Bratislava

Yesterday I went for some traditional Slovak goulash with a couple of blokes from the hostel. It was very good and very cheap. Afterwards we went to a couple of pubs for beers. They are also very cheap. Somewhere between 1 and 2 euros for half a litre. At the hostel it's 2.20 for a litre and a half of beer.

One of the blokes, Shay, is an aussie from a small town in Tasmania. He's travelling around after coming to Europe for a wedding. The other guy, Max, is a German who is doing a trip similar to mine. He's going on the route I originally planned and has the same concerns I had. Specifically: Pakistan. He isn't cycling though, he's hitching.

He was at the hostel last night because he couldn't get a lift yesterday. There were 3 other guys I met who were also here for the same reason. Sunday must be a bad day to hitch. Max had sussed out a reliable place to get a lift to Vienna that involved catching a local bus to the end of the line, walking another 15 minutes and dashing across a motorway. My ticket here from Vienna was actually a return because that's all you can get so I gave him that and saved him some rigmarole. All those hitchikers said yesterday was the first day they've failed to get a lift.

Today I bummed around through the morning. I intended on getting my bike fixed but I couldn't be arsed taking all the luggage off and dragging it up and down the stairs. I'll just get it fixed tomorrow. I went out to get some breakfast (pizza...) and wandered for a bit. When I came back to the room there was a new guy who'd arrived. He is a youngster from Sydney called Michael. We went and got more food then joined the free walking tour.

The walking tour was decent enough but I didn't particularly feel a connection with the places we went. The guide was drop dead gorgeous though. If she played her cards right, she could have me. There was a lot about the history of Slovakia, the culture and the food. But these things were only occasionally linked to the places we were visiting. A lot of it was more like essential information for people who haven't read the Slovakia Wikipedia. But there were a couple of places where stuff had happened. One of Napoleon's cannonballs was embedded in the wall of a building. There was a square where a bunch of people got together to meaningfully jiggle their keys in the name of democracy. There was a smurf church next to an abandoned hospital. It was regular church size, but smurf blue. There was another square where some famous photos were taken when some Russian tanks occupied the city during the cold war. The photos were smuggled out and plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the world, but everyone thought it was Prague. She also mentioned that the year after Euro trip and Hostel were released tourism in Bratislava decreased by 75%. The highlight of the tour though was when one of the girls walked into a pole.

After the tour we got wind of an ice hockey game between the local team and a Russian team. We got a bus to the stadium and we're queuing for tickets when a man offered us tickets 5 euros cheaper. We were dubious but other people started queuing behind us to get his tickets so we bought them. They were season tickets in probably the best spot in the arena. 3rd row, just next to the team boxes.

I'd not seen ice hockey in real life before. It was mental. Such a fast sport. There are 5 outfield players on at a time but the teams had 21 players in the squad. The first interchange was 40 seconds into the game. It is just so fast. Some of the shots were too fast to see, yet the goalkeeper could snatch the puck out of the air. And they would hammer each other into the glass. Just like in the movies but probably more violent. I was impressed. I don't know if there is a sport that requires more talent to achieve the basic level of skill to participate.

It was a real show. I was expecting it to be a semi professional league in a converted ice skating rink but it was a full on arena with music pumping, people banging away on drums, chants, cheerleaders, a mascot that would harass the refs and opposing players and most importantly, as far as I call tell, very good hockey players. The Bratislava team got thumped 3-0 in the end, mostly thanks to the opposition goalkeeper who was a freak.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the bike fixed and make my way towards Budapest. I'm not sure what to expect on the trail. Campsites will be rare I think, this late in the season a lot will be closed. My internet doesn't work and the guide says this section is "less developed". It may be that I go back to doing what I originally intended - sleeping wherever I drop.

Photos:
Generic ice hockey picture

The watchman. Statue is named so as he is coming out of the sewer to look up girls dresses. He has no cultural or historic significance, the city just thought it would be a cool statue.

The smurf church with the abandoned hospital in the background.

One of Napoleon's balls. He took on all of Europe - you need big balls for that. It's the black thing next to the window. It was placed there.

The mascot at the hockey getting stuck into the ref after a goal was disallowed.