Slovakia - The Grande Finale and Csilla's Birthday!

And on the seventh day, we rested.

I woke up at around 2:00pm in the afternoon. I looked around my hotel room, which looked like a rock star had been staying there because it was trashed. Had someone come in and robbed me??? No, wait, I'm just a slob. I wearily got up and took a nice hot shower and had cleaned up just in time for Roland's phone call to my room. They were downstairs waiting for me. I headed down and chatted with Csilla and Danissa for a bit while Roland took some of the "party flavors" back to the train station so they could go back to Budapest. We had decided to skip breakfast (the leftover chicken wings at 3:00am did the trick), so Csilla and I decided to meet Roland at the restaurant his brother-in-law manages, Cleopatra, which was on the other end of the park outside the hotel.

It was another gorgeous day outside, perfect temperature, no clouds to be seen. In fact, it had been that way all week. I assumed it was like that all summer, but it turns out that before I came, the summer had been overcast and raining every single day. One of the worst summers that they've had. I guess the California weather travels with me every once in a while ;o).

I had come down with a bit of a cold by this point (gee, maybe the lukewarm hot tub and lack of sleep?), so I had some soup to start off lunch - traditional Hungarian bean soup. Another great meal starter, except that it came with some oily onion/garlic bread that was heavy. Filled me right up! But I still dabbled in my entree, which was chicken cooked in a paprika sauce along with gnocchi, or potato pasta (different than the Italian gnocchi).

After lunch, we leisurely went back to the hotel and lounged for a bit before Roland and Csilla took off. I found out later that they were going to clean up the club from the night before. I felt totally useless since I was perfectly capable of helping out! Instead, I sat at home, watched some more Curb Your Enthusiasm and made blog notes. Afterwards, I decided that I didn't want to waste any more time, so I headed downstairs to find out what downtown Komarno was like. The last time I was in town (five years ago), there was a lot of construction going on, so I knew that it had changed.

After getting some orientation directions from Danissa downstairs, I struck out for a little walk on my own. I walked through the small town to an ice cream shop, where I made a purchase using my fluent Hungarian (Kawa. Straciatella. Eegan! Kussy!). Downtown Komarno has a place called the European Center, which has a lot of buildings that are designed in architectures characteristic of the other members of the European Union. That was an interesting place to check out. On the way there, I came across a store called "Rifle". What was funny about this store is that I actually have a pair of jeans that are made by Rifle, but I have never seen these jeans anywhere other than Macys, where I bought them. And this tiny town has a store full of Rifle gear?? Too bad I had slept in til 2:00 and it was already closed!

I waltzed back to the hotel after my little tour and Agi (another hotel worker) was at the hotel hanging out with Danissa. So I decided to chill downstairs with them and talk about the night before (Agi had been there and reminded me of some things that I supposedly did ;o). After a while, Roland came by and picked me up and we walked to his apartment to chill for a bit while his girlfriend got ready for her big birthday night out on the town. We watched a cheesy movie about an American girl that went to England and became a princess and then watched a bit of some of the World Cup qualifiers and Real Madrid TV's interview with Robinho in Portuguese with Spanish subtitles (that helps).

Once everyone was ready, we went back to Grand Central, the hotel ;o). I got dressed up in some warm clothes and then we got a ride from Agi's boyfriend to Roland's brother-in-law's parent's house, where he was having a BBQ. He had grilled up some really tasty chicken (it was as tender as free-range organic!) and beef for us, along with a salad and fresh bread. I found it interesting that both of the salads that were made there were different than our typical salads. Whereas our salads tend to be lettuce with other items mixed in, their salads tend to be other items (tomatoes, onions, etc.) with just a few lettuce leaves. It could have been an anomaly, I'm not sure.

After the previous night's fiasco and because of my imminent cold, I decided to hold off on the beer (his brother-in-law had encouraged me the previous night by continuously filling up my glass with a new beer) and instead drank a "Frösse", which is glass of half white-wine and half sparkling Euro water. I kinda liked them because they were very light and refreshing, so I stuck with those for the evening - mostly.

Some other friends came over, including a Slovak guy who was a cousin of another guy. He lives in Florida now and he looked like a party animal with his full goatee and greasy hair. Sure enough, he offered me some good stuff to smoke if I was interested. After I told him I wasn't, he said if there's anything else I need, he has a connection. I laughed and said that I just stick to the booze, but thanks. He said that he hadn't met his cousin before he was picked up at the airport by him two weeks ago, but they soon found some activities that they both liked ;o). A couple of them had a shot of some nasty stuff called Pitu, and I agreed to have one with Csilla since it was now past midnight and officially her birthday :o)

After the BBQ, we walked towards the Komarno discos which were nearby. Apparently they were at some forts that were part of the ancient wall surrounding Komarno. I never knew that Komarno was an important town a long time ago and had walls all around it. Interesting. A new disco (Royal) had just opened up next to the other disco (Castello). We checked out the new one and it was TIGHT! Hip-hop and electronic music blasted the dance floor and the lights were going nuts. Pretty Eastern Euro girls were in abundance and the fashions were very Euro-centric. This is what I was looking for! We did some dancing there for a bit until we were drenched and headed next door to the old club (the name escapes me!), which was much larger and more spacious. The music took a while to get into, but I liked them both because they were both predominately loud and electronic! We also met up with one of Csilla's friends (gorgeous Hungarian who didn't speak English :o( ) and hung out with her for a bit.

But, we had to leave a bit early. We had to leave at 7:00am for the airport, so we decided to be responsible and leave the discos at a reasonable hour - 3:30. We had to be fully rested for the long drive to Vienna :o) !! Needless to say, we weren't!

After getting packed and getting my three hours of beauty sleep, I was whisked away in Roland's car by him and Csilla and en route to Vienna to leave. Due to time limitations and limited options, we stopped at McDonald's and I begrudgingly ordered hash browns just so I could get something in my stomach. I was not happy about that, since it had been almost three years since I had last eaten there (in Sao Paulo, when there was nothing else open) and the second time in five years (previously in Prague, again, when nothing else was open). Oh well, it was bound to happen. And, no, the hash browns weren't good! ;o)