Well its currently 5.30 in the morning and i feel i should start up the old blog. Jet lag has been wreaking some real havoc, but glad to say we all fought through the new year and actually stayed up until very early the next morning considering we'd been up since 3.30am the previous day.
Lets get this in order now, chronological if you will.
I experienced my new longest ever transit period, as the time it took from arriving at the Brisbane airport until we got to Martin's Grandma's house in Bratislava was at least 30 hours! Fortunately it all went very smoothly, the worst part was probably the stop over in Taipei which was only for three hours. We were stuck in the old terminal, a very bland and uncomfortable place where there weren't even any chairs let alone lounges. Still we did have a nice meal their, Jacko and I had a beef noodle soup and Martin and Brett both got a pickled cabbage variety. Our spirits were raised immensely when entering the plane it was evident that many spare seats would be on offer. This was very fortunate as the flight from Taipei to Vienna is an anticipated 14 hours, fortunately again, ours was only a touch over 12.
China Airways lacked nothing major, nothing to write home about but also not too bad. To be critical i guess it had some of the worst meals i've had in the sky, i managed to acquire both of the breakfast main options (Chinese option consisting of rice in lots of water and a packet of meat fibre you just pour in & the western equivelant was a very ordinary omelette) neither of which satisfied my cravings. Also the entertainment system lacked variety in a big way; really hoping they've got some different options for the return flights in a couple of months time.
Arriving in Vienna it was exciting to once again be amidst a very cold climate. Once we got to Babitchka's (Grandma in Slovak) home we had some breakfast then ate all her snack food Zahy Couske (most likely spelt incorrectly) that was left out. Martin assured us it makes her happy if we eat alot, some of the greatest news i've ever heard. Then it was out to explore Bratislava.
For the first couple of days it was very foggy and overcast with rather limited visibility. This wasn't all bad though, made the woods in particular look rather majestical. But as we saw yesterday, the first of the new year, with a clear sky Bratislava is far more beautiful; when you can actually see it. When we visited the Bratislava Castle for the first time I found it underwhelming, not very exciting or impressive. Going back to it yesterday though and i was hugely impressed, it's a beautiful Castle that can be seen watching over the town with a dominant stance. It was built in the year 907 AD and understandably has had to have major reconstruction.
As with everything i associate to be European Bratislava is very beautiful, it does however have a lot of communist Russia influence particularly in the outer suburbs. These are buildings which appear to have been thrown up as quickly and cost efficiently as possible. So they greatly lack the usual quaintness and appeal of european design, in fact they have not one ounce. But not too worry, there is far more beauty in the midst.
Our routine for the first couple of days was explore the city, and when it came to food we would accompany it with beer and a shot of spirits at the end of the meal. On the first day Martin took us to a little restaurant that is a well kept secret i'm sure. I doubt many tourists would ever usually find it on their own, it was very nice and apparently during the wars it used to be used to store gunpowder. We all had the same dish; a national favourite called Bryndzove halusky. It is boiled lumps of potato dough similar to gnocchi (the halusky) and Bryndza which is a soft sheep cheese, and finished off with a heavy sprinkling of bacon. Quite simple and very effective. We all enjoyed it thoroughly but due to the richness of the meal I was the only one who managed to finish it. When we ordered our round of shots i was frightened when the glasses were twice the size than back home. The shot actually went down really well though; a lot of the spirits we've had are flavoured with fruits; or herbs even such as the one we were drinking on new years eve that smelt and tasted quite alot like chai tea. I'll follow with that segway and jump to New Years Eve now.
We had stocked up well on fireworks which can be purchased from vendors who set up at supermarkets in the lead up to New Years. Martin loved to abuse these and when different people were asleep he would light them outside the rooms of the sleeping people making for a rather amusing practical joke. Unfortunately i was always a member of the sleeping party and am very much looking forward to getting him back. He never goes to bed first though and i feel it's a bit of a faux-pas to wake the whole neighbourhood up at 4am with an extremely loud firecracker. Anyhow on the eve of new years there was one group of young Australian lads who thoroughly enjoyed lighting off a huge number of fireworks. Mainly due to money restrictions most of these were just explosions that made a huge noise rather than a pretty sight. We had a couple of really good ones though, long ones that shot about 20 into the air and lasted at least a minute. For the actual changing of calendar years we met up with Martin's cousin and a couple of her friends and viewed the professionals efforts at lighting the sky. It was better i must admit; less rewarding though. We then went back to one of the friends apartment in the city and it was very nice indeed. Then having fought off the desire to sleep for so long we went to a nightclub. It was rather perculiar; as Martin said in Brisbane if you pay for entry to a club there's always a nice decor at the very least, this one was pretty shocking. An interesting experience anyhow.
Well i'm getting quite tired again now, its almost 7am and still no real sign of the sun coming up, but it does rise by about 8 so it's not so bad.
A quick note on the cars here, have only seen a couple of nice ones, there's a ferrari california thats been parked outside the Crown Hotel everyday, and on the street just adjacent to this one there is a nice Volkswagen Scirroco; a truely beautiful car in the flesh, i'm angry that Australia doesn't get them because they're by far the best looking car for around the 40 or 50k dollars they would cost.
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