Let me out!!!! (pwease?)

On Saturday we celebrated my friend's Justina and Mattia's farewell. (We celebrated Friday too, until 5am, but I guess we can focus on other things) We decided to have a BBQ up in Koliba, which is essentially the Slovak equivalent of going up to the Metropark or to the mountains, taking over an area big enough for 20 people, and starting up a decent fire. I was unsure of the skills of my pyro counterparts, so I packed other forms of food that did not require roasting. This was very smart.

The area that we were in was beautiful. The sun was shining, and there was just enough shade to escape the heat if necessary. We unpacked our brigade right next to a small stream and got busy trying to burn stuff. The only problem was that it had been raining earlier in the week, so most of the usually lightable twigs and leaves were still a bit damp. Never fear! We had someone's guidebook to torch! (that was NOT my idea) So, as the boys worked on the fire, we girls unpacked our non-grillable items and got to munching :).

They did finally get a decent fire going, and suddenly sausages, chicken wings, and steaks were being either grilled, smoked, or burned on top of an aluminum plate that the Mattia had brought. He was in charge of the grilling apparatus...and that is what he provided. A disposable broiling sheet, and some charcoal. Bravo! Next time, maybe the AMERICAN should be in charge of grilling items, since it is kind of a historical past time for us...I'll let the Italian be in charge of antipasti. (Mattia, if you're reading this, everything was fantastic!!!!! :))

The day was super. There was music, laughter, food, and even a playground! Friends took loads of pictures, so I'll try to steal some of those in the near future.

After the BBQ, we all went back for a brief recharge, and then went to a bar called Za Operou (which literally means, behind the Opera) to watch the UEFA Euro Cup! The game we were interested in was Portugal v. Turkey. Portugal won 2-0. We then planned to move on to a places called Harley's, or Harley Davidson's. Yes, the rip roaring, crotch rocket riding bunch has infiltrated Central Europe. The difficulty was trying to figure out how we were all going to get there. The bus routes were a bit confusing, and there were only so many cars. Luckily, I was able to snag a spot riding in a car with Sarp's friend who works for the Turkish Embassy. She is the nicest person, and has been working as a diplomat in Bratislava for 1 year now. They give her a company car, so she drives a really nice BMV suv. Since there were so many of us, I volunteered to ride in the back :)




It was actually a really smooth ride, and they fed me Toffifees, which are these delicious caramel, chocolate and hazelnut candies, so I was ok :) It brought back memories from when we used to pile 8 girls into a VW Super Golf in order to get to swim practice. Contortion was our specialty.



Harley's was a really cool place. The majority of it was outside, and they had multiple bar areas, good music, and an elevated dance floor. We were able to take over a whole area of picnic tables so that we could give Juste and Mattia thier gifts :) I won't reveal what they are, because it may be sort of embarrassing for them, and it's kind of an inside joke anyway. SORRY!

More to come on the play-by-play action of my life!