Saturday, 13 August 2011

I did it! I went running yesterday morning! It wasn't the best run of my life, but it wasn't the worst either. I discovered some little trails behind my house that might keep me occupied for awhile, but when I get bored of those there are some nice parks around the city. And when I'm finally too good for running in parks, it's possible that I could run across the border into Austria! (Hmmm, yeah, we'll see about that...) I have no idea how far I went yesterday, and I should probably admit that some of my run was actually a walk, but I am so sore today. Ugh, it's like I just used my legs for the first time in ages.

After running yesterday, I went and ate cake with my new friend, Heather. Then we kinda meandered around the city, and I bought a puzzle to occupy myself with in the evenings for the time while my housemates are on holiday. Buying a puzzle seemed like a brilliant way to keep myself busy for days and days, but actually it's a very easy puzzle and I'm almost finished with it. Here are pictures:

This is how I left it last night:

 Then I worked on it most of today, and here is the result:

I basically just have one Asia and all the oceans left to fill in.
So I guess I'm going to need to think of another way to fill my time... I have some ideas, besides trying to run to Austria: I could...

• ride every bus in the city
• go to a lake
• bake American cookies
• take pictures of things tourists take pictures of
• take pictures of tourists (I like this idea better)
• compare prices at all the grocery stores in town
• visit the Jewish cultural museum
• go to Vienna
• find other places to explore
• hang out with my 7 year old neighbor (who speaks very little English)
• hang out at IKEA
• run to Austria
• read the books that I've acquired in the last month and a half
• catch up on emails

Today, besides working on the puzzle, I had some dear friends (practically family) from Holland visit as they passed through on their way home from Bulgaria. It was almost like a dream to have them visit me here in this new place: absolutely wonderful! I can't wait for our next reunion :)

I did a bit of shopping at Lidl a little later on... I bought a loaf of bread, lunch meat, cheese, a bag of chips, and a jar of pesto for 5.11 EUR. I'm already forgetting the prices of things in the US, but I think it's much more expensive there, even with the exchange rate (at least in Flagstaff anyway).

Finally, I went on a little excursion to find the church that I'm planning to attend tomorrow morning. It was quite a journey to a building that seems a bit like a seedy shopping center, but that's where the church website said they have services... Hmmm, we'll see what tomorrow brings. Their service is 3 HOURS long, so I need to make sure I eat a serious breakfast in the morning, and sleep well tonight. (Nothing like falling asleep, or being grouchy, when visiting a church for the first time.) I walked part of the return journey so I could stretch my aching legs... here are some pictures:
 Lots of the residential buildings in Bratislava look something like this:

 Or this:

These pretty things were growing on a tree

I thought the graffiti said "New world is order," but as I was taking the picture I saw the extra "d," making it read "New world disorder."  Anyway, it's nice when people have the courtesy to put their messages in English so I can enjoy reading them :)