A Day In The Life

(This post has been delayed because I've been traveling and blogging is blocked in China)

It's Spring. The sun is out. The temperature is consistently in the 60's and 70's. The cafes are setting up their outside tables and patios. Bratislava is a completely different city in the Spring and Summer, like a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon and spreading its new butterfly wings. Sitting at a cafe, dining al fresco amongst buildings that are hundreds of years old, it feels like Europe. It feels good.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the great weather and explored some parts of Bratislava we hadn't yet visited. We walked a couple of miles north along the Danube to the Bratislava Botanical Garden. Along the way, we stopped for a burger at the new Kempinski Hotel at the River Park development. Jenn proclaimed it the best burger in Bratislava, which is funny for two reasons: one, because the burgers are across the board pretty iffy in Bratislava, and two, (we split one) and it cost 15 EUR ($19 USD). At that price, it has no business not being good.

We arrived at the unassuming garden, paid 3 EUR each and strolled through it. It's more of a park than it is a garden, but it was nice. It's quaint, but serene, even if nothing was in bloom so early in the season.

After a couple of hours resting back at the flat, we took a taxi out to the Danubiana Modern Art Museum. It's 15km south of the city, sitting on a peninsula along the Danube next to a small village called Cunovo. Even though we asked at the tourist information office, we called to verify our transportation options with the actual museum. We had learned from Rachel's visit when she and Jenn tried to go to the museum and got lost in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. They never made it. After we did make it and visited, it bothered both of us that the city doesn't make more of an effort to promote this museum for visitors and also make it easier for people to get there. It's nice and very pretty on a nice day like this, but it sits totally unnoticed and unvisited. It's a shame.
We walked through the sculpture garden on the grounds surrounding the museum and then quickly moved through the small collection inside.

From there, we met the Yeagers for dinner and our new friend, Caitlin. Caitlin works for Dell and just moved to Bratislava for a year assignment. She also coincidentally is Jenn's distant cousin. We ate at Antica Toscana, which is a very good Italian restaurant in a small house in another village, Rusovce, outside of Bratislava city center.

Days like this, enjoying the offerings of your city, are nice regardless of where you live. It's all about turning off the TV and the computers, getting outdoors, and seeing that there is a great wide world out there.

I haven't made mention of it yet, but in regards to exploring that great wide world, we've decided to extend our time in Bratislava for one more year. From a work perspective, it is the right opportunity for me, but on the personal front, we like our life here and there is still so much more we want to experience. Being away from friends, family, and Tex-Mex food is hard, no question, but it feels right for us.