On leaving Częstochowa we finally drove past an Auchan hypermarket and I bought some nice quality German shoes at even nicer Polish prices. Just before the border with the Czech Republic we stopped to spend the last of our Zloty but large signs all over the place made it immediately obvious we would need our remaining cash for road tax vignettes for Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria if we were travelling on the main motorways. This system generally means, if you want to drive on motorways and some main roads, you buy a chipped sticker which is put in the window of your car and can be read by various cameras along the way. A rather morose woman sat in a booth selling the vignettes and changing currency in Euros. I asked her if we needed a vignette for the Czech Republic but she initially suggested she didn't know. I was discussing with Kit what to do and said maybe we should carry on to the border and see what was available there when she came on all charitable and helpful. She came out of the booth and showed us a large map of Europe. She showed us the shortest route through the Czech Republic didn't take motorways so we wouldn't need to pay the tax but we did need to pay tax for Slovakia and Austria. I should have suspected a sting but didn't. It was a cash only transaction and I didn't have enough Zloty. I remembered we had some Roubles left and it came to enough for the road taxes and a hot drink each. Anyone using this system should check prices before they buy in each country. Sellers that appear 'official' on the face of it may not be and will add huge 'commission' to the actual prices for the taxes. We were well and truly ripped-off in this fashion and I later discovered we had paid three times the normal price. I had read that buying vignettes in advance speeds your passage through a border but very little is gained. They are available for sale at all the appropriate border crossings. My advice to anyone is to check prices and pay at the border.
Our satellite navigation system is set to take the fastest route and a couple of minutes after buying our vignettes we crossed the border into the Czech Republic and continued on roads that looked like motorways to me for at least a couple of hours. We stopped at a rest station and Kit played ‘Schizophrenia Of Love’ while sitting on a not immediately noticed ants’ nest. We crossed into Slovakia without any delay. Both the Czech and Slovakian borders were more or less open with border controls being applied to random vehicles. There is a fast track for EU citizens with vignettes. That said, Kit swears I drove through the lane meant for Slovakians.
Bratislava is the first capital city of our trip and was the busiest traffic since Kaliningrad but the Slovaks drive carefully and there are no holes in the roads so we arrived at our hotel without problem. In Bratislava I had arranged to meet two friends, Daniel Salontay and Shina Lo who are the band, Longital. I met them once before with my brother Steve when we saw them play live in Vienna. No sooner had we checked into our room than Daniel and Shina were there to collect us and show us around their city.
Our first point of interest was a gig poster advertising a Longital concert in Bratislava later in the month. I would love to see them play their hometown. There's generally something special about seeing a band play a live hometown gig. 
We then went to look at the Danube as the sun set and the light faded to twilight. We will see the Danube again in Austria, Hungary and Serbia. It is a river that has featured in my travels before, most notably in 1987 when my wife Chris and I visited Swabia in South Germany. We stayed in a small town called Oberdischingen which is on the Danube as well as the pilgrimage route to Santiago De Compostella. Two friends we made there, Dieter & Markus took us to one of the sources of the Danube at Bodensee/Lake Constance. The river strangely appears from underground as it flows over porous rock and depending on rainfall and other such factors it appears above ground at a different place along its bed. It is possible to walk on a dry river bed and see the river flowing ahead of you. Very strange.Daniel and Shina took us to Bratislava’s old town next. It was getting ready for the summer season with some restaurants constructing their outside eating spaces in readiness. Bratislava old town has a nice relaxed feel to it but Daniel told us it is like two different places depending on the tourist season. I particularly liked the handful of irreverent bronze satues around the place.
The man looking out of a manhole cover is known as 'Cumil The Watcher or Peeper' but it isn't known if he is meant to represent someone spying or just watching the girls go by. The statue holding the bowler hat aloft is known as 'Schöner Naci' who was a well known character in the first part of the last century. Daniel told us a tale of him having been jilted by a lover after which he went to the town every day of his life and gave flowers to the women of Bratislava. I chose to play a song by a statue of Napoleon in one of the town's squares but a succession of tourist kept having their photos taken while I was playing and put me off. Daniel told me I had chosen the most popular tourist spot in the entire city to play my gentle ballad. Instead I played 'I Already Love You' with Kit and Daniel took the video. His style of doing this was animated and fluid so the results are not like our other efforts but he captured the moment well and I like the video a lot. 'I Already Love You' is a song I wrote for Kit when he was still in the womb and it's a strange and beautiful thing to be able to sing it with him now he's all grown up. 
We then ate in a very cool Slovak restaurant. Kit had a cold trout dish followed by a turkey steak baked in cheese. I had snails in garlic butter followed by wild boar served with a vegetable puree and sliced dumplings. We also tried a traditional Slovak dish of a potato hybrid gnocchi/spätzle in a sheep’s cheese sauce with bacon. The meal was top quality and really good value for money. My kind of food. I can't pretend to know Slovak cuisine from this one meal. All the dishes were similar to others I've eaten in Italy, France, Germany and the Czech Republic but Slovakia is a country finding its identity, emerging from years of being governed from Prague.
Over dinner we discussed the differences between Slovak and Czech culture. Daniel and Shina said a lot of things the general gist of which was that the Slovaks are more Slavic in nature and the Czechs more German. Over the next few days I hope to be able to understand the meaning of that concept more than I do now. I understand what being German means with a lot more depth than most. I always feel at peace when I'm there. I always feel like I am among my own people but I have such a strong connection and identification with Slavic culture. There is an abstraction that I instinctively understand. It puzzles me that after a lifetime of knowing nothing about Slavic countries that I make statements like this. It is also the case that German culture changes as you move around the country and that the history of the 20th Century changed the linear development of German culture. Prussia disappeared and the Prussians settled in wider Germany. At the same time Eastern Europe heavily influenced one part of the country while Western and American culture heavily influenced the west of Germany. In Slovakia a similar process appears to have occurred. After years of being overshadowed it is beginning to discover, celebrate and understand its roots
We walked off our meal by wandering round some of the less touristy areas of the old town, through the Jewish Quarter and up to the castle where there are great views of the city.
There is also a space-age design bridge over the Danube that from certain angles looks like a martian tripod from War Of The Worlds invading the city. 
Before long it was time to part and head back to our hotel. Daniel and Shina are special people and it was nice to make their acquaintance again. They have a spirituality that is hard to define and is also reflected in the music they make. Kit and I loved Bratislava. The Slovak capital seemed to us to be a relaxed and civilised place; a reflection of the Slovak people we met. I will return. Back at the hotel we discovered we have no internet so the blog will fall behind by a day but I should be able to catch up tomorrow in Vienna. Vienna is but a short drive from here so we should have plenty of time to get things done. Famous last words and all that.
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