I Can (kind of) See Clearly Now

Lake Bled, in Slovenia, was recently in an article on CNN.com listing the 10 most beautiful lakes in the world (read the article here). We had been planning to visit based on the recommendations of several people we know, but we haven't been able to find a good time for it. When we looked at the map and saw it was only 2 hours from Zagreb, we thought this would be the perfect time. Again, as with Plitvice Lakes Park outside of Zagreb, the weather was not ideal for the picturesque town and lake that is Bled, but we still enjoyed it.

After checking in at the Villa Bled, the former Presidential residence, we took to the trail along the perimeter of the lake. It rained on and off, but we were able to make the full loop, which was roughly 4 miles. We stopped along the way for lunch at Gallus, we claimed to have the best pizza in Bled. It fascinates me when restaurants and cafes boast to have the best of something in the city, state, country, or universe. It's one thing to put it on a sign and note the person or publication that said it, and it's another to state it as an unequivocal fact, which is what they did in this case. It also intrigues me as to whether certain customers actually make decisions based on these lofty claims. Do people walk by this restaurant and see that the sign says best pizza in Bled and believe it? In this specific case though, I'm not sure how much of an accomplishment it is to be the best pizza in Bled anyway. There may not even be other pizza places. Anyway, lunch was pretty good, and we weren't staying long enough to find out if there were other pizza offerings around town, so we accepted it and moved on with our lives.

We walked across the street and ate cream cake at the Park Hotel, which claimed to invent the recipe. Bled is not a modest town.

It started to pour again right after we returned to our hotel. We napped for a couple of hours and then ate dinner at the hotel. It was actually included in our rate, so we figured why not. There was nowhere in town we were dying to go anyway. The food wasn't bad. My lamb entree was quite good actually and we both enjoyed the dessert of panna cotta and strawberry ice cream. A funny note here is that at breakfast the next morning (also at the hotel and also included in our rate), the woman who waited on us asked us if everything was okay with the dinner the previous night because the men who work in the kitchen were concerned because we didn't eat everything. It was a four course meal. We are normal sized human beings. We can't eat four full courses. We always talk about how we don't understand how people can. We've found that at restaurants in Europe, they do seem to get insulted if you don't clean your plate completely. We're not going to make ourselves sick just to avoid insulting a waiter. We explained to her what occurred at dinner and hopefully we didn't give them more reason to hate Americans.

The sun came out for an hour and we took full advantage of it by taking a row boat out from the hotel and headed to Bled Island. It only took about 15 minutes, 5 of which I spent figuring out where to sit and how to get the boat to move in the direction I wanted. We walked around the small island where the Church of the Assumption of Mary sits. It only takes about 5 minutes to walk around. After seeing all there was to see, we headed back, packed up our stuff, and headed back to Bratislava.

The drive back was uneventful. We ran a few errands while we had the car, and now it's back to work tomorrow. It was good for both of us to have a relaxing, even if short, vacation.

View more pictures of Bled here.

Under My Umbrella

Since we first looked at Croatia as a potential destination, our sights were set on Plitvice (pronounced Pleet-vee-tzeh) Lakes National Park. The pictures that come up when you google this place are incredible. It really raised my expectations quite high, which doesn't happen often. And you know what, it was even better than I imagined.

The park is made up of 16 natural lakes, most of which have beautiful, vivid turquoise colored water. There are tons of waterfalls throughout the park and there have been wooden walking trails laid out by the park to allow for all of it to be seen.

The park was truly awesome. It's one of those things that when you see in person, it's hard to believe it actually exists.

It rained the entire day, which was not ideal. The positive side of that is it also meant less people were there, which was nice because the paths are narrow and there are spots where you have to take a boat and the lines would be awful on a day with better weather.

Due to the weather, the pictures really don't capture how awesome this place is, but hopefully, you get the idea. We may just have to go back here when it's sunny.

Please view more pictures here

Croatia

I had to work over two Slovak bank holidays in the past few weeks, so I was allowed to take the days off this past weekend, which we used for a mini-vacation. Rain was in the forecast for our chosen destinations, Zagreb, Croatia and Bled, Slovenia, but we decided to take our chances. It's always a gamble with weather. Fortunately, since we've been in Europe, we've been very lucky with the weather, specifically in Dublin and Italy. This weekend, our luck ran out. We didn't let it keep us down and moved ahead with our planned itinerary.

We drove the little over 4 hours to Zagreb after work in our rented automatic transmission (of course) Skoda and arrived at the Regent Esplanade at around 10:30. The hotel is a landmark in the city and was a stop for the Orient Express. It has classy, traditional style, with just the right amount of modern upgrades. Since rain was predicted for our three night stay, we wanted to make sure we were staying somewhere nice and comfortable since we potentially would be spending a lot of time inside.

We ended the evening with an order of the Struckli Esplanade and a molten chocolate cake from room service. Struckli is a puff pastry filled with ricotta-like cheese. It was delicious.

We awoke to a a dark, gloomy morning with a light drizzle of rain. It was not as bad as we expected, so we headed out for the day to see Zagreb. Our first stop was the Dolac Market. We love the markets in Europe. This one was pretty good. We walked by the cathedral, which was nice. It started to rain a little harder, so we ducked inside Korcula, a restaurant that came highly recommended from TimeOut, for a seafood lunch, in the style of the Croatian Dalmatian coast. We had the Korcula Platter which included octopus, squid, fish, risotto, swiss chard, and char-grilled potatoes. Everything was pretty good. It was a long lunch, but we were more than happy to stay inside while it was pouring outside.

We braved the downpour for a little while, but after about an hour, it really started to come down. Even with our raincoats and umbrellas, we were soaked, and longed for our hotel room. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting inside in the warmth of the Regent Esplanade until about 6:30, when we headed to the brand new Contemporary Art Museum. The building was super cool and the art was pretty interesting. There was way too much male frontal nudity for my tastes, including an installation which showed several views of hidden cameras in a bathhouse. After our sausage appetizer, we headed out for some dinner.

We had an exceptional meal at Trilogija, which was recommended to us by the hotel. Mushrooms are great in Croatia right now because of all the rain, so we started with a mushroom carpaccio salad and then followed it with a mushroom risotto. Our entree was a perfectly cooked beef filet with a side of roasted tomatoes and potatoes. Dessert was this chocolate nougat thing I liked better than Jenn.

After heading back to the hotel, I checked on the computer and though I had set Slingbox to record the Horns game, ESPN chose the Ohio State game for regional coverage. This makes no sense to me because Texas is closer to New Orleans than the Big 10 schools, but whatever. I saw online elsewhere that UCLA absolutely drilled Texas. This brought back memories of 66-3 from my freshman year. It looked like the offense continued their sloppiness and carelessness with the ball that they displayed in the Tech game a week ago. Oh well. This is a rebuilding year anyway.

I Say a Little Prayer For You

Having attended Rosh Hashanah services in Bratislava, we decided we wanted to try something different for Yom Kippur. After a little research and a good amount of deliberation, we chose Budapest as our destination for the weekend. 

Jenn and I both are of the opinion that it doesn't really matter where one prays. Praying can be done anywhere. This is exemplified by the many synagogues in the US that hold high holiday services at churches due to the extra seating capacity. For us, it was not about the enhanced spiritual experience the synagogue in Budapest would provide, but more about just being a cool and different experience. It's not often one can attend a high holiday service at one of the largest synagogues in the world. So, as we like to say, we got our Jewish on.

The Dohany Street or "Great" Synagogue was built in the 1850's and is the largest synagogue in Europe. With three floors of seating, it holds around 3000 people at full capacity. We had viewed the exterior of the building on a previous trip to Budapest, but since it was Passover, it was closed, and we were not able to enter. Today, as long as we had no camera and were there for some reflecting and atoning, we were welcome.

We arrived around 9:45 and there were very few people there even though the service started at 9. We sat separately as it is an Orthodox synagogue where men and women are required to sit apart from one another. As opposed to the synagogue in Bratislava and other Orthodox temples I've been to, there was no screen or any other kind of separator. I sat on the end of one pew and on the other side of the aisle, Jenn sat on the end of hers. So, we weren't far apart. People slowly filtered in as the service progressed (just like in the US) and there was the usual socializing that is expected as for many this is the only time they attend synagogue so it's a time to catch up with the others who they see annually for the High Holidays. From that standpoint, it felt like home.

The sanctuary was beautiful and incredibly maintained. It was designed in the Moorish style, which means in a lot of ways, it looks and feels like a mosque. The walls are marble with stained glassed windows along them, the ceiling consists of multi-colored tiles, chandeliers hang from the ceiling and everything is gold trimmed. There is a fine line between tacky and tasteful, and it strattles it, but it pulls it off. Here is a picture I copied from the web since they didn't allow cameras inside.

The service itself was different than other Orthodox services we'd attended. The main difference being that there was an organ and a choir. Surprisingly, the organ and choir were really good and had a very positive effect on the service and the whole experience. Normally, I find a choir really distracting in a Jewish service. In general, the service was a lot more participatory and involved the congregation. If not for the Hungarian, this easily could have been a service at a conservative synagogue in the US. We were able to recognize many of the prayers in Hebrew, but the Hungarian sermon was lost on us, but if I know my sermons it was either about Israel or giving money to the synagogue. 

I was left to my thoughts, which this time of year usually center around the Saints, Longhorns, and fantasy football. I hope it doesn't come across as shallow, but these are things I think about. I doubt even the greatest thinkers are thinking profound things every second of every day. Besides, Yom Kippur is about focusing on yourself and reflecting on the past year. You can apologize, forgive, and forget, but beyond that, you can't change other people. You can only look at yourself and change the things you identify as areas for improvement. Of course there are things about myself I'd like to change and I thought about those too. There is no need to list them here, but rest assured, I'm working on them.

I also thought about Jenn, my friends and family, and the amazing opportunity we have to live in Europe for the year, both from a professional and personal standpoint. We are living for every moment and appreciating every single opportunity available to us.

We stayed for a few hours, then walked around the city a bit, before heading back to the hotel. The weather was cool, but the sun was out, making it really nice for a Yom Kippur stroll. We spent the afternoon resting back at the hotel before heading back to the synagogue for the closing service.

For breaking the fast, Jenn exclaimed she was ready to "get her Gundel on." We had made reservations during the week at Gundel. Arthur Frommer put it very well saying it's "Budapest's fanciest, most famous, probably most expensive, and most overrated restaurant." It's an old (established in the 1800's) restaurant that is still clinging to another time when people got dressed up to go out to eat and there were places like this for special occassions and long, lavish meals. This place was the complete opposite of trendy.

The service started out great, as the wait staff seemed intent on making it a memorable dining experience. Jenn started with the mushroom soup and I had the traditional Hungarian goulash soup. Both were okay, but i liked mine better than she liked hers. As a 2nd course, we shared warm ewe cheese strudel topped with truffles, surrounded by honey. We both really liked this dish. The flavor combination went together really well. For our main course, Jenn had the small portion of the Chateaubriand beef filet with these zucchini rollup things on the side that were pretty good. I had the Gundel Tonalky, their signature dish, which was strips of beef with mushrooms, asparagus, and fois gras, all mixed together. It didn't blow me away, but it wasn't bad. 

None of the food was bad, but as mentioned above, it's a pretty expensive restaurant, so it definitely raises expectations. The service also fell apart after the beginning of the meal. After our entrees were delivered to the table, we had to flag down and beg waiters to take our plates and then again to get dessert menus. It takes an awful lot for us to be unhappy with the service at a restaurant, but believe me when I say this was particulary bad. Let me put it this way, if I have to put on a coat and tie to come eat at your restaurant, the service better be good.

We began talking to the man sitting by himself at the table next to us who was leading a large tour group that was sitting on the other side of the restaurant. Since he eats there all the time, he wasn't interested in his dessert which came as part of the set menu he and the group were eating, so he insisted we eat his dessert sampler. We reluctantly obliged. We also ordered the chocolate souffle cake with bourbon vanilla ice cream which was decent.

It was a good meal (not great), but still an okay way to break a fast and a nice evening out in Budapest.

After a good night's sleep, we headed to the center of town and had the Kugler breakfast (orange juice, breakfast pastries, and hot chocolate) at the famous Cafe Gerbaud. Everything was pretty tasty. We also bought some sweets to take back with us on the train, as is our M.O.

We also picked up a Hungarian bottle of wine on the way out to bring over to the Yeagers tonight who are having us over for a barbecue. Charles also works for Dell, is American, and came over at the same time as us to Bratislava. We've been friends since we started the expatriation process together. We've become close with him, Geneva (his wife), and their two children, Alexa and Dylan. It should be fun.

Jenn and I both agreed it was a great way to observe the holiday. She suggested maybe we should make it our thing now to every year observe the High Holidays at a different synagogue around the world. That seems like an awful lot of effort just to pray, but we shall see.

Leaving our Harts in Italy

After a solid night of sleep, we both awoke in the morning feeling the effects of the hike all over our bodies. We were really sore. The two big regrets in my mind were, number one, that we didn't take the time to stretch after the hike yesterday, and two, that we have allowed ourselves to get this out of shape that a hike which is somewhat strenuous, but by no means highly taxing, could do this to us. I've used the excuse of traveling so much for my job and getting settled in long enough. It's time to lace up the Asics and get back to running.

After breakfast at the hotel, we all decided we'd head over to Monterosso and hang out on the beach for the day. We were not 5 minutes from the hotel, when we all realized that was a terrible idea. The Cinque Terre is nice and all, but once one does the hike which goes through all five towns, there really isn't anything else to do there. The beaches aren't nearly nice enough to warrant spending extra time there. As a group, we came up with a new plan and headed back to the hotel to get our bags.

Since we were all heading North anyway for our flights out (Micah and Hilary to Torino and us to Bergamo), we took the train in that direction and stopped off in Santa Margherita. Fortunately, they had a bag check, a bartender at the bar connected to the station, for us to leave our luggage. This was sketchy, but the only alternative was lugging around our bags all day, so we went with it. We hopped on the bus to Portofino and were on our way.

Portofino was really pretty. It's right on the water and is filled with yachts and other extremely expensive boats. It looks much like any other small Italian town on the water, but instead of little crappy shops selling souvenirs and other random things, the streets are lined with very high end stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc.

We walked through the town, which took about 5 minutes, had lunch at a pizza place, got some gelato, and then were on our way. We took the ferry back instead of the bus. Even though it cost a little more than the bus, it was quicker and the views were much nicer. We again lucked out with gorgeous weather for the day.

 The ferry arrived in Santa Margherita and we still had plenty of time until our trains were set to depart. We walked along the water and then through the streets.

Throughout the trip, since we met up with the Harts, we had been trying to find an internet cafe. Micah is the commisioner of the fantasy football league we've had with our group of friends for years. Right after he left the country for this trip, we all realized something was wrong on the league website that needed to be fixed before the games started on Sunday, or there would be an uproar. It's fantasy football, which we all take too seriously, so most issues tend to cause an uproar even when they aren't a big deal, but this kind of was...sort of. In the nick of time, as we were walking back to the train station, we found a place. It's interesting how few internet places there are in Europe now. There are a lot of bars and restaurants that offer free wifi, however, because it  is assumed that everyone has their own device whether it be smartphone or laptop to access the web. Anyway, we found this place, paid for a computer for each person, except for Micah who didn't want to check his email or anything on the internet so to avoid finding out the score of the Saints game, which had been played on Thursday night and he had recorded with plans to watch when he got back home. He helped me login to the site with his password and we got the site fixed and ready before kickoff and avoided armegeddon. 

Because the Hart's train was canceled, we all got on the same train heading North. The train was completely full. All seats were occupied, so we join the other groups of people lining the aisles next to the couchettes. It was not overly comfortable or pleasant, but we made due. Hilary and Micah got off in Genoa and we continued on to Bergamo. Jenn and I sat in chairs that folded out from the wall in the aisle for the remainder of the trip. This wasn't too bad except someone either in the couchette next to us or down the aisle somewhere had awful flatulence and had no qualms about sharing it with the rest of the train car. We passed the time (not gas like the mystery person in the train with us) reading. Jenn is reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I am halfway through The Cuckoo's Egg.

It was great seeing Micah and Hilary. It was a little surreal meeting up with in the middle of Italy, but it really worked out great. Though I gave Micah a very hard time about choosing Cinque Terre as the place for us to visit, it did end up being fun. It doesn't change the fact that it's a horrendous pain to get there, and I'm not sure the fun outweighs the effort it takes to get there, but Micah got what he wanted and after being friends with him for years, all seems right with the world when that happens.

5 Towns

Not to be confused with the series where Johnny Drama made his comeback attempt on Entourage, we made our way to the Cinque Terre, 5 coastal towns along the Italian Riviera. We took the train from Milan and arrived at the Villa Argentina Hotel on Riomaggiore a little after 12pm, amazingly, at the exact same time as Micah and Hilary. Micah and I have been friends since we were kids and Hilary is his lovely wife. They were here on a trip through the south of France and the Italian coast. We arranged a while ago to meet up with them for the weekend.

We visited the Cinque Terre when we traveled around Europe a few years ago. It rained so we didn't complete the hike through the towns, which is the thing to do there. Since we had perfect weather when we arrived, we all decided to take advantage of it and do the hike then and there. After a quick lunch of pizza slices and focaccia, we took the train over to Monterosso and were on our way.

The first leg of the hike was mostly uphill and took about two hours. It offered beautiful views. There were some pretty narrow spots so avoiding the others on the trail, mostly Americans and Australians, tricky. We almost lost Jenn along the way, and I don't mean that she fell behind or anything. She just fell. We stopped for a couple minutes after a steep incline and the ground under her gave out, causing her to slide down the side of the cliff. Thankfully, Micah was paying attention and grabbed her arm and helped her back up. I wasn't paying attention at all and missed the entire thing. After the fact, looking back on it, it was pretty scary. It all happened too fast though to realize it at the time. I guess I owe Micah a solid. I feel like I'm not giving this whole experience its due, but I really think you had to be there to fully understand. See below for the scratches on Jenn's legs. This could have been much worse, so for the third time in my life, I can say I'm lucky I know Micah. The first time of course was when he got us free tickets to the Astros/Cardinals series and free peanuts in college and the second being free tickets to the Texas/Mizzou game a couple of seasons ago in Austin.

We stopped along the way briefly in each town. The highlight for me was this cheese focaccia slice I got in Manarolo. Imagine a warm piece of focaccia bread stuffed in the middle with a soft and creamy brie type cheese and you will know the supreme pleasure that will live on in my dreams.
We got back, showered and headed to dinner. We found out the trains stopped running relatively early, so we didn't want to risk going to another town for dinner and getting stuck. We ended up eating at La Lanterna, which is where we ate in Riomaggiore 5 years ago. Just like last time, it didn't blow us away, but it was good enough. Micah and Hilary had bought a couple of bottles of wine while in France that Micah asked the waiter if we could drink there. We were denied. Maybe if it was an Italian wine, he wouldn't have cared.

Surprisingly, the woman who served us gelato later in the evening had no such qualms about opening a bottle for us. Gelato and wine al fresco was a fitting end to a perfect day, that is until a waitress from the bar next door kicked us out for drinking our own bottle. Maybe it's not so great to know Micah after all. That guy is trouble.

View the rest of our pictures from the weekend here.

After Hours in Milan

We flew RyanAir to Bergamo on Friday night. RyanAir is kind of like the Southwest Airlines of Europe, but with less frills. It's not the most pleasant flying experience, but they get you there on time generally, and it's incredibly cheap. One way they are able to offer such cheap fares is that they fly into smaller airports outside of major cities. In this case, Bergamo is an hour from Milan. We arrived there around 9 and took the shuttle into Milan. It was past 10:30 when we finally arrived at our hotel in Milan.

The hotel was a little outside the city center, but not too bad. The NHow hotel was modern and artsy. We walked over to the Navigli area and ate pizza at Premiata Pizzeria, which was recommended by several travel sites. The pizza was very good, though at 11:15, having not eaten since lunch, anything would have been good.

Neither of us had ever been to Milan, so even though it was late, we walked to the center to check it out. It seemed like a nice enough city, not not one to which we need to rush back.

We finished the night off with some tasty gelato and headed back to the hotel to rest up for the journey to the Cinque Terre in the morning.

Scenes From a Slovak Synagogue

Last Thursday was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. We went with our new friend, Jeff, who we met through my Aunt Melissa (he is her friend's brother), to the only synagogue in Bratislava. We were a little surprised, but at the same time delighted, to find out that there is a synagogue here.

It turns out it's been here since 1926. It looks like other old European synagogues we've seen. It's pretty unassuming on the outside and blends in pretty well to the other old buildings on the street. The inside looks much like many other old synagogues we've seen in Europe. The stone walls are faded white and brass chandeliers hang from the two story high ceilings above wooden pews. Being an Orthodox place of worship, the men and women sit separately, so I sat with Jeff while Jenn sat on the other side of the separation screen. The roughly 25 men all had their own prayer books, which meant I was left to my thoughts for a couple of hours, since I didn't have one.

I often don't use a prayer book when attending a service, so this wasn't all that unusual for me. I like to use it as a time to think about things. In December, when at the Western Wall in Jerusalem with Jenn's family, I put a prayer in the wall asking for a Saints Super Bowl Championship. So, I figured I was good for a while on the prayer front and didn't need to be going back to the well. I spent the time thinking about my own life and what I can do to improve myself and the world around me. I don't want to go into more detail, but it really wasn't anything earth shattering. I'm a simple man.

As I watched the Orthodox men pray intently and passionately, I was intrigued. Faith is a really interesting thing and I'm fascinated by what people believe in and how they express and observe those beliefs.

I wish I would have had a notebook with me during the service because at the time, I had some really great thoughts I wanted to write about, but at 11pm on a Monday night, those thoughts have escaped me. It's too bad, because I am certain you really would have enjoyed reading it.

Burgers, Hot Dogs, and a Side of Diplomacy

Jenn and I had the opportunity this week to attend a reception at the house of the newly appointed US ambassador to Slovakia and his wife. Theodore Sedgwick is not a career diplomat, but a businessman with a career in publishing, specifically on subjects like energy and defense.

He and his wife, Kate, arrived here in the last couple of months (like us). The turnout was around 50 or 60, though many of them, it seemed, were employees of the US Embassy here. Either way, it was really comforting to see so many other Americans. It was also nice to have American food. The spread included burgers, hot dogs, fried chicken bites, and a few other things. The highlight though was the carrot cake they had out for dessert. I thought about stuffing some in my pockets to bring home, but I resisted. I ate about 4 pieces though, so that was probably enough.

It is always awkward at these type of events to just go up and talk to people, but we did our best. We did meet some people who we could potentially be friends with in town, so we'll see what happens after we follow up with them.

We caught the ambassador right as he was about to put a hot dog in his mouth. He seemed very nice and was really interested in hearing more about Dell. He plays tennis, so we discussed getting out on the court and playing mixed doubles. We'll see if that ever happens, but it would certainly be interesting. I was most impressed by the fact that he was able to down the entire hot dog during our conversation without it ever been awkward.

It was a fun night and very cool experience. I think it would be neat to be an ambassador, and I know Jenn would love to be the wife of an ambassador. She'd be great at it. I am not interested, however, in going the route of a career in diplomatic services. We spoke with the Deputy Ambassador, who had done 3 stints in Iraq and just finished one in Pakistan. No thank you. I just need one of my friends to become President, which I oddly think could be possible.

Hello Again

This weekend marks the first back to back weeks I've spent in Bratislava. It hasn't exactly been action packed, which is why I haven't been blogging, though to tell the truth, most of what I blog about is fairly trivial.

We took our first trip to the doctor two days after we got back from Salzburg, because Jenn was sick. Fortunately, there was a clinic with English speaking doctors just around the corner from our place. There was a lot of hesitancy about going to the doctor here, but it turned out to not be so bad. Jenn was diagnosed with a bacterial respiratory infection and was prescribed some antibiotics and cough medicine. It's taken her two weeks, but she's finally getting close to being her normal cheerful self.

It took us a while, but we finally acquired Slovak cell phones. We found someone at the O2 store who spoke good English and we were able to get it all figured out. We picked out literally the cheapest cell phones they had since we would have no use for them upon returning to the US and anyone who knows me should know what little functionality I require from a cell phone. The store unfortunately only had them in white. I'm pretty sure it's a girl's phone.

This past Monday was my fantasy football draft. Because of the time difference, it started at 12:15am for me and didn't finish until close to 3am. I ended up with more rookies and unproven guys with high potential than I would like (Ryan Mathews, CJ Spiller, and Kevin Kolb as examples), but we'll see what happens. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out this season in that I won't be able to follow the NFL season as much as I would like. It's probably a good thing since, as much as I enjoy it, fantasy football is a complete waste of time.

On that note, last Saturday, Jenn slept in since she was sick, so I got up and watched the Saints preseason game against the Chargers that I had recorded from the previous night. It was the best morning I've had since I arrived in Slovakia. When Jenn finally did walk in the living room, she said I had a huge smile on my face. I did. It was glorious. I'm so excited for the Saints to defend their title. Even if they disappoint the season, nothing can take away the joy of last year's run to the Super Bowl title. 

We began Slovak lessons this week and are picking it up okay so far. Our teacher, Jan, is good and very nice. Some of the sounds are extremely difficult to make and many of the words have several consonants in a row, so are a challenge for English speakers to pronounce. We are a far ways off from attacking the grammar, which we've heard is a beast, but we've gotten down some of the basics. We do need to learn how to ask where the bathroom is.

We did have a nice weekend this weekend. We ate at Liviano on Friday night. We had read about it when we first visited Bratislava and have been eager to eat there ever since. It's in kind of an odd location (in an office building) and we were one of only three occupied tables, but we enjoyed the experience. The menu was more sophisticated than most we've seen in Bratislava and both of our dishes, porcini mushroom risotto for Jenn and scallops over wasabi risotto for me, were excellent. If only it were more convenient to get to, I imagine we would become regulars. They have a large video screen where you can watch what is going on in the kitchen live. It's kind of interesting, but at the same time, I don't really want to know what goes on back there. I did have to send my dish back because they brought me the incorrect thing, so it was good to be able to see that no one was spitting on my food. It's entirely possible (probable actually) though that they are used to being filmed and reserve their spitting and other unsanitary actions for off camera.

We had another excellent eating experience on Saturday morning in Vienna at Meierei in StadtPark. It's the more casual offering from the world famous Steirereck Restaurant, to which it is attached. Meirei is a dairy restaurant, serving up flavored milks, all kinds of cheeses, as well as various other breakfast and lunch items. We really liked this place and look forward to going again. Below are some pictures of our meal which included hot chocolate, strawberry milk, and a cheese plate. I also had a cheese omelet, but we figured a picture wasn't necessary. The last pictures are pictures of cheese they have in the entry way that we thought were great.

The next stop was at the Naschmarkt, which is a big open air market that apparently is quite the hot spot in Vienna. We bought some produce and also pita, hummus, and falafel (there are a ton of counters with Mediterranean food). It would be so nice if there was something like this in Bratislava.

We finished the night off at the movie theater and saw Inception. We were delighted to discover that Saturday nights were two for one on movies after 9pm, so each ticket was a bargain at 3 EUR. The movie was a little long, but overall, very entertaining. It had a lot of Matrix-y stuff in it, but the special effects were good and the story was creative. It could have been 30 minutes shorter and I don't think anyone would have minded.

Tomorrow, I go back to work as there is no Labor Day in Slovakia. Oh well. The big dilemma of the week is what to do about watching the Saints game on Thursday night on opening night of the NFL season. Do I watch it live or record it and watch it later? More to come on that. I know you're on the edge of your seat.