Day 10: Bratislava

After Vienna, we sailed to Bratislava. Where's that? Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. I heard that Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capitals in the world.

In the morning, Mom had a nice muffin.

I had eggs benedict, among other things. (Like any other cruise, you could order as much as you wanted, for the most part.)

We sailed through several locks on the Danube. This is the biggest. Note the lower water level in the backgorund.

I figured I should try the fancy bath robe they provided at least once.

Towel art is such a thing nowadays. Today's animal was a dog. The red nose is a cap from a water bottle.

As we sailed to Bratislava, the scenery was inspiring.

A not-so-pretty old building beneath the remains of a castle or fortress. That's one downside to a cruise: If we could just hop out for a minute, we could explore.

Along the Danube were many tiny homes. Most were on stilts like this, and they had these big rods with nets. I guess these are summer homes for fishing/netting, and the stilts are in case the Danube floods.

Bratislava! This bridge reminds me of the new Bay Bridge in SF.

In Bratislava, people joined different tours, as usual. We were in the "gentle walkers" again, which in this case was a sort of train-car that drove us around the city. 

This woman from the cruise was very nice. I forget her name, but she would stay up late in the cruise lounge while her granddaughter was on the dance floor, so we hung out a bit. The purple marks are from a fall before the cruise. But she said it didn't hurt anymore.

It's another of our tour groups! We'd always take photos as we saw each other, which I thought was funny. What was especially funny this time is … see the umbrella? It started raining! We were okay, though, because the train-car was a convertible.

Auntie Nancy looking around. She's also listening to the tour guide with her ear buds.

They had some quirky statues in Bratislava, so these were good photo ops. But it's funny when you think of how many thousands or millions of people have their picture taken with the same statue.

Selfie! I don't have many nice close-ups, so I used this photo in my Christmas card. I like this pic, but I wish I had zoomed out a little bit more.

This is Sam, from South Carolina. (Or North Carolina?) Friendly guy.

After the train-car tour, we had time to walk Bratislava ourselves. I was still looking for another version of Hanabi. I didn't find it, but I found Games Workshop!

This shop didn't have the version of Hanabi that I wanted, but it was pretty loaded with board games. If you're ever in Bratislava, it's worth checking out.

The statues look different than in the U.S., somehow. More angular? And do you see what's on the two statues in the back? 

I took this photo in case I got lost. I love high-res.

This statue's pretty popular. I saw him on the car-train only, so I didn't get close enough to see if it's a full-size statue or just the torso. Or if it's a real man-hole. =)

I did get to this statue on foot. I was trying to match his expression. Need more practice.

On foot, we all separated. Auntie Nancy kindly took Mom in the wheelchair again. After I failed to find my board game, I wandered around town, wondering if I could find them by chance.

Score! Doesn't this photo look like they're checking if they're being followed? And I'm hiding at a table in a cafe (probably with a newspaper =). I feel like a paparazzi.

They still seem happy to see me. =)

A bridge which should be complete if or when I ever return.






Bratislava was quaint and nice. Everyone seemed friendly enough.

Now it was time for dinner!

The dinner menu! I should've taken a photo of every menu on every day. It can be a handy reference.

Doesn't Auntie Nancy look nice?

Growing up, I always thought Asians had black eyes. It was only much later (high school or perhaps even after) that I realized that no one has black eyes. Some eyes are dark brown, but in the right light, they can be quite different. I guess this shows how much I paid attention to my appearance in high school .

Small but tasty! Thanks to the menu pic, I can say this is, um … it must be the "Tranche of Whole Roasted Black Angus Tenderloin, Gambas Sherry Jus, Vegetables Bouquet, Potatoes Moussoline." I knew that.

Fish.

The dance floor was busy that night! The guy at the piano was both DJ, pianist and I guess he could play the trombone, too.

They said some cruises no one dances, but ours was pretty lively. Sadly, no, I didn't dance.

Overall, it was an active but relatively quiet day, which was fine with me. Now, we were almost at the end of our super-fancy cruise! Oh no!

Next time: Day 11: Last stop for the boat! Budapest!