Michalska Brana Bratislava

... it’s jealousy that they get their own toilet and a hot shower while I am just concerned about whether there will be water at all), but I sometimes do. So, it was a relief staying in Levoča with an Austral-Canadian (is that the right adjective?) couple that Oáza put us with. They were lots of fun, totally unpretentious though they had travelled much more than we had, and we actually spent time together instead of just sharing a room.

Spent most of our three days here walking round the old town - so many interesting buildings to look at as well as quirky statues and lots of pleasant squares. A good place to just sit and watch the world go by. We were enthralled by the Blue Church, which looks good enough to eat (well it looks just like an iced cake decoration!) and has motives of roses decorating much of the inside. This is because it is the ...

... of choices to buy your stuff. And I also learned a valuable lesson. When choosing a line up, dont go for the shortest one. Estimate the number of items the cashier will have to scan from the people in front of you and then choose. Ladies with huge carts of food for the next month are the enemy. Didnt feel like doing anything after cooking supper/lunch, except going downstairs to try out the internet. SLOWEST thing on the planet. Sometimes ...

... her how to get into the castle by just asking "hrad?" which means castle. She said "closed" and I was starting to curse my bad luck. I had walked 20 minutes up this hill in the rain only to find the castle was closed, and my one word of Czech and her one word of English added up to some big disappointment for me. She must have sensed that because she came out from behind her desk, grabbed my sleeve and said three times "exposition" and pointed me further up ...

... the wrong queue, so all the old women elbowing had been for nothing. Eventually, ticket in hand, I boarded the bus and managed to find two seats to myself. The bus was packed out and made a few other stops within Budapest, but thankfully no-one decided to sit next to me, although BO man did sit on the seat behind, urgh. I don't think I've ever smelt so many bad BO smells as in the last few weeks. It actually makes me glad that I don't live in a hot country ...

... I think we were told the wrong way!)Beef tried to chat up two gay guys by saying Manchester had a gay village - "I was just being friendly". Then we went to the worst boat (CLUB BORAK) I have ever been on -Pure English Idiots and just stunk of booze and sick! It was getting late (230am) so Rob decided to take out about £100, God knows what for. But somehow, we made it back to the hotel. Beef went straight up to bed, left the door open and ...

It took a 6-hour train trip from the East of Slovakia, but it was worth it. We got a room across the road from the opera house, and a block from a concert hall with a Mozart programme that night, but VERY sadly for Cathy it was sold out. So we had a beer instead and walked around the castle on a hill next to the old town which we can see from our bedroom window. Toured the old town this ...

... lively enough, with cobblestone streets and interesting architecture and lots of sidewalk cafes. I also wandered around their castle complex which is described in the guidebook as "stalinist chic". I couldn't agree more. But it was the weekend and most things were closed, and I decided to just move on to Budapest because I didn't really find anything interesting to do in Bratislava. Apart from the ...

After a few days we went north to Venice Italy, here we spent the night and all day eating real Italian pizza and ice cream. We then made our way to Czech, Austria, and Slovakia. We spent the night in Slovakia but we didn't get to our hostel until 3am because a ...

... GPS does not cover Eastern Europe, hence the purchase of the maps. I am going to have to relearn that very basic skill of how to read a map, not be told which turn to take. Luckily, the maps I found in town are suitably detailed maps and cover a reasonable area - for 15 pounds I got the whole area from west to east I wish to tour - so I can't complain. Found a market selling cheap products, mostly edible. The only problem is I ...