Welcome to Slovakia!

Here is a place that I probably never thought I would visit, yet here we are in Bratislava, Slovakia.  Today was a gray day on the train, and when the train pulled into the Bratislava station (nothing to write home about), the weather was unchanged.  At least it wasn't raining.  Here, we had no prior arrangements for transportation to the hotel, so we are reliant on the honesty of cab drivers.  We proceed to the head of the line, and I asked the driver how much to the hotel, and he answered twenty euros.  This seems a little high, but what can you do?  The cab ride turns out to be only five or ten minutes, so the fare seems especially wrong, but we pay.  When we checked into the hotel, they confirm that yes, indeed, we were ripped off; it should be no more than twelve or thirteen, but they told us it could have been much worse, so we don't feel too bad.

Our room is not quite ready (it is 12:30pm), so we drop our bags and head out for lunch.  A note on the Sheraton, where we are staying:  first, it is really nice, and second, it is part of a large, modern complex on the river called Eurovea.  Eurovea consists of a huge, multi-story mall that is very open.  It also has a ton of restaurants overlooking the river, movie theaters, a grocery store, a casino, and across the street is the modern center for the arts, kind of a Slovak Kennedy Center.  Its location is good for tourists, too, as it is not too far to walk to the historic city center.  Bratislava' historic center, ignored for many decades, was only renovated within the past ten years.  Today, it is a lively place. 

We have lunch at an Italian restaurant called Primi.  Rob had a salad Nicoise, and I had a chicken ceasar salad.  We stroll through the mall -- it's nice and new -- then back to the hotel to check in.  After check-in, we make our way to the old town to stroll around.  We are not planning on any sights today, just to get a feel for the place.  Tomorrow, we will pay more attention to what we are seeing and take a more planned self-guided walking tour as recommended in our guide book.  Today, however, it appears a special event is occurring.  There are roving bands of high school students dressed up in suit and nice dresses marching around town with noisemakers (think New Year's Eve) and shouting.  Rob asked one young man what the occasion was.  He informed Rob that they were graduating high school and raising money to pay for the graduation party, so of course we contribute what coins we have -- nearly three euros, actually.

We stop at the main square for a beer (Czech Budweiser -- nothing like ours) at the Roland Cafe, then back to the restaurant Primi on the river for dinner.  Rob had spaghetti and meat sauce and I eat a pizza!  A glass of wine at the hotel bar completes our day.

More on Bratislava in the next post ...