Well, it looks like we are finally out of the Czech Republic and into Slovakia. Bratislava, to be exact.

First though, you should hear about our experience getting out of Prague…. The day before we were supposed to leave, we made sure to get our ticket out of town. How smart are we? Only problem is that we assumed we would be leaving from the same station we bought our ticket at… yeah, not so much. So, with only 20 minutes until our train left, we had to speed it hard across the city to the other train station! We made it, though, and somehow managed to find two seats on the jampacked train. Off we were to Bratislava.

Almost as soon as we arrived in the city, we realized we were really going to like the place! We checked into our Hostel, which is nice, and took to wandering the streets of Bratislava. We basically fell in love. The narrow, twisting streets of the Old Town just ooze charm (all pedestrianized, which we love) and once again I had his camera out and was clicking like mad. The night was warm, the people were nice and the mood was much more relaxed than Prague. Certainly a town up our alley.
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Where to start?

At the beginning, I suppose. The flight from Vancouver was good, got into the air without a hitch and the flight was comfortable (except for the over-ripe Dutch woman beside my girlfriend who couldn’t help but take up all the space she paid for… plus half of my girlfriend’s.) Getting off the plane was interesting, though. When we arrived in Schipol airport, we couldn’t help but notice all the dozens of guards armed with machine gun. I suppose that’s what happens, though, when you arrive in a westernized country on September 11th. Despite the guards, we arrived safe and sound… to find the city of Amsterdam taking a beating from a torrential downpour!
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Being a strict narccisist, I just thought some of you might be interested in a couple of links from around the web concerning A Dribble of Ink.

The first is another edition of Grasping for the Wind‘s ‘Ask the Bloggers’ series of articles. This time around John asks us about maps:

Certainly an interesting bevvy of responses, all of which can be found HERE.

The second is a great article by Ana and Thea (the girls behind The Book Smugglers, which you should check out, if you haven’t already!) about the rise of online book reviews and the impact it’s having on print reviews.

Not only do they have a few nice words for A Dribble of Ink, but it’s a damn good article in its own right! You can find it HERE.

Next week is going to be a big time for me, but a sore time for A Dribble of Ink. I’ll be flying away from my lovely country of Canada and making again for the wild shores of Europe.

This’ll mark the second time that my girlfriend and I have up and left everything behind, teeming into the wild yonder together in search of adventure. Hardships are sure to come at us from all sides, but through our strength we’ll persevere!

Heh, alright, I’ll stop talking like a cliché-ridden adventure fantasy novel.
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The wily Jeff, scribe over at Fantasy Book News & Reviews, has been preying on my noble spirit, issuing me a Gentleman’s Challenge with regards to my review of The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney.

Being a gentleman myself, there was no reasonable way to refuse! His opinion of the first half of The Ten Thousand was eerily similar to mine, but the second half was enough for him to name it his favourite novel so far this year. Big words indeed.

In exchange for finishing The Ten Thousand, my novel of choice for Jeff to read (provided he hasn’t already) is Greg Keyes’ The Briar King. Keyes’ is, in my opinion, easily the most under-read author in Epic Fantasy and I’ll take any chance I can get to spread the word!

Challenge accepted, Jeff! The Ten Thousand will make it into the pile of books I’ll be stuffing in my backpack next week and we’ll see if it holds more water with me this time!