slovakia part i

part i / part ii / part iii

on april 27, i went on my first aeroplane rides alone.

my best friend in the world is spending 2013/14 in vinosady, slovakia as an exchange student. i missed her so bad and made my rash, summer-hazed promise "i'll come visit you" come to life.

DAY I

austrian countryside, somewhere between bratislava and vienna.

 it was very early spring in estonia: in slovakia, the first thing i saw coming out of the bus was that guy. i stuffed my jacket deep into my briefcase and didn't take it out before i got back home.

the day was a mess of emotions and happiness and accustoming. i hadn't seen johanna for so long that it felt strange hearing her voice and seeing her outside an ipad screen with a skype logo. i wanted to hug her infinitely and indulge in everything there was: the language, the food, the people. all i could think about was how much i wanted to say and do before i had to go back.

i left my camera at her slovakian home for the evening as we went to a real life slovak party. it was lovely and inifinitely strange as there were about half a dozen of her friends, sitting around a table at a cottage's patio, occasionally smoking and drinking foreign drinks from cans. everybody had an iphone and a different kind of laughter. i felt inadequate being there, sometimes, and sometimes i just indulged. i couldn't get their "hello" - "ahoj" right and it provided endless amusement for them. (and for me, heheh.)

johanna has a dog now - aston. (or rather, her host family does.)

DAY II

 we spent the day in svätý jur, doing everything we had in mind. i watched my best friend who i hadn't seen for eight months with admiration and constant surprise - aside from her hair colour and new language skills, she'd simply gone off and grown up. every one of these moments felt fragile, feeble, fading; so i just cherished them, indulging in her company, traditional slovak food, cherry coke (which i love and which they don't have in estonia), kofola, bought band t-shirts and souvenirs for me to bring back home and for her to send to her parents and siblings and give as gifts to her host family.

on the evening, we stopped by pezinok where she goes to school to. we bought more food, dined at a pizza restaurant, ate ice cream for the second or third time that day and talked a lot; and when we didn't talk, i just stared at her and everything around me and felt infinitely grateful for being there.

DAY III

our third day had both of us walking around like zombies, more sleeping than talking on the hour-long bus ride from vinosady to bratislava (capital of slovakia) and simply settling for eating before we do anything else. we laid down on the grass with river danube right in front of us and talked about her first weeks here, spent on an orientation in bratislava.

that's where she met suse, too, i imagine - her friend from germany, just as fluent in slovak as johanna is. she had long dark hair and preferred slovak to english and laughed a whole lot. we went everywhere we could think of going to, by bus and tram and walking down miles. the view was gorgeous on the bridge over danube, even with the clouds in the sky; ate ice cream, again; to a café where our waitress was quirky and awesome; visited landmarks; bought more souvenirs; and i conquered my dislike of pepsi as i really wanted to use a vending machine (we have very few in estonia and i... just like them.) i couldn't sleep on the bus ride back to her slovak home because my mind was racing. that was when i really truly realised how much i love going to new places.

 below is my own favourite picture from that day, hehe