Fri 31.Aug.2012
Bratislava, Slovakia
Bratislava has an airport, but its connections to America are poor. People with
cars and family to drive them usually use Budapest airport, because fares from
there are slightly lower on average than from nearer-by Vienna, a result of lower
airport charges to the airlines.
I found a good cheap fare from Vienna though. An hour on the bus, an easy
check-in, a delayed departure, a missed connection in Frankfurt.
The airline put me up overnight, booked me on a morning non-stop to San Francisco,
and so help me, I made it to a reunion in Cupertino that same afternoon!
As long as I am in the bay area for a month, let's have a last look at Bratislava.
This page's images are all from in or around the charming tourist zone
in the old town
of the Slovakian capital; as fitting a set of last impressions as any.
In my first week here in California, I have been endoscoped and CT scanned,
to say nothing of a good annual reunion of colleagues from a company I worked
for around 1980. It was a rather zany former start-up that was enjoying a brief time
as leader in its field, before internal stresses combined with take-over by a giant firm
to produce spectacular self-destruction.
It is great now though.
People who would not speak to each other
thirty years ago are long-lost comrades today. More stuff you couldn't make up.
This poor dog was being a very mellow good sport about being paraded around looking
so dorky, and being the center of more attention from strangers than most dogs
would really want.
In two weeks, I meet the doctors to decide whether I am fit to start a fifth year of
these ramblings. The CT scan is the central piece of evidence.
If all is well,
I'll be off on 23 September for the now-familiar winter in Rhodes. Schedule calls
for a night in Vienna en route.
Vienna should be little hassle. From there, I have a connection at
Athens airport, which is inevitably something of a crapshoot these days. Last year,
flights were being cancelled right and left, but I lucked in - my flight was
merely delayed four hours.
Bring something to read
when you fly through Athens.
Home Sweet Apartment, with the morning sun beaming in through the shutters.
I imagine I'll see it again next near.
I left behind a Slovak edition of Harry
Potter and the Half Blood Prince that I had used to try to improve my Slovak.
It sits on a shelf with two novels in English that I left there last year.
Unnecessary
books take up space and add weight to your luggage.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf