Bratislava, Trnava, and Trakovice, Slovakia: A Tour of Public Transit

Today we left our snoring biker friends sound asleep in their little beds to catch the tram and then the early train to Bratislava (this was only the start of our public transport tour...read on for more details).  When we got here, we dropped our luggage, then decided to climb the hill to the highest point in the city, upon which is naturally situated a castle.  We had a look around, took some pictures, and then headed down to explore the city.

As one can obviously see from the picture above, our explorations yielded deliciously wheaty results...Sound of Music, anyone?!

On our way to start our public transit tour, Kathryn also found the very-photo-worthy Slovak National Theater...and I photographed the both of them.

This picture may not look like much, but it really is the story of the day.  My very dear friend and traveling companion Kathryn's grandfather is Slovakian, and since were within 50km of his parents' hometowns, we decided to brave the Slovak Public Transport system and go pay a visit to Grandpa Cepko's origins.  By the travel combination of a bus to Trnava-taxi to Trakovice (thank goodness Kathryn speaks German, because I certainly don't speak Slovak and people here aren't so keen on English!), we made it to the very small town of Trakovice!  We wandered around this 1km-long town and even found some Cepkos in the cemetery.  Getting back, however, was the real challenge.  We ended up, after lots of gesticulating and quite a wait, getting on a bus to Trnava-train to Bratislava, and making it back...but there were some anxious moments.  Needless to say, it was a worthwhile and fun adventure!