day 128 (48 days)

towers _________________passageway andrea___________ keep


bus in bratislava (cabble car) ____ me __________________andrea

went to brataslava on saturday and stayed over night. to start i woke up and went to the train station. i got snacks and had breakfast. and went up to the sky way bridge type thing there and people watched until the group showed up. then i went down and said hi to all of them. then we got on the train. we arrived in bratislava and the tour guide was waiting for us. we went on the tour (which was rather pathetic) and then we went out to lunch at a slovakian resturant. i had spagehitti that tasted like spagehitti flavored ramen noodles. then a sunday for dessert. then andrea and i went to the hostel to check in and it took forever. eventually after checking in we went to the room and started to make the beds (we tryed to make them look used so they would not be taken) then the lights went out for the entire floor. so we just decided to go out and explore. we walked through a over packed advent market (i had to push people out of the way and we had to hold hands to keep from getting separated. then we decided to go up to the castle in town (it was starting to get alitle dark out at that time).

on the way up the mountain andrea mentioned that she was starting to be come more aware of her environment after walking through the area the hostel was in (the gehhetto(never stay at the patio hostel in bratislava it is a lousy hostel and a more expensive one is well worth it.) ) then i said "so you have noticed him to?" implying the man following us up the hill. (not sure i should have mentioned it) she said "who?" and i said "the man following us" (i should have played it cool and not told her since i was not certain he was following us at th time)(but i guess im paranoid.) so we crossed the street and stopped at a tourist station and stood around as i watched the man walk by. he stopped at a near by realistate building and pretended to read the adds. (great he actually was following us!!) so i acted like it was fine and we continued up the hill. keeping an eye on him. we got to the castle and after some language problems we found out it was closed. so we turned around to see the man walking towards us about 200 ft away. i said " could you please get on the othere side of me" moving her to my right side. (by this time i had my pocket knife in my pocket with the pliers end out) and we walked down the hill. i kept andrea about 1 foot to my right and kept the man about 2 feet to my left. watching him for any aggressive move fully ready to throw my entire body into him (packed fist first) while simultaneously moving andrea forward (to the area behind the man) out of harms way. but nothing happened he passed us giving me the same attention i was giving him. i think he saw me move andrea so she would be on my right side and mostly safe and realized i knew and was fully ready to retaliate if he made a move.

we had dinner at a chinese resturant. we saw a cool little contraption, it was a plate holder/keeper warmer thing. it was a plastic box with a metal grate top and 2 candles inside (holloween pumkin / poperie candles) they put it on the table and then put the plate of chop suey on it to keep it warm. i'm gonna steal this idea someday when i have time. i'm gonna make it out of oak and fine steel mesh.

then we went back to the hostle to find some one had taken andreas bed. so we had to go down stairs and complain and they gave her new sheets and asked if she could take another bed. then we watched "olive the other reindeer" ( a christmas movie i had ordered online and had gotten in the mail the previous day) and then went to sleep.

that night the guy who took andreas bed came in a 4:00 AM and made alot of noise his breathing was irregular (he was drunk) i didn't really sleep that night i spent the entire night slipping in and out.

the next morning i woke up (kinda) and got ready to go we left for the castle at 9:00AM and found out the bus we wanted to take would only be there an 1:30 so we waited after an hour i got annoyed and checked if other busses would get us close.(we could walk some) and found that bus 28 would get us most of the way there. we waited 20 minutes and took the bus. after we got to the castle we talked to a ticket clerk who we found out only knew afew words of german or english. we asked to 2 tickets at student rate he understood that then tried small talk with us and then for some reason was convinced we wanted to exchange our money so we said no thanks and left. the castle was great. we spent about 4 hours there mostly just sitting on the wall watching boats go by. then we left for the bus station (the sun was setting (3:00 pm). we ate lunch/dinner at mc donalds and then changed our money back and then went to the train station we missed the train by about 2 minutes so we had to wait 50 minutes for the next one. then we rode home and i went to sleep.

it was strange being in a country that did not speak either german or english. after this trip i realized how much german i actually knew and was happy with it. this trip also confirmed another belief i gained in germany , I KNOW ENGLISH! I HAVE IT MADE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

its even stranger that at the castle we could see over the river and see austria (a place were every one sproke german). but literally 100 ft away some people knew no german what so ever. i think boarders (imaginary lines) are alot stronger than any of us realize both culturally and politically.