After leaving at 5 in the morning, we arrived at 9 and headed in the direction of the center. We passed this sculpture and this really cool clock that rang every 15 minutes.
Then we kept walking and saw a bunch of people walking into a big building, so we followed them. There was a farmer's market inside!
Then we left and ran into a square where a bunch of festivals take place.
In this square was a bike rack that had a Michael Bauhof stamp on it.
While I rode bikes, Tom chatted it up with this guy...
There were lots of classic buildings in the city mixed with some cool modern art...
Yes...that IS an ad for a Limpbizkit concert coming up in June, and speaking of crazy...there's a super-odd UFO-like observation tower/bridge on the edge of the Danube.
Ooh! Here's the crest from the Slovakian flag.
So here's the Bratislava Castle, and the grounds are pretty cool.
We couldn't get enough of the view from the castle. Bratislava is cooler than you think!
There was this guy stuck in a man hole working.
And a church made of blue!
This is a high school. Don't you think this looks like the Cheesecake Factory kinda?
OOooh...for lunch we went to this really yummy brewery
There was this beautiful garden in the middle of nowhere and if you look close you can see a random bride and groom snappin' a few pictures.
Oh my gosh, then we found my favorite coffee shop in the world. It's called Urban House, if you're curious, here's a link to their website: http://www.urbanhouse.sk/ We sat there for a couple hours playing Uno and drinking yummy coffee drinks.
We had one more thing (a hotel) we wanted to see before dinner, and on the way to the super cool artsy hotel, we passed by this government building and its gardens.
We don't know the story about this hotel, but it's so dang cool! It's called the Galeria Spirit Hotel, if you're curious about it, here's a website with more pictures: Click Here
We turned around and headed back towards a cool restaurant for dinner. Another statue on the way...
So here's where the craziness begins...we're sitting eating a delicious dinner and drinking big glasses of red wine after a pretty tiring day and Tom goes, hey we should double check the tickets...(both of us for about a month thought that our 20:40 departure was 10:40....after months of living here, we're apparently not used to military time yet...bah!). So, at 8:33, we checked our tickets that said our bus leaves the station at 8:40! We waved over the waitress, asked her to double-time the bill. We threw down some cash and SPRINTED the mile to the bus station.
The bus was ever-so-smoothly pulling out of the station just as we finished our race into the lot. We were close enough to see the numbers on the side, but apparently they pride themselves on being on time. So there we sat in the parking lot, trying not to throw-up our full meal, looking at the bus schedule...
In two hours, there was another bus to Prague. However, in one hour, there was a bus to Vienna, just 45 minutes away. Then and there, with no extra clothes or soap or tooth brushes, we decided to make the best out of this bummer and go to another country.
A couple hours later, we pulled into the station in Vienna. Even in the middle of the night, this place is cool. We hopped inside to steal some free wifi and looked up the closest cheapest hostels.
We found a place that has those bunk bed rooms where you stay with other people and just pay by the bed. For about $40, we met some interesting people, had not a ton of sleep, then woke up for a free breakfast that was delicious! We stuffed ourselves, then went and bought ourselves some bus tickets to Prague for that night and triple-checked the departure time.
Once our bus-stuff was settled, we headed to the enormous and gorgeous grounds of the Schönbrunn palace, just on the edge of the city...
We could have spent all day on those castle grounds, but we only had a DAY in Vienna, so time was a wastin'! We left and saw this cool owl building.
And then these pieces of art and memorials...
Everyone in the city is drawn to St. Stevens Church. This place is gorgeous and it's hard to capture it all in one photo, luckily Tom's pretty talented and got it in two.
Now everywhere you turn in this place there's another grand marble building with sculptures and statues hanging off of each corner.
Then we ran into some festival!!! We had no idea what they were celebrating, but we bought beers and celebrated with them!
Across the street and around the corner were more things to see...
That's when we realized how worn out we were and we took a nap in the grass.
Then, we took a trek that landed us an hour early to our bus....we were a little paranoid about catching it this time around...
So you know, we did catch our bus this time, and we're back in Prague, caught up on sleep, loving life, and amazingly grateful for these opportunities. Thanks for listening.
Our mini-message...Don't be sad the next time you miss a bus! Just take another one :)
