the rolling Carpathian mountains of Transylvania to the maze-like alleyways of Croatia, only to be stumped in Slovakia, of all places? All in all I wasn't on my best form during this trip, and it showed. I did eventually manage to locate the hostel though, and went in thankfully. I'll write more about the hostel and the checkin in my next entry, as this one is already overlong. Meanwhile, some nice pictures of Slovakia to whittle your eyeteeth on.