Bratislava

Hi everyone,

I've been in Bratislava for a few days now and I'm really enjoying it. It's a great place to finish up the trip, as there's not really that much to do here, it's just a nice place to be. The hostel is great, with a fantastic restaurant in the basement serving up excellent, moderately priced food. Some good people around too (Canadians vastly outnumber Aussies here: weird). I extended my stay an extra night (to 3) and will only stay in Vienna for the night before my flight. I'll probably leave early tomorrow morning though, so that I can at least spend the day wandering around the city a bit.

We went to a Slovakian elite league hockey game last night. It was great to be in a hockey arena again. When the players came out to warm up I got a major urge to get back on the ice myself. Can't wait to suit up for the Knuckleheads again when I get home!

The game itself was pretty ho-hum. Those europeans never finish their checks, so to my eyes it felt like a very lazy game with no intensity or effort. The home team won, though, so the best part was at the end of the game. They left the ice, but returned sans helmets and gloves, and did a big victory lap, waved to all the fans, and then went down to line up on the blue line, opposite the crazy fans in the standing room section. These fans had been going crazy the whole game, and now the players lined up in front of them, joined hands and started lifting their arms into the air repeatedly, really fast. The fans all did the same, and it was like this big fan/player love fest or something. We were killing ourselves laughing, it was so funny to our eyes. Still, it was really cool to see the players engage the fans in that way. I liked it.

I'm starting to look forward to some of the simple things of home now. Like sleeping through the night without having your bed shaken like an earthquake by the dude on the top bunk at 5am. Or going to the bathroom when you want, not when its available. Or a million other little things (knowing where you can get bacon and eggs for breakfast being one that immediately jumps to mind).

So that about catches me up I think. I'm not going to write any more Romanian stories, as there's just too many to type out. Hopefully I'll generate one or two more good ones in the time I have left, and then it'll be back to the real world. Yikes!

cheers,
bms