Work & Travel from Bratislava: 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!