Category: travels

Budapest

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Last weekend we went to Budapest, Hungary. It’s a 2.5 hour train ride so we decided to stay overnight. We left early Saturday morning (nothing says Trip like the alarm NOT going off at 4am when you have to leave by 5) on the 6am train. I was a little anxious about Skye and the train ride, but she did great on the way down. On the way home, though, she was a lot more restless and we had our stuff piled all over our cabin trying to keep her happy and entertained. Seriously, we had a cabin to ourselves, until the last 30 seconds a single guy comes in with a reservation (since it was a holiday weekend).  Poor bloke.

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identification

so there is a species of bird that lives here that has a song like I’ve never heard before. the song is not the most amazing song I’ve ever heard (although it is really cool, and I love listening to it while I work), but what is amazing is that it sings mostly in the evenings, and I’ve heard several of the same species of bird in different areas of town, and while I can tell that it’s the same bird, the songs are vastly different (in one area, the song could have been recorded and used as 8-bit video game sound effects, it was amazing the types of noises coming out of this bird), and even from the same bird, the songs are somewhat similar (in that songs sung by the same singer are similar), but every time it sings, it’s a new song.

here are some videos of the bird…   Continue reading “identification”

a good day

So we had made some tentative plans to go to Vienna sometime this weekend or next, and we woke up on Saturday, and just decided to go. The weather was mostly nice, and we still had time to catch the train. So we got all our stuff ready and left. After a few miscommunications by the bus schedule and some frantic bus catching, we finally made it to the train station with about 5 minutes to spare. We boarded the train and were off for another country.

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random pictures

Here are a few pictures I’ve taken recently.

The first set is from Slavín, a war memorial and cemetery on the hillside that commemorates the liberation of Bratislava from the Germans in WWII. It’s crazy to think that the history of the war that you hear about on TV and read about in books actually happened here. It also has a really good view of the city (I have more pics, but I want to make a panorama of them before posting them all).

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The first image is of the memorial itself. It really is fairly tall, more so than I had imagined. The second image is a view of Bratislava looking east across the city. The third image is a view of Bratislava Castle, and if you look closely on the left, you can see the top of St. Martin’s Cathedral (not taken from Slavín, but from a break in the houses on the walk back home. On a side note, there are some amazing houses up here.)

And the second set is, of course, pics of our little one who is just too cute not to photograph every second. In the set is her first bump on the noggin that she got the other day. She likes to stand next to the shelves we have on the ground here, and pull out everything she can and throw it on the floor. She was doing that, and was standing on a book, which slipped out from under her, and she fell and began to cry. We consoled her from the couch, because she often falls and doesn’t hit anything, just scares herself, and that’s what we thought happened. When we looked over a few moments later, she looked at us and smiled with a bruise on her head.

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The first image shows her little bump on the noggin, not bad, but it was her first one. The second image shows her new thing lately, where she tilts her head to one side and looks at you in a shy, cute kinda way. The third image is her in the tub with bubbles, which she wasn’t sure of at first, but is starting to enjoy more and more each time.

Well… that’s all for now, more to come, I’m sure.

devín castle

so we went to devín castle the other day. our first trip outside of our little bubble here in Slovakia. it was the strangest thing to actually see things that you only really read about or see on discovery channel. to say this castle was old is an understatement. the things that I’ve seen in salt lake that are old are like mid-1800s at the oldest?…  this was orders of magnitude older than that. it was so old…  (insert yo mama joke here)

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tatra banka

I just have to comment on the banking system here in Bratislava.

We had to open an account with a local bank here, that bank would be Tatra  Banka. It is a fairly large national bank and they have branches located here the way they have StarBucks in Seattle, they are EVERYWHERE!

First, it took us 3 hours to open an account, yes 3!  To say that this bank takes security seriously is a gross understatement. I signed my signature two different ways and they actually noticed and almost didn’t approve a transfer of funds to my landlord.

Next, we opened our account in branch A, located pretty far from home. So we had them send the credit card to another location, B, closer to home. When I was told to go to branch B to pick up the card, I went to branch C, because I didn’t realize that there were 3 (3!), branches within blocks of one another. So I went to branch C, was told to go to branch B, but saw branch D first, was then told to go to branch B. Didn’t see the door to branch B since it was hidden (I swear it was like a secret passageway, no sign or anything) and went back to D. I saw that D was closed. Went to branch E the next day with the landlord, but they said my signature card wasn’t on file yet so I still couldn’t move funds. The next day, landlord and I went back to branch D (since I thought this was where to go), but then realized it wasn’t a branch but just some office of the bank. Went back to branch B, my landlord found the secret door, but we went upstairs to floor 1 (since ground floor is 0), and then rang some random, unmarked doorbell to where the personal banker was that had my credit card. We were now in Hogwarts. Who knew!?

So this banker gives me my credit card. I need this card to use internet banking. Mind you, you can’t just log in to use their internet banking, you have to actually apply, with a separate application, to use their internet banking feature. This new card I am given is the first step in accessing my Tatra Banka account. First, I log on using a 7-digit user name and then enter a 16-alphanumeric code for my password. Then I insert the new credit card into this little calculator thingy they gave me when I opened the account. This piece of hardware and credit card give a new code that you then have to enter. Only I couldn’t get this far because I keep getting an error on the calculator thingy. But I still have about 5 other passwords and PINS and authentication codes to enter before I can actually get to my account online.

Are you people serious?!

google earth fun

For those that have Google Earth, here are some coordinates to play around with. For those that don’t have it, but want the free software get it here.

Svetla 12 – Home
48° 9′ 3.80″ N
17° 5′ 4.48″ E

Work – GG office (my office)
48° 10′ 7.39″ N
17° 4′ 11.32″ E

EGL (Cameron + students)
48° 10′ 4.93″ N
17° 4′ 23.88″ E

St. Martin’s Cathedral (in previous post, pics)
48° 8′ 31.08″ N
17° 6′ 16.41″ E

Tesco (think Wal-Mart)
48° 10′ 37.19″ N
17° 3′ 53.53″ E

To give you an idea of scale, to take the bus from Home to Tesco, is about a 5-10 minute bus ride, or similarly, taking the U campus shuttle to research park.

You can also take those Lat/Longs, run them through the converter here, and use the decimal degree (D.dd) values in Google Maps.

downtown bratislava

Another picturesque street scene

Saturday Cameron took us to downtown Bratislava, in the pedestrian only zone, and then we went to the mall, Aupark, across the Danube. It was a chilly but sunny day, but it was so nice to get out and about finally. I read a few historical things about Slovakia before the move, but it is entirely different to then come here and actually see thousand year old churches and structures;  to be where another countries history took place, such as WWII or the Russian occupation, where it actually happened; to walk down these cobble streets, it makes you wonder who else has walked this path and under what conditions. It is very impressive and it made me feel more a part of our world and long history. I felt unimportant and small, humbled even, but very grateful to experience a tiny piece of another rich history, which really is my history too, since we all reside on one planet.

(more pictures after the break)  Continue reading “downtown bratislava”