And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming

To answer a question I know several of you have, I spent last week in Bratislava, Slovakia. It's quite a lovely city, and was a perfect place to hide out after London, and also to care for myself as I had a pretty severe cold. So severe, that when I left London, I could barely say a word. It was awful. Immediately after arriving in Bratislava, met a lovely woman from the UK, and it turned out we were booked in to the same hostel. We had a nice time hanging out some of the time, and we went to see Falstaff at the Opera House one night. Nicely performed opera, beautiful opera house and amazingly cheap tickets. The opera was very much a place to see and be seen, as nearly everyone was Dressed For The Opera. Think what you may of Slovakia, but there is a lot of new money in Bratislava. To wit, there are boutiques selling clothing lines such as D&G and Versace. This was a bit surprising to me.

Now, I am in Budapest. I've wanted to come to this city for ages, and it's one of the two places on my European leg that I have been most excited about. This is a beautiful city and I could easily fall in love with it and live here for a while.

The Danube runs through both Bratislava and Budapest, and it's interesting to see the difference in current. In Bratislava, the current is exceptionally rapid. To wit, I saw an entire tree being carried by the current in Bratislava. Here, the current is still swift, but doesn't appear to be so rapidly swift as in Bratislava.

I'm still in the final stages of recovering from my awful cold, so have mostly just went on a few long walks since I arrived in Budapest yesterday.

And to belatedly answer a comment post from Fifi about travelling: travelling around when you don't speak the language can be frustrating. When I was in Bratislava, I just asked one of the girls from the hostel to write down "One-way ticket to Budapest, please." for me to take to the train station. Turned out the international ticket agent there on Sunday spoke some English, so I didn't need it. I generally find that I talk much more with my hands and through facial expressions, when I'm in a country where I don't speak the language. To wit, I made motions of blowing my nose in order to find a travel packet of facial tissue at a little shop today. A smile goes a very long way when you don't speak a language. I was in a little museum in Bratislava (a clock museum -- very, very cool), and the retired lady minding the museum and I had this rapport and affection based just on smiles and hand gestures.

I suppose it really is just about being open to where you're at, not expecting everyone to speak English and having patience. Perhaps a little creativity, too. Even if you don't speak a language, you can almost certainly be able to buy a travel ticket just by bringing out a map and pointing to your destination.

So, I guess the best advice is to go forth and travel, armed with a smile and a kind disposition.