Bratislava

Just a quick update... I got to Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) last night, where I was met at the bus station by Sam, a good friend of mine who I worked with in Colombia who now lives here with his wife (she's Slovak, he's Swiss) ... Bratislava doesn't look like much when you drive through the outskirts, but the centre of town is really nice, it has some beautiful old buildings and a nice peaceful feel, which is refreshing after the amount of tourists that have flooded Prague... After I arrived last night my hosts took me out for a traditional Slovak meal, which was really good, and I tried the local specialty, a softdrink called Kofola, which is best described as fizzy liquid gingerbread, and was surpisingly good (but like I said to Sam and his wife Zuzka, that probably isn't much of compliment coming from a person who can eat Vegimite straight from the jar) ... This morning Sam's gonna be my tour guide around Bratislava (kinda strange, an Australian being shown around a Slovak city by a Swiss guy he met in Colombia), then after lunch we'll head to Vienna (Austria), which is just an hour up the Danube; from Vienna we'll get the overnight train to Zurich (Switzerland), then there'll be a bit of time to check out the city before I say goodbye to Sam and Zuzka and get a connecting train to Paris, where I'll met some friends and hopefully be able to see the last day of the Tour de France...