It means "Thank you" in Slovak.
The 29th country of round-the-world journey is Slovakia, which is a landlocked country bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south.
We have another 3 countries to go as 32 countries are in the World Cup.
This means we have completed 90 percent of them!!
The three are Slovenia, Serbia, and Algeria.
We tried to find a flight bound for Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, from Athene, but we couldn't get it. So, we flew to the neighboring country Austria and took a bus there.
It took one hour to get Bratislava by bus from Vienna.
Anyway, are you familiar with Slovakia?
Most of you might get confused about the difference between "Czechoslovakia" and Slovakia.
Actually, Slovakia and Czech Republic used to be one country known as Czechoslovakia until 1993, when the present-day Slovakia became an independent state.
They even played in the World Cup for the first time as a independent country.
The information above was given by one of my friends on Twitter.
Anyway, we've booked our accommodation on Expedia, which is a cheap hotel, flight reservation website.
Normally, a backpacker tends to find his accommodation on the spot. But we Libero search good-conditioned hotels on the internet in advance rather than strolling around to find them as backpackers usually do. This is Libero style!!
Then we've decided to stay at the following hotel!
Look at the name of hotel carefully!
It's "Botel Marina".
It's supposed to be "Hotel", isn't it?
I thought this is a typo or something like that and ignored it at that time.
On arriving at the Bratislava airport, we caught a taxi to go to the "botel."
The driver dropped us in the middle of nowhere after only 5 min driving, saying "Here we are."
I was like "Where the hell are we ?"
I couldn't see any building around there except the Danube.
Then I realized that something's wrong with the name of the accommodation we're to stay, which was "Botel Marina", despite there is no sea as here is a landlocked country.
Putting aside "botel", what does "Marina" mean with no ocean around there?
The answer to the question is here.
The "Botel Marina" is on the Danube.
Why is the hotel named "Botel Marina", even though the Danube is not sea but a river.
The botel cost one person 50 EURO per night and the room was as small as a steerage.
Botel is the word of "boat" and "hotel".
I confirmed it here.
That "motel" is the word of "motor" and "hotel" is accepted but I've never heard of "botel". How about in other countries?
Anyway, the Danube was so beautiful.
A strong wind shakes the botel.
You can see Bratislava castle inside your room. It's romantic!
But Atsushi and I were sleeping on the same twin.
Oh, my god.
On the second floor of the botel, there were many Indian restaurants.
That seems to be the reason why lots of Indian were there.
A lot of surprises happened to us on the first day of our visiting Slovakia.
But they made me in favor of this country!
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