It was 1 a.m. on Thursday night. I was getting prepared for bed, watching YouTube while I brushed my teeth and contemplating what I would do over the weekend. Although talks of going to Spain or Venice had taken place earlier in the month, weather and high airline costs made us ditch those plans. I figured we'd just stay around Olomouc after those plans fell through. Boy, was I mistaken. As I shut off my overhead light and lay down to sleep, a loud knock came at my dorm door. With a sigh, I got up, turned on the light, and answered the door. Sheyenne was standing there impatiently tapping her foot to the beat of the music playing in her earbuds. "The girls need to talk to you," she said as she walked off to talk to Nick and Kody. "You all leave in a couple hours." Leave? Leave where? Before I could ask her, Sheyenne disappeared into Kody and Nick's room. Begrudgingly, I trudged across the hall and knocked on the other girls' door. Bree answered with an eye-roll and a look that said 'get me out of this room before I kill someone'. As I came around the corner, I saw why. Bailey and Ashley were sitting there gabbing away excitedly about the surprise trip they had booked for us all of four hours before our bus left the station. We were headed for Bratislava at 6 a.m. the next morning. Not at all surprised by the lack of preparation by our group of procrastinators, I wished them all a good night and headed back to my room. After a quick pack, I took a much needed rest for the three hours I had remaining. I was awoken the next morning to a text from Ashley asking where I was. I had overslept my alarm and our bus was leaving in less than 20 minutes. Hurriedly, I changed, grabbed my bag, and hopped on a tram to the bus station. Breathlessly, I met the others just in time in front of our bus and we were away.
Now, just to clarify for those that don't know, Bratislava is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. They speak a very similar language to Czech with a few minor differences, but their attitudes are completely different. Where Czech people typically keep to themselves and seem rather uptight, Bratislava is a party town. Clubs on every corner, hostels up the wazoo, and bars everywhere. The hostel we ended up staying at was called the Wild Elephant, and it carried this motif of party right along with the rest of the city. It's a tiny little hostel above a Mexican restaurant right off the main square. It's run by other travelers and students to the university. The lobby smelled of weed and the patrons were tatted and pierced, with hair all different shades of the rainbow. It was most definitely a party hostel. Art of (shall we say) interesting taste covered the walls, signed by those who had come before. After paying the down payment, the receptionist took us to our room, which was a large room with 20 bunk beds in it. We would be staying in this room with 20 other people who would come and go at all hours of the night and day, with only one shower to share between us all. Needless to say this was not my type of place, but I think it was a good experience to stay in an actual hostel environment at least once while in Europe. Upstairs was a bar and a room for drinking games or lounging. It was definitely an interesting place. After unpacking our stuff, we went out on the town to get food and look at the Christmas markets that had sprung up in the town center.
Since we were in Bratislava anyways, we decided to join in the fun and experience the night life the city had to offer that first night. Bad idea on my part but we'll get to that. We joined a pub crawl the hostel was hosting, which started in the upstairs bar. I had a few drinks playing some games, then came the wheel of fortune. This hostel's bar gave away free drinks to anyone who spun a little wheel on the wall. The prizes ranged from free shots to a nude-y run through the hostel, with lots of other similar things thrown in the mix. Bailey spun first and had to kiss someone. A few other people spun and then Bailey talked me and Ashley into spinning, even though we were gonna split whatever we got. As the wheel spun in a blur of color, I prayed to the almighty that I wouldn't have to nude-y run, even if Ashley said she'd do it with me if it came to that. Thankfully, it landed on a free shot, but this is where the real trouble came in. This shot they gave us was a good 70% alcohol and felt like drinking gasoline. It sat in my stomach weird and I immediately felt sick. However, I've never thrown up from drinking before, so I figured another shot of something better would settle my stomach down. Wrong choice. Before the second shot even had a chance to slide down my throat, I puked my guts up on the floor, splashing everyone in the vicinity with vomit (I don't think Bree will ever let me live that one down). Hoping I could make it to the bathroom all of ten feet away, another gag led to me vomiting again on the floor just outside the bathroom, which was lucky because there was a few people waiting in line inside that definitely would have had their night ruined by some random dude puking on them. After making it into the bathroom, I once again ralphed, this time in the sink as someone was using the one stall available. However, after that I felt much better. I cleaned myself up and attempted to unclog the sink, but was told by the management that their night staff would do it. I went down to our room and sat on the bed, feeling kind of shitty. However, Bree, Ashley, and Bailey were still planning on going out and I didn't feel comfortable leaving them on their own as I know how Bailey can get when she drinks. So I told everyone I was done drinking for the night and would go along as a caretaker. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful but fun, as we visited three bars and danced the night away at one of Bratislava's many clubs. Needless to say we didn't do another pub crawl.
The next morning got off to a slow start, as the hangovers were rough for the girls. However, we ended up meeting up with a free tour of the city which actually turned out to be really interesting. We visited lots of memorials and some of the cities most well known landmarks, like a castle at the top of a hill that offered some great views of the city and yet another Christmas market. We also visited a few churches and the ruins of another castle on a hill outside the city. This was probably one of my favorite stops during the entire weekend. The ruins were super cool and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, although I may have lost a few fingers to frostbite since it was windy and cold the entire time we were up there. On Monday, we paid our remaining dues and headed back to Olomouc for the last time this semester, as we will be headed for Vienna and the end of our trip on Wednesday this week.
For being a trip that wasn't planned, I actually had a lot of fun in Bratislava. Despite a few hiccups (no pun intended), the party vibe of the town and the interesting things we found to do made for a great last weekend in Europe.
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