Back to Bratislava

We woke up to one more delicious breakfast, said goodbyes to our few Fulbright friends and headed home to our apartment.

It was a beautiful, sunny 60 degree day in Bratislava so we wanted to head out to grab groceries and figure out train passes. Joe begged us, through tears, to stay home so he could play a little while. As much as I hated to miss the sunshine, I need to remember that he is 7 and often caught up in a big kid/adult world.

As I unpacked, I caught a glimpse of him in his own little crime fighting world and asked to take a pic….

The Eiffel Tower is so versatile.

Joe announced he was ready for errands and we headed out.

Living up the sun and warm weather.

We first wanted to glance at the University John will be teaching at- Comenius University. It is about a 7 min walk from our flat.

We hopped on the tram to head to the train station. Since it was sunny today, we were able to see many of the landmarks we had been reading about.

At the train station, we wanted to register the kids for free train passes in Slovakia (amazing right?!). As with many things on this trip, we must maintain a sense of humor. We found one kind woman who spoke enough English to help us understand that in order to get these passes, we must put the kids in photo booth to get little pictures of them.

With train passes finally obtained, we headed to old town to get some groceries. Hunger struck and so we stopped to eat before grocery shopping to help the general mood.

The most hilarious moment of the day was the checkout process at the grocery store. As with many things in foreign countries, I try to watch what other people do in order to figure out intricacies. As with all the other countries we have been to, you must bring your own grocery bags and sometimes there is an option to buy them. Well, we did a more substantial grocery shopping and I realized I didn’t have bags. The line was fast and furious and alllll the people in front of me brought their own bags and I did not see an option to buy bags. Well, we needed all that food and supplies so I had the quick idea to rip open the packaging of our newly bought trash bags and load groceries into them. It was a scene….. as I got the first bag loaded and V offered to look like Santa with groceries, an English speaker came over and gently said to me, “sometimes I splurge for those bags over there.” She pointed to a hidden spot of grocery bags you could buy and I thanked her about 100 times. I wasn’t unloading that bag though because there were people lined up behind me certainly thinking thoughts about the lengthened process.

The walk home also turned heads and we all kept laughing about it.

Having the ability to bust out in laughter is something we have all been relying on heavily these last two weeks!