Bratislava: gotta love that exchange rate!

A few of us crossed the iron curtain into Bratislava, Slovakia last Saturday. In case you don’t remember it’s the really crappy city in Eurotrip with the awesome exchange rate. Slovakia is in the EU but has not yet adopted the euro as their currency. The abbreviation is the "Sk". I think its the Slovakian word for "crowns" but for the day I just called them "slovaks". The dollar can still buy a lot of slovaks. It’s only a 45 minute train ride from Vienna and a “nice little Saturday trip”. I was really happy I went because it was everything I expected and more from Bratislava: cold and rainy with strange people and a crappy castle. As soon as we walked out of the train station huge gusts of wind blew construction debris off of two buildings across the street. We and everyone else had to literally run back into the train station to avoid it. I had my camera out but I unfortunately I wasn’t recording or else I would have come excellent Cloverfield-esque footage. After about an hour the weather calmed down a bit and we were able to walk around the city. Bratislava is making a slow but steady transformation from Cold War times. Looking across the river from the castle into the older part of town, all the buildings are built the same in a typical communist fashion. Before leaving we checked out “Old Town” Bratislava and tried the local dishes. I of course opted more to try the local beer. It turns out the famous Slovakian beer is called Zlaty Bazant and has a 12% alcohol content. Once you start talking to the people they are actually a lot more friendly than Austrians. I bet it’s mostly because they get really excited when anyone comes to their country and takes interest in it. So, in short, Bratislava isn’t really that cool but I still think worth the trip. And, as a friend pointed out, it is the “40” of Europe: cheap and alcoholic.

p.s. I changed the settings so that anyone can comment on posts. I don’t know who is reading this but if you are out there feel free to talk back