Bratislava

I left for Bratislava on a later bus than I'd intended. I arrived in the evening with no Slovak money, nowhere organized to stay and not able to speak the language! However I met a Slovak who spoke excellent English and he suggested somewhere to stay. When I got there it was about 11:30 and they told me it was "finito". In a mixture of languages (French and Italian I think - I was tired at the time) they told me where else I could go. So I walked quite a bit and eventually found the hotel; it seemed expensive at about 3 times the price of the price I had heard for a hostel, but at only €16 it was still very cheap!

The next day I checked out (having missed breakfast which finished at 8:30 - how early?!) and headed for the railway station hoping to meet others so that I could have company. I met some British guys (including one from Rowner, near Fareham!) but they were just leaving Bratislava. I later met some more people, including 2 Slovene girls and we all found a hostel together which was great value and had a kitchen. I went around Bratislava with the Slovenes and we did meals together. It was good fun. Bratislava had less to do than I'd hoped - it was not as impressive as Prague.

On my last night I decided to go to the Tatra mountains but didn't know who to travel with - I didn't want to go by myself. So I prayed and a little later met some English students who were heading that way and we teamed up together.