Oh What a Day It Has Been

It started off well enough. I walked around the corner of the hotel, caught the tram and within minutes I was at the train station. A kind stranger helped me get my suitcase/backpack up the stairs and it was off to my train.

After an almost uneventful (more on that later) 2 1/2 hour train ride, I arrived at the Bratislava Central Station, which isn’t much bigger than the one in Budapest. I was lucky to grab the last luggage locker and within minutes had my bags stored and was off to get a cab to the city center.

I have to admit that I wasn’t terribly impressed with where he dropped me off, especially when I saw the 6 or so Christmas booths. My first thought was, really, I came here for this??? It turns out this wasn’t the main square, just a place somewhat close to the city center but I didn’t know it at the time.

It was only about 10:30 and I couldn’t get into my Airbnb flat until mid-afternoon so I decided to head up to the Bratislava Castle. But before setting out, I decided to have my daily hot chocolate. That’s when I had my first adventure.

I was rather surprised that it was served in such a tiny cup, but I didn’t think much of it until I tried to drink it. It wasn’t hot chocolate so much as it was a cup of melted chocolate. Seriously, think melted Hersey bars. I tried adding the cream but all that did was make the thick chocolate creamier. I even tried putting in a little water to thin it out but then all I had was runny chocolate. While not exactly what I had in mind (and it wasn’t even hot, just warm) it’s still chocolate so of course I ate every bit of it.

After paying for my melted chocolate bar, I headed out to the castle, way up the hill.

There were about a zillion stairs to the top, none of which had had rails. I took it slow but I finally made it.

The Castle is a combination of several museums. It’s an art gallery, an archeological museum, a Slovakian history museum and a Resistance Museum.

Here are a few things from the prehistoric period.

The resistance museum had tributes to several of the resistance fighters. The items in the photo below belonged to Jozef Gabcik. He was part of the plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. A quick history lesson….Heydrich was head of, among other things, the Gestapo. He also chaired the Wannsee Conference that outlined the Final Solution which aimed to deport and murder Jews in occupied Europe. On May 27, 1942, he was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers and died from his injuries several days later. Jozef was one of those soldiers. He and 6 other soldiers were tracked to a house in Prague where they decided to commit suicide rather than be taken alive by the SS.

As you would expect, the view from the castle was beautiful.

It took quite some time to walk back down the hill and going down the stairs without a handrail was very scary. I was able to use the wall as a guide some of the way and yet another kind stranger gave me his arm to hold for the last of the very steep stairs that didn’t even have a wall. But I made it down in one piece.

I found another cute place for lunch.

After lunch I headed back to the train station to get my luggage and took the cab to the flat. That’s when the real adventure began. It turns out that my Airbnb flat is in a building in the pedestrian only zone. The cab dropped me off as close as he could and pointed me in the right direction. I walked about 4 blocks uphill (of course it was) over the cobblestones (they were the small round top kind that are very hard to walk on) dragging my carry-on size rollaboard and backpack. I did okay until GPS said “you’ve arrived” except there was no door and none of the addresses matched the one I was looking for. Very, very, very long story short it took over an hour to get into the apartment. Complicating everything was that my phone was running out of juice and my Airalo internet connection kept disconnecting. So, I had very little juice and no internet. Once again, the kindness of strangers was plentiful. There is a small hotel just a few doors down, so I popped in there for help. One of the women checking in let me hook up to her phone internet so I could message my host. Then, Adrianne, the desk clerk left the desk, locked up the hotel and came out to help me with the lock box. I know how to use a lock box, but I couldn’t get the code to work. The bottom line was…. there was no address on the building; the lock boxes were in the building across the walkway and on the ground and behind a bike rack. Gee, I wonder why I had trouble finding them. There were two lock boxes. The key in the box that opened with the code I was given, was not the key to my flat. It was truly a nightmare. The flat is lovely but…. OMG!!

When I went out to get groceries, I stumbled into the main square, where the actual Christmas market is located. The one I saw earlier was just a tiny one. And it turns out that the main square is only a few blocks from the flat so it will be fun to explore tomorrow.

I didn’t really walk around the market because I wanted to get home before dark. And, it’s just as well, because when I set off to get groceries, I didn’t pay attention to how I got to the store. So, on the way back, I didn’t remember which way I had turned and had no idea where the flat was. REALLY?!? Once again, the kindness of strangers saved the day. I went into a restaurant and asked if I could hook up to their WiFi so I could get GPS to work. I was only a few turns away from my street and now I’ve memorized the landmarks so I should be good to go.

Oh, wait, there’s more. When I got home and unpacked, I realized that I had accidently thrown away the beautiful hand-made ornament I bought yesterday. Remember when I said the train ride was mostly uneventful? Well, while on the train I threw away what I thought was garbage but it was actually my ornament. I thought I had put the ornament in my suitcase so didn’t even look in the bag. It wasn’t until I got to the flat and unpacked that I realized I still had the garbage but not the ornament. My heart is broken!!!

Oh, and I’m on hour 3 of washing one load (probably about 6 items) of laundry. There’s supposed to be a 20 minute cycle but I didn’t find it. Why does one load of wash need 3 hours?? And, that was the shortest cycle. There’s one that’s 12 hours. Seriously!! I have more laundry to do and have messaged the host about which button is the 20-minute cycle.

Is today over yet!!!