Bienvenue à Trnava!

Figure 2.A -- The road to Trnava, but not at the hour referenced in the short narrative below.

So--a Frenchman, a Slovak, and an American were driving to Bratislava at 2 am.  It sounds like the setup for a joke, but I couldn't have been more thankful for a ride home.  I spent today in Trnava, Slovakia, a town located about 30 minutes by car from Bratislava.  It's a college town, and its population pretty much consists of just students.  The Slovak, Petar, and the Frenchman, Harry, assured me that this meant that it was safe to walk through silent, vacant, beat up parts of town at 1 in the morning.

Figure 2.B -- A random assortment of people, most of whom I just met today

Harry is right behind me.  He and Jean-Michel (right, middle) are friends of a girl named Anissa (not pictured), who is also French and worked at the Human Rights League before I did (hence the whole connection).  I thoroughly enjoyed all my conversations with these folks today--they're great people, and it was a new feeling for me to trust people I had just met so easily.  Plus, I got to practice French a lot today with Harry, Anissa, and Jean-Michel.  Though, there were times when I tried to have necessary conversations in French as a challenge (like giving directions), and it didn't always work out so well.  A comment tonight by Harry put things in perspective for me.  In a conversation about deciding when to speak or practice which language, he said, "I think the most important thing is that others understand you."

Oh yeah, and Petar made sure that he wasn't left out just because he took the above picture.

Figure 2.C -- Petar, who told me that he was doing everything he could to make sure that I had only good things to say about the Slovak Republic when I returned home.  A really good guy.

I suppose that today was really a people-day more so than a touring-day.  I had originally intended to go to a castle with these folks and take a bunch of pictures, but they decided that they just wanted to hang out.  HOWEVER, that does not mean that I missed out on being a tourist when it came to food.  When we first arrived in Trnava, we ate at a local pub.

Figure 2.D -- A picture that I took in public

In case you're wondering, that's chicken, camembert, fried apples, chicken, camembert, chicken, fried apples.  It was unbelievable.  Almost pictured to the left is a big bowl of Slovak-style tater tots!  They were huge and definitely still good with ketchup, which I asked for, also publicly.  I promise that I will describe what it's like at work soon once I get more to do.  For now, it's the weekend.  Ciao.