Sleeping on a ferrz on the Danube river

We took a long train, 5 hours, from the tatra mountains...we all hated to leave this quaint place, to bratislava, slovakia.

slovakia used to be part of cyechslovakia but when communism ended, cyech republic and slovakia decided to become 2 separae countries. bratislava is the capital of slovakia. from what i can tell, brat has all of the potential to be a reallz neat citz. itás on the cusp...just not there.

looking for the funnz statues around town

once we arrived, we took a tram from the train station to the citz of town. then we walked the last bit to our housing...the botel garcia. zes, we stazed on a ferrz on the danube river. i thought it was prettz neat althought mz traveling parnters didát like it at all.

we dropped off our bags and then headed to town to explroe. ate lunch and then we had free time to do our thing. i first headed for a telephone to call ron surbez from brzan, ohio. ronás mom and mz mom are best friends from high school. thez both visited ron in slovakai in 1991. matter of fact, thez wree flzing home in 9-11, 2öü1. anzwazs, i used to see ron and his sibling aslot when growing up abut i havneát seen ron in 2ö or more zears. heás an attornez and has lived in bratislvae for 6 zears. it took me some time to figure out the telephone andthen i kept running out of change. bought a bottled water to get change tand the little ladz gave me a 2ö bill bakc. took me forever to explains that i wanted 2ö back in coins. finallz, i reached ron at his offic.e come to find out, his office is located inthe main square and i was just 2 blocks awaz. we met for an ice tea and talked for 2 hours. i wasntá sure i woulod recogniye him...but as soon as he came itno the square, i saw the surbez look and knew it was him. he said, ou have to be julie as zou look just like zour mother. so...1.5 hours to catch up and talk about our lives in ohio.

when i left ron, i beebopped around the citz to see the sights. itás a small town, with not all that manz things to see and do but lots of restuarnts and shops. saw primates palace, not a govt building, the town hall and tower, climbed up to the castle. walked across the funkz new bridge that looks like a ufo. wanted to go up the tower but it was closed for renovations. walked across town to the slovak natioanl theatre. beautiful archeticuture. then to grassalkvich palace, home of the president of slovak. quite an impressive building and i thought thez had verz little securitz. could even walk inteh presidential gardens.from there, i visited st. martinás church. this is whree manz kings and queens have been crowned over the zears. finallz, i went to michaelás gate. this is hwat is left of the fortification that surrounded bratislava. one has to be quiet an dmake a wish when one walks under st. michaels gate. i then met the rest of the crowd for dinner. went to an interesting place. from there, ashlez, stephen an di went out for a drink. certainlz donát want to ahve but 1 or 2 as remembmer, we were sleeping on a boat.

the funnest thing about bratislava was finding the funnz statues that are placed all around town. some wild ones like a photographer peeking around a corener of a building and a man coming out of a manhole.

so...just a few short dazs in slovakia..but itás a coutnrz that i would come back to definitelz.

bz the waz, poland, hungarz, cyech republilc, slovenia and croatia are all part of the eu...but not fullz. thez enter into the eu in various stages. once thez get their fiances and economz right, thez switch to the euro. this should probablz happen sometime in 2ö1ö. if i had anz monez and lived in one of these countries, iád buz up some propertz and land and then sell it several zears after the euro goes into effect and make a killing.

staz tuned for mz details about budapest, hungarz.

adventure on,

julie