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  • Day 261

    Day 262: Back to Bratislava

    November 3, 2017 in Slovakia ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Last day with the car! Not so much driving to do today, but we had to get the car back by 12pm so not much time for stuffing around. Packed up and checked out by 9am, only to get outside and discover our car had been wheel-clamped!

    There was a notice (in Slovak) on the windscreen saying something like the car was illegally parked and that we needed to phone the police for the clamp to be removed. So I called up, and managed to at least explained "car .. wheel clamp .. Hotel Rozalia" which brought an "OK .. colleague .. 10 minutes".

    10 minutes later the cops turned up, and the one who spoke a little English explained that the centre of town was only parking for residents - visitors had to park in parking lots on the outskirts of town, 20 minutes walk away. I was very apologetic and polite, though I made the point that there was no sign on the street where I'd parked, and that I wouldn't have parked if there was a sign. They removed the clamp and fined us 10 euros per day, which probably worked out cheaper than parking in the proper place!!

    Oh well, at least we only lost 20 minutes. On the road where we made directly for Bratislava. Slow going at first as we were on very back roads, but gradually the roads got more and more main until we eventually joined the freeway. Filled up and then dropped the car off at the airport with no problems.

    Caught a bus from the airport to our apartment which turned out to be a big mistake - the bus to the airport a month ago had been fine, but this time a large flight had just come in, so a huge crowd piled onto the bus when it showed up (it's only 3x per hour). It was jam-packed on leaving the airport, and then every stop more and more people kept forcing their way on. Standing there with all our bags and a restless Schnitzel wasn't much fun at all.

    Lost my temper a bit at some other people who wouldn't move for a lady trying to get off with a pram - everyone just kind of stood there dumbly while this lady struggled and couldn't push through. Eventually I just yelled and barged a path for her with my giant backpack.

    Off the bus and walked the last 15 minutes to our apartment - we weren't quite sure which stop was ours and probably got off one too early, alas. We couldn't check in just yet, but the cleaning lady let us in for a bag drop which was nice. She said she only needed an hour, so we headed to a nice Italian cafe downstairs and had a two-course lunch of beetroot soup followed by lasagne for just 6 euros each. This sort of lunch is quite popular - it's all pre-made stuff, but it's designed for people to eat quickly and go back to work. Bearing in mind as well that lunch is usually the main daily meal.

    Eventually an hour had passed and we could head upstairs, so upstairs we headed. Quite a nice apartment, spacious and modern with some nice touches. Good wifi too! Settled in for the evening, did a bit of work but not much. Supermarket directly underneath us so we had some bread and cheese from there for dinner.
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