Budapest again....

While some people might grow tired of seeing a city over and over again, there are a few places I feel like I will want to visit as much as I can...Budapest is one of those cities for me!

I first visited there back in 2007 with some of my, now, dearest friends. For me, I think that city will always belong to the four of us. Every corner I turn I can think of some picture I have which we took there or of a funny thing that someone said or did and suddenly that hectic (and some might say dirty) city is reduced to only a few people and is one I can't imagine never seeing again. As a side note, I might add-perhaps one of the thoughts that saddens me most in life is thinking that I might never again see a place I once loved...though I guess there are things that are worse, it seems to me that few things could be.

My second visit to Budapest was one of relief....as some of my readers will remember, I was quite sick on the long trip Megzi and I took after our contracts finished and Budapest was the city where my very long recovery began....sometimes I think I still have remnants of that illness that plague me even today....but enough of that for now, before you all begin to think that illness has gone permanently to my head!

Brian and I looked for a way to fit in several Eastern European countries on this trip and had at first hoped we would do it all by train. When it finally became clear that we'd waited too long to book anything of a reasonable price, we decided to book a round trip ticket to Budapest and go from there by train around to the cities we hoped to see. We booked a flight to leave very early the morning after my birthday....6:50 in the morning, to be precise, making that day a very long one indeed.

For one reason or another I did not sleep the night of my birthday...I think it must be the combination of the supreme amount of food I ate that night and the fact that neither of us had proper alarm clocks and I was very nervous that we'd miss the flight entirely! But we made it indeed and upon arriving in Budapest I began to feel a tiredness which surpasses all the fatigue I can ever remember experiencing before. I think Brian recognized this straight away and stated several times that we just needed to get a nap in before we tried to go out and do anything. Away we went to our hotel, the grandness of which I was not able to fully appreciate to begin with, and I commenced to sleep for several blissful hours.

The aforementioned hotel is in fact the Intercontinental overlooking the Danube River and the famous Chain Bridge which allows for passage from the Pest side of the city, where we were staying, to the Buda side containing the castle and wonderful little hidden passageways. I could never nor would I ever in my wildest dreams be able to afford this hotel; however, darling Brian with his fantastic job of staying most nights in hotels for his job, had accumulated quite a few "points" with that hotel company and we were able to reap the benefits of a 7th floor, river view room because of it....quite a step up from those hostels I'd stayed in on previous trips there!!

While I napped Brian went out and found a small grocery where he purchased some salami, sliced cheese and bread for our lunch....what would become our lunch most days because, lets face it, you can't have fresh cheeses and meats with wonderful bread and most importantly the view of a beautiful European city every day of the year, so we took full advantage of this while we could! Soon after we were on our way out the door to see the city.

Every other visit to Budapest I have had a specific goal in mind....to go on a tour of the Hungarian Parliament Building. Several years ago, upon finding out about our impending trip, a revolting Romanian man in my German language class informed me that building was the best part of the city and for some reason I've not been able to shake a visit there from my thoughts. Every trip to Budapest I've taken before it has been impossible to accomplish due to riots or some other odd reason but this time we checked and it was open for visits so we made our way there first to make sure it wasn't skipped over on this trip! It did not disappoint. The inside of the building is very ornately decorated and just the sheer magnitude of the size of the building, which is the second largest parliament in Europe, is worth a look. I took a few inside pictures but they pale in comparison to the actual view...if you click on the link above you'll be able to see a few which I think are far better than mine.

During an afternoon of touring around we made a quick stop into the St. Stephen's Cathedral where Brian and I had a look at the right hand of Stephen, considered to be the first king of Hungary and namesake of the cathedral. A very interesting relic if you like those kinds of things. We wandered around afterward looking for a place for dinner and were pleased to find an entire street of options which are off the beaten path and therefore occupied more by locals than tourists! Even given the nap earlier in the day, we were tired....we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we headed straight out for the main shopping street. Some sort of Easter market was in the local square and we took our time browsing the goods, some homemade and some obviously shipped in from somewhere else....We made it our attempt to find the synagogue, which my guidebook boasts as the second largest in the world. It is quite impressive. We could not enter as it was shut for a holiday but we were able to see the grandness from the outside and also to see the Tree of Life which honors Holocaust victims from Hungary.

After a wander around Pest and a wonderfully traditional Hungarian meal for lunch, we headed accross the Chain Bridge to Buda. From there we were able to take some wonderful pictures of the river and surrounding city from Buda hill. We made our way over to the Castle Labyrinths, a really cool site I first visited with Megzi on that first trip. We waited until after 7pm, when they turn out all the lights, and were able to go in with lanterns.

As the name of the game on our trip was to have a nice and leisurely time, we slowly made our way back accross the river while enjoying all the sights and sounds of the city and then enjoyed yet another wonderful meal of cheese, bread and salami in our hotel room with maybe the most wonderful view during a meal that one could ask for!! Off to bed early, tomorrow we're headed to Zagreb, Croatia!

Ciao for now,

LuLu

A Whirlwind Trip to Ticino

Only just 24 hours after arriving in Zürich, Brian and I decided to head down to the Ticine, the Italian region of Switzerland. I think both of us were a bit sad about not fitting Italy into our trip and this was our way of making it work! And another plus was the fact that Zürich weather was not so promising for the next two days but the forecast in the Ticine was supposed to be glorious!

Being that we only had a small window, 2 days, in which to go, we decided to make the most of our Swiss travel passes and stop in Luzern on the way. This wonderful Swiss German town is only about an hour from Zürich so it made the perfect stop for us. Brian had never been so we joined every Japanese tourist in the country to view the splendid alps that seemingly rise straight out of the lake and the old bridges and churches. My favorite bit of Luzern is the Löwendenkmal, Lion Monument, which was carved from rock in dedication to the Swiss soldiers who died in 1792 defending King Louis XVI and family during the French Revolution. My guidebook says that Mark Twain once called it the 'saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world' and I can't help but agree and feel great peace when I'm sitting in front of it. After our few hours spent in Luzern, we stocked up on food for the train (bread, cheese and salami of course...) and made our way down to Ticino.

Lugano was our city of choice in the region and we'd made reservations at a hotel there for the evening. Lugano is situated on the Lake of Lugano and is a town I am mildly familiar with due to a trip I took there with my au pair girlfriends -Megzi, Sara, and Manda Mango- several years ago and being there again made me miss them, well and the time we spent mostly at the hotel pool and in the park, so much more than usual; I wasn't sure that was actually possible! It took us a while to locate our hotel which had claimed to be lake front and was actually quite a few blocks inland.

Afterward, we wandered around the city a bit and were suprised to find for the most part it was empty of people, both tourists and locals. We decided upon a pasta restaurant that was overpriced but excellent all the same and best of all had a wonderful view of the lake. We settled there at the perfect moment to see the sun go down and the lights go up on the city and surrounding mountains. Over a bit of wine, heaps of pasta, and a shared tiramisu, we decided that Italy was too much to miss, especially for Brian who lived there for a while back in college. Lucky for us, we ran across a wonderful find in my guidebook informing of a tiny section of Italy that's actually located on the Lake of Lugano and completely surrounded by Switzerland. Being that I was curious to see this place I'd never even heard of before and the fact that both of us loved the idea of saying we actually had seen Italy on this trip, we decided to head over to Campione D'Italia the next morning.

The morning started off, for me, absolutely as I'd hoped it would....with a brilliant caffe latte and a gipfel (crossaint)! The bus ride over to Campione D'Italia was quite short, only about 15-20 minutes and in all actuality, the atmosphere was no different than it is in Italian Switzerland but straight away you knew you were in Italy, I guess it was probably the Berlusconi posters everywhere that gave it away! The main attraction in town is the casino which my guidebook says isn't restricted like the ones in Switzerland. The place was mostly quiet and it took us about 10 minutes of walking around from the bus stop to even see anyone about or to find a place to have lunch. In the end, we only spent about 2 hours there and most of that time was eating lunch at a brilliant place right on the lake with a view back to Lugano. Brian had the gnocchi, which tasted like little bits of heaven, and I had the lasagne. We took a few minutes to check out a wonderful old church, the church of Saint Peter.

The day was headed well toward midafternoon by the time we arrived back in Lugano and we made our way directly to the train station for the trip home. As we were going to need to change trains anyway, we decided for one other small side trip and got off after only 30 minutes in the Ticino town of Bellinzona, famous for it's three castles. We wandered around there for about 2-3 hours and visited the castle grounds located in the most central part of the city. It seems to be a place very popular with locals as there were families on picnic, couples reading and enjoying time together and children playing in the grassy areas surrounding the castle high above the city.

After much walking in these two days a living out of a small bag between us, we were ready to head home. We'd stocked up on food and drink back in Lugano and enjoyed/slept the train ride home. We arrived quite late but that evening we were able to catch up with my host father who'd been away on business since before we arrived in Switzerland. All in all it was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

But onward to tomorrow...my birthday and I look forward to a wonderful day spent in Zürich!!

Ciao, ciao...

LuLu

First day back....

Last night`s flight was horrible...I think I`ve never slept that badly on a flight to/from Zurich...and I blame Brian and his window seat promising self entirely!! I am so glad, however, that he made the first mistake of the trip so that I don`t have that far to fall if I make a mistake...and one is most surely coming!! One thing I can say though is that at least we got to watch one of my favorite Friends episodes on the way over....

Today was a dream...As much as I talked about how all was the same as soon as I moved home to GA, as soon as we landed in Zuri it all returned to routine for me here as well....my life in Alpharetta seeming so far away and nonexistent. I can hardly believe all that has stayed the same and yet again all that has changed.

When we first arrived we met my host mum at the airport and returned to the house with her. After a quick shower, coffee and chat we headed out to see Regensberg (rain mountain) before the weather set in....as it does so often, the bad weather rolled in quickly and our view of the glorious Alps was shut out by the impending rain and ominous dark storm clouds. We did, however, make the best of our time there by climbing the village tower which dates back many centuries for the specatular view of the surrounding countryside. After that a trip to the Migros (grocery store) was definitely in order! Although I`d hardly say I got my fill of the place, it was wonderful to visit the store were I spent time weekly when I lived here!

After a lunch and a quick nap, Brian and I were finally able to see those wonderful little Swiss girls, now aged 7 and 10. I can tell you the nervousness was very mutual! It hardly seems any time since we last said our goodbyes on the steps of the house as they left for school that morning while I fought back tears, but in some ways a lifetime had happened! Suddenly the inches (cenimeters) that separated us were reduced and life experiences took their place. Everything I`d missed seemed so real in those moments....

But, it didn`t take anytime until we were all relaxed around each other again, much shorter than I`d imagined it would have taken. Dinner was wonderful, missed only by my host father who is out of town on business. I am sleeping again in my old bedroom which is a wonderful feeling!

Tomorrow Brian and I head for the Italian region of Switzerland, or the Ticine as they call it here. We`ve booked ourselves into a hotel right on the lake in Lugano. I can hardly wait to see what I think might probably be the most perfect place on earth...Italian language and food but Swiss cleanliness and timeliness.....It should be great!

Well, I`m off to bed now for what I hope is a sleep that will erase all the time I`ve missed on the 9 hour flight over! I`ll be sure to write again when we return to downtown Oberruti...

And so...merci and au revoir (or as Joey says: tut de la fruit!)

Ciao for now,

LuLu

Here we go again....

Hello All,

I'm sure you are all just as shocked to receive this update to my lil ol' blog as I am to write it! It has been over a year now since my last update...I guess I feel my everyday life here in the US of A is not too extraordinary and so I've not been writing.

In the past year, much has happened. The boys (my cats-Smokey and Moscow) and I are now living back in Alpharetta, GA and I'm working at my old company (with a new name since last I was there...)in the very same job as I occupied before moving to Switzerland. My host mum was right...soon enough it all went back to normal and my life in Switzerland sometimes seems like just a dream! Friends have gotten married, Mr. Pig and CandyCane have a little one now and I find that I'm an aunt officially twice over and unofficially (best friends) once and one more on the way! Though not on the international travel scene, I have been myself embarking on some new adventures...ones that have once and for all proved that I am now an adult and have the world at my fingertips....but all that must wait for a different day and a different blog update...

There are days, however, when Switzerland is as close to me as the air I breathe...I need only close my eyes and picture myself there! On those days my heart beats a little faster, the spring in my step becomes a little bit higher and I think only of when I can purchase the tickets (and have the vacation time...)to make my voyage over again...well my friends, that time has come!

For over a month now, my friend Brian and I have been in possession of our very own "Golden Tickets", paid for by many hours of work and insanity at our respective jobs. We will be flying over on March 25th 2010 to visit my host family and see many, many other things in Switzerland and beyond!

I wanted to take a moment today to set up the blog again and to let you all know that you will, with any luck of there being computers available in the places we stay, be hearing much from me in the coming weeks. All together, we will be spending seventeen full days in Europe. We'll be flying in and out of Zurich so a large chunk of our time will be there but we also will be going over to Budapest (my third time there and I'm really looking forward to introducing Brian to that AMAZING city!) and then around to other cities like Zagreb, Croatia and Ljubljana, Slovenia and then over to Vienna, Austria to see a wonderful friend there!

This trip is sure to be an adventure and also a wonderful reunion for me. Please send up a prayer for our safe travels and I can't wait to tell you all about it throughout the journey and upon our return!

(it feels so good to be back at this and to say...) Much love to you all!

LuLu

The Truth That Comes With Time

Hello All!

I’ve thought so often in the last two months about writing. To tell you honestly, I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve felt so homesick for Switzerland that my heart hurts just to think of not being there anymore. I’ve felt very low, at times, and every time I think to write to you it is to say something to that effect. Today, though, it came to me that now was the time to record some thoughts and most of them are not as sad as I’d once intended them to be. Now is the right time to write them down and keep a record for the sake of the harder moments which have been and I know will come again.

It occurred to me, as I was driving along, today that I have many times in my life used the phrase “that was the best time in my life”. You see, every time that I’ve referred to as such, be it in reference to a block of years or just summer camp, has been life changing for me. The furthest in the past I can remember was high school; that was while I was in college…and I missed those Hab Central girls so much! Then I so badly wanted out of college only to look back at that time as “The Best”. And again for the two years I lived with B(P)K in Gainesville…we had such a marvelous time together (dinner parties and movie nights…) but I found moving on all too easy and the aftermath even more difficult than all the times before.

And now there is the present. Switzerland. It was, to date, the most marvelous time of them all! I think back at the scared person I was making the decision to move there, I actually wasn’t sure I’d go through with it, and I wonder how I could have ever been so chicken when it ended up so beautifully…I question what my life would be like now if I’d never gone at all…what kind of person would I be, certainly different, but in what way??

I’ve already spoken with some of you about my desire to live in Zürich again, though I haven’t exactly decided how immediately this plan will pop into action. I thought moving home would be the end of it…that I’d just automatically be content to stay but that’s not the case. I miss my friends and family in Switzerland just as much as I missed everyone here when I lived there; it is a strange feeling to be torn between two places in this way. I’m no fool, though; I know things wouldn’t be the same if I moved back, just as they aren’t the same here as when I left. People move, some pass on from this world, buildings are built and train schedules change…if I went back today the most noticeable hole for me would be the lack of Megan…my partner in crime for nights out on the town and all around sidekick for long-weekend European adventures! Others have left as well and will continue to leave over the next few months until I only know a small amount of people left there and, of course, my wonderful Swiss family.

I have been looking for jobs in Zürich, but also looking at jobs here at home. I’m sitting on a fence between the decision to stay here and the decision to go back there…on any given day the wind blows me around and I think I’ll fall to one side or the other and just know what to do, but it hasn’t happened yet.


There is a point to all this banter, I promise. My point is that the best is still yet to come. That next “Best Time in My Life” is just around the corner or perhaps I’m in it just now as I sit here writing. I don’t know what will happen to me tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. Different avenues and opportunities often come when we least expect them…but until then, and I’m a firm believer in this, you must choose your own feelings. Happiness isn’t what happens to you but rather how you react to what is happening. So today I choose happiness. I’m attempting to plant happiness in my brain, in my thoughts every moment, in my actions…I’ve been walking around here like the biggest sad panda ever and looking back I’m quite disappointed in myself.

I don’t know where my life will lead me in the coming months but I’m attempting to look on it all with an open mind and an open heart. And to quote that wonderful song which was sung by Mr. Sinatra, “The best is yet to come and babe, won’t it be fine? You think you’ve seen the sun, but you ain’t seen it shine”…well I’m ready, bring on the sunshine!

Thanks for reading and I apologize for the choppiness in thought, I just wanted to share a few of my feelings from the last week or so. I know it’s been a while since I last posted but I’m staying busy with lots of odds and ends. I’m working now to put my blog into a book, but not one for the public…just for me, to keep for ever and ever, can’t wait to see the end result! I’ll try to write again soon!


LuLu

Definition of Identity Crisis…

You all must surely know the saying “if you look up the word crazy in the dictionary your face would be beside it”! I feel like someone should say that about me…lately I find that I could be the definition of crazy and also of identity crisis. According to some psychology guy Erik Erikson, the identity crisis is most commonly found in the teenage years…well, fast forward about 10 years later for me and here we are in present-day Switzerland with two filled-to-capacity suitcases!

I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about this transition but mostly I’m scared. I’m not at ease about this, I’m not completely sad about leaving or completely happy about my return to GA.

Today I went to church at IPC for the last time and then walked around Zürich with Dawn and we caught up on the last two months of each other’s lives. As we walked I was overcome with love for this place…this city, this country, my family (those two precious little girls), my life here! How can I leave it now? I don’t know how!

Being an au pair is such a cool experience. It is filled with valuable life lessons. For me, it was filled with so much opportunity to see Europe on a larger scale than a week’s vacation would allow. But the one lesson I learned most is that everything is constantly changing: people leave, new people come, and life continues…perhaps not the same as it was before but it goes on…and it certainly will after I leave as well.

I’ve said, since the first of my friends left over a year ago, that it’s much easier to be the person leaving than the one left behind; the person leaving is on to new things with their mind elsewhere, for the person staying their world is the same but now with a hole where the departed once stood. I sure hope this week proves theory that to be true! I’ve been told that I’m on to an exciting new life…one where I get to make new choices about where to work, what car to drive, even what cell phone company to use…I’m sure it should be exciting but I’m just scared!

The next few days will be very hectic and sad for me. I will most likely not be posting again from Switzerland. My flight is Thursday…I left the US to move here on September 11^th, 2006 and I move back to the US on December 11^th, 2008-two years and three months exactly. I wish sometimes I could just forget the last two years ever happened; maybe then my heart wouldn’t hurt so much. To forget it, though, would be to forget also my Swiss family and my many traveling experiences and my beautiful friends…all things I never want to keep far from my thoughts.

On the Wikipedia website (if they say it, it must be true!) addressing identity crisis, it states that Erikson believed “only individuals who succeed in resolving the crisis will be ready to face future challenges in life”. (I wouldn’t be me-the ultimate drama queen-if I didn’t say this…) I hope I make it through!!

For most of you I’ll see you States side in a few days and for the rest of you I’ll see you when I see you…I love you all!

LuLu

Brrrr in Berlin (The German Capital Part 1)!

Hello Everyone!

Well, Megzi and I have been here in Berlin, the last city on our 2 month trip, for about 3 days now and we are loving it...but freezing to death (we saw our first snow of the trip yesterday)! We are staying in the nicest hostel I've ever been in, so clean...it's like a hotel! Berlin has so many things to see and do and so we've been zipping from one place to another to experience everything we can! Not to mention eating all sorts of exotic food...everything from Vietnamese food to Thai and even the famed Berlin currywurst (a sausage covered in tomato sauce and curry powder...I didn't so much care for it!)

On our first full day here we did basically nothing...we went grocery shopping in an attempt to set ourselves up for the week and then we went shopping...taking some time to familiarize ourselves with the transit system here. Berlin has a really great system going on...between buses, trams, trains and the metro you are never far away from what you want to see!

The second day we went on a 3 1/2 hour free walking tour offered by a company called New Berlin. This is a fantastic concept. The tours are free and at the end you are encouraged to tip proportionally to how good you feel the tour was and your own budget. There are some people who abuse the system, I'm sure; but it insures that the tour guides do a really good job of taking care of you. I learned so much on this tour and would really encourage everyone to take it if they come to Berlin. We saw the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler's Bunker, the island where Berlin first began as a small fishing village-it is now the island where all the museums are located, and most importantly (hehe!) we saw the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his small child over a balcony. Our tour guide was a spunky Scottish girl who explained to us about much of the city's history...she seemed to really know her stuff!

I thought that this trip as a whole would be educational more about WWII than anything, but I was wrong. The more I am on this trip, and especially here in Berlin, I'm learning quite alot about life behind the Iron Curtain and Soviet/Communist occupation. Things that I never learned about in school and I now find that to be such a shame. Highschoolers should be learning this!

For instance: I always knew about the Berlin Wall...most people have heard about it...but I never knew that West Berlin (the side occupied by the Allies) was basically an island inside Eastern Germany. I never knew that the Berlin Wall was built around the whole of Western Berlin...it was 155km long! We are seeing portions of the wall and the measures that the East German government used to hold their people in (did you know that there was actually 2 walls-an inner one and an outer as well!)...we are hearing stories of escapes or attempted ones, of death and suffering. We are seeing the divisions and differences of each side of this city and the lengths, in the 19 years since the wall came down, it's going to in order to repair itself and become whole.

Yesterday we walked around, mostly through the city's very large Tiergarten but we also explored the area around the Zoologisher Garten as well, and went back to a few of the places we'd seen on the tour and wanted to explore further. We went back to Checkpoint Charlie and took more pictures and we revisited the Brandenburg Gate-also for more pictures.

We are hoping to get to Potsdam, the town with a lot of palaces, on the next sunny and clear day- maybe tomorrow- and we're also going to visit a few more memorials and exhibits around the city. Our flight back to Zürich is not until Thursday late afternoon so we are making the most of our time here and packing in as much as possible!

I'll write again soon, probably after we return to Switzerland, to let you all know how the rest of our time here goes.

Ciao for now!

LuLu

How Schengen is Ruining My Life!

Hello All!

Just a little blurb from me again...On this trip I was so excited at the prospect of getting many, many passport stamps. I even got new pages added into my passport (a HUGE thanks again for that Host Mum...) because technically there wasn't enough space for all the countries I was to/did visit. Well...so the trip started out beautifully, a nice new Turkish visa, two stamps for entering Turkey and two for leaving, stamps for entering and leaving Greece and then again for Bulgaria and Romania, and then one for entering Hungary...and that was it....no more since then!!

The problem is a little agreement between the European countries called Shengen. Even my beloved Switzerland is set to join soon. It effectively does away with all border controls in its interior (see the link attached to get an idea of the area I'm talking about). So basically, once you enter a Shengen country you are free to move about within the whole of the Shengen area without needing to show your passport for crossing borders...good for some, not for me (who just wants that little stamp to prove I've been there!)

LuLu is not a happy camper about this situation...all I want is a stamped up passport!

From Near Russia with Love...My Time in the Baltics

Picking up where the last blog left off...we did make it to Vilnius by bus; and no, that bus did not go through Belarus or that little bit of Russia. We had no problems, well, very little problems. There was a guy going into shock from alcohol poisoning in the seat behind me but the ambulance was called and he was quickly removed after hour 2 of our 13 hour journey.

When we arrived in Lithuania we thought we'd go in and just sleep a bit to recover from the bus ride, but after checking schedules to our next destination we decided on just a very short stay in Vilnius and so we headed straight out for sight-seeing. We met up with a really nice Aussie guy who'd been in the city for a few days and we spent the day with him and a nice American man too. We saw a quirky little part of the city called the Republic of Uzupis, which is a place that declared itself an independent republic in 1997. Follow the link for more information about this interesting place which is overrun with artists and even has it's own constitution!

We also went into the Genocide Museum which is in the former KGB headquarters building...I've read my whole life about WWII and horrors that happened there but not too much about the Soviet regime and occupied most of Eastern Europe for many years after that war. The Baltic countries were not free of this until 1991...another thing I was quite oblivious to as I was just a small girl at the time. The Museum had so many informative and interesting things to be seen and even more than that a lot of really disturbing things as well. Tales of torture and imprisonment, lack of freedom and personal choices. The further I travel north on this trip the more I find that I am exceedingly lucky to have been born in a country with rights and freedoms abounding. Things that we as Americans take for granted every day these people had to fight for as little as 20 years ago.

The next day Megz and I just wandered around on our own. We went shopping a lot but managed to see at least one important thing. In the square in front of the big cathedral there is a stone marking the spot where a 2,000,000 person human chain ended. The chain was formed in 1989 as a public outcry against the Soviet occupation. It stretched from Tallinn, Estonia all the way to Vilnius!

Speaking of Tallinn, this was our next destination...a mere day and a half after arriving in Vilnius we set out on a night bus for Tallinn. It wasn't a long one this time, only 9 hours, but it was filled with nosey Spanish people...very little sleep was achieved! We arrived very early in the city and were dropped off at the port where we made the freezing walk to our hostel of choice and arrived at 6:30AM.

I love Tallinn (I mean, take a look at that picture above, where else can you find a giant egg for sale in the refrigerated section of the grocery store)!! That is all I can say, we didn't see much of it and what we did see was under construction, a lot of the city is, but it is just fantastic! We walked around a very medieval old town for most of our visit or spent time gaining energy in the hostel by watching mind-numbing movies, but it was great. We found time one day to take the short ferry over to Helsinki, which is in Finland.

Yay, we added Scandinavia to our list of places we got to go, though I think one day hardly counts. We went into the two main churches, the orthodox and the protestant, saw the changing of the guards at a little place that gathered no crowd, and got our feet totally wet when it started to rain. It appears that Megan and I have both ruined our shoes on this trip by walking holes into the soles of them. Mine were purchased specially for the trip so I am happy to say that I've walked enough to ruin a pair of shoes in less than two months...an accomplishment if nothing else on this trip has been!

Oh, back to Helsinki though....We did take a ferry out to Suomenllina Island, which is a short 20 minute ride. We were able to walk around this unique fortressed island, which is actually made up of 3 different islands...it was made a UNESCO site because of it's uniqueness, in fact. There we were able to see also a really interesting lighthouse which is also a church...it was really plain on the inside, much like the churches at home, and I loved it so much!

On the day we were set to leave Tallinn we planned to, yet again, do nothing. We went and organized our bus tickets to the next city and walked around enjoying the city once again. We left ourselves plenty of time to get to the port, where we were supposed to catch our bus at 1:55, or so we thought! It turns out that the girl at the booking office told us the wrong time, the bus left the port at 1:25 and so we were sitting there all along thinking that we'd made it in time and we really hadn't! Luckily I had one of those really weird feelings about it all and went in to the info booth to check there about the schedule...we rushed into a taxi driven by, quite possibly, the nicest man alive! He ran every red-light and sped the whole way to the bus terminal, only to get there and see our bus pulling out. He then basically blocked the bus with his car and shoved us on with our belongings as we thanked him profusely...yet again another story of the kindness of many strangers along our journey!

And so we were on our way...to Riga, Latvia. Riga is the capital and again a quite charming city. We checked into a very quiet 20 bed hostel, which incidentally we had all to ourselves for 2 of the 3 nights...Megzi and I treated it like our own apartment. We have gotten into the habit of making our own food to save $$ and this hostel was impecably (sp?) clean and tidy, just perfect for making grand meals!

We went out and enjoyed walking through the parks and winding streets of the old town. We took recommendation from our hostel manager to try some local dishes at a restaurant called Lido...have no idea what we ate but it was really good! We went into the spire of the St. Peters Church, which incidentally has fallen off before, killing many civilians (but never fear...that was 100s of years ago!), we drank LOTS of hot chocolate and just throughly enjoyed the coziness of the cafes because it was FREEZING temperatures outside. But my favorite bit of Riga was something we did on the day we left...we saw the new 007 movie...and it was really cheap! We payed 2.45LAT which is just over 5 CHF and I guess would be right around 5 dollars (since the going rate in Switzerland is around 18CHF we really found this movie date a bargain!). When we exited the theatre we realized just what a time crunch we had on our hands and so we hurried back to the hostel, grabbed our lunch/dinner and our things and ran to the bus stop where we just barely made it on board and headed to the airport.

On a really sad note, I was standing in line in a grocery store in Riga on Wednesday when my cell phone rang. Mom and Dad, my great grandfather has died. He's not been well for quite some time and had a stroke on Sunday. He was in hospital when his heart gave out...nearly 90 years old, married for over 70 years. He had children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even great great grandchildren...he worked hard and gave everything he had for all...his church and his community. No one can blame his heart for giving out...he gave it all away in the numerous years that he lived. I will miss him so much, I regret not being there for my family, specifically Mom and Grandmother, right now. I love you all and I'll be home soon!

We are currently in Berlin, Germany (wait for that post later!) and loving it. This is our last stop and we plan to be here for 7 days before returning to Zürich.

Thanks to you all for reading.

LuLu

Finally Making it to Krakow, Poland....

Hello All!

Well, we left Budapest on a bus at 6:00AM bound for Krakow, Poland. We've been trying for our entire two years in Switzerland to get here on a trip and it just wasn't an easy task. Alot of traveler's you meet along your journey rave about this place so we knew we just had to see it. Our bus took 7 hours and I'm happy to say I slept the whole time. It was great!

We had arrangements to stay with a friend of a friend when we got here. A couchsurfing experience, sort of, but more comfortable for our first time since one of our good friends has stayed with this girl twice before. Ewa (pronounced Eva) was lovely, she was accommodating, chatty, and very friendly. So we hurried to her house to put down our things and then out for the evening to find our bearings in this city and get some dinner. We stayed with Ewa for two nights but after that we decided to check into a hostel. It was lovely staying with her but Megzi and I have decided we're not very good couch surfers, we like just being able to come to our room at a hostel and lay down whenever, just hang around!

The first full day of being in Krakow we made the short trip to the village of Wielizcka, about 30 minutes away by bus. They have a 700 year old salt mine, the only one of it's type that's worked constantly through the middle ages, it only stopped production about 15 years ago. There in that salt mine that tunnels down 9 layers under the earth you can tour some of the most amazing hand sculpted rooms and tunnels. It was inducted into the original UNESCO list back in the 70's and being there I didn't need to wonder why. I wish I could convey to you the real wonder that I had about this place. It was all salt...(all of it!! I licked the walls to see!) the statues were salt, the rocks in the chandielers were salt, the floor was salt...AMAZING! We spent the entire day there and even pigged out at their restaurant, the only one located 135M below the earth.

Day two found us heading for the Auschwitz/Berknau concentration camps. They were the largest of the German camps in WWII. What a completely moving day! We took an organized tour, we thought it would be pointless to go there and not be entirely informed, and we learned so much. I'd been to Dachau, near Munich, and I thought that was a big place but it was nothing compared to the size of Auschwitz/Berknau camp II. Massive, it went on for as far as the eye could see. The train tracks came straight into the camp and the people were hearded off, most of them not to be prisioners but rather straight to the gas chambers to die. The horrors that place has seen. The crimes against humanity that happened there...it's too much for my heart to take. The guide took us to the area of the crematorium there. She said that all around us were the ashes of the dead. They used them as fertilizer all over the camp. After she said that it was more than I could do to stay there any longer, I was glad the tour was up.

It was that evening that we moved into our hostel, a place along the main square of the city. A great location. We've met a few people but more importantly we have a kitchen to use, money saving method, and the freedom to come and go whenever. For the past two days we've just taken it easy, not done much but take walks and go into things that interest us. We plan to see the Wawel Castle today and then wait out the next day for our bus to Vilinus, Lithuania.

We were hoping to be able to leave here tonight but the bus only runs on Tuesday night and Friday. Luck of the draw I guess. The bus trip will be 14 hours, so overnight. We are really hoping that this bus doesn't take us through Belarus or through the tiny bit of Russia that also borders Poland/Lithuania. To go into those countries, even passing through on a bus, requires visas or transit visas and we don't have any. We've heard stories from people who have been kicked off of buses in the middle of the night for not having transit visas, not at this border but others, hope that doesn't happen to us!

Well, I guess this gets me all caught up for my travels so far. We have less than 3 weeks left now. We are looking forward to our return to Switzerland, and for me especially looking forward to getting back to Girls Aged 5 and 8, and then ultimately our trips to our respective countries. Please continue to pray for us in our travels and for our health/safety. We are doing quite well on our small budgets though the last week will definitely be stretching it, we hope to make it through without missing too many meals...hehe....

Thanks for all your thoughts and support so far!

Love you all!!

LuLu

Bulgaria, Romania and Sickness....Then the Recovery that came in Budapest!

Hello All!

I bet you thought I was having too much fun to keep in touch. Quite the opposite let me assure you! Just a day or so after the last time you heard from me I became sick. Something I suspect I picked up in Turkey; it probably laid dormat in my body for a few days before it reared it's very ugly head as I was leaving Bulgaria. I have done a search of my symptoms and concluded that it's mostly likely a common traveler's disease for people that visit there. So here's how it went for me...

The first day I just thought I'd eaten something off, then it became much worse. I started limiting my diet to only short sips of water and soft bread or plain things. Eventually, after we reached our second city in Romania, I was not eating at all. If I ate I got sick and when I was sick I couldn't eat. So by day 5 or 6 I was starving and majorly dehydrated, even standing on my own was a problem because I was so weak. Megzi was gem enough to be very patient with me. She went to the shops and bought me rehydrating fluids to mix with water to replace my body salts lost from the sickness. I forced myself to eat as much as I could in small spurts but it was mostly to no avail. The sickness remained in my stomach and I never had more than 20 minutes without feeling that I might need to curl up and die. I then decided to consult two of the smartest women I know about this problem: Mom and my Swiss Host Mum. Advice all around and I tried to follow it all or most of it...still nothing. But, thanks to one of my Dad's well-traveled friends we got a really strange solution that seems to have done the trick. I denied myself everything for about 14 hours, food and drink, and then I ate as many fresh almonds as my stomach would allow and chased it down with 2 glasses of uber cheap red wine. Apparently my Dad's friend has had this sort of problem a few times in the past and it's always worked for him. The almonds soak up the "poison" sitting in there and then the wine aids in flushing it all out. I won't say it made me 100% immediately, but it made an immediate difference. I was/am a new woman. Please please try this quirky solution should you ever find yourself in this situation. It saved me from going home, which I was plotting when Mom and Dad handed over this remedy. I'm so glad I didn't though...too many great things to see!!

But, on to the real bit you're reading this blog for...you probably want to know what we have seen or done. I have to warn that this post is quite depressing. I was so looking forward to these countries and the sickness ruined them for me...I must go back!

We arrived in Bulgaria in a blur, truly. The bus that was supposed to let us out at the city bus terminal at 5 arrived instead at about 3:30 and let us all out in the middle of nowhere! We had no Bulgarian money, and no idea where we were. We did have a reservation at a hostel for the next night but how was that supposed to help us with hours even before sunrise?? Thanks to the kindness of a wonderful Bulgarian woman we were ushered into a cab and taken, what turned out to be only, 2 blocks or so to our hostel. She wouldn't hear of us giving her any money, not that we had any Bulgarian money but still...she was just one of the many angels we've met along our way.

We were in the city of Varna which is on the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria. It's supposed to be a great tourist town and resort place but we didn't see much of it. We laid low and just wandered the streets. We posted some items home, I'm still saying prayers that they will arrive...who knows how well the Bulgarian post system works. It took us far longer and was much more of a hassle than we'd anticipate that it would be. And finally we made our way to the beaches to touch our feet in the mighty Black Sea. To me, it was just like any other.

We were plotting our best way to get into Romania and discovered that it would help us alot to just stay in a city along the border, Ruse...so that's what we did. We slept at a lovely English Guesthouse there, it was owned by a quirky Brit who thought he was the funniest thing this side of the moon, quite entertaining! And it was there that the first signs of trouble came for me. The next day we were set to take a bus to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, and as we were headed there I felt a funny rumbly in my tummy (Winnie the Pooh would be proud of my lingo now!)...never a good sign!

But we did make the bus and we did make it to the capital city, and might I add with more fresh stamps in the ol' passports! Bucharest is a scary place. It's big and noisy and just doesn't feel right. Maybe it had something to do with all the stories I've heard from others having trouble there or maybe it was my own gut feeling, who knows, but we left there in a hurry. Took the first train out to Brasov, the main city in the Romanian province of Transylvania.

I've been aching to go to Transylvania for a few years now. Finally my chance!! We stayed in a lovely hostel and met heaps of people, but our motivation for seeing "things" was waining fast. We had hit that point that all long term traveler's talk about. It's around the month mark and you suddenly only want to sit around and watch a movie...you don't want to look at your camera or guidebook or think about organizing a tour...NOTHING!

We made ourselves leave the hostel on day one to have a look around Brasov. It is such a beautiful place. Transylvania is said to have the most concentrated amount of Gothic architecture of anywhere in the world. We even got to see the most narrow street in Europe, one no car would ever fit down! It was rather disappointing that most of the tourists sites (two very important churches) were closed and we could not go inside, but on the whole it was a great day.

On day two in Brasov we opted for the 3 castles tour ran by our hostel. We were taken to Rasnov, a ruined fortress sitting high on a transylvanian hill. Then we went to Bran Castle, Dracula's Castle as written in the Bram Stoker novel. However, there was no mention of the blook sucking vampire anywhere except for the capitalizing junk stands at the bottom of the entry road. It was very beautiful but I was hoping more for scary and goosebump producing this time!

Then we went to Peles Castle. I think I'm right in saying it's the most modern castle in Europe. Built only about 100 years ago, the interior is spottlessly beautiful, it was occupied by the last king of Romania, King Carol. There are impressive rooms, large collections of weapons from all over the world (both old and really old!), and the coolest bit to me...an electrically retractable glass ceiling in one room. It was apparently very modern for it's time with running water, electricity, and even central heat and air. If you ever find yourself in Transylvania and can visit only one place you should definitely skip Bran Castle and opt for Peles instead, you won't be disappointed!

After all out castle adventures we headed back to the hostel to retrieve our things and head to the next city in Romania, Sighisoara. I was also excited about this city, but by the time we arrived I was so sick, I was in need of a day in bed. So I never got to see the city, I saw the inside of my hostel and that's all. I laid out for a day of starvation and sickness while Megan went out with a few people we'd met to see the sites. The day after that we had a flight to Budapest. After making our way to the really small airport (2 flights for the entire day!) and being ripped off by a taxi driver in the process we were on our way to a somewhat familiar city and what turned out to be 4 days of nothing but rest.

Budapest has to be one of my favorite cities in Europe. Not just because of the earlier memories it holds for me, going there with my girls in March '07, but it is a truly beautiful place. We'd seen the sites already so we found a hostel and just did nothing but take walks and I began what was ultimately my recovery there. We met some interesting people and went on one less-than-worth-it bus tour but other than that, nothing!

I'm sorry this post is so sporadic. I wanted to catch you up on everything but I guess that everything was more than I thought it'd be. Hopefully the ones to follow for the last bit of our journey (we have about 3 weeks left now!) will be more up-to-date and less chaotic.

Love you all...thanks for reading!

LuLu