02.08.2023

This is supposed to be a quieter day after I was so tired yesterday. I managed to sleep until 9 this morning and stayed in bed reading until 10. The a nice shower to get going and then thinking aboit what to do with the day.

Just my small bag with everything I need for a little geocaching and the event later today. My original plan to go to Trnava today is postponed until tomorrow.

What does one do when you want to do little? A short walk to the presidential palace – eating a roll with salami on the way for breakfast that I got at a bakery – and then hopping into the first tram that comes along. Line 9. There is a shopping center close to one stop, but it was definitely not worth to get out.

Lets try more hopping. Tram line 1 from its terminus to the central station. An inner city tour. But I have seen that before. The first bus at sentral station is bus no. 71. I have no idea where it is going, which sounds perfect to me.

The drive takes 30 minutes east to a part of the city called Vrakuna. After leaving the inner city the bus soon drives through areas that were build in socialist times. The usual blocks with flats. But many of them have been well maintained, especially since they have gotten some colour on the outside, that makes a big difference. They even build newer ones. The areas are clean, there is a lot of green between the houses. Not too bad. And close to the city with a bus every few minutes.

The public transport system in Bratislava is good. It is easy to get around and not expensove. The 24 hour ticket costs 4,40 for both the zones in Bratislava. It is even cheaper for three days.

But I have to go back to the city because I have a Geocaching Meet and greet at 17:00. I have to take the same bus back, not a problem at all.

On my way to Naméstie slobody (Freedom square) I get two more caches. I am a little bit eatly. There are a lot of people there and children like to play in the enormous fountain. When the wind turns the right way, you get a cooling spray from the water there, even at a distance.

At 16:45 the first people start to arrive. In the end I count over 16 people, all except for one German, are locals from Bratislava. A nice chat about caching, the exchange of some travelbugs and a few tips about good caches later and everybody goes their way – as it is normal. A small group wants to find a cache close by and asks if I want to join. Of course I take the freebe.

That done, one of the cachers Thomas (there is surely a different spelling to that, which I dont know^^) offers me to do the Downtown Wherigo cache with me, since the app does not work on my phone at the moment. He has not done it either. Of course! More walking… didn’t I say I wanted to have a quiet day?

The cache is extremely well made. It shows a lot of the most important places in the city and has some fun tasks we have to solve. In the end it takes us 90 minutes to do the cache. The final – signing the logbook – I do have to do tomorrow morning, since the place where the logbook is, was already closed. But it was fun doing it together (and easier at some stages).

Now I need some food and since the two restaurants at my AirBnB are very good an very convenient placed I chose one of them to eat Krémová Cesnaková Polievka – Creamy Garlic soup. Served in a bread, with some cheese and home made herb butter. Mango lemonade and the dinner is done.

Time to rest for the things to do tomorrow.