Dealing with a few minor hiccups. I decided that we would go to Pamukkale, Turkey because there was an express overnight train and we could have had a sleeper car. The state website still lists this train, but apparently it is canceled. That leaves us with an overnight bus. Fewer hours than the train, but I don't think it will be nearly as comfortable. Oh well...
Our flight from Pittsburgh is scheduled to leave around 3pm tomorrow. We are going to try and take an earlier flight from Pittsburgh to give us more time to change to our international flight out of Newark tomorrow. The flight we are trying to catch leaves around 11am. We leave the house around 9am tomorrow morning. Sadly, our cell phones will stay behind. I will feel so disconnected with out my cell. I realized yesterday that I needed to bring a watch because I won't have my cell to check the time.
All the errands are done, house is clean, laundry clean still needs to be folded, lawn mowed. I will pack our bags this afternoon and pray we are less than 50 lbs, but need to be certain that they will be less than 20kg (44lbs) for our Ukraine to Turkey flight. We will lose probably that much when we give Sarah and Alister their Peanut Butter, Pam spray, saltine crackers, and chili powder. I don't want to pay for overweight bags.
Our last thoughts before falling asleep last night--getting a bit nervous: with anticipation and not knowing exactly how everything will go. However, we are really excited to be off. It has been a long time since we have traveled abroad.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Preparing for a month long journey
Many of you know that Brandon and Gyna are taking a month off. Call it our 2nd honeymoon, call it our 1st real honeymoon (Crater Lake was very wonderful.), call it the chance of a lifetime. Whatever you want to call it, don't call us out lunch. Really, we have wanted to travel Europe for a long time. I mean, we have wanted to take this trip since maybe 2002, but we did decide to be gone "a long time." For people who just bought a house, we sure are keen to leave it so fast. We've been saving, so we're going. The timing couldn't be more right. Brandon just graduated, Gyna has had it with the commute and has quit her position at Children's. Time for a break.
We're headed to Ukraine to see friends in Kiev. We have been friends with Sarah for about 10 years now (almost exactly since I remember starting at Linfield on August 28, 1999). She and her husband are living in Ukraine. After 9 days or so, we'll head off to Turkey. Thought we would see friends, but turns out one actually lives in a big city we won't be traveling to and the other will actually be in Pittsburgh. We're going to try our hand at moving around Western Turkey without knowing turkish. After 10 days of this, we'll fly out at 5am local time to Salzburg, Austria via London. Sigh--I would have loved a direct flight. Fortunately, we'll meet up with Brandon's dad in London, who is on the same flight as us to Salzburg. His first time to Europe and Austria. Brandon has his hands full dealing with two rookies in Austria. He has also decided to wear us out by hiking and biking to work for our beer. Yum! Thought we would see friends in Vienna, but turns out they'll be traveling around New Zealand at that time. Sad for us, yippee for them.
We leave on September 1st. Stay tuned for our adventures. The guest bed is covered with the items for our packs. Yes, we are taking backpacking packs. I'm trying to decide if we're crazy, but we're not backpacking camping; least we'll have a roof over our heads every night...even if it is a plane or train roof.
I have to get one last Pirates game in before this season ends. Must make time before we leave.
We're headed to Ukraine to see friends in Kiev. We have been friends with Sarah for about 10 years now (almost exactly since I remember starting at Linfield on August 28, 1999). She and her husband are living in Ukraine. After 9 days or so, we'll head off to Turkey. Thought we would see friends, but turns out one actually lives in a big city we won't be traveling to and the other will actually be in Pittsburgh. We're going to try our hand at moving around Western Turkey without knowing turkish. After 10 days of this, we'll fly out at 5am local time to Salzburg, Austria via London. Sigh--I would have loved a direct flight. Fortunately, we'll meet up with Brandon's dad in London, who is on the same flight as us to Salzburg. His first time to Europe and Austria. Brandon has his hands full dealing with two rookies in Austria. He has also decided to wear us out by hiking and biking to work for our beer. Yum! Thought we would see friends in Vienna, but turns out they'll be traveling around New Zealand at that time. Sad for us, yippee for them.
We leave on September 1st. Stay tuned for our adventures. The guest bed is covered with the items for our packs. Yes, we are taking backpacking packs. I'm trying to decide if we're crazy, but we're not backpacking camping; least we'll have a roof over our heads every night...even if it is a plane or train roof.
I have to get one last Pirates game in before this season ends. Must make time before we leave.
Our house!
I realized it is long past due for some real pictures of our house with our stuff in it. Same layout, new stuff. Although not really, just the table and sofa. :O)
We really do love our new house. It's size is just right, but it still takes about a day to clean, sadly. I am working on getting some flowers planted in the front yard and we're going to get a fruit tree for either the backyard or the front yard. It's too late in the season to continue planting, but I plan to get some more flowers (dahlias, cosmos, zinnias) into the front yard to give it more color.
In March or so, we will set up our raised beds in the backyard for the garden. I plan to be busy weeding and harvesting next year. The three dead trees came down for a very reasonable fee. No one was hurt in the taking down of these trees.
The inside is perfectly livable. We haven't painted a thing. Still waiting for inspiration to hit. Have curtains to hang yet, our bedroom will be first. Apparently the shades in our bedroom are see-through so we covered the windows with a sheet. I don't want to hang curtains until I figure out exactly what I'm doing with the room though.
We love our quiet little neighborhood. We try to get out and walk on a regular basis. In doing so, we walk hills and valleys. It very good exercise in the course of an hour. Lots of trees and deer.
Almost as good as living in the country, but there is no real substitute.
We really do love our new house. It's size is just right, but it still takes about a day to clean, sadly. I am working on getting some flowers planted in the front yard and we're going to get a fruit tree for either the backyard or the front yard. It's too late in the season to continue planting, but I plan to get some more flowers (dahlias, cosmos, zinnias) into the front yard to give it more color.
In March or so, we will set up our raised beds in the backyard for the garden. I plan to be busy weeding and harvesting next year. The three dead trees came down for a very reasonable fee. No one was hurt in the taking down of these trees.
The inside is perfectly livable. We haven't painted a thing. Still waiting for inspiration to hit. Have curtains to hang yet, our bedroom will be first. Apparently the shades in our bedroom are see-through so we covered the windows with a sheet. I don't want to hang curtains until I figure out exactly what I'm doing with the room though.
We love our quiet little neighborhood. We try to get out and walk on a regular basis. In doing so, we walk hills and valleys. It very good exercise in the course of an hour. Lots of trees and deer.
Almost as good as living in the country, but there is no real substitute.
Visitors to Pittsburgh and Graduation!
At long last, Gyna's parents made it to Pittsburgh, with our niece Valerie in tow. I'm told it is a long haul from Susanville CA. As if I didn't know that. They flew in on August 12th. We made some minor repairs on the house including a new basement door with a screen, updated some wiring, and installed a new stair banister. Since I am pretty clutzy on stairs, this is a good thing. We visited Phipps, the Cathedral of Learning, the Strip District, Ohiopyle, and the Incline. It was so hot, the hottest it has been all summer, that we were content to work inside our air-conditioned house rather than play outside. We did go biking, swimming, and made a slip and slide in the backyard. We still had fun.
During the week they were here, Brandon successfully finished his last classes at Tepper. He says he isn't a graduate until he gets that diploma, but that could take months. To me, he is now the proud recipient of an MBA from CMU. It has been a long haul, but we both think it was the best course for Brandon to have taken. He loved being a student. Yeah!!
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