This place ain't bad.

Bratislava at night.

When I told people about my trip and that I was planning to visit Bratislava, I always got two reactions. The first reaction, usually by experienced travelers, would be them wrinkling their noses and saying, "Don't go there. There is nothing there." The other answer, usually by Americans, would be "Where's Bratislava?"

In case you don't know, Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, which is a country in Europe, which is one of the seven continents, planet Earth.

I had zero expectations for this place, therefore, it is absolutely amazing. Then again, things can only go up after Brno. Yeah, it's small. Yeah, there is not much to see. Yeah, it was freezing cold my first day, pouring miserable rain my second, but I like it here.

After I arrived, I walked around the charming and winding streets of Old Town in an hour, where I felt like I saw almost everything I needed to see, and then I hibernated in a restaurant and a café for most of the day because it was too cold and windy to stay outside any longer.

I also spent some time in this mega-store called Tesco, which is the Euro version of Wal-Mart but insane. It is multi-floored and inside is everything you would want to buy among many things you wouldn't. I drifted throughout the store for about an hour in complete daze, trying to take it all in. There was the grocery store where they had giant barrels of fresh bread, where old ladies wearing handkerchiefs duked it with macho blue-jeans-wearing men for the best loaves. Pushing and shoving and reaching, I never seen such a frenzy.

I walked by rows of Christmas trees (already?) and household appliances, cosmetics and nail polish, plant shops and restaurants, an internet café and toys, and rack after rack of clothes. The mass quantity of goods, the juxtaposition of some of the items (should those pills be by these baking products?) perplexed and entertained me.

I went to my hostel to find other travelers escaping from the cold, and after talking a little bit, I agreed after some coaxing to go on a walk with Rose from Austraila and this guy from Brazil.

"Come on," said the guy from Brazil. "We're in Bratislava. We can't just sit inside the whole time. You could do that in New York."

He was right, so we walked in the cold, and we wondered why we thought it would be a good idea to come here in the fall. We walked around the same streets of the old town, which confirmed that I did see everything already.

"I didn't see the castle yet," I said.

The kid from Brazil smirked. "Well, don't look at it now or you will have nothing to see tomorrow!" He was not a Bratislava fan.

The three of us couldn't stop laughing. Even though I was completely sober, I can't really remember what was so funny, but I laughed so hard, my stomach hurt. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the Brazilian kid was carrying a bottle of beer the size of a two-liter bottle of Coke.

This morning, I met a Canadian girl from Vancouver named Shannon. She is an artist who is currently working as an au pair in England and taking some time off to travel. I liked her right away (how could I not, after she gave me a pair of badly-needed gloves!) and so we decided to brave the pouring rain and see the Bratislava Castle together. Only we never made it. The rain was unbearable, we were so cold and wet that we couldn't hack it all the way there, so we hid in a restaurant and a cafe (sound familiar?) and we had nice conversation as our pants and socks (kind of) dried. We went to this Slovakian vegetarian restaurant that was kind of cafeteria style and items were crossed off the menu when they were out of them. We both had a bowl of this tomato soup with vegetable dumplings and potatoes. It was warm, so it was good.

I said good-bye to Shannon (she's off to Budapest) and holed up inside in my hostel planning my warm Croatia trip, the rain steady and hard outside. I checked Weather.com and it looks like the rain will stop for a few hours tomorrow. I hope to see the castle then.

Questionable fashion at Tesco.

Rose and the guy from Brazil with the giant beer.

Under cover with Shannon.