Dinner in Slovakia anyone? | Bailynn McNeely

At 12:17 am, I received a text message from Neyah and Alaina. “Come to room 407 now!! It’s Urgent.” Curious and confused, I rolled out of my comfy bed and headed down the hall. The first thing anyone said was, “we’re going to dinner in a different country and you’re coming with us.” I was very taken aback and didn’t know what to think, but immediately I said “okay, I’m in.” After waking up four other people from the program and discussing the details for about an hour, the tickets were purchased and the plans were set.

That morning we went on a walking tour of Vienna and took in as much of the city as we could, knowing we wouldn’t see much of it again. Finally, 3:15 rolled around and it was time for us to head to our bus station. After boarding, we had a short one-hour bus ride to Bratislava, Slovakia. We had finally arrived! Less than 24 hours after arriving in Vienna, we were in a completely different country! We strolled around and shopped throughout the small city and, of course, had some wonderful gelato. Around 7 pm, we headed to our dinner reservation and, even though we had just had ice cream, we all cleaned our plates. We now only had about an hour till our bus departed and needed to make it count. That’s when we saw a sign to an Ice Bar down the street. Paying the 10 Euros to be locked in a freezer for 20 minutes was a weird concept to me, but of course I had to try it out. Even though they provided a jacket and gloves, I was absolutely freezing in my sundress, definitely would recommend wearing jeans. Although it was cold, we had a great time in the freezing ice box. Our impulsive 4-hour trip to Bratislava is one that I will never forget and definitely a huge highlight of my month abroad!