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.
