Hotel Brix Bratislava

... centre. We got a map and a book filled with information and attractions in Bratislava. While I went to the washroom, which was a rip-off at one euro, Richard flipped through the book. Turned out we had already seen the attractions in the city, while wandering aimlesly around. Dissapointed, we decided to check out the Canadian embassy, which was sketchy, and then head back to Vienna. <br><br>We went back to the sketchy bus ...

... the same person who gave me such a start on the trail three weeks ago. He's doing a similiar trip using the Danube but traveling much faster. In the room is also a german girl on a much more ambling trip on a very tight budget. So thats three cyclists in the same room. There's free wifi here. Tomorrows plan is to ride into Hungary, hop on a train to Budapest and stay at a campsite to the south. I'm starting to feel a sense of achievement about the trip too.

... a huge church, and across the river, where the commerical and business district was. Walked all around town, to the legislature, a few more churches, and tesco. Made some more pasta, just cant seem to get enough of it! That night, I decided I wanted to go back to the castle hill and take some night pictures. It was a much better sight, the gawdy bridge, with its gawdy choice of night light colours. Some thing about the twinkling lights ...

... that intersected with a tram line at some point that would take me further into the city. Having no clue how to buy a ticket for the bus I wandered up to the lady at the currency exchange desk and asked her, and lucky for me she had tickets for sale for &euro;1. Right after she sold it to me she closed down for the night since it was 10pm. Everyone else in line was just out of luck unless they could find exact change. About a third of the plane had the ...

... bus just to get out of the sun. Reaching Tatranska Lomnica, 5 of us negotiated a taxi to take us to Propad. It took 10 mins but finally we had arrived at our "first" stop (only 5 hours later than planned). Waiting for our train to Bratislava we pondered how we would be able to find accommodation on arrival in August, at a moment's notice, when all the Tourist information places would be closed. No worries. Arriving at Bratislava at 7 ...

... As the churches do not look like your typical 'English' ones until the bells rang or you walk past and hear the choir singing you don't really know how many there are and this is only around the Main Square. We walked the perimeter of the Main Square and the surround streets, Ben watched people flow out of the churches whilst I looked through the markets. It seems a very religious/christian country. We enjoyed coffee at the famous Cafe Roland ...

A ten hour marathon train ride included getting off and taking a bus around track construction and getting back on. Crossing the border was equivalent to Juarez, and the train took a definite turn for the worse. Slovakia is a poorer and shabbier neighbor, an ongoing construction site as it struggles to emerge from Soviet domination. The last Soviet soldiers left only ...

... and priests were to sit during services, boasted armrests that swooped upward, culminating in carved figures. These small statues included standard Christian symbols like storks feeding their young with blood from their pierced breasts, and less traditional vignettes such as dragons and dogs with snakes in their mouths, or cats tending to rats, or, our favorite, a raccoon cradling a book by three paws and quizzically scratching his head with a fourth. Our ...

... about buying 10 packs of gum one at a time but that seemed silly. Eventually we found a coffee machine that would make change (the one in our terminal was broken). We stayed in an apartment. We had some difficulty finding it at first but people on the street were very friendly and helpful. The apartment was nice and the owner was helpful and gave us lots of information and ...

... fruit trees lining the road were so laden with ripe fruits you, could reach out and pluck plumbs as you cycled past without stopping, which I did often. Arrived at Nitra, a large town with a series of pedestrianised streets, a hill with fortified buildings and a church. Toured the top, had lunch and browsed the shops. I was having a slow day, things seemed to be taking a long time and I was not in a hurry. Exited the town and soon ...