After leaving Philippa in Hungary, we caught the train to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia (not Slovenia....as Aliya gets SO irritated and literally become a box of fireworks when we make that honest mistake of confusing the names of the two countries!!) While waiting for the train to leave the station, a very distressed man came running into our cabin and scribbled all over ali's notebook.. the rather childish drawing consisted of a train, two stick-like figures and the number '1000'. We then spent the next half hour trying to make out what that strange picture might mean...however, we gave up in the end! Three guys from preston (who were rather goodlooking might i add...) joined us in our carriage so we proceeded to flirt relentlessly with them. However, Erika being Erika, lost all sense of her social skills (as she was so overwhelmed by their 'gorgeousness') and asked some rather inappropriate questions! We finally ended up in the hotel and, becasuse we were so drained from the train journey, just passed out! The next morning we woke up and found that we we had booked ourselves in hotel that was in the middle of absolutely nowhere with pigs and goats as our neighbours. We decided to move hostels (partly due to the downright rudeness of the receptionist...you may have gathered that we are rather prudish about manners!) Once we had settled into our lovely new hostel, we explored the gorgeous city of bratislava and spent HOURS tryibg to find a statue; the aptly named 'taunter'! We also managed to track down the apparently narrowest house in europe. It was rather disappointing as it turned out to be a kebab house- talk about modern culture! That evening, we returned to our hostel (as Ali stupidly left her purse in the dorm..inform- nothing was taken..phew!) Erika decided to go the toilet...after no sign of Erika 15 minutes later, Ali decided to investigate and discovered that Erika was locked in the toilets!!! The funniest thing ever! Cam and Ali had to communicate with Erika through written notes and eventually, after unsuccessfully attempting to barge down the door, the emergency services were called in.A rather bashful Erika emerged an hour later...so we have collectively come to the conclusion that 'drama in slovakia' is the best label to place on our visit!

Off to Austria next!

Lots of love, Erika, Ali and Camxxxxxxxxxxx