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.