Also unlike non pill based computers, this one had no apparent way to connect a digital camera, what is this blog without photographs? Its just a man rambling on about nothing with the occasional vague reference to another country. You're only here for the photos, you wouldn't know if every post was just a single introductory sentence and then place-holder gibberish text like they have on printer test pages and on those emails that used to sit in my junk e-mail box trying to sell me organ enhancements in pill form (I still don't understand how medicine can even enhance musical instruments, plus I feel as though they're entire target audience should have been churches) Most of it made no sense, but occasionally a few words seemed to materialise close to each other and create a meaningful phrase, much to my occasional delight.
Looking at the above paragraph, I'm not so sure this isn't all just place-holder text after all.
Pigeon!
The holiday was a few weeks ago now, this year we chose Bratislava in Slovakia.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we walked into a tall carpeted lobby, with bell boys in waist-coats, I had to double check our booking confirmation to make sure this was definitely the place we had booked and was still half expecting the receptionist to laugh in my face for about a minute, before telling me that I wanted the other Apollo Hotel, the one with the barn door entrance, a single sleeping receptionist and a climb up 17 flights of stairs that smell distinctly of urine to get to your 8 foot x 8 foot box room where you are provided with a spade to prop the door shut while you're in.
But she accepted my print-out with a smile and a request for a 100 euro deposit, - I would have got all of that back had we not ordered room service on the first night, this was certainly a holiday of firsts for us - Did you know that in hotels, you can eat without even leaving the room? Amazing!
The biggest giveaway that I did not belong in such posh surroundings was during breakfast the following morning, on my return to the table (probably carrying pancakes) I picked up a transparent plastic cup with a yellowy swirl at the bottom, I was so proud of myself, I was going to try their Slovakian breakfast mousse. I dipped my fork and put it in my mouth to taste, it was strange, greasy and sort of salty, yes, I had grabbed myself a nice cup of butter. Out of embarrassment I had to get myself a piece of bread to go with it, I didn't want the waiting staff to know about my error.
Apparently a few days later, different colours appeared in the plastic cups and they had started to serve breakfast mousse, as though I had been seen and the chef had been ordered to prepare some, like they now assumed we must eat in England. But it was too late, I had already been stung, I could no longer trust the little plastic cups.
In the lobby of the hotel, was a slight indication of how the city of Bratislava sees itself, On the counter was a list of local taxi prices, you had the usual choices, city centre, shopping mall, train station, then the rest were prices to different countries (namely Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary) - Bratislava is usually just a stopover, somewhere you're supposed to pass through on the way to where you're really going.
But we would not stand for that, Bratislava was our holiday and we were going to enjoy what it had to offer, for starters, 1 90c bus ticket could get you anywhere in the city as long as the journey took under an hour, and it wasn't limited to buses, it included trams and those electric buses connected to wires hung over the road... Probably have a name... I won't go all public transport anorak... Not again.
It's a very small city, but it looks nice to walk around, in the main city centre there are no cars and it has all the requisite nice buildings for you to look at, take a photograph of, eat a calzone nearby and then leave again. Here is one of them.
Here's Rachael behind a tree.
On the Friday, we decided to visit one of the neighbouring countries, by train, Vienna was only an hour away.
I remember being in Vienna with Titch and going to a nice indoor zoo, I wanted to go back on this day, but had absolutely no idea where it was. Apart from that and a night out with a drinking tour, I remember Vienna being pretty dull, it was this time too, there just wasn't anything to do, though we did find a nice park to while away the afternoon.
Austrian Pigeon!
