Catch Up!

Hi everyone! So I've done even worse than usual with my blog updates as it's now been over a month, whoops! Anyway, I'm about to leave to go back to Austin this Saturday (December 15th), I really can't believe it's time to go home for Christmas already. It's something that's always seemed so far away in my mind, and now that it's here I realize that the past 3 months have absolutely flown by. I'll bring everyone up to date on the past month, mainly where I've traveled as that's the most interesting!

Rome

Michael came to Bratislava to visit me on Thursday, November 8th and stayed for about a week. Rome is the one place in Europe that I was determined to visit during my time over here. I've always wanted to go, mainly to eat delicious Italian food (pistachio gelato), but also to see the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, etc. There's so much history in Rome & so much that I wanted to see, so I was thrilled that Michael and I got to go together. We got into Rome late on Friday night, checked into our hotel which was beautiful & ate a late dinner at an Italian place a couple blocks from our hotel. I got an awesome gluten-free pizza, we split a bottle of wine & I was in love with Rome already. Saturday we got up relatively early and went down to the Vatican since everything would be closed on Sunday. We went on a guided tour, which I think was definitely the right call. We got to skip the line which was enormous, and I actually learned a lot about the history of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, & St. Peter's Basilica. Seeing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was incredible, we weren't allowed to talk or take pictures inside unfortunately, but it was really beautiful. After going all through the Vatican, we went over to Trevi Fountain, which I was most excited about! I made Michael flip a coin into the fountain with me, not sure if he was quite as excited as I was, but it was really cool & the fountain was even more impressive than I thought it would be. Afterward, we walked through the Pantheon & saw the end of mass inside. Saturday night we went to dinner & then a few bars in the going out area, but stayed at one for awhile to watch American football (typical), but we were both excited to see A&M beat Alabama! 

Sunday we went to the Colosseum which Michael was super excited about (he loves Gladiator & made me watch it with him afterward), we did a walking tour through that as well. Afterward we did a tour of Palatine Hill, saw the forum & the few remnants of the Palace. Our tour guides on both were great, very energetic & knowledgeable  It rained all day Sunday, but it was still really beautiful walking around Rome. We went around to the shopping streets Sunday afternoon & the Spanish steps. Sunday night we went to this restaurant called The Library & had pretty much the best meal ever. I'd heard about the restaurant before coming to Rome, and was really excited to try it. It's super small & has a very romantic atmosphere. We were served glasses of champagne upon arrival & had a really great meal. On Monday we only had a little bit of time to walk around before we had to get to the airport to come back to Bratislava. Even the Rome airport served gluten-free pasta, so I was loving that. Michael left on Wednesday afternoon so I got to show him around Bratislava a little bit, we saw Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, and I made him try some traditional Slovak food like halusky & goulash. I know he was excited to return to Tex-Mex/American food when he got back! 

Outside the Vatican

By Trevi Fountain

The Colosseum

Istanbul

The next weekend, Lu & I went to Istanbul for a 3 day weekend, I know, lot's of vacation from work! We had talked about going to Istanbul since I first came over & had heard really great things about the city. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was still very surprised! Istanbul is the farthest into Eastern Europe I've traveled & it's so incredibly different culturally from any other place I've been to. The city has a very religious feel to it & most of the residents are Muslim, so multiple times during the day during set prayer times, you'd hear music/prayer through speakers being projected all through the city & portions of sidewalks/public areas would close for prayer. It was really eye opening just how different religion was. What Lu & I didn't realize was how much we were going to stick out both being tall, blonde haired/blue eyed Americans. Most people thought we were Dutch so we got spoken to a lot in German, but we definitely stood out. This happened to work to our advantage though as we got our metro tickets, meals & drinks paid for most of the time, we even got bumped up to first class on our Turkish Air flight so I won't complain! We decided that if we ever need an ego boost, we'll go back to Istanbul! 

Three days was really the perfect amount of time to be there, we went through a lot of mosques, the Grand Bazaar & the Spice Bazaar in the main areas & walked/explored a lot the city. When we went into the mosques we had to wear head scarves & take our shoes off so that's why we have the scarves on in the picture below! The Grand Bazaar was like something out of a movie, it was so crowded you could barely move with vendors shouting out deals constantly and trying to get us to come into their store. I think they saw blonde Americans and thought they could rip us off! We met a really nice guy our first day in Istanbul who took it upon himself to show us the city & he helped us haggle in the Bazaar so that helped a lot. We also went to a really fun nightclub on Saturday & then went down by the Bosphorous bridge afterward which connects Europe & Asia for tea (yes, we were really drinking tea!) It was so beautiful down by the water at night with all the lights of the city, I highly recommend Istanbul as a place to visit, just prepare for a little bit of culture shock!

In the Blue Mosque

View from our hotel restaurant

In front of the Hagia Sophia

Prague

So November really has been the month of visitors! My brother David came to visit me for a little over a week, he got in on Thanksgiving which was nice for me to have family around since I couldn't go back to Austin. Instead of doing the normal Turkey American Thanksgiving, I took David out to a traditional Slovak duck dinner which consists of roasted duck, potato pancakes & braised cabbage. I think he really liked everything except the cabbage so I consider it successful! On Friday afternoon we got on a train to Prague, it was about a 3 1/2 hour ride so we got to spend lots of quality time together-mainly watching Big Love which I'm now addicted to. We got into Prague around 8:30, went to our hotel which was super nice & then went out to a traditional Czech bar. The bar we went to was crazy, we were trying to get food but they were only serving bar snacks so our dinner ended up being sausage, cheese & bread (for David). It was really packed, loud & everyone seems to bring their dogs to the bar with them in Prague? But nevertheless, we had a good time & David got to try out some of the local beer. 

The next day we went to the main square to see the clock tower & meet up with our walking tour group. Our tour guide was Australian and did a really good job the entire 2 1/2 hours we were with him. We walked all around Prague, learned about the history & saw a lot of the landmarks. Afterward, David & I went on a mission to find Strahov Monastery & their famous brewery. It took us a little while to find it, but we managed to go by the palace on the way which was good. The brewery was really fun, pretty crazy that a monastery has a brewery! Afterward, we went back to Old Town & met up with our second tour group of the day for a ghost tour of Prague. This was something I was really excited about since I love ghost stories & Prague is one of the most haunted cities in the world. However, the tour itself was pretty corny so it wasn't quite what I expected, but I think David & I had a good time making fun of it so it all worked out. Afterward we headed to "The Pub" which is a bar in Prague that has the beer taps on the table so you pour out your own beer. They project how many liters each table has drank on a screen at the front of the bar so it's supposed to be a competition between tables. Needless to say, we had a great time & made new friends!

David & I by Charles Bridge

Old Town Square of Prague

David at the monastery brewery

Budapest

David & I headed out from Prague early on Sunday afternoon. We had a shuttle to drive us from Prague to Budapest which was super nice & saved us about 2 hours on a train. Sunday night we got on tripadvisor and found a great restaurant about 10 mins away from our hotel. We liked it so much we actually went back on Monday night if that tells you anything! After dinner we walked around beautiful Christmas markets that were open in the town center & just explored the city a little bit. Monday we joined another free walking tour and did a 2 1/2 hour tour through Budapest, crossing Chain Bridge to go into Buda. I found out when I first got to Bratislava that Budapest is actually two different cities-Buda & Pest, so there's a fun fact for you! The walking tour was great, we got a really good orientation to the city and got to see a lot of the landmarks.

Monday afternoon we went to the baths, which everyone told us we had to do. The baths are really famous in Hungary and are supposed to have healing powers, not sure if that part's true but we had a good time. The place we went had 3 different outdoor pools, and then 30 different pools/steam rooms/saunas inside the building. You're supposed to go into each for a set amount of time & they all are at different temperatures, have different scents, etc. It was a really cool experience & we got some good people watching in as well! Monday night we went to a Ruins Bar in the Jewish district of Budapest. We had heard about the place from one of David's friends & it was a very interesting and fun bar. There are a bunch of "Ruins Bars" in Budapest which are old abandoned buildings that were left to decay after World War II which have been converted into bars. They're really funky & artsy on the inside with all sorts of decorations on the walls and they play some crazy music videos to entertain as well. On Tuesday we walked to the Grand Market which is a huge indoor market full of stands to buy food, souvenirs  etc. It was really cool to walk through, but we had to hurry to get on our train back to Bratislava. I was so glad David came to visit, hopefully he had a good time & enjoyed Bratislava (as well as Prague and Budapest!)

David & I in front of St. Stephen's

Loved this 

At the Christmas markets in Budapest

Man at Work statue in Bratislava

Paris, Bratislava & Croatia

Hi everyone! So I've been procrastinating & once again haven't updated the blog for the past 3 weeks again, but here's everything....

Paris
A few weeks ago I went to Paris for the weekend, I'd heard mixed reviews about the city but I was determined to go since I'd never been & am in Europe, so no excuses right? Anyway, this was my first RyanAir flight and I was a little nervous that there would be some airport drama since I'd heard they're super strict with boarding protocol, carry on size, etc. Anyway there was a little drama but not about my luggage! My friend ended up not being able to go on the trip last minute, so this turned into my first solo trip in Europe. I also made the mistake of telling my parents earlier in the day that I was staying in a mixed room hostel in the red light district of Paris so it would be a little sketchy. Needless to say, by the time I landed in Paris, Tom had booked me a hotel room in the business district so I stayed in a much nicer place than I planned on! Traveling alone has its ups and downs, everything's more expensive since it's just you paying, and dinner alone at restaurants gets a little awkward so I think I drank extra wine to compensate. But, I also got to see Paris on my own time, not stay at museums longer than I wanted to, etc. so I ended up having a great time. I spent all day Saturday on a hop on-hop off bus sightseeing, which was very time effective! I went to all the main sites I was hoping to see so it was a very successful day. The main thing I have to say about Paris is that the food is absolutely incredible. I like to go to small, off the beaten track places so I went to a few family owned restaurants where I was the only non-French person, ate & drank amazing food & wine (especially the coq au vin, incredible!)

At the Louvre

French military museum gardens

Eiffel Tower up close & personal

Bratislava
The next weekend Lu & I stayed in Bratislava for the first time since I got here, crazy huh?! It was getting a little sad that I kept getting lost constantly and had no idea where I was since I was never actually in the city except for work. Friday night we went out to dinner on the river with the other international FDP's then went to an Irish bar over by our apartment afterward for awhile. Saturday we took a walking tour of Bratislava & I finally saw all the sights around, learned a little about Bratislava history, and got a little exercise (added bonus)! Afterward I spent a few hours shopping & getting ready for the Michigan vs. Michigan State game little watch party I put together. Lu & Kevin came over to watch the game, I made way too much food, and we streamed the Michigan game live from the Big 10 Network website. This was the first Michigan football game I've been able to watch since I've been over here so it was really fun & made me miss all my friends who were in Ann Arbor for the game that weekend. Sunday, Lu & I went over to the Kempinski (really nice hotel in Bratislava) & got massages since they do half-off massages on the weekends. It was a really relaxed weekend & was nice to have a break from traveling for a few days.

City center

On the Bratislava walking tour

Croatia

This past weekend Lu & I traveled to both Split and Hvar, Croatia which was absolutely beautiful, probably one of my favorite places we've traveled. It took us a very long time to get there so in retrospect we really should have made this a 3 day weekend trip. We got into Split late on Friday night & were looking forward to going out to a few of the bars but unfortunately we didn't realize that the bars close at midnight there! So we ended up just walking around for a little while & checking out the city. Saturday we walked around Split some more, did some shopping (mostly buying fake Ray Bans) & got on a ferry to head to Hvar. The weather the whole weekend was pretty questionable, it kept storming on & off, so our ferry ride to Hvar was very rocky, but we were just glad the ferry didn't get cancelled since Hvar was the main place we wanted to go. We stayed at a really nice beach resort in Hvar, I wish it had been warmer so we could have actually gotten in the pool but it was still great to just be outside by the water. We walked around a lot and went to a great Italian restaurant for dinner. The waitstaff there was probably overly friendly since we were pretty much the only tourists in Hvar that time of year, so they brought us out free shots a couple times which I was fine with :) They also recommended a great bar around the corner from the restaurant that Lu & I loved. It was a locals bar that placed awesome 90s & 2000s American music so we had a great time. The waitstaff came out and met us there too so we had fun making new local friends! Sunday we just walked around Hvar some more, took lots of pictures & then spent pretty much the rest of the day traveling back to Bratislava. All in all, absolutely loved Croatia. Lu & I were talking about how we think its pretty underrated back in the U.S., seriously everyone should go, it's amazing. Lu & I are already planning a trip back, so let me know if you want to come with!!

View of the hotel pool

By the pier in Split

Down by the water in Hvar

Life Update!

So I realized that I haven't posted in a few weeks now which is really lazy of me so I'm going to give a quick rundown of where life has taken me! Last time I posted, Lu & I were headed to the High Tatras, a beautiful mountain range in Slovakia. That weekend ended up being really fun & pretty relaxed which I think we both needed! We stayed at a really nice spa hotel and I'm pretty sure we were the only non-couple there so we didn't realize we were booking a romantic getaway! I'm sure the other guests at the hotel had a different opinion of our relationship, but I won't get into that...We spent the weekend walking around the city, which was pretty small & reminded us both of northern Michigan & rode a chairlift that took us to the top of the mountains and that was really beautiful. The High Tatras are a really popular destination for people to go hiking & skiing when it starts getting colder. Lu & I weren't quite that active as we spent most of the weekend drinking hot wine, but we admired the energy of the other visitors around!

Just walking around the mountains

A little higher up

The next weekend, Lu, Kevin (another friend from Dell in Bratislava), and I went to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. I didn't really know what to expect on this trip, I'd heard Cesky Krumlov was a small town, but a lot of fun with a lot of history in the city. Since it's such a small town, it's a little difficult to get to by train, so we ended up hiring a driver to take us there which was surprisingly inexpensive. It was a beautiful drive there and back though since we were going through all of the country in the Czech Republic and Austria. We stayed at a hostel in Cesky Krumlov that was an old monastery and supposedly haunted. Our room in particular was a 16 bed room (obviously I didn't get much sleep) and the story is a monk hanged himself in our room so we were in the especially haunted room! The best part of Cesky Krumlov was the raft bar crawl we went on with the other people in our hostel on Saturday. Basically it was us and a bunch of Australians that went and we had two rafts and paddled down the river, stopping at various pubs on the way. It was an all day adventure and so much fun! We were obviously much better friends by the end of it :) On Sunday we walked around the city and actually did some cultural things like visiting the castle. I loved the city though, it was so beautiful & we really enjoyed it. I highly recommend Cesky Krumlov if you're ever in the Czech Republic!

The raft crew

Post-pub crawl (notice face paint...we stopped at a carnival on the way!)

Looking much more presentable on Sunday 

So now we're caught up to this past weekend, which Lu & I spend in Munich, Germany for the last weekend of Oktoberfest. Needless to say, it was pretty rowdy. We took a half day off work on Thursday & all day Friday to make the weekend worth it, and got into Munich on Thursday night. Somehow Lu sweet talked a bouncer and got us into one of the biggest tents on Thursday. It's exactly how you would picture it with everyone dancing and singing on the benches with their big beer steins, very high energy. We were actually in Munich with a 25 man Irish bachelor party, basically Lu met a couple of the guys when she was backpacking Europe & they ended up having 2 guys drop out of their hotel reservation, so we took their place! The Irish bachelor party definitely made things more interesting over the weekend, we were a very loud & noticeable crowd at the festivities! But they were all so nice & made sure no creepy guys were talking to us so they were definitely good to have around. Friday & Saturday we spent all day at Oktoberfest, somehow not having too much of an issue getting into any of the tents even though we didn't have a reservation. It was such a great time though and something I'd definitely do again. By Sunday we were pretty wiped out and ready to be home so I've spent most of this week recovering! Lu's parents came in town this week so we all went out to dinner & drinks last night and had a great time out in Bratislava. This weekend Lu's going to Budapest with her parents & I'm headed to Paris with Kevin so I'll be sure to update about our adventures next week!

Inside the tent on Thursday

Saturday tent day

Settling In

Hi everyone! So the good news is that I finally moved into my apartment on Monday. I need to take some pictures and post them up here, but I want to wait until I've decorated a little bit! I've given a few lucky people walking tours through Skype, so let me know if you're interested! :)

This past weekend was really fun, my friend Lu & I went to a wine and cultural festival in Graz, Austria. Graz was kind of a random town for us to go to, it's a huge college town in Austria and we'd heard that it was beautiful so we decided to check it out for the weekend. Getting to Graz ended up being an almost disaster..Lu & I got on the train at the wrong train station in Bratislava and were lost in the transit system for a little while. Luckily, we met a really nice girl on our train who spoke English and helped us figure out the best way to get there. We only got to Graz about an hour after we were supposed to, so it wasn't too bad! Since Graz is a huge college town, Lu & I went out to the college bars after we finally got to our hotel & checked in, and met some really interesting people including a national hockey team and a DJ, so needless to say it was an entertaining night! 

We also were lucky that the cultural festival was going on the weekend we were there, since we didn't know anything about it beforehand! Everyone was dressed up in traditional attire (think lederhosen here), and there were a ton of vendors selling different kinds of food, drinks, and crafts. The specialty drink here was burciak which is a really young, and incredibly sweet wine it its early stages of fermentation. So Laura & I tried that, but had to water it down with soda water since it's so sweet. People there were drinking it by the liter though, I have no idea how they do it!

With my burciak at the festival!

That night Lu & I went to a local pub near the festival called "The Office", it was such a fun bar. The owners were all British which was great since they spoke English! They even put American college football on the big screen for us so we had a great time. 

This past week was mainly me settling in at work and in my apartment. I'm really enjoying my role right now and am hoping that continues throughout my rotation. Every week there's a group of us who aren't from Slovakia that go out for an "International Dinner", the goal is to try a new restaurant around Bratislava every week so that's a fun thing to look forward to during the work week! This weekend Lu & I are headed to the High Tatras which is a really beautiful mountainous region in Slovakia, I'll update next week!

Cultural Performances at the Festival

City View of Graz, Austria

Around Town

It's hard to believe my first week is almost over! I really have loved being in Bratislava so far, everyone at the Dell offices over here have been very welcoming & friendly so it's been easy to make friends and have evening plans so far. Everyone at the office calls me "Betka" which I was told is the Slovak version of Elizabeth, I made them show me proof this was true & not a terrible word in Slovak! I have to admit that Lu & I haven't been very adventurous in trying Slovak food so far...Monday night we went to a restaurant and got their special half-priced steaks which were amazing, we're definitely going back as many Mondays as we can! On Tuesday, the FDPs here organized a happy hour for me to welcome me to the Bratislava office. We went to this great restaurant and bar right by my apartment, ate ribs (so American..), drank wine, and taught the Bratislava FDP's how to play one of our favorite drinking games called "Up Chicken" (maybe I'll describe this in a later blog post). We all had a great time and it was really fun getting to know everyone outside of the office!

On Wednesday, the weather turned super cold and rainy which was a bit of a shock since it's been in the 80's since I got here. After work, I was trying to get my cab driver to drop me off at a nail salon (don't judge me!) and he ended up misunderstanding my English of course & took me to the mall instead! I did walk around for a little bit, but ended up getting lost on my way back to the restaurant I was meeting Lu at for dinner. I ended up finding it eventually, but did walk there through a torrential downpour which was pretty miserable...and cold...and wet. I guess I'll just have to get used to this weather again, I thought when I graduated from Michigan I was done with that, but apparently not!

So Lu & I did find one Slovak cuisine that we both love and have had 2 days in a row now called goulash. It's basically beef, sauce & dumplings, I of course cannot enjoy the dumplings, but it's still awesome, for those of you having trouble visualizing I've included a picture:

Looks good right?! Anyway, Thursday was definitely my most fun night of the week. The whole Slovakia pricing team went out for drinks & dinner last night, and was definitely a lot rowdier than my American work happy hours! We were out until 2 a.m. together & hence are all working from home today :) It was a really fun night & it was great meeting the whole team. Today, Lu & I are heading to Graz, Austria for the weekend which is the second largest city in Austria, a huge college town, and a great wine region. I'm really looking forward to the trip & will post pictures when I get back!

Lu & me with Marcel & Cyril (pricing team members)

More Dell Pricing team members

William & Martin passionately singing Slovak folk songs

Greetings from Bratislava!

For the next 6 months I'll be working for Dell out of their Bratislava office & will hopefully be traveling as much as possible on the weekends. Since I want to fill you all in about what's going on over here, I figured a blog would be my best bet. I got into Bratislava yesterday (Sunday, 9/9) around 4 p.m. after 19 hours of travel time and missing one suitcase that is still stuck in London (hopefully I'll be getting that today!) Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted but my friend Lu, who's been living here & working for Dell the past 6 months, wouldn't let me go to sleep until night time to adjust to the time zone change. We walked around Bratislava a little bit, and went down to check out a festival that was happening in the town square. English is pretty sparse around the city so we mainly pointed at food and wine that we wanted then sat in the square to eat, drink, and listen to live music from the festival. I did learn how to say "thank you" in Slovak (ďakujem) so that was an accomplishment! Everyone at the festival shared tables, so we ended up sitting next to two older gentlemen who were upset by our lack of Slovak language skills, but we did drink wine with them & shared our chocolate we got at the festival so we became fast friends. I'm considering this Lu's & my first double date in Bratislava!

After the festival, we headed to the Sky Lounge restaurant & bar where we ate awesome Thai food and enjoyed the view of the city. I have to say that Bratislava is a much prettier city than I imagined it, the only idea I had of Bratislava came from the movie Eurotrip which makes it look pretty ghetto & rundown. I promise it's really cute though so you should all come visit me!!!

I stayed last night at my friend Lu's apartment, I was supposed to move into an apartment a floor down from her today. However, I got an unexpected call this morning from my relocation agent saying that my lease doesn't start until October 1st but they would try to negotiate an earlier date. I don't know how anyone didn't know this until this morning, but anyway I may be staying in a hotel now for the next few weeks. Just further proof that you have to be very flexible with your plans when you move to a foreign country! I've really enjoyed the past day though and everyone at the office has been incredibly welcoming. There are a couple welcome lunches & happy hours for me that are going on this week so I'm excited to meet everyone & start traveling around this weekend. 

Lu & I at the festival

Our first double date in Slovakia :)

View of Bratislava from the sky bar