Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava, Slovakia:

I got off of my train in Bratislava, an hour away from Vienna.  I looked around to see a lot of hard expressions.  The people seem cold and like they might be unforgiving.  I smile at a girl and she smiles back and I get a sense of relief.  I prayed for someone to help me if needed because so far, not many speak English very well.  

I am very tired and hanging on by a very think thread since my jet lag is so over powering.  I ask a guy next to me if he speaks English and can point me in the direction of the street where my hostel is.  He says, yes, I'll show you since I am going that way.  I ask him straight up, "Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"  Knowing I can ditch him if he seems shady.  He smiles and says, "Bad".  I knew in my heart he wasn't.  So we got off of the bus together, he grabs my luggage for me and reaches over to pull up my hood over my head as if to say, "I'm looking out for you, let's go".  

It's dark and cold out and it's raining.  We head to my hostel and he smokes like a chimney.  We grab a beer at a pub around the corner and he proceeds to tell me that Bratislava is a safe city.  We talk about WW2 and the admiration he has for German hard work and craftmanship.  But he also tells me that they were relieved to kick the Germans out for being so awful.  I got the impression of how felt about Germans like this:  A man and wife, the husband is German and the wife is Slovak, Polish, whatever...  The wife cannot help but admire her husband for his undeniable intelligence and hard work - but the wife finally mustered up the courage to let him go for being an inbearable asshole.  I know - it's watered down.  It was really neat to hear it first hand.  Being an American we are so far removed from the real tension that surrounds the holocaust.