Ooooo. 80!

In honor of my 80th (holy crap) post, I thought I would show you some pictures of the Cordell family invasion that has occurred in Central Europe. These pictures are all from Hannah's camera and computer because I have been living in their hotel room with them for the past couple of days, and therefore do not have my own electronic equipment with me.  More will be added soon.

So, when we arrived in Vienna, it was raining, and the person who was supposed to come pick us up was not there.  I decided to walk over to one of the booths that promised fixed-rate taxi services because I did not want to mess with any buses or trains that would present difficulties pertaining the 5 pieces of baggage we had.  Also, I didn't want to go outside in the rain.  I don't think that is selfish.  The people at the desk were very helpful, and we immediately paid for the trip and walked toward a VERY large Mercedes van with a handsome and (seemingly?) competent driver.  He got us there in good time and helped us to unload all of our stuff.

When we entered the hotel, is was around 10:30am (we had gotten into the airport around 8:40...we had NO trouble going through customs...WOO!)  I went up to the reception to try and see if we could check in early.  Nope.  I then asked if we could leave our baggage.  Nope.  Wait a second now.  I asked again if we could put our baggage in the storage room until 2:00pm when we could check into our rooms.  This time she said yes. I guess I just had to word it properly.

So, we put all of our bags behind the reception desk, I asked for a couple of bus tickets, and I took our group to my dormitory.  We were cold, wet, and sleep deprived, so I figured the best thing for us to do was to shack up in a warm room with multiple beds so that we could sleep.  And boy, did we.  We ended up passing out for a good couple of hours.  After waking up, and distributing dry clothes to the girls, we headed back to the city (the rain had broken slightly) to check in and get something to eat.

Here we are in Slovak Pub!  I know that you hear a lot about this restaurant, but the truth is the food is decent and the beer is cheap.  Plus, they have all of the ethnic food that I wanted everyone to try.  Bethany and I had garlic soup, Alan had bryndzova halusky, and Hannah had chicken pirohies.  Everyone enjoyed what they had.  I even introduced them to Kofola (the Communist version of Coke that survived after Slovak independence) and Tmavy Saris (my dark, sweet beer)  After settling the check (and having them compliment me on my Slanglish), we made our way back to the hotel to crash.  I left them a little before 11:00pm to go back to my dorm, since that is where the majority of my stuff was, and I wanted them to be able to sleep in as long as they wanted instead of having to hear my alarm at 6:45am.

The next day, I went to work, and these guys did some exploring!  The following are some pictures that Hannah took during the course of the day.  It's fun for me to see where they were.  The picture above is them in front of the Presidential Palace, and their hotel is to the right from that. I tried to choose a central location for them so that wherever they walked, they could easily end up back there.  Also, to avoid public transport and the hassle of buying tickets.


I guess they saw some cool stuff in the bathroom?  You'll have to ask them.

View of the Bratislava-Petrzalka divide (aka: the Danube) from Devin Castle.  After doing all this walking and exploring, they have an inside joke where they say "The Hrad! The Hrad!"  Hrad means castle in Slovak.  I'm not sure where the excitement comes from.

"My foot, my foot, my only foot!"  (if you have ever seen The Great Mouse Detective, you will understand that)

Artistic shot of the scene at U Fleku...a microbrewery in Prague.  I still haven't been there.  It's on the list of things to do when the next round of visitors comes.

Yay!  We finally got to do some exploring of our own on Saturday!  Our legs are very tired.

All in all, I am really enjoying having the girls and Alan here.  The weather has been beautiful, and I have a new found energy after my travels in the US, and with my excursions with them here.  I am so fortunate to have family that loves to travel.