The haunted mansion

This will be brief but good. We woke up this morning after a five star rest and took showers in a five star shower. Yes the water was still five star along with the soap and cleansing gel. We checked out and went for a walk around Bratislava up to the castle. My mom was interested in seeing what mass looked like, so we sat in the back of the cathedral and I gave a very condensed interpretation as we went.

The definite hilight today was lunch with Lucie, a former sister missionary on temple square that my parents met several years ago. Since then they have kept in touch. She is doing great and we were very happy to catch up with her and spend a couple of hours together talking about the church and missions and work and politics and everything in between. My dad thinks we will adopt her. We dropped her off at the train station and then proceeded to drive to Ostrava via the scenic mountain freeway in Slovakia. A lot of castles, mountains, and windy roads later, and we pulled into the hotel for tonight. Compared to our five star accommodation, this one is a 0.5. It's not bad on the whole, however it is on an infamous European street that is about 300 meters long and has about 150 bars on it, not even kidding. We are going to bed tonight with a deep house beat and the sounds of drunken bar patrons merry-making on the road below ( Mom: "I swear they are speaking in tongues"). I've been living with it for a few years now, but my parents are both very sensitive to the cigarette smoke in our room (I can't smell the smoke, but they insist it's really bad). The place we are in also oddly resembles the haunted mansion, including squeaky floors, squishy carpet, and old warped wood furnishings. The stairs have a locked gate and the elevator is cramped and has no doors (really). And, to top it all off, the artwork here is, shall we say, not missionary appropriate. My mom even blushed when we walked in, and we took down the offending eclectic art pieces. My mom has tried to help it smell better, and she's going to be very upset if she takes home bed bugs (Dad: "If they can survive 30000 feet for 11 hours in the plane, they deserve to live.") Apparently the hotel has a motto: "Your harbor along the way". Let's hope we don't get seasick.

We are here only one night, and tomorrow will be great. It has been a great week and a most memorable and needed vacation. Let's see what tomorrow brings. :-)

Starší Anderson