Parthemores in Poland

Checking out Slovakia

(Ha, ha!  Get it?  Because it used to be part of Czechoslovakia!)

You can’t really pass up going to Bratislava, especially with such a great quote from the movie “Eurotrip”:

I’ll take a quick moment to debunk some of these myths:

1)      The exchange rate is not nearly this good.  Slovakia is on the Euro now, so your dollar goes nowhere!

2)      It was not depressing in the winter, and the sunshine definitely helped.

3)      Most places in Eastern Europe don’t actually look like that.  OK, the graffiti is accurate, but that’s about it.

4)      They do have a train; in fact, the nicest train I’ve ever ridden on.

Bratislava is a neat town since there has been a lot of restoration done in the past few years.  The castle got a new coat of paint, and is now this magical white fortress standing over the city.  Unfortunately, they’re still renovating the interior, so we couldn’t go inside. 

One of the coolest places in Bratislava is the UFO.  It is an observation deck and restaurant at the top of the bridge spanning the Danube.  I think you can see from this picture why it’s called the UFO.

Just because the weather was sunny, it was by no means warm.  And up on that observation deck it was pretty freakin’ windy.  Nice views, though.

We warmed up with some soup in the super-chic (and indoor) restaurant.  Every so often you could feel it shaking very slightly from the high winds. 

For some reason, Bratislava seems to have an obsession with strange statues.  Watch out for the Manhole Guy!

This guard reminded me of when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in Empire Strikes back.  (No, I’m not a Star Wars geek.  Yes, I had to verify all the details on Wikipedia.)

This festive fellow graced the sidewalks of the pedestrian zone. 

The most random of all was the Hans Christian Anderson statue.  It was apparently to commemorate his visit in 1841.  I hope none of the places I visit decide to erect a statue of me with a freakishly large snail at my feet.  Just sayin’.

In addition to the odd statues, there are some pretty neat buildings as well.

One of the more impressive buildings is the Presidential Palace:

I felt bad for the guards in their Nutcracker uniforms because they were looking directly into the sun (south) all day long.  At least someone was smart enough to allow them to wear sunglasses.

We also celebrated our 7^th anniversary, and what better place than going to dinner at a place called “Tempus Fugit” (Time Flies in Latin).