Bratislava, part VI - Old Town and the Hrad (iv) and wrapup of continental #7

I feel like I was writing the wrapup for continental #6 not so long ago, which actually is true. It's one of those odd periods in your life when you feel that time goes by both fast and slow, which I do not think is a wholly bad thing.

After walking up and down the Hrad, I got some more coffee, then went back to the hostel to collect my stuff. The hot guy was back on duty, and I chatted with him for a bit before going. He laughed a little at my insistence on going so quickly ("Your flight's at 3.30pm and it's only 10am, you can stay for another hour yet") but once bitten twice shy; I'd had enough of cutting it too fine and missing flights, and was determined to leave as much time as I could.

The walk to the AS was straightforward and pleasant, and I was able to stop at SPAR to get some water and stroll my way there leisurely. I was a little disappointed that this trip was coming to an end; but only a bit. Too many things had gone wrong this time for me to be very sorry about finishing it. Continental #6, on the other hand, was absolutely heavenly, and I still regard it as one of my favourite trips.

The brand new, shiny Bratislava AS

So soon? Vienna Flughafen

I'd booked my bus ticket to Vienna Flughafen with Slovak Express for 1 euro (they had an online special), but it wasn't due to leave till 1, and considering my absolutely dreadful luck with delayed buses this time round, I decided not to risk it, and bought a new ticket for an earlier regiojet bus. Again, as luck would have it, all the buses that morning were delayed, including my new bus, and it ended up leaving 15 minutes late, but still earlier than the Slovak Express I had booked.

Other things beckon to me now, but I'm glad I finally visited Istanbul, and Bulgaria, and Greece, places which have been on my bucket list for simply ages now. Clear conscienced and pretty pleased with myself, but for goodness sake, I hope continental #8 will be less troublesome.

Bratislava, part V - Old Town and the Hrad (iii)

Walking in Bratislava was a very enjoyable experience. This is the kind of holiday and the kind of travelling that I like. It's been 4 years, but I've finally managed to cover nearly all of Europe. Now all that I have left are Norway and Iceland. I suppose Andorra as well. I did a quick check on flights to Oslo just now and ...yeah, I can't afford that. I still can't believe I was able to find 20 euro flights in July from London to Copenhagen, but then again that was 4 years ago and a lot has changed since. I'm happy with the past 4 years, more or less.

Yesterday there was a thunderstorm which completely obscured my view of what is apparently the biggest blood moon of the century. I feel like I've seen that headline quite often - everything is the biggest eclipse or biggest moon in 250 years, but for something that supposedly only comes around every quarter of a millennium or so, it seems to happen with astonishing frequency. Anyway, it would have been nice to see, but I already saw a blood moon in Istanbul, and a very nice blood moon it was, too, so I'm not too fussed about not seeing it yesterday. When I woke up this morning and went to wash, it was so chilly I had to go and change into warmer clothes, and sure enough, when I checked my weather app - it's 13 degrees C here, can you believe it? Only in Ireland. Hashtag Europe heatwave. This is what I came for. Apparently it's 18 degrees in London now. Dublin is definitely the place to be.