See countries #1-4 here and #5 (Denmark) but before we go to the 6th and 7th country, I need to tell you the story behind Bunnygoespop – you will see why it is relevant to this post.
22 years ago, I sat in a dorm room along with 9-10 other freshies, all hyper enthusiastic and desperate to make friends. I was really not interested in their conversation until somebody mentioned their birthdate; the same as mine. I sat up from my slouch. I knew then and there that this girl and I were going to be friends forever. Her nickname was "Lolly" and given how much time we started spending together - I was nicknamed "Pop" so we could be called Lollipop (I know... Millennial humor...). I transitioned from being called Bunny until then to Pop, and Bunnygoespop (aka bunny is now called pop) was thus born.
I really need to change this blog’s name, don’t I?
Lolly is now an American and she pinged me recently that she wanted to go to the most European city. Europe doesn’t get more European than in Vienna. So we popped there. Ironically we only ate Indian and Thai food in Vienna (the food was actually so good – go to In-dish – highly recommend). But we walked a lot and marveled at Vienna’s pretty buildings and people. Lolly and family even took the public transport completing their European experience.
The swiss bunnies on the other hand popped first into Bratislava, Slovakia first (super cheap flights). Bratislava is just one hour away from Vienna. I told you Europe is small!
We took a taxi from Bratislava airport to Vienna with a guy who spoke non-stop. We learnt that the humongous wind farm was not very popular locally, and for many good reasons.
Over the next 3 days we visited a few places just to be driven in different directions by our respective kids. We played cards, played some more cards on a very expensive cruise on the Danube, went to Kleinod again, and browsed some very expensive shops in the Innerstadt.
The last evening we went to a free (entry) amusement park of Vienna called Praetor. It is like the HerbstMesse of Basel but on drugs. We sat on a historical Ferris wheel where the cabins are train wagons. It was quite hot and boring. We then paid stupid amounts of money for stupider rides for the children. Only then did we actually enter the crazy psychedelic part of Praetor.
At Praetor, we went to a restaurant called the Rollercoaster. Robotic arms placed parcels of food on tracks which then came hurling towards you at dangerous speeds on rollercoaster tracks. I mean who comes up with these concepts?! At one point during our dinner, they even turned off all the lights, put on very loud music and flashed neon lights. Some of the rides at Praetor we then saw looked so horrific – like the catapult. I threw up. This place was not pleasant at all.
For our way back we decided to take a train from Vienna to Bratislava. The train was stopped in the middle of nowhere and we could barely manage to find a taxi. We had to take country roads all the way to Bratislava – we only saw cut outs of people but not a single actual person on the streets in the entire 1 hour journey.
We went straight to a restaurant called the Brastilava Flagship restaurant. SO MUCH CHARACTER. I would go to Bratislava just to go here again.
We then walked around a little bit and found great coffee, not so great bakery items with black poppy seeds, and an ok-ish icecream.
The rest of the city seemed well like a city. Just one hour away from Vienna and yet so different. The fact that there were no tourist shops whatsoever spoke even more for its authenticity. We loved it.
Next stop- Country number 38- Morocco – let’s go!
