Sunday, December 18, Day 7 - Part 1

 Good Morning from Bratislava!

After Bill's slip and fall, I was excited to hear that he was feeling better enough to join me on the morning excursion through Bratislava.  To be fair, our excursion was scheduled to be a fairly light day, as it was simply a Tastes of Slovakia beer tour.  We were told we'd have a quick walk over to the venue, and from there we'd be provided with the tastes of Slovakia.  Bill was kind enough to permit me the flavors of Slovakia tour, in exchange for me doing the Apricots and Sweets tour in Weissenkirchen.  Easy enough exchange!

We met with our tour guide, Sebastian, and turned on the quietvox devices, and off we went.  Sadly our tour guide today wasn't as fun as Laszlo, but he was still entertaining enough as we cruised our way through Bratislava.  

The one thing I will say about Bratislava compared to Budapest, is that Bratislava isn't as...photogenic.  There, I said it.  Budapest is prettier.  Bratislava has its own interesting factor, but at the same time it feels somewhat generic when you view the buildings as a whole.  Maybe it's just the district where we are, but...I didn't find as much to photo here as I did in Budapest.

Our tour guide (there in the front, black, white and red, talked for a bit, but the only thing I really heard was when he would end every other sentence with a "Yaaa?" question.  I pointed it out to Bill, and then he told me how much he hated me since he couldn't stop hearing it after that...

Looking down another walking path, I was pleased to see that at least some restaurants had a half a brain.  I'm not sure what the people of Bratislava do for fun, but the fact that there is outdoor seating when it's like -13* outside tells me that they're all insane.  This particular cafe had sheepskin blankets out front!

After what felt like a small eternity (it was cold, after all), we finally made it to our beer tasting.  We were given 3 glasses of beer, and that was it.  There was limited to no information provided on any of the beers, nor was there any discussion of the brewing process.  It was simply "here is a beer."  For the quality of the cruise so far, I have to say I was totally let down by this excursion.

If nothing else, the venue was very cool.  The pub was in the basement of an old building, which could have been anything in the past.  Our tour guide was silent on this point.

Bill and I stopped at the market in town, and wandered through.  One of the things that I had read leading up to this trip was that each market had its own unique mug/glass that you could buy.  It changes each year, and each market is different.  Thus far, I had been unable to actually find one.  Plenty of these markets sell the Gluwhein, or whatever their nasty tasting mulled wine is.  It's not so much that it's gross, it's just that it isn't good!  :)  Maybe it's because I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, and these feel like it's straight rocket fuel?

Anyway, I happily bought our first collector's glass...er, plastic mug.  I wasn't very impressed, but it's the point that counts!  From here, we headed back to the ship, and we were soon to be off to our next destination, Vienna!