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.
At reception, we were greeted with a welcome beer and sent
off to our room—a four bed female dorm, comfortably spaced with lockers, wall
lamps per person, and a nightstand. One of our roommates appeared just after we
set our things down, and we talked with her for a while. She’s from Australia,
taking her REQUIRED gap year in London. Oh, to be so fortunate in America!
Our new friend briefed us on a free walking tour of the city,
as well as our fourth roommate who didn’t speak very much English. “She’s been
trying to talk to me, but I just can’t understand her,” she said, a little
sheepishly.
Kayla and I didn’t think much about it after that. Instead,
we were swallowed up by the quiet squares, narrow walkways, and not-so-subtle European
beauty of Bratislava. What made this break for me was spending time in cities
that are in the middle of a low tourist season. And as Bratislava is still on
the cusp of becoming a tourist spot, the world there seemed empty and
infinitely mine. There was leisure to stroll and see the late October sun set
golden over the cathedral that we poked our heads into, and the red-roofed
houses clumped to create the town.
To get to the Bratislava Castle we
crossed a bridge over a Zachem Bridge-esque highway and then took a walk
through a small park. The castle has been reconstructed as the result of fires, and what stands today is a 1950s structure. It is simply in layout and design, but the gates on either side of the entrance are ornately carved with knights in marble armor, wielding their spears and shields. On one side of this lookout could be seen the city center; the other, wind turbines and industrial complexes laid out past the river.
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| Bratislava Castle |
Our evening was spent in the evening’s sweet company,
strolling along the cobblestoned streets to find a traditional Slovak
restaurant. We ordered grilled cheese and fries which was literally a plate of
fries topped with a small, grilled wheel of cheese. It made for some excellent
cheese fries, I may say!
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| Bratislava Historical City |
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| A more industrial look at the city! |
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| Grilled Cheese: the European way. |
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| And a more crumbly cheesecake, Euro style! |
As a side note: we got cake every day. When you hear nothing
but rave reviews of Austrian cakes, there’s nothing to do but eat it while it’s all there. Stuffed, Kayla and I made our way
back through the empty historical center, coming across a university where a
music class was rehearsing, and through the open upper-floor window flooded the
angelic voices of a classically trained choir. We stood there, among the light
poring over the architecture, wondering how we could have gotten so lucky. It
felt like a moment out of a fairytale or, at the least, a Christmas movie.
Which can be a fairytale in itself, but I’ll debate that another day.
That night, we met our roommate who indeed did not speak
English. She spoke, I believe, a mix of English, Slovak, Dutch, and one other
language. The four of us tried to converse, and I was left feeling badly when I
couldn’t comprehend. In a few hours, though, I would be in a more baffled way.
Our fourth roommate kept a glass of pure alcohol beside her
bed, and left every couple of hours to take a smoke. She didn’t want to eat,
and instead took to the drink. The three of us bid the others goodnight as she
left another time, and let it be.
Just before four in the morning, Kayla whispered my name and
I instinctively jumped out of bed. In her hands was one of the towels we were
given on arrival, and from it was coming a steady stream of smoke. Both tired,
disoriented, and confused, we stood flustered for a moment before Kayla ran it
to the shower room and washed it out. Our roommate had gone out for a smoke and
turned her wall lamp on, throwing her towel over it so as to block out the
light. Those little things heat up quickly, apparently. Our roommate woke up at
one point as we scrambled with the towel being eaten by the embers, and we
returned under our covers, all laughing senselessly for a few moments.
To say it was an interesting seventeen hours in Bratislava
would be an understatement. On the next leg of our journey to Salzburg, I was
journaling and as I arrived at that point of the story, I started laughing and
couldn’t seem to stop. When Kayla looked over at me, I sank into my seat with
tears in my eyes, and when I tried to speak a strangled laugh overtook me and I
covered my face to calm down.
In all, it was a beautiful city. It speaks for itself, in
every turn of a corner, and for its gentle city-scape. Maybe it wasn’t the
experience I was expecting, but doesn’t that make it all the more exciting?
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