First, we simply wanted to add another country to our list. Second, the movie "Eurotrip" made Bratislava famous! We wanted to see if it was the same in real life as it was portrayed in the movie (Miami Vice, #1 new show!). Finally, we had done some research on Bratislava, and it's actually supposed to be a very nice cultural center of Eastern Europe.
So, we made the pretty drive about an hour from Vienna. We had chosen a particular restaurant where we wanted to eat lunch, a place known as one of the best restaurants/pubs in Bratislava. Each room is themed to represent one historical era in the country's history, and the food is supposed to be authentic Slovakian food.
So, we typed the address into the GPS and started weaving through the confusing, curvy streets. Our impression of Bratislava is that it's actually very beautiful, with several super-cool castles. As we finally hit the street we wanted, we realized after just a couple of seconds that there were no other cars... and people kept looking at us with annoyed expressions... and we realized we were driving on the historic pedestrian street of the ancient city. The GPS told us to turn there! After this realization, we also noticed a police car quickly approaching us.
So, the police instructed us to pull to the side and show our "documents." They didn't speak much English. They tried German. We didn't speak German or... Slovak? I don't know. Clint presented his passport, the Hertz rental agreement, and his US driver's license. They told us that they needed to see a Slovakian driver's license. Ummm....
They then explained to us (in Slovak?) that we were driving on a pedestrian street. We told them we figured that out, but were only here because of the GPS. They explained (in Slovak?) that we should ignore the GPS and read the road signs. We agreed that was a good idea. They told us we had to pay a fee. We were happy to oblige if that meant avoiding getting arrested or deported. They explained they COULD charge us 60 Euros, but were only going to charge us 30 Euros. Great! We forked over the cash, they gave us our stuff back, and we drove away as quickly as possible.
After our brief conversation with the Slovakian police, we did manage to find the restaurant, which turned out to be great. Clint got bean soup and deep-fried perogies, and I got garlic soup and the Slovakian national dish, which is potato dumplings covered in sheep's cheese and bacon. It was awesome.
We then drove about four hours through the Carpathian mountains to get to our evening's destination, Oswiecim, Poland. This is basically a tiny little town that is next to Auschwitz, where we'll tour tomorrow morning. The hotel is seriously rural, with a couple of houses and an empty field across the street. The people are very nice, but definitely don't speak English. They only take cash (good thing we got Polish money -- no Euros). The rooms are clearly clean and nice, but very old. It's kind of like visiting the equivalent of a place like Storm Lake (meaning just a small, rural town) instead of the huge cities where we've been staying. Clint realized that in Polish, "Osweicim" is basically the same sound as "Auschwitz."
For dinner, we decided the best bet for authentic Polish food would be to eat at the hotel restaurant, which is clearly just the family's personal kitchen. We split an appetizer of heated sausages, then we both got perogies with cream cheese, which was really good. For dessert I got a huge ice cream sundae. Drinks were a large beer and a Coke; the total price for all of this was the equivalent of $15.
Below you can see photos showing: (1) our rural hotel in Poland, (2) the pedestrian street in downtown Bratislava, and (3) the countryside bordering Slovakia and Poland. It looks just like Storm Lake, Iowa!
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