Hello! Greetings from our new wifi connection!
We hopped in the van we hired in Vienna on Monday, January 20th and had a very quick and easy drive directly to our apartment in Bratislava.
Leaving Austria and entering Slovakia.
I'm not going to lie, my expectations for the apartment itself were quite low and I had really been mentally preparing myself for the worst. That being said, it was a university-owned 2 bedroom apartment for a great price and it practically fell into our laps and required zero research or legwork on our part, so we were quite thankful for it. When we stepped inside, it was absolutely nothing like I was expecting.....in the best possible way! It is very clearly newly renovated -- fresh paint, brand new floors, all new furniture, etc. It is bright and roomier than expected and has so much organizational storage space. We actually have have WAY more storage space than we can even use. Yes, it has a miniature shower (shaving my legs should be a trip!!!) and I am using bookshelves (that were very kindly given to us!) as counters and storage in the wacky kitchen set up, but overall it absolutely exceeded our expectations. Additionally, everyone from the university who came over to show us around and get us situation were unbelievably kind and welcoming.
Here are some pictures of our apartment I snapped as we walked in the door:
Girls' room storage unit.
Living room from a different perspective.
Tuesday, our first full day here, was spent unpacking all of our belongings, organizing them, making another grocery store trek, and attempting (twice) to buy a wireless router for the internet connection in the apartment. We had all of our meals at home for the first time in what felt like ages and I started to kind of get the hang of cooking in a place with practically no counter space.
Today, we headed out to explore Old Town -- no big sightseeing destinations or anything like that. Just truly roaming around and trying to get our bearings. We saw so many lovely buildings and streets and cafes and shops! We stopped at a cafe to warm up in the morning with cappuccinos, hot chocolates, and to share a traditional dessert. Everything was delicious and the break was much appreciated by all of us, because it was misty and foggy and really cold, despite being all bundled up. We did some more walking after that and made our way to the city library, where we anticipate spending a lot of our time doing school work. After paging longingly through lots of books they couldn't read, the girls were ecstatic to be directed to a section of English language books! They begged to go back tomorrow with passports in hand so we can get library cards and borrow some books. That is fortunate because we had already planned to go back to get started on school lessons anyway!
Entrance to the library.
Hoping this smaller kind of private room might work well for school stuff.
One child begging for books, two others reading them.
The famous "Blue Church" (St. Elizabeth's).
Walking into the cafe.
After the library, we stopped at a lovely restaurant Doug had read about. It was charming and served delicious traditional Slovak food. Our meals were tasty and the ambiance was great...and the meals were so heavy that no one wanted dinner so we didn't have to cook! Big win all around. We found ourselves at the grocery store yet again after that and we finally had success finding the router and are now all set up with wifi.
Minutes before our lunch feast!
Putting the kids to work! Hauling groceries back to the tram stop and heading home for the evening.
We are definitely still getting our bearings and working things out, but we are all having fun and enjoying our time so far. More to come....
We hopped in the van we hired in Vienna on Monday, January 20th and had a very quick and easy drive directly to our apartment in Bratislava.
I'm not going to lie, my expectations for the apartment itself were quite low and I had really been mentally preparing myself for the worst. That being said, it was a university-owned 2 bedroom apartment for a great price and it practically fell into our laps and required zero research or legwork on our part, so we were quite thankful for it. When we stepped inside, it was absolutely nothing like I was expecting.....in the best possible way! It is very clearly newly renovated -- fresh paint, brand new floors, all new furniture, etc. It is bright and roomier than expected and has so much organizational storage space. We actually have have WAY more storage space than we can even use. Yes, it has a miniature shower (shaving my legs should be a trip!!!) and I am using bookshelves (that were very kindly given to us!) as counters and storage in the wacky kitchen set up, but overall it absolutely exceeded our expectations. Additionally, everyone from the university who came over to show us around and get us situation were unbelievably kind and welcoming.
Here are some pictures of our apartment I snapped as we walked in the door:
This is the entrance to our small apartment building.
This is our room, though we moved the nightstands to either side of the bed and opposite the bed is a huge organizational wardrobe / shelving that takes up the entire wall.
This is a very large entry hall way (more like a room) with a huge wardrobe on one side.
This is the living room with a large sectional couch, table and chairs, and desk.
This is the girls room, which also has desks and an entire wall of organized closet storage.
Con: tiny shower.
Pro: heated towel rack.
Desk and more storage in the girls' room.
Entry room storage
The kitchen in action!
We live a short (10ish minutes) tram or bus ride away from the city center. On our first day here, I hopped in a taxi with Mairin and Orla to dash to IKEA to get some essentials -- utensils, a pot, a pan, a cutting board, pillows, towels, etc.-- while Doug took Carys to the grocery store to get some essentials. Once we all reconvened in the apartment, we walked to a great place nearby for dinner.
IKEA adventure
Really neat place that is an easy walk from our apartment. It is made from shipping containers and glass and had great food.
Tuesday, our first full day here, was spent unpacking all of our belongings, organizing them, making another grocery store trek, and attempting (twice) to buy a wireless router for the internet connection in the apartment. We had all of our meals at home for the first time in what felt like ages and I started to kind of get the hang of cooking in a place with practically no counter space.
Today, we headed out to explore Old Town -- no big sightseeing destinations or anything like that. Just truly roaming around and trying to get our bearings. We saw so many lovely buildings and streets and cafes and shops! We stopped at a cafe to warm up in the morning with cappuccinos, hot chocolates, and to share a traditional dessert. Everything was delicious and the break was much appreciated by all of us, because it was misty and foggy and really cold, despite being all bundled up. We did some more walking after that and made our way to the city library, where we anticipate spending a lot of our time doing school work. After paging longingly through lots of books they couldn't read, the girls were ecstatic to be directed to a section of English language books! They begged to go back tomorrow with passports in hand so we can get library cards and borrow some books. That is fortunate because we had already planned to go back to get started on school lessons anyway!
One child begging for books, two others reading them.
This small playground was covered in a slick frost, which the kids thought was hilarious because they kept sliding off everything.
After the library, we stopped at a lovely restaurant Doug had read about. It was charming and served delicious traditional Slovak food. Our meals were tasty and the ambiance was great...and the meals were so heavy that no one wanted dinner so we didn't have to cook! Big win all around. We found ourselves at the grocery store yet again after that and we finally had success finding the router and are now all set up with wifi.
Putting the kids to work! Hauling groceries back to the tram stop and heading home for the evening.
We are definitely still getting our bearings and working things out, but we are all having fun and enjoying our time so far. More to come....
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