Trencin - Day 1 (10.5.06)
My highly anticipated trip to Trencin was finally here.. I was happy, scared, and nervous all at once, but I knew that the event should prove promising .. and it did!
Eva had already left for Trencin the night prior, as she had some extra time off of school. The plan was for me to hop a cab to the train station to meet Maria. When Eva heard I was taking a cab, she refused to let me travel such an easy trip by taking a cab. Instead, she walked me, step-by-step through the public transit system, and even told me the exact trams I needed to take to get to the train station. Once again, shocked and amazed how I'm treated here just boggles my mind -- it's a shame people don't treat you like this back home.
I was supposed to meet Maria at 5PM to make sure we caught our 5:35PM train heading to Trencin. To make sure I'd get there with plenty of time to spare, I left my apartment here at 4PM, and headed to my local tram stop. There it was, tram #13 heading towards the train station. I looked in a bit of amazement, as I realized 'Wow.. I'm doing this all by myself'..
Take mind, before being in Slovakia, I had never rode on a public bus/tram, nor have I ever rode on a train. These were all brand new experiances for me, so when I sit back and look at the world in different eyes, I find that things amaze me. -- All the while remembering the song Eva and Maria were singing, brought a little smirk to my face -- "I'm a big, big girl, in a big, big world"
Wow .. I think I gave myself a bit too much time, as by 4:20PM I was at the train station waiting. I never expected it to go so fast. I decided to explore the area to see what Bratislava's train station was all about. Quite unique in it's own way. The little stores scattered on the inside of the station help privy to making sure that all train patrons were comfortable. I wasn't sure if I could take food on the train or not, so I just kept looking around.
I walked outside to see the large number of taxis and buses scattered around awaiting to travel with newcomers. The scene was everything I expected it to be. But I still sat there with awe looking around at a new place that I had never been to before.
Right around 4:55PM, I received a phone call from Maria. She wanted to know where I was. I ran back inside the station to meet her -- spinning around in a circle looking for her, all the while her saying "I see you..."
She ran up to meet me, already with my ticket in hand. She brought me over to meet her friends from school. One who was with her grandmother riding with Maria and I, and the other who was hoping a train somewhere else. Maria told me to pick up some food, or something, for the trip. Truth be told, the only thing I wanted was the now sold-out tuna sandwhich from the bagette shop. Maria and I walked in another shop - she picked up two pudding filled crescent rolls, and I ordered what I figured would satisfy me .. 'Velki Kofola, prosim,' (Large Kofola, please) I said, peeking over to Maria as she grinned gleefully at my request.
I followed Maria as she explained the whole train operation to her friend (who I assume is experiancing this for the first time as well) heading in another direction. After she said goodbye to her friend, we took the quick leap to the other side where our train was. Walking each individual car looking for car '7' (no, they weren't in order).
Once we found the train, we hoped on and headed into our cabin. The hallway was very small, not being more than about 20" (or 0.5 metres) wide. A very tight fit, especially with a heavy backpack behind me. The cabin was actually very spacious, considering. It was just like you had seen in any movie prior. There were six seats, three on each side, all red in color. Between each seat was a small table for you to place your small items down on. Above you was a few shelves for storage of overhead items (such as my backpack). We sat parallel with each other. Maria and her friend on one side, and her friend's grandmother and I on the other side.
Right away, Maria started to question how I liked it. Knowing full well the way she decribed how bad the trains were, I was expecting something much much much worse, but instead, I was actually pleasently surprised. It was clean, spacious, and airy. The seats were extremely wide, and very comfortable. I explained to her that it was better than I expected it to be. Of course, she thought I was crazy -- as normal.
She immediately handed over one of the two crescents she picked up, saying she bought one for me. Ooooh. I didn't expect that. It's small things like this which will make me miss her, and Slovakia so much.
As we headed down the tracks, her and I started playfully taking pictures of each other. I wanted to get some random shots of the train as well, as this was once again, a new experiance I've had with these girls. I've experianced so many new things with them, that it just makes me feel so happy inside.
At each stop, more people got on that got off. I watched as the narrow halls began to fill up with random people just trying to take a trip. I see where the overcrowding takes place, but it still didn't see out of the normal.
As the train continued, Maria brought out a Dean Koontz book she was 'trying' to read. She explained she had a bit of a hard time with it, as some of his writings were a bit more graphic than she expected. I tried to pass the time with some Sudoku from my little game machine, but ended up trying to grab a bit of nap.
I tried the crescent roll, which was filled with a chocolate pudding. Actually, it was quite delicious. Taking over the flavor of a sweet soft bread mixed with a flavorful pudding. Notch up another tasty treat on my list.
As we arrived in Trencin, Maria told me it was time to get off. We pushed our way past the people in the hall and hoped off the train, waving goodbye to her friend. As we got off, Eva strolled up to meet us there.
We headed out of the train station, and Eva informed me that we had a bit of a walk to the hotel I was staying at. So far, that has not been an issue. I've clearly walked about 5-10km a day since I've been in Europe, so a little walk wasn't going to kill me.
Across the street from the train station, we walked through a little park in Trencin. I was informed that, as normal with any park near a train station, it was usually where the homeless people hung out. It wasn't a bad looking park, as there were many statues and rememberances around the whole area. The grass was green and was lightly coated by the changing fall leaves.
As we made it to the other side, we took the underground passageway to get past the busy street traffic, and began to head up hill to the hotel. I checked in quickly, and we made way into the 'apartment' I was staying in for my short stay in Trencin.
Nothing too glamerous. You walked through the doorway to find a room similar to a standard hotel room. To the left was two full length mirrors on a very large wardrobe closet. To the right was the bathroom with a spacious stand up shower. Just past that, there was a lounging area with couch, coffee table, and two ottomans. The main room consisted of a large king size bed. A TV (w/ satellite), a large desk, two smaller wardrobes, and a refrigerator. There was actually a very large amount of room tucked away in a small area. The biggest feature was the extreme amount of windows. Four large windows scattered across the room left even this alley-way room in an extreme amount of light.
Outside the window next to the bed was a gorgeous view of the Trencin Castle.
Maria dropped her stuff at my place so she wouldn't have to carry it around town with her. Pfft, it was the absolute least I could do after what she's done for me.
They informed me that Janka had just taken a job over in a small cafe close by, and wanted to see me. I was game for anything, and I would be happy to see one of my other friends from Albany back in her home town.
We headed over to a little cafe just off the centrum of Trencin. Walking in, you could see it was a trendy little place with vivid colors of orange, black, and white spread all around. Janka saw us and freaked out. Poor girl was all alone working this evening, and wasn't able to say much to us when we strolled in. She ran up and gave me a big hug and told me she was glad to see me. She asked us to stay and have a drink.
We walked upstairs and sat down at one of the tables. Playing around with the cameras and relaxing for a few moments. Janka came up to take our order, the girls each ordered an iced coffee, and I went for an apple martini (yup.. bite me).
Janka came back with two iced coffees and a martini. Ooops.. Not an apple martini.. *d'oh* .. she didn't hear the apple part. No worries, I graciously accepted it and ordered a coffee also.
While Janka was gone, Eva pulled out the souvineers I picked up for Janka in Amsterdam. When Janka returned with my coffee, I gave her the gifts. She was so thankful, and seemed to love the minor items I picked up.
She started to get really busy with work, as more people began to stroll in, so Eva, Maria, and myself decided to head out and get something to eat.
We went down the street to 'Castello's Pizzeria'. Again, Slovak pizza.. Yum! I was debating between two pizzas. One was a tuna-based one (as I still was craving tuna), but I was turned off by the fact it had olives. The other was a ham, egg, and cheese one (breakfast of champions). I opted for this one instead. And of course, my drink was none other than Kofola.
As we sat and enjoyed our meal, we were discussing what we should do in Trencin. The only two big items on our list were the castle, and lunch at Maria's house on Saturday. Besides that? The sky was the limit.
After our meal, we decided to head back to Janka's job to check to see how she was doing. Maybe it's slowed down a bit so she could have a moment or two to talk? We made sure to sit down in the main area to stay close so if she had more customers stroll in, she could see them easier.
Unfortunately, she remained busy nearly the whole time. She came up and asked if it was okay if one of her friends came over to sit. She said he spoke English and was interested in meeting me. I was glad to find that 'someone' was interested to meet me.
The guy came over and started a conversation. While his english was a bit broken, we were able to speak just fine. The girls explained that I was looking to move here, and I got the all important question 'Why?'. After discussing it, I finally embarked on my actual reasons, and to my amazement, both this guy, and the girls understood completely. I think they can truly see where I'm coming from now.
While we sat there, a drunk man walked up. His english was very poor. He stood off to the side of me listening to what I was saying, slowly shaking his head as if he agreed with me. The man reaked of alcohol, and clearly had way too much to drink. He came up with 'Sorry.. sorry.. sorry..' as his only response. He sat there and tried to get the words out that he wanted to say.. 'I.... agree with your sayings... and... sorry.. sorry..' .. easily forgetting what he was trying to say to us.
We all started to snicker a little bit, as Janka came over to see if there was a problem. At the time, I had no concern. We sat back watching this poor bloke try to express what he wanted to say, always stopping short and constantly repeating 'sorry...'
All was fine, we were having some fun.. He proceeded to place his hand on my leg (which I assumed was to keep his balance as he clearly was too drunk to speak and stand). Then he said, "You... sorry..... you are perfect for me!" .. Ooooookay, what? .. Now it's getting awkward. I gave that 'look' to both Eva and Maria, and they quickly got his friends to come over and grab him away.
We started to laugh at the idea, and started to resume our conversation. The drunk man came back over again saying once more, 'Sorry.. I.. hmm.. sorry.. my friends.. see.. sorry.." .. He couldn't get the words out. He then said, "you.. hmm.. you are the owner of space.." .. HA.. Wow, rockin.. So now you all owe me rent! Eva whispered to me, "Do you want me to have him removed?". I responded to her, "as long as he's not touching me, I have no problem..." .. just about then, the dude put his arm around my neck and was reaching in for a kiss.. EEK! I pulled away quickly and gave Eva that horribly disturbed 'Please fucking help me' look. She immediately ran and got this guy's friends who pulled him away.
Afterwards, we once again laughed about the whole situation, knowing full well the type of 'blog' impact it may have. HA!
We headed back to the apartment, where Maria picked up her stuff. We headed down to the bus station, and said our goodbyes for the night, so she could hop a bus back to her village. Afterwards, Eva walked me back to my apartment where we then said our goodbyes before she headed home.
Interesting adventures for one day.. Let's see what day two holds!
