Seeing the World

I’m tired.  A lot of walking over the last few days, even with me letting the tram take the strain.

But I’ve enjoyed it.

To celebrate my stay in Slovakia I thought I’d grab a bite to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant near my apartment.  I eyed up the menu and decided number 20 was what I wanted.  I wandered up to the counter, held up my Bell’s palsy affected lip and confidently said to the oriental chap “number 20” while the other hand waved generally in the direction of the giant menu on the wall above.  In perfect English he replied “do you want your chicken with noodles or rice?” – my awful knowledge of languages had me in great fear of ordering Vietnamese food in the Slovakian capital in English.

History continues to tell me I struggle most ordering food in the USA though.  The Yanks don’t have a clue what I’m saying!  In Europe, the locals usually get me over the line pretty well.

In the morning the apartment owner will take me to the airport.  I’ve actually worked out which trams would do it for less than €1, but I’ve already committed to the comfort of the car.  The light bag is just about packed.

Now I just have to hope Doris doesn’t interfere with my flight.

Link to my final morning in Bratislava

Yesterday my mortgage was cleared in full.  Nineteen years ago I took out a critical illness and life assurance policy.  I remember at the time considering an eighteen year term to coincide with Chris coming of age and to save £2 a month.  Fortunately I made the assumption that he might be smarter than me and go to university.  So I added four years and rounded up a few spare months to decide on a twenty three year term.

A good decision on my part, and nice of my cancer to appear now rather than in four years time!  While it’s taken the life assurance company close to three months to pay out on the simplest of claims the money did come through yesterday and has been used to clear the joint mortgage, saving me a chunky monthly payment ahead of my forthcoming redundancy.  The nice Phoenix people have also reimbursed the last three premiums which were collected after diagnosis.

The bad news is that it costs direct debits.  No life assurance premium and no mortgage payment.  A toughie that might cost me £3 a month in my Halifax current account unless I can juggle around my credit cards a little to generate an extra payment!

I do have two other insurance policies on the go.  One was a free standing PPI taken out when the credit crunch hit and my prospects of remaining employed looked bleak.  At the same time I took out a different policy to cover my mortgage that I’ve long since cancelled.  Why I didn’t cancel the freestanding PPI I’ll never know.  But that’s currently paying out £200 a month that should last for a year, so my tardiness in continuing to pay £9.99 a month has reaped dividends!  No, it wasn’t mis-sold!

Theyre actually a bit too keen.  In November I sent them a sick note dated to 30/11/2016.  The read it as 30/1/2017 and paid out two months more than they should have done.  When I submitted a sick note dated 28/2/2017 they thanked me for my correspondence and asked me for proof that I’m seeking work.  Let’s just say a quick phone call resolved that one.

When I bought my first home in 1990 I took out a permanent health insurance policy to cover two thirds of my net pay.  A stunning £550 a month that perhaps I should have indexed!  At the end of April I’ll find out if that will pay out too.  Alongside the removal of mortgage payments that’ll leave me able to afford basic living costs and use my entire redundancy payment to treat myself to travel with until I’m 55 and can take the pension.  Not that there’s much likelihood of lasting that long.

How lucky am I?!!

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It’s 25th October.  The private hospital that hosted my back surgery a day earlier confirm that a car will be ready to take me home in an hour.

I start packing the few things I brought with me.  And then notice the slippers In the corner.  Now I admit to being the kind of man who’ll readily swipe tea bags and shower gel out of a hotel room.  Although I do draw the line at toilet rolls and light bulbs!  In the absence of tea and coffee making facilities I saw the slippers as fair game.  After all, if I left them behind they’d just be binned.

So I took them home and forgot about them.  Until I packed for my Malta trip at the start of the month.  I chucked them in my bag and ended up using them for my early morning stroll from bed to bathroom.  Here in Bratislava I’ve worn them every morning and evening to avoid the cold wooden floors of the apartment affecting my feet.

Now these have been paid for by my employer’s purchase of BUPA health insurance on my behalf.  A benefit that I’ve always valued despite never having used until last year. And because HMRC says that health insurance is a benefit in kind I’ve paid a hell of a lot of tax over the years to fund the use of those slippers.

Given the cold hotel floors this February, it’s been worth every penny.

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An early start, the number one tram to Bratislava Hlavńa station and the novel concept of buying my train ticket to Vienna from one of those human being things.

€14 got me on the 8.38am to Vienna.  For some reason I expected something posh.  While the train was clean it was just a train.  While the countryside between the two cities was green it was also unspectacular.  No sign of any border.  Arrival in Vienna an hour after setting out was quite exciting and I paid €7.60 for an all day city pass.  It was never checked.

I took a wild approach of hop on a tram and see where it takes you.  They have a city centre riding school.  Mad after all that countryside I’d just seen!  I discovered a big Ferris wheel.  Miles of impressive buildings too, perhaps on a par with Paris.  I hopped off one of my random trams and found a few more impressive buildings including the opera house.  Horse drawn carts and associated odour too!

Another enjoyable day, although it’s clear Vienna is a far bigger city than Bratislava.  I tried and failed to get three fridge magnets reduced in price from €10.50 to €10.  The Austrian sense of humour from the seller put the Germans to shame.

I struggled to get back to the station.  A couple of erroneous tram journeys to nowhere before I finally got back on service O.  My Bratislava train was waiting and with an enthusiasm of a seven year old headed up the stairs on the double decker train.  It was exactly the same upstairs, but it still felt cool.

Despite being Austria, a nation surrounded by efficient Germans and time accurate Swiss, the train left late.  It also stopped at a couple of stations I didn’t recall from the morning trip.  Well if Manchester to London can stop at Watford once a day these Europeans can do their own thing.

A series of new stations followed.  A couple of them had no platform and seemed to be in a town consisting of three houses and a tractor.  Beginning to worry a little I googled a station name to discover it’s on a different line heading to Bratislava Petržalka station.  South of the Danube and a 45 minute walk away.  I’d got the wrong train. Google mentioned an Uber for €5 that appealed to me.  Then my phone battery died.  No Uber for Dave!

I worried about a ticket check that never came.  Stepped off the train and headed up a ridiculously long platform and exited the station.  No trams this side of the river.  A bus service that might go where I want but I didn’t recognise the place names.  So I got into a taxi.  Only to realise I didn’t know the address of my apartment as it was saved on my dead phone.

A short while later, having crossed the river, I recognised a spot near my apartment.  At this point I realised I was a victim of a tourist rip off.  €30 for a trip Uber would have done for €5.  Ive subsequently discovered the number 80 bus would have done the job for €1.  So I haggled.  Without success.  And he was a stocky Slovak.  I very quickly abandoned my haggle, handed over the cash without tip and exited the cab.  Annoyed with myself.

Wrong train.  Dead phone.  Failure to agree fare or challenge lack of meter.  It’s a good job I like to save a few quid here and there.  Sometimes it bails me out of a hole of my own making!

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I did a lot of walking yesterday and my feet are still killing me.  But having pounded several miles of the Bratislava cobbles and pavements I do feel quite proud.  The hips hurt a little, but not as much as they have done after exercise recently and while I can feel weakness in my spine from where the cancer has attacked it, that feeling is much more twinge than devastating pain.

One thing I am noticing more is my ability to stand up from a seating position is impaired.  I’m noticing myself seek a rail or something firm to haul myself up on.  Examples include plane seat, tram seat and lavatory seat, as well as struggling to get out of the bath here in my apartment.  It’s giving me a rather good insight into the world of the frail and elderly.  And then I realise that I have a fragility that I’d never really considered.  More handles and railings in the world would be a great help to me.

I’m anticipating more walking today, although a cross border train will be taking the strain between here and Vienna.  I’ve decided not to head to Budapest tomorrow but to utilise Bratislava’s tram network to see a little more of the place.

The Bell’s palsy remains.  Over four months now so I’m beyond the typical period when it just fixes itself.  As the evening air has cooled my right eye, which remains permanently open, has hurt a lot.  Although a couple of people have said its improved, I don’t see it myself.

My afatinib cancer treatment continues to provide side effects.  Spotty teenage face continues hut I don’t appear to have pulled any ten age Slovakian ladies with the look.  A couple of unwelcome visits to the gents were also a surprise yesterday and a reminder to take my magic cork generating medication with me to Austria today.

Overall I feel quite good, if a little tired after a lot of walking yesterday.  I think that’s a good thing.

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You remember the one, where they slide past the border guards on a Cello and Timothy Dalton shouts “Nothing to declare”.

Well part of that movie was set in Bratislava and I had my mind set on visiting the concert hall where the Bond girl played her “exquisite” cello.

After a morning of old city like a fairy tale town, castle, palace, river and sore feet I took a break before seeking out seeking out the Bond location.  There’s an opera house, but it wasn’t there.  A little more wandering around revealed nothing, so I turned to google (that Three all you can eat data bundle is coming into its own).  They filmed the scene in Vienna.  Frauds!

The good news is that I’m off to Vienna tomorrow.  The bad news is that I’m not bothered anymore, now that I know it’s not a real Bratislava location.  Who would believe they make things up in James Bond movies?!!!

So I reallocated my afternoon to seeking out the capital’s prime sporting arena.  The home ground of Slovan Bratislava who beat the mighty Barcelona in the 1970 European Cup Winners Cup final.

A mixture of tram (70 cents) and walk got me there.  Feet, back and hips are suffering now!  As I approached the stadium and caught a glimpse of the Coca Cola sponsored floodlights the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.  I looked at the bars and cafes around me and imagined them on matchday.  Football grounds big and small make me feel this way.  Except for MK Dons.  They don’t count.

I was chuffed to see the gate to the stadium open and free access to a stairway leading into the ground.  Until a stern non-English speaking Slovakian told a tired non-Slovakian speaking Englishman that he couldn’t go in.

A few grunts and mentions of the words “English” and “long way” and the still stern faced chap waved me up the stairway, holding up five fingers telling me my time was limited.  It didn’t take that long.  An unimpressive open stadium with a running track around it.  Wembley it wasn’t!

I’ve enjoyed today.  It’s a great city with lots to see.  Definitely recommended.

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To be fair, that building work was a restoration job after an earlier fire, but it did quite surprise me.

The views from the castle are terrific, despite the Mancunian weather, with the not so blue Danube, the old city in all its glory and distant tower blocks and factories from the communist era.  Austria to the east I could see.  Hungary to the south I couldn’t.

I basically pounded the streets from my apartment, through the magnificent old town and up hill to the castle.  After that I wandered aimlessly, stopping for brunch before finding a mix of the quaint, the modern and some extraordinarily dull bits in between.

I had originally intended to join a walking tour.  But there didn’t seem to be any available today.  I’m quite glad I found my own way around.

I’ll be seeing a lot more later today and on Thursday.  Tomorrow is train to Vienna day.

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I’ve been asked how have I saved money on booking this trip to Slovakia.  While I wouldn’t say that it’s been a rampant series of bargains like Malta was there are some steps I’ve taken to keep the cost down.

Flights:  I used Skycanner.  I typed in from Manchester/Leeds to Everywhere for the dates I wanted and then selected the cheapest location that took my fancy.  I never book through any of the third party agents on the site and always go direct to the airline or via  TopCashback and on to the airline.  If anything goes wrong with my flights I want the airline to have direct accountability.  As such, while there is the possibility of utilising Expedia and their reward scheme / Nectar points for a Ryanair flight, the low return isn’t worth the hassle of needing Expedia to fix a Ryanair problem for me.  No Avios for me.  I preferred Ryanair charging me £99 to BA charging double that and forcing me to land in Vienna having first flown me from Leeds to Heathrow.

Airport Parking:  I’ve since had offers of free parking on friends’ driveways near Leeds and Manchester airports, which is fantastic.  For this trip I saved about £3 hard cash on long stay parking at Leeds Bradford Airport booking via my employer’s shopping discount site.  I’d have got a similar rebate from TopCashback but occasionally things don’t track.  Paying £26 now is better than paying £29 with the promise of a £3 rebate in future!

Foreign Currency:  I’ve got a Halifax Clarity credit card.  The two key benefits of this are no cash advance fees and no foreign currency conversion fees, and other cards like the Creation Everyday card offer similar benefits.  I withdrew €310 at an ATM in Bratislava airport on arrival.  This card saved me £16 compared to doing the same with “normal” credit cards and about £12 compared to sourcing currency on the high street pre-departure.  The Bratislava ATM is £50 cheaper than doing the same transaction in a foreign currency ATM at Leeds Bradford airport.  I’ve also got a Travelex Supercard.  This does have a 2.99% fee for drawing cash overseas, but no charges for purchases.  You can link it to your current account and credit card and it avoids any bank applied fees.  Better still, as I get 1% cashback on one of my credit cards, I continue to earn that on Supercard by linking the cashback card to the Supercard.  As for the €310, i repaid that this morning to avoid paying interest.

Hotel:  I’m a big fan of the Hotels.com loyalty scheme.  Book ten nights get one free.  No need for brand loyalty to a faceless hotel chain, unless they’re cheaper booking direct.  Whichever brand you book via Hotels.com contributes to the free night count.  Again, TopCashback is central to the cost cutting approach.  In the good old days the rebate was often 12%.  This booking attracted 4% which gets me around £7 back on a €200 booking.  Not a life changer, but it’s also 40% of a contribution to a future free night.  One catch with hotels.com is that their cancellation policy often becomes non-refundable 24 hours before check-in.  Most chains allow you to cancel a refundable booking on the day you intended to stop over.

I’m off to explore now.  There’s a big city to see and it appears to be rather cheap to buy things out there!

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