Bratislava

Bratislava was sort of an off-the-beaten-trail layover for me, and the only reason I was enticed was because someone I talked to in Istanbul recommended it to me. The major draw of Bratislava was that it was the city that the horror movie "Hostel" takes place in. (It's a movie in which students backpacking through Europe are kidnapped and taken to a factory where they are tortured.)

The city itself was very cute. It has big castles and old Eastern European buildings that wouldn't look out of place in one of those miniature light-up cities people put in their living rooms around Christmas time. I kept thinking how much prettier this city would be under about 3 feet of snow. Since there weren't any major sights I just took a few photos of the old town itself.

After that I went to an old fashioned pancake house, ate a few savory pancakes for supper which cost about 3 Euro, which was awesome. Then I chatted with the bartender at the Hostel, (we invented a secret handshake) and then it was off to Vienna, which is where I am right now.