Sarah wanted to visit Bratislava because she really liked the name. As we were sitting down this week checking out things to do, Sarah also noticed a ” Sculpture Park” that contained a three country marker in it. We could be in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria at the same time. This place seemed as remote as Four Corners National in the U.S. southwest (someone commented online that they needed to hike after finding parking), but it seemed like a fun adventure.

This plan presented several problems:

• We’ve already established I don’t speak German
• I also don’t speak (or read) the languages necessary for thoughtful communication in Hungary or Slovakia
• The SIM card we purchased for the phone only works in Austria
• If we make a wrong turn when the A1 Mobile service cuts out, we’re in for a good time!

It’s only about an hour drive to Bratislava and the marker, so we decided to see the marker first since it was 20 minutes further south. We passed into Slovakia without issue, breezing through the immigration facility at 80 kmph with our eyes forward and hands at 10 & 2 on the steering wheel. As we made our way toward Hungary, things got much more exciting. The border control looked exactly the same as Slovakia, but google maps was sending us AROUND border control.

Stay right and turn right.

Follow the exit and turn right.

Drive through the parking lot filled with 18-wheelers. Be sure to stay right.

Turn left (we’re STILL in a parking lot).

Turn right onto the sketchy road.

Go over the bridge and turn left onto the dirt road with crater-like bumps.

You have reached your destination.

Although we were laughing the whole time, I fully expected someone to come running out of the Hungarian border control office with some form of weapon. I mean, we just avoided the checkpoint like we were in some movie where a guy is escaping to freedom in another land. Or we were exchanging hostages. When we had arrived at the destination, there was a sign. It may have said we were in the right place. Who knows because it was the middle of a massive farm. With people working! There were statues, but they were sticking up through a field of corn. Not even kidding. We took a quick photo at the junction of three countries (after all, google maps said we were in the right place) and quickly got back in the car.

The trip back was pretty much the same. We completely avoided the border control again made our way back toward Bratislava. It was really a surreal moment. As we approached Bratislava, we were struck by the completely different parts of the city, one modern with its high rise office buildings of IBM and others, government housing from communist Czechoslovakia, and the old town from 709 A.D. with its fortress high on the hill and walled city. As we began walking around we noticed that all the embassies of the world were in the Old Town buildings.

Our next experience in Bratislava left us utterly speechless. We’ve been doing so much running around that the joke has been that we don’t ever eat lunch. In Bratislava, we decided to have lunch … gelato. Cash is king in Europe, so we’ve gotten used to asking if vendors take Visa. It’s probably only 25% of the time that they take credit cards. When Andrée asked the gelato vendor if they took credit he told us they did not, but he was very apologetic. He then told us that we could get the ice cream and just pay him back later when we came by again. WHAT? When explained that we did have cash, he once again said if we didn’t have enough that there were plenty of ATMs to get cash. Just come see him later. Imagine doing that at the mall!

Our walk around town was incredible. We saw a concert in the town square. (Note: this video won’t upload)

We saw street art

And we saw wicked old stuff.

On the way home we saw hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines. Everywhere. Seems like the European migratory birds have figured out how to avoid the turbines.

After eating lunch/dinner, we also found some more gelato to make up for some of the calories we lost in previous days.