Slovakia

On one of our tours through Vienna, our guide mentioned Bratislava- the capital of Slovakia is only a 50 minute car ride, and 75 minute boat ride from Vienna. 

It got me thinking, and before we knew it, we were in a taxi on the way to Slovakia on our free day.

... It didn't hurt that Aaron wanted to visit as many stock exchanges as possible :)

Our taxi driver spoke very very limited English, and we both had trouble communicating. Finally, about 10 minutes into our trip, the driver mentioned he only speaks German, a little bit of English and Spanish. 

Aaron lit up and immediately spoke to him in Spanish. 

All was good. Except I had no clue what was going on....

They laughed how they had such a hard time communicating. Ever since then, Aaron always mentioned to people that he spoke Spanish just in case. 

Our first adventure was hunting down the stock exchange. 

After a Diet Coke stop at McDee's, and gelato of course.

Speaking of gelato... YUM! 1 euro per cone, and the little shops were everywhere
.... I loved it! 

Loved it so much I had not one, not two, but 3+ cones that day!

[kiwi & lemon, Red Bull, mango & strawberry, hazelnut & chocolate]

I don't have the best patience when it comes to looking for a building or address in a foreign country for 20 minutes plus. 

We thought we knew where to go for the stock exchange and got lost on the way. It's not in the huge building next door like you'd expect...

Finally we stopped at a bank and asked, and luckily we were so close. 

When we made it, we weren't quite sure since there was a restaurant menu right in front. After a minute of Google translating, we realized we were there. 

Hello Slovakian stock exchange!

On our journey, we ran into some Senior missionaries. We chatted for a bit, and they were so happy we stopped to say hi. 

They had a young convert with them, and she was so confused how we recognized/knew them. It's a small world in the church, plus wearing a tag helps ;)

The narrow streets continued the European charm with cobblestones, street side restaurants and brightly colored buildings lining our paths. 

Possibly the best meal/snack we had was in Bratislava. We stopped at a random food stand at the street below for some street meat. 

I was sketched out by the meat that looked like it'd been sitting out for at least a week. And the fact that they were warming our food up in a microwave. 

Glad I took the chance cause it was delicious! Only 3 euros and we didn't even get sick. 

I'd call that a success. 

You can't tell from the picture, but the UFO was a little creepy. 

If you look hard enough, you can tell that there are some missing windows and the metal was rusting everywhere. And it's basically the centerpiece of the city... yikes! Was expecting a bit more from the UFO really. 

We hopped back on the boat up the river to head back to Vienna. The Twin City Liner was so fun to ride up the river. I caught great views of tiny towns, castles and of course the leaves changing as we jetted back up to Vienna. 

Loved that we checked another country off on our list. 

Thanks Slovakia!