Friday, June 4th

So the next stop on our tour of Eastern Eurpoe is Bratislava which is the capital of Slovakia. Four of us flew from Luton straight to Bratislava, but Jerry and Fiona, who like that extra sense of adventure, decided to fly from Gatwick to Vienna which is the capital of Austria. From there, they caught a bus to Bratislava and then walked from the bus station with their cases which was miles. The lengths some people will go to, to avoid flying Ryan Air!

The other challenge they gave themselves was not booking in any cases – just relying on their hand luggage. It was suggested that this had been achieved only because Fiona had packed skimpy underwear. Fiona denied this, adding that she had not had room for any underwear!

Once we had all arrived and booked into our hotel, we wandered into the old town which was close by and selected an outside bar for a drink. The drink turned into a meal and to us staying put all evening in the warm evening air.

Bratislava like most of the European capitals is a hot spot for stag and hen parties. One such hen party was sitting next to us in the bar, so we became very intrigued by what was going on. The bride had a series of miniature liqueurs tied to her waist and it seemed she had to get compliant males to kneel at her feet to drink one of the bottles. Some sort of symbolism here perhaps. The forfeits of a passing male group were more basic and involved getting the girls to blow up condoms.

I can’t remember how we got on to the subject of pole dancing, but we were sitting underneath an umbrella with a handy pole supporting it. However, Fiona decided that is was not suitable for pole dancing as it was square – and she didn’t have any underwear on!

On returning to the hotel, we has some coffee in the foyer where Fiona noticed there was a large red round pole. Too big she said – she’s not used to such a large pole.

On retiring to our rooms, one final challenge awaited us. Upon unravelling our bed covers, we found that there was only a single duvet. Jerry and Fiona decided to share the single duvet (mind you they probably didn’t have any night clothes so needed to huddle together). Brian and Joanie decided to share but by the sound of it, Brian lost the tug of war during the night. Alan and Barbara tried the alternative approach of looking in the wardrobe and getting the second duvet out and then having a peaceful night’s sleep!