Day 28

We woke up nice and early today, 6:30am. But, it was so that we could talk with our families (which I would wake up at any time to do!) After a nice chat with the people back home, a relaxing warm shower, and some internet surfing, we were off to the train station and on our way to Bratislava, Slovakia. The train ride was short, just under an hour, and the weather was still beautiful. By the time we got there it was after 11 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we were starving. But our first goal was to actually get into the city. We exited the train station only to find out that our bus stop was on the other side. I decided that it would be better to use the restroom before we left, and I was fine with paying the 20 cents that it costs. Only in Slovakia, they do it a little differently. Not only do you have to pay to use the bathroom, but for insurance I guess, or to save money, they give you your allotted toilet paper usage. That's right. I gave the lady my 20 cents and she handed me some nicely folded squares of toilet paper. Thankfully it was enough. After I left the bathroom, we located the correct bus stop and were on our way into the city. Our first quest was to find somewhere to eat. And who would have guessed that there would be a Chinese restaurant right net to our stop. And the menu was even in English. We sat down and were rewarded with very cheap options. A bowl of soup and chicken fried rice with a salad on the side was only 3,09 euros! That's about $4.00! But it didn't stop there. I thought I was really hungry so I ordered an appetizer as well, fried dumplings (potstickers). The soup was alright, the salad was delicious and the rice was delicious. But about half way through my rice I was feeling pretty full. How was I going to eat 6 fried dumplings? The answer, I wasn't. My dumplings came out and they were amazing. But I barely had room in my stomach for 2. Luckily we were able to get a box to go. You can never let good dumplings go to waste. We left the restaurant feeling full and happy. We decided it was time to do some sightseeing, so we started hiking up to the castle. The walk wasn't too bad and the view was pretty cool. We were right on the Danube River which runs all of the way through to Germany. Once we got up to the castle we were disappointed to learn that it was under reconstruction so the inside was closed to the public. We took some pictures of the outside, walked around for a bit, and decided to head back down into the city. Once we were in the city we stopped by one of the main squares. It had a little market going on so we browsed through it. We each found a few souvenirs to buy as well. the city had a very relaxed feel and it wasn't super crowded either. We stopped by Hlavana Namestie, another square, and saw the Town Hall and a few other official looking buildings. We continued walking down the streets until we found St. Michael's Gate and Tower. It was pretty cool to see and to know that it once protected the city from invaders. We continued walking until we found the Grassalkovich Palace, which is where the President of Slovakia lives. Of course it was gated and there were armed guards outside, but we took some decent pictures of it. The Palace Gardens were open to the public, so we went around the back and spent some time in the gardens/park. After we rested for a few minutes it was almost time for our bus to leave to the train station. We made a quick stop inside a store to pick up some snacks for later, I managed to eat a few more of my dumplings, and then we were on our way. Our train going back to Vienna was just as fast and we arrived in about an hour. We had enough time to grab our bags and rest for a few minutes before we boarded our train to Salzburg. Thankfully I was still full from my Chinese food so I didn't even need to think about dinner. The train ride was nice and long so we were able to watch a movie to occupy our time. After 2 and 1/2 hours of smooth railjet train riding, we arrived in Salzburg tired, but excited. We left the station, got momentarily lost, but soon found our way to the hostel. It's pretty nice, has decent internet and a kitchen that we can cook in. But that was it for today!