And this is where they want me to get CLEAN?!?!?

After another late night of hanging out with the gang, we woke up early to eat breakfast and make it to the train station. Which we barely did! We got stuck in MAJOR traffic and by the time we arrived at the station and found our track number we had 6 minutes to get to the track, get to the front car, and load 30 people. Stressful!

Good News: We made it. Bad News: The adventure didn’t stop there.

Once we were on the train we all had trouble falling asleep and were restless until the cabin started to smell strongly of burning rubber. Wunderbar. So as we began to complain about our stupid former Soviet Union train car the entire cabin filled with smoke. And, to make matters worse, the windows wouldn’t open. So we slightly panic and our teacher (who we lovingly call Cactus) tried to go figure out what was going on. And about 10 minutes later when we arrived at some little train station in the middle of the Hungarian countryside we see about 10 people on the track pointing and gasping at the condition of our car. Again, wunderbar! So it turns out that the breaks were on fire. And quite frankly I’m not even sure how to respond to that.

We all got of the train to take a look but were promptly instructed to get back on because there was, “No Probleme.” Maybe she couldn’t see the smoke rushing from under the train…

But, we finally made it to Bratislava which turned out to be fabulous. A little rough around the edges but fabulous. We arrived at Hotel Kyjev and it felt like stepping into a time warp to the early 70’s. Carpet on the walls, wooden paneling, TVs that haven’t worked since the 60’s. You get the picture. When we got up to our room and inspected the bathroom we decided maybe showering here wasn’t such a good idea after all. Perry’s thoughts, and I quote, “And this is were they want me to get CLEAN!?!?!?”

We had a couple of hours before we had to meet up with our tour guide for a walking tour of the city so I had a long lunch with Maria (one of our mentors) and Cactus (the assistant director to the IES program) which was fun. I took my second successful power nap of my time abroad (and am even beginning to think that I could get used to it) and then met up with everyone to walk through cold and rainy Bratislava.

The walking tour was beautiful! Behind all of this ultra eastern European facade was a gorgeous city. The old city, complete with beautiful buildings and cobble stone was gorgeous and made the trip to Bratislava totally worth it.

We ended the tour at a typical Slovakian restaurant and were served another unbelievably delicious meal. We met the guy who organized our trip and talked to him about Bratilsvala and the time he spent studying in Vienna. We got a list of good places to go out, finished dinner, and then headed back to the hotel.

We met in the lobby later that evening and went out with Maria which was so much fun! I had my first cosmopolitan and danced to a Grease medley and I will survive in a club on a boat in the Danube river until early early in the morning! It was a wonderful night and a great first day in Bratislava.