The Old Market, the Dabube, Georgian food and Senec

This weekend was really nice. Yesterday I discovered some great access points to the river and a wonderful park to bring the kids to.

We first visited the Old Market which is only open on Saturdays. The food and atmosphere were so inviting.

Fancy lemonades

Endless bakery and nutrolls

I tried pretty much every cheese- these are definitely my people.

You can take your pick of different buckets of cabbage.

❤️

The kids’ favorite food at the market was a pancake (similar to a crepe) with duck fat and garlic. That isn’t what is pictured above.

It was a beautiful day so after our bellies were full and the backpack filled with more food to take home, we took the tram to the place along the river I had found. We spent hours there. As we were leaving, we ran into the only History professor John knows at Comenius who was there with his family. He commented that Bratislava is really just a small town- the same thing we say about Pittsburgh!

We dropped the kids at home, settled them in for the night and headed out on a date. Kristen, my friend here, does a much better job of researching many things and she suggested a Georgian restaurant for dinner. Thankfully we arrived early because as the night unfolded, we saw so many people get turned away. The food was outstanding!

After dinner we walked around Old Town. It was a great night together and the kids also had fun.

We woke up with big plans for the day. We started out by finally seeing the inside of the blue church and attending mass in Slovak at V’s request.

Then we went right to the train station to catch a train to Senec, Slovakia. It is a little town not far from Bratislava that has a wellness spa and thermal pools. The round trip train tickets were $5 Euro! The train was superb- a double decker!

Senec is a sweet little town set upon a nice lake. It looks like the town comes to life in the warm weather.

Budapest bear in Senec.

This one is for our friend Brandi who works for Remax. 😆

We wanted to grab some food before swimming and found a delicious little Turkish deli. John has been looking for Börek- phyllo dough with meat or cheese- for a long time. We found it! And everyone loved it!

Ryan also loved these “pizza hot dogs.”

We made it to the Aquapark. It was perfect for us. It is also so bizarre to be swimming outside in the dead of winter.

One thing we are still getting used to is the fact that everyone is SO quiet here. The pools were filled with kids yet there was no screaming, no cannonballs or fights. We were obviously the only Americans just by the (normal) volume of the kids enjoyment.

The bar and little playground on the second floor.

Joe conquered the slide! He was so proud of himself and can’t wait to go to Sandcastle and FINALLY ride the slides with his friend Sam.

I couldn’t help but laugh as this dad threw back a 40 of Slovak beer while staying vigilant with his little toddler at the kiddie pool.

There were two young women in their 20s dressed as pirates who led the kids in games and also were DJ’ng up some music. It was a thoroughly relaxing and fun afternoon.

I noticed one woman getting out of one of the pools holding a device above her head. Diabetics can easily spot one another in the wild. Since the Slovaks I have met tend to be very shy, I decided not to approach her. I was so happy that when I passed her husband, he pointed to my pump.

We all started chatting. She has two kids that were also enjoying the pool. She told me that her kids noticed mine right away and came up to her to say- “Mom, I think they are from America!”

She has had diabetes for 20 years and is the same age as me. She lives in Senec (population of about 14,000) and doesn’t know a single other person with diabetes except her own mom who was diagnosed after she was.

It was the first time since I left the US that I talked to someone else (in person) with diabetes. We very much enjoyed each other.

We both had nigh blood sugars from the warm water. 😆

We recognized how lonely diabetes is and the experience did make me appreciate my peeps with beeps back home.

Our three hour pass was up and so I went to gather our stuff…

Yep, we are the Americans.

We had time to kill before the train left so we sought out some food. We stumbled upon another great park and this restaurant.

It is so brilliant – the kids play outside while the adults order and relax inside.

I ordered trout which was delicious.

We made the train home and are settled in for the night- ready to tackle a week of homeschooling and John’s first official week of teaching.

Next weekend, we will visit Uhersky Brod in the Czech Republic to see my family. I am so excited for the kids to meet their cousins!