Almost Ready for Vacation

Well, I spent the better part of today tying up loose ends on my travel plans. I leave Thursday, April 27 for Budapest, Hungary. For the next 17 days, I will be travelling through Hungary, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria and Romania. I'm looking forward to visiting a part of Europe into which few tourists have ventured since the Yugoslavian Civil War of the mid-1990s. The south of Croatia (Dubrovnik) is about the only place tourists visit in the region these days. It will be amazing to see some of the most beautiful and historic sites in Europe, including a dozen or so UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The aftermath of the Civil War will also be apparent in the Serbia-Montenegro towns of Osijek, Vukovar and Belgrade. I hear the people are awfully friendly throughout the region, and many speak English. I found this to be the case 10 years ago in Prague as well. At the end of the trip, we're heading up to the Romanian town of Sinaia to tour Count Dracula's castle. I'll bring silver bullets, wooden stakes and garlic cloves just in case ;-).

I have invested more time researching this trip than any other because there are virtually no English-language travel guides for half the places we're visiting. I want to make sure I use my free time wisely, instead of doing something idiotic like going back to the ship or hotel to eat, sleep or watch TV. People on my trips often marvel at the amount of work I put into planning. I always make sure I don't miss anything I'll regret. The flip side is that people latch onto me and invite themselves to roam around with me, which I don't always like when time is short and there's lots of ground to cover. That's probably why I don't mind travelling alone. Fortunately my usual travel companions are like me. So when they come along, it's not a problem (well, maybe not completely like me, but close enough--we have an understanding).

I also found out there are a bunch of other Wisconsin people on the trip. So I did some Internet research on them, but didn't find out much more than where they live, how old they are, and how many speeding tickets they have. None of it was particularly noteworthy, but one couple spent January 2001 in Costa Rica on a humpback whale expedition and have a son who married a Turkish women in Istanbul in 2004.

My new digital camera finally arrived too. I waited over 11 days. Every time I went online to check the status of my order, it was always the same: "Order Sent to Warehouse to be Picked." So I called them up and let them have it. Seems they "forgot" to tell me the camera was out of stock and that the manufacturer stopped making it. They then upsold me a different Sony camera (7 mexapixels--just what I need). It arrived last night and I pretty much know everything I need to about it already, so have one less thing to worry about now.

Anyhow, I've got to get home and run.

I'll be posting daily blogs from the road, so check back daily.