Slovakia will be the 74th country for me. We are taking the boat down the Danube to go from Vienna to Bratislava.

I have seen it from the air before – not from the ground level.

We saw a lot of those small houses by the river as we sped to Bratislava. They all seem to have some kind of fishing apparatus nearby. Wonder if these are vacation getaways… Given that they seem to be also on stilts, they might be the famous Kritzendorf stilt houses. Need to do some research.

It is what it sounds like – a Boat plus Hotel. As we pulled into Bratislava, we passed this. It looked a bit too tired to be an active boat. I was wondering if it was a hotel. In fact, we could see people having breakfast on the top floor. Once we got to the land, we walked past it – and sure enough… it is a hotel. “Botel Gracia” said the board.

I believe the local name is “Vyhliadková veža UFO”

We started walking from the harbor. Old town Bratislava was right there. We hit the main square and immediately came upon the Slovenské národné divadlo.

I wanted to get a rough idea of the layout of Bratislava. Opened up Google Maps. Typed out “Bratislava”. Such is the power of data analytics that the only spot Google Maps listed on the map was a “Dosa and Samosa” that opens at 8am. It was early in the morning and a cold day. Castles and churches be darned, we made a beeline for a masala dosa to start the day with a proper South Indian breakfast!!

That, and masala chai, of course!