Moving Ahead

So I'm pretty bad about keeping up with this. We're going to move forward in the action to the weekend. Just imagine it's like one of those 'classic' football games on FSN or something.

The plan was to meet up at the Albertinaplatz, which is this rather large and unmistakable statue area near the institute, at 9 AM. Not quite sure how or why, but I either slept through my alarm or it didn't go off (it's prone to doing that, I swear), and I woke up at 9. Being the go-getter that I am, I decided that I should just go straight to the train station. To many people's surprise, mostly my own, I got to the station without a hitch. Well, except for the fact that I was still alone and trying to find the group that I was supposed to be in Bratislava, Slovakia with soon. The train we agreed to take was leaving at 10.25 and I waited around on the platform until about 10.23. By this point I had decided that I was going to just have to take the 11.25 train and then tour Bratislava by myself and maybe run into them over in Slovakia somewhere. A long shot, but why not.

Well, at about 10.24:30 I meandered down the platform just far enough for Victoria to peek out the window and just yell at me. With the speed of one of those lizards that can scamper across the water, I sprinted around the platforms (of course I was on the wrong platform as well) and saw the train door starting to close a few paces away. Got up there just in time to shove my arm in the door so that it couldn't close, and was able to hop on the train in time. Gotta thank Victoria a lot for that one, because as soon as the door shut behind me, the train was moving.

Paul tells me that there's a saying about finding luck in un-luck. But I'm not really sure whether I would consider myself generally lucky or not. I think I'm just mostly bad at getting places on time, but it seems to work out most of the time. Eh.. I guess that is kind of the definition of luck. Oh, I also forgot to write down Boris' phone number in my rush out the door, so we couldn't even get in touch with him when we got to Bratislava, but it ended up being really easy to find him. He pretty much just walked up on us in the station because it's about as big of a meeting area as the senior lunchroom, you Grissom people. For those not... well. It's small.

I was a bit disappointed because there was a gay pride parade going on in Vienna that day that I really wanted to see, but it was definitely worth it to go see Boris. Please no comments on the parade. I got enough when I was visibly excited about the possibility of going to it earlier in the week. Don't you even tell me that it wouldn't be fun to go watch a parade like that.

Bratislava was actually and awesome town. It had a pretty lame castle, as far as castles are concerned anyway, but an amazing view from up there. Boris was a really good tour guide too. He knew all kinds of stuff about the town. Showed us what is the Slovakian White House and such. He also hates Communism, which is awesome. If there's one thing I'm passionate about, it's hating Communism. And not just in the pro-America way. I hate the entire idea of it. Just ask Brian. But that's something else entirely.

About 4 o'clock, the rest of the group was getting tired and they wanted to leave, but I, at least, was under the impression that we were going to stay and at least have some dinner with Boris in Bratislava before we left since our tickets were good for a return trip any time that day. But they wanted to leave, and it's certainly not my place to tell them what to do. Nobody wants that. So we all went back to the station and they hopped on the train and had, from my understanding, a lovely night out with someone who was most likely either an avid supporter for, or member in the parade that day. I hear he was loads of fun. Sarcastically, of course.

Back to the west side, where me and Megan were kickin' it... Boris started calling up all his Slovakian buddies to see if they wanted to hang out, but I think they were all going to a wedding or something. Anyway we ended up going to this really cool bar called the Demon Bar and watching the world cup matches. Megan and I also discovered that Boris is incredibly good at English. I mean, people can talk politics out of their you-know-where all day, but Boris was using very technical terms that I think most Americans (myself included) may not understand. And these weren't just buzz words. What comes to mind is when some banking things came up and he started talking about hedge funds and all these terms that he took the trouble of calling a bank and having them define what they actually were for him. It was really quite impressive.

I had Boris sign my little notebook and tried to forget my backpack in the bar and Chinese restaurant about 4 or 5 times altogether, but he helped me keep track of it. Now it was about 9 or 10 PM and Boris told us that he had a friend back in Trnava, Boris' hometown that was going to be spinning (like a DJ, not a dancer) that night. Obviously we couldn't pass up an opportunity like that, so we ran on over to the train station and snagged a few tickets to Trnava and hopped on board. Cutting to the chase, Michael was a really entertaining DJ. He was spinning at a club called Havana, if I remember right. Strangely enough, that's the name of the club that the Vienna group had planned on going to as well. He also introduced Megan and I to his favorite liquor. It's a rather tasty pear liquor. Don't think I could pronounce the brand though. Slovak languages are pretty cool, but when you start putting accents over consonants, I get lost in pronunciation.

Strolled on back to Boris' place and racked out there. Apparently I slept in a pretty funny position on the bed. One arm way over to the left, one way up behind my head, head cocked back, and mouth agape. I think there may have been something in the pear liquor that didn't quite agree with me though, because my eyes were kinda swollen for most of the day. It was real strange. But we met his parents that morning and took a quick picture with them before we left. I'm also told that Boris' mom makes some amazing mint tea. Grows her own peppermint, has an aunt or some female relative that keeps bees so she gets fresh honey, and just steeps it all right there. I was still asleep when she was making it though. Sad day.

Last bit. Picking up some food before the train home left and when I walked up to the severely Slovakian food vendor, I heard Rude Boy. Rude Boy! I didn't even know what that song was until late this semester, but I sure didn't expect to hear it in Bratislava, Slovakia. Oh, remember how I said that the train tickets were good for any round trip that day? Well, we got checked for tickets on the way back in and got busted. So that kinda sucked. Just had to buy some new ones though.

Anyway, I'm proud of me and Megan, I guess. Proud's really the only word I can come up with right now, and as you know, I'm no word-ologist. But a spontaneous overnight trip to Slovakia to see a friend from high school where he shows you around his hometown and his DJ friend's hangout... well, that was pretty cool. Might just be my favorite experience so far.

But we ARE going to Prague tomorrow, er, THIS morning. So we'll see how that goes. I'll wrap up this week on Sunday, I guess. And maybe I'll cover the Prague trip as well.
Night.