Fall break: ten days that seemed to be an arm’s length away,
yet crept up slowly until it was October 23 and time to be on our way. My good
friend Kayla and I traveled together, and weeks of planning, purchasing
tickets, replanning, and replanning some more had finally come together to make
for One Great Adventure. First stop? Bratislava, Slovakia.
Exchanging no words with passport control, we passed through
the sliding doors to the arrivals area of the Bratislava Airport and headed out
to catch our bus. At the end of the route, we jumped out, anchors of duffel bags
slung over our shoulders and Kayla found the map guiding us to our hostel.
There were no written directions, so we followed our intuition (and, you know,
the road) before coming to a crossroads and not knowing what to do. We stopped
into both a post office and bank, hello
coming hesitantly out of our mouths, before handing over the wilting sheet of
paper and asking if they knew where to go. The woman at the post office tried
to offer help, but we found ourselves “lost” near the historical center and
again sought assistance. A bank teller was able to steer us correctly, and we
arrived at the Patio Hostel about an hour and a half after we received our
freshly stamped passports back.
