Bye Bye BudaPest; Hello Bratislava

Sarah and I spent our last day in Budapest on Monday with a trip to the Gellert Bath. Since we didn't have our bathing suits we decided to head to the cave church next door built into the side of the mountain in Buda. We also went to the top of the mountain (which was twice taller than we originally thought--about 20 minute walk) to the large Liberty Monument. It used to be a Soviet Monument, but they changed the legend and now consider it a Hungarian freedom monument.

So later in the afternoon we take a cab from our friendly BudaPest Hilton for the train station. After our train experiences in Italy last year (near pickpocketing, extortion by train conductor) we were ready for the worst. After a bit of confusion buying our ticket, we found our platform and got on the train with plenty of time to spare. After about 1.5 hours we reached the border crossing for the Slovak republic and two customs agents (one Hungarian; one Slovak) opened our train door. They checked us out and were promptly on their way! Moments later, the conductor came by and verified our ticket without incident! All in all, we have began to have renewed faith in the European train system since we didn't have any problems whatsoever. Lets hope our luck keeps with us when we head to Devin castle tomorrow for the day and to Prague later this week...

So, now we are staying with Jessica and Andrew in their apartment across the street from the Slovak presidential palace. Literally could throw a rock and actually could hit the fence of the palace. Crazy! Jessica played tour guide today starting with a lovely trip to the "beautiful" Petrzalka. These were the large "Bronx-like" housing projects created in Bratislava during the communist occupation after WWII to the late 1980's. Anyone see Eurotrip?!! Actually, they have began to make improvements to the complex--but still appear to have a long way to go before making it feel like a warm and fuzzy place to live. Imagine lots and lots of building and tons and tons of concrete. Everything looks the same.

After leaving Petrzalka we headed to the Stare Mesto (old town) and walked around all the old buildings within the old castle walls. What a beautiful part of the city. Notice that beautiful is not in parentheses! Most of the crumbling building have been fully restored. There are large squares with fountains, free wi-fi, restaurants, shopping. It reminds us a lot of Paris but smaller and without all the crowds. A nice change after the busier BudaPest. If anyone tells you not to visit Bratislava, they obviously haven't been here lately. Later we headed to St Martens cathedral build in the 1200's and has been termed the coronation church since about a dozen Hungarian rulers have been coronated here when Bratislava was part of the Hungarian empire. The church architecture was amazing!

So far we haven't had too much of a language problem--of course we've had Jessica "attached to our hip" thus far. Tomorrow Sarah and I will venture on our own all day since Jessica will be working. I think we'll get by with a combination of pointing, miming, and just plain grunting... We'll see how that goes... ;)

Things here in Bratislava are quite affordable. All 4 of us ate dinner tonight with drinks for the equivalent of $36! It was a nice sit-down dinner too! Later we went to a chocolate bar and had a few different types of hot chocolate for dessert. Mine had some sort of spicy peppers that I thought looked like lady bugs. Heck, even if they were, they sure tasted good! Sarah had chilis, anise, and some other spice. Yes, that's right... In her hot chocolate. Delicious!

So tomorrow we head to Devin Castle about a 20 minute bus ride out of Bratislava. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled Bill Clinton the whole time!