Hello world travelers, and welcome to sunny Bratislava, Slovakia! Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, sports a local population of around 441,000, and sits at the point where the Carpathian Mountains meet the Danube River. (Whether the Danube is blue or not remains to be seen...) Today the beans and BATW Ambassador Scott head into the Old Town ("Stare Mesto") area of Bratislava, where as you can see people (okay...statues) are literally coming out of the ground for a chance to hang out with the world-famous frijoles. The beans thought this was a great display of artwork; as long as it's just statues coming out of the Bratislava manholes and not 60-foot crocodiles, the beans are perfectly cool with it. At the heart of Old Town is Hlavne Square, where they set up a huge Christmas marketplace every December. There you'll find stands that sell wooden handicrafts, Christmas ornaments, hot schnapps, sausages, soup, and crepes (palacinky). So if you're looking for the beans next winter, be sure to check back here at Hlavne Square. They'll be the can holding the palacinky and schnapps.

Down the road a ways the beans stopped in the town of Namestovo, where they and Scott met up with Andrej Bencur along the shores of Slovakia's largest lake, "Oravska priehrada" (Orava dam lake). The lake is dammed up for hydro-electric power, flood control, and water sports, and the beans suspect for some mighty good fishin'. The beans were very pleased to meet Andrej, and hope that the next time they're in town they can repay him for his kindness by taking him water skiing. You should see the beans water ski; it's the only time a canned vegetable can ever be described as "hot dogs".

Finally, the beans spent Easter Sunday in the tiny village of Medzibrodie nad Oravou (population: 400), where they had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the locals, who just happened to be Scott's grandfather's nephew and his wife. On the left is Alzbeta Mazalanova and on the right is her husband, Jan Mazlan. (The women here get "-ova" added to their last names.) In the middle holding the beans (and a pitchfork?) is Scott's sister, Laynee. Scott said that the log cabin is signed by the builder in one of the ceiling beams, with a date of June 1864. (Now how's that for craftsmanship?) The beans had a fantastic Easter with Scott's family, and thank them from the bottom of their can for their hospitality. As far as talking them into adding black beans to their traditional Old World Easter menu goes, the frijoles weren't all that successful (they call them "traditions" for a reason...), but they did have a great time nevertheless.