We arrive in Bratislava

Sent September 25, 2006

Well, we have been in Bratislava for a little over a week now and all is going pretty well. We have an apartment very conveniently located which is surprisingly large. It even has two bathrooms, two bedrooms, one of which is a study and guest bedroom. The kitchen is very nice, with refrigerator, dishwasher (which is not working yet) glass cooktop and a convection oven, with granite counter tops. We have a great view, of the castle, roofs of Bratislava, many spires of churches and the hills in the distance. It is literally five minutes from the opera house (we timed it). We went to the opera last Monday and saw a very good production of Don Giovanni. (it is the month of the Dons, with Don Carlo and Don Juan coming up in the next two weeks. Much of the rest of the week was spent in a Fulbright orientation and language lessons. We now know more Slovakian than before but we still have a long way to go. Friday night we saw the ballet, the Corsair. A huge cast and very good dancing. It was a very athletic ballet. Thursday night we had a reception in our honor at the American Ambassador’s home, Saturday we had a massive shopping trip to Ikea, which is located in the suburbs and got some things to outfit the flat. We had anticipated going on a boat trip on the Danube with the International Women’s Club on Saturday night, but we could not find where the boat was located and thus “missed the boat”.
Today we took a bus to Modra, which is a wine town in the foothills of the Small Carpathians about 25 km. from Bratislava. It was the annual harvest festival and it was quite something. It was pretty crowded with booths selling various handicrafts, traditional food, and lots of drink, such as burciak, a thick sweet, half fermented grape cider. It tastes like a good hard cider. We saw lots of folk dancing in traditional clothes, with musicians. It seems like every small town has its dance troupe, which put on quite a show.
I have been preparing for the first class, which starts next Wednesday. I have been to the University twice so far and plan to go tomorrow. This is being written Sunday evening, Sept. 24. Hopefully you will get this tomorrow. One problem we have been having is that we do not have Internet connection yet. If you get this, it means we now have a connection.