Eastern Europe Trip

Hey all,

Thanks for coming to read about my adventures. I hope you can get some enjoyment our of my stories. I really just want to share them with friends and family and this is the easiest way to do it. First, I want to thank Pappy and Ben for asking me to go with them on this trip. Its not something I would have done alone, but now that I have, I know I can do it again. These guys were great to travel with even thought they went to Notre Dame.

To read about the trip, scroll down until you see the post that says "Easter Europe Trip - Begin Here!" Hope you enjoy. Feel free to email me or leave any comments.

Scott

None of us shaved the whole trip, here's what I looked like when it was over. Thats the longest I've ever gone without shaving since I've been in the Army.

Tirana, Albania - 12 May

For us Tirana wasn't a major destination. By this time we were ready to get home. But, we were in a new city, so we had to check it out. First we wanted to find a place to drop our bags for the day. We weren't staying the night since our flights were at 5am. We went to the nicest hotel and asked if they had a service, but that doesn't seem to exist here like everywhere else in the world. Then we found the cheapest hotel possible and got a room. We walked around a bit saw what there was to see,

This is a famous communist Mural, another woman holding an AK-47. Not sure why that big to the Communists.

This is the main square. This one picture managed to capturefour of the big things to see in Tirana. The clock, the mosque, a flag, and the statue. That and the mural is about it.

The hardest thing was trying to get money. They don't have many ATMs and the ones they did have, didn't work for our cards. Luckily we found one and had a nice dinner at a restaurant in the embassy district. We took a short nap and then got up at 2am to go to the airport. We asked the lady at the desk to call us a cab, and she kindly refused. Very weird, not to mention that, like in Bulgaria, they shake their head "yes" and nod "no." Many confusing moments in these countries.

So now Pappy and I are running around downtown Tirana at 2am with all our stuff hoping we find a cab, which seem scarce. Plus, we know the Airport is a ways out of town. But we find one and start our way. After we leave Tirana we aren't sure that we are definitely going to the right place. Then when we take a right onto a dirt road we're really worried. No way can the road to the Airport for a nation's capital consist of a dirt road. Well, it did. This thing was full of holes, we were dodging all sorts of them. We eventually arrived at a "one-roomed" airport, that was just opening. And that was it, we got on the plane and flew to Milan. I caught my connection to Frankfurt and jumped on a train for home. So within 24 hours I had take a boat, hiked, a van, a taxi, an airplane, and a train!

The Journey to Tirana... 12 May

Well, this was a very long and interesting day filled with just about every mode of transportation available. We woke up early and grabbed a water taxi for about 25 euros each, seemed expensive but they weren't budging so we went with it. It was a great morning to be out on the lake.

This view is back at the town of Ohrid with the castle up on the hill.

Here's ben and our "Captain." About an hour into the trip, this guy grabbed a bucket, set it on the ledge, and then stood up and took a leak.

The trip across the lake was about 20 miles and 2.5 hours. The destination was a monastery on the opposite side of the lake, but still on the Macedonian side of the border. However, about halfway across the lake we heard and strange noise. Then looked on in horror as the propeller, and the assembly that attaches it to the motor fell into the lake and disappeared forever. So we were in another "Oh Shit" moment. But he didn't seem too phased and simply started up the second motor. Which sputtered for a while. Then, he expertly ripped up some cardboard, rolled it up, and stuffed it in a hole and the motor came to life. We were saved by cardboard...

This is the monastery we landed at.

Here's our boat after we landed.

Ok, so now we've reached the monastery and we are only 500 meters from the border. Unfortunately, they don't have a gate there. So we start looking for a taxi to take us to the border crossing. However, when we ask, they point us to the other water taxis. Also, none of the tour buses seem interested in giving us a lift. So, we pull some more Army out of our bag and ruck it out of Macedonia. It was only a little over 2 miles.

We had to stop for this herd of sheep. The sheep dogs were huge and very much in control of the flock. It was cool watching them keep the sheep out of the intersection. So can barely see one behind Pappy. Also, looking at the sign you see the arrow for Albania.

Humping it like good soldiers, bad intervals though, one grenade and we're toast!

At the border, one of the guards managed to tell us he had lived in a town right next to Ben, so that was pretty funny. Then a car with Pennsylvania plates, yes Pennsylvania, came through the checkpoint. Hmmmmmm....stolen...I wonder. He didn't look American, and if he was, I think he would have offered his country men a ride into town. Regardless, we jumped in a cab and went to Pogredec, Albania. Last country. This is also where we parted ways with Ben. He was heading to Athens to continue his World tour, and Pappy and I need to get to Albania to catch our flight. We knew we were looking for vans that went to Tirana, but weren't sure how it worked. At first we were willing to take a Taxi because we just wanted to make sure we got there. But that would have cost 50 euros. Luckily, we stopped into an internet cafe and ran into the Pogredec Peace Corps guy. He was very nice and took us to the only ATM. He said there was no way of knowing when the Tirana van would come so we would just have to wait. But as we were walking to the bus station to see Ben off one came flying by. So the PC dude yelled at him, he screeched to a halt, more than happy to pick up tourists. We threw our stuff in, said a quick goodbye to Ben, and were off.

It sucked that we had to rush off so fast, cause Ben and Pappy have been roommates for a while and don't know when they'll see each other next. I'm just glad I got to travel with Ben as much as I did. He's done so much in Europe and is basically a travel god. He'll have an amazing experience on his World Tour.

Now Pappy and I begin our harrowing 3.5 hour ride over the Albanian Balkans. These people don't have highways, but passing other vehicles with oncoming cars in sight, and no guard rails, don't seem to be a major problem here. Remember all the recent stories in the news of tour buses falling off cliffs? Well, this was that kind of road. Basically, we drove up to the top of the mountain on a windy(SP?) road. Cliffs all over the place. Then we get to the top, must've been 10,000ft. And we just stay on the top of the ridge. The road is built right about where the two sides of the mountain peak. So we're looking at drop offs on both sides.

We stopped at the top for a "bathroom" break.

The other interesting thing was these bunkers. Back the the 1960's Albania broke away from the USSR. So inorder the defend themselves, the dictator had 700,000 of these things installed. They are everywhere, I mean everywhere. Problem is, they are indestructible. In fact, they made the designer sit in one while it was shelled with tanks to prove they were good. And they were. So now they can't get rid of them and use them however they can.

So late in the afternoon Pappy and I arrived in Tirana, Albania.

Lake Ohrid, Macedonia - 11- 12 May

The bus ride through Macedonia was cool because of the beautiful mountains and scenes like these.

Lake Ohrid is a giant lake, third oldest lake in the World behind Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, which I have been to, and Lake Baikal in Russia?? Ohrid is the Macedonian resort town. Set up like a beach community with the pedestrian only streets and a bunch of cafes, shops, bars and restaurants. We literally were hounded by about 7 people trying to rent us apartments before we even set foot on the ground off the bus. Its like someone called ahead and said that Americans were getting off this bus. Cause they didn't bother anyone but us. Man, they tried so hard, but having gotten used to this type of treatment, we just walked away saying no thanks. After going down a side street we came out on the lake walk. A guy from the bus, had swung around and managed to ambush us, these people were persistent. But, we followed lonely planet to a place right on the lake. She was booked but took us to her friend and we got this place for cheap.

Lake Ohrid is awesome. Its surrounded by mountains, which were still snow capped while we were there. Its the ultimate outdoor activities place. There are hiking trails everywhere, and all sorts of water stuff to do. So, it would be great in the summer. Here's some pictures of us hiking to a church and of the lake itself.

This church was hidden behind a cove outside of town.

Storm clouds were rolling in, but Ben captured this awesome shot of the sunlight peaking through.

This was our last full day together.

Here's a Roman ampitheater/arena that we pretty much just ran into walking back to our hotel from the castle. It was pretty big, you can see the size of it by looking at Pappy.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how we were going to get into Albania. This was the one part of the trip were we didn't have a confident plan from previous research. We knew it was possible, but would be confusing and possible time consuming. However, Pappy and I had a flight from Tirana at 5am Saturday morning, so we didn't have much breathing room. But, we decided it would be nice to take a boat across the lake the next morning. So we haggled with the boat taxi guys for prices. That night we went to a nice dinner, Pappy ordered Lake Ohrid Trout, which is illegal. I guess they are worried about the amount of stock in the lake. So right now he is on the Macedonian wanted list. Since it was off-season there wasn't much going on and we headed home early to get ready for our crazy trip into Albania.

Skopje, Macedonia 10 - 11 May

We were now entering unknown territory. I say unknown because we had never met or known anyone who had ever been to Macedonia or Albania. Save for some of my soldiers who had served during the Kosovo situation a few years back. So, basically, we were expecting a run down city still emerging from the rubble if you will. Bammm! Biggest surprise of the trip. This place is great, and going to be greater. We got off the bus not knowing which of the 3 bus stations we were at. So using Bens watch compass (highly highly encouraged, amazing how much easier it was to use maps in the new cities with a compass, much easier to get our bearings. But maybe you have to be army trained for it to help...). We saw the holiday inn in the distance so we headed for that. As we walked up a cab driver started hassling me about rides and hotels, and having gotten used to being hussled I wanted to brush him off. But, he was being very nice and suggesting a hotel to us, glad we listened. As we walked along the river to check out this hotel, we started to catch our surprise of how cool this city is. The "river walk" was trendy bar after trendy bar, with couches set up outside under bamboo umbrellas. Then we came out into the main square to see nice restaurants, more trend bars and clubs. Right at the end of the old bridge with the castle looking down from across the river.

Then we saw our hotel on the top floor of a building right on the square, it was brand new and very cheap. Here's the view from the balcony.

After checking in, we went to explore the city. Skopje is set up according to religion, Christians are on the south side and the Muslims are on the north side of the river. We didn't really sense any animosity between the two, but then again we weren't there that long. We headed across the river to climb up to the castle. Here are some photos of that.

Ben and Pappy at a hole in the wall, notice the mosque in the background.

We were having fun with the features on Ben's camera.

That night we went out for another very nice and very cheap dinner. Then headed for one of those trendy bars, starting with the Irish pub. Being it a Wednesday, we were expecting the same sort f treatment we got in Kiev and Odessa. And it started to look that way as we saw lots of people out, but they all seemed to be leaving the bars, and the club wasn't open yet. Then as it got closer to midnight, the bars stopped serving drinks and started closing. So disenchanted and confused, we made our way to the nearest club and became the 8th, 9th, and 10th entries. So, things looked bleak. But within 10 minutes everything changed. It seems that the bars close at midnight, and the clubs open at midnight. No overlapping like other cities, so everyone just moves. So the place became packed. Skopje also has some massive outdoor/indoor clubs in the park that are only open in the summer, but they are supposed to be great.

Overall, Skopje was very impressive and very beautiful as it is set right in the mountains. We got up early the next morning and boarded a bus for out last major destination, the resort town of Ohrid, Macedonia.

Sofia, Bulgaria - 9 May

Sofia is surrounded by beautiful mountains

This is a place I've always wanted to go, I now I'd like to go back if I had more time. The city is much better than Bucharest and the people are very nice. Like Romania, they also have great beaches and mountains I'd like to see. We arrived at about 6am and walked to a hostel in town. The owner was this very nice, but crazy woman who thought she was our mom. She kept hugging and kissing us. But it was decent and very cheap. We went for lunch at the the Bulgarian version of McDonalds, a place called Happy Grill. Its a sit down place, and Bulgarian food. This stuff is great. We basically were so hungry we order a 4 course meal, awesome salads, appetizer, and tons of grilled meat. For the 3 of us it cost about $18. Oh, with, water, coffee and beer. Bulgaria is very inexpensive, but get there fast, they join the EU in 2007, and will use the Euro shortly thereafter. We did some walking around, here's the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. It was weird, cause it just looks like a bank with people walking all around. Then all of a sudden these guys show up and people just sort of walk around them. Thats why Ben could get so close to get these photos.

Oh, and this other guy just seemed like an Uber-Patriotic WWII vet, good dude.

Here's another Soviet monument. Check out the fourth guy from the left, whats a dude on the front lines need binoculars for???

Ben and Pappy had a friend of a friend's cousin once removed in Sofia. Pappy had been talking with her on email, so we met up with her and a friend that night and they took us out. We learned a lot about the people from them. Basically, all the students are trying to get to America. About half have already been there, many stayed well past their visas. Including these two girls, who now, can not get a visa to come back to the states. So we had to explain to them why we have immigration policies, and why we can't just have our borders open to everyone, and how every other country does it that way too. But, they weren't sympathetic. Oh well. They also didn't really like the fact that we were only staying one night. They didn't see the point in jumping from place to place, and I now realize a lot of people don't. Actually, I'm not sure I do either. I'm just trying to see as much as I can with the time and resources I have. Anyways, after a few hours, the friend realized she wasn't going to meet her new American husband out of the 3 of us, and left unceremoniously while Pappy and I were using the bathroom. But they were very nice. The next day we jumped on a bus for uncharted territory, Macedonia.

Bucharest, Romania - 8 May

The train ride from Chisinau was very interesting. Because the tracks are different gauges in Romania they have to switch at the border. But, they don't have everyone just get off and get on a different train. Nooooo, they literally take the train apart while we are still sitting in it, seriously. They lined us up, unhooked the wheels, lifted the cars up about 15 feet, slide the old wheels out and new ones in, then lowered us back down and hooked it back up, and off we went. Took about 2 hours.

Here's the train as they are sliding new wheels underneath.

But we met a Peace Corp guy who was heading home for a wedding. He was stationed in a small village north of Chisinau. I was surprised to learn that he only made about $200 a month salary, and that there were about 140 PC people stationed in Moldova alone.

We arrived in Bucharest at about 6am. But we were only staying the day, so we washed up, stashed our bags, and began a hike through this HUGE city. First we headed down to the main palace, its the 3rd biggest building in the world.

This is the main palace, pretty massive building.

They did have fountains all over the place, they were pretty cool.

But really, Bucharest isn't too impressive, just a bunch of massive buildings that were supposed to be palaces for the old dictator, but remain unfinished covered in graffiti. Ben says the best places to go in Romania are the beaches on the coast or the mountains in Transylvania. We actually spent the afternoon at the mall and watched Mission Impossible:III. We needed a chill out day, as we caught another overnight train that night for Sofia, Bulgaria.

Chisinau, Moldova 5 - 7 May

Now we are in the poorest country in Europe, Moldova. The average salary here is $70 a month. They have no real products, except some wine. Which, because of their problems with Russia, they can't really export right now. So they are hurting. Actually, about 1/4 the population lives abroad and sends money home, and that accounts for much of their GDP.

The other major problem is the break away Republic of Transdistria. This is a "country" along the eastern border with the Ukraine. Its a total communist state, lonely planet said it was a living museum of the Soviet Union. They have their own currency, army, border guards, president, the whole works. However, they are not recognized by anyone internationally, so its basically a place that doesn't exist. We passed through it on our bus ride from Odessa. I wanted to take a day trip there, but from what we read it is very difficult. The border guards won't let you in without a visa, but then you have to explain to them that its impossible to get a visa because they don't have any Embassies, because they don't exist. Crazy.

This is about the only thing worth seeing here. The top of the building says Chisinau, YEAH!

We arrived in the late afternoon and decided we could afford to stay in a nice place, we really wanted a hot shower. So we found an upscale apartment/hotel. For 80 euros a night we had a penthouse suite, 2 floors, and 300 channels on TV(we spent most of the time watching this hilarious Italian show. MC in a tux, rock band playing, male body builders in underwear, and topless girls. And somehow, the show was about online gambling.) The staff was extremely nice and accommodating. They even washed our clothes.

Chisinau doesn't have much to see culturally, but is known for having a vibrant nightlife scene.
So Friday night we went to a place called Military Pub(decked out with a bunch of army stuff all over.) It was a bar/club, but lots of people, dressed to impress. Apparantly, they only thing these people spend there money on is for going out to clubs. They have nothing else to do. So the club scene ends up being really good. The funniest thing about Military Pub is about halfway through the night they stop the music. A guy stands on the bar waving the Soviet Flag, and they raise another Soviet Flag over the dance floor, and play the Soviet National Anthem!!! That night we met an 18 year old Russian guy from St. Petersburg, we called him Steve. And he offered to take us to a concert the next day. He's a newscaster, dad lives in Atlanta, and he knew everyone in Chisinau, EVERYONE.

This is Steve.

So Saturday we walked around a bit, but not much to see here. Got a hold of Steve and met up with him around 6pm. He take us to the concert for the most famous Rap group in Russia, Kasta. Russian Rap???? I know, but they were popular, the concert was packed and everyone was into it, singing along. About halfway through the concert, Steve and I went out to the lobby bar to get a beer. Ran into some of Steve's friends, and we decide to get some pictures. Cameras are given to the bartender. Photos taken. I see camera get set on the bar. I turn to say something to Steve, turn back, camera is not on the bar.... So, my camera is now gone. We spend the rest of the concert trying to figure out whole stole it. Steve promises me 100% we will find the camera. Yeah riiiight. But he's friends with the owner of the place, so security is all over it. He's friends with the guy who runs this website that critics the concerts and nightlife each weekend(and everyone visits this website), and he's friends with the black market people who buy and sell stolen things. So, pretty much all bases are covered. But, I'm taking it as a loss, I'm more upset about the lost pictures than the camera. And, I missed the rest of the concert.

News Flash: When I got home, I emailed Steve, and he said he found my camera. Crazy, but he said the owner bought it off a girl who took it, and Steve bought it off of him for about $100. And, being that Steve was very nice to us, I sort of trust him, I sent him the $100 and am hoping he sends my camera, if he actually has it.

After the concert we went to Military Pub for a bit, saw the National Anthem again. Then went upstairs to a club called Star Trak. It was ok, they had a dance off that was pretty hilarious. But we had heard about this place called People, so we made our way there, and were WOWed!! This was one of the nicest clubs I've been too. Right up there with Ibiza, I'll put up pictures. It seemed like we were in Hollywood, everyone was dressed like it. But it only cost about $2 to get in the door.

We walked around a bit more the next day and caught an over night train to Bucharest, Romania.

These were the toilets in the Chisinau train station.

Some weird train at the station.

The Odyssey from Odessa...5 May

Ok, this was our first "OH Shit" moment. Normally, we would make a point to buy train tickets and verify times the day before a major movement. But this time, trusting Lonely Planet and the internet, we just gave our selves enough time to buy tickets the morning of. Train left at 11:43, so we got there around 10 or so. So after waiting in line and then pointing to maps for the ticket lady, she looks at us and shakes her head, "No train!" Oh shit... "Bus!" Ok, we ask another lady, same thing. Apparently, recent issues between Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova, regarding Gas and Wine have cause major tensions and they just stopped the train. They seemed to be pointing us in the direction of the bus station and saying 5 minute walk. But it was pouring rain, and we had no idea whatsoever what the bus schedule was, or even if there was a bus. So we jump in a cab and battle traffic and arrive at the shady shady bus station at about 11:20am. Ticket lady not friendly. She writes down that the buses to Chisinau are at 11:00 and 2:00pm. So we missed the 11, we'll take the 2, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.. No, she just yells at us and points to stuff and we have no idea what shes talking about, or why she won't sell us a ticket. Ben goes wandering to find someone and comes running back in saying that the 11:00 bus is still here. So we talk to the driver, and he says sure, so luckily we got on. He came back to collect money and said 100 Ukrainian, so I pulled out a $20, which is equal and he said fine. phhhhhhhhhhfeewwwww. So off to Moldova we went!

The bus ride was normal until this drunk Ukrainian decides he wanted to talk with us. so he sits down next to Pappy in the back, and then proceeds to put his head in Pappy's lap. Then we became minor celebrities at the border crossing. They kept asking for the Americans to come forward, go into special rooms, and sign a bunch of papers. But, we got to Chisinau early evening and all was good.

Odessa, Ukraine 3 - 5 May

Odessa is the beach city on the Black Sea. Its basically the "Cancun" for Russians. Apparently, in the summer, the beaches are so packed, that it is standing room only, literally. You can't lay down, so they tan standing up. Weird. They also have a bunch of big clubs all along the beach, so it really would be fun in the summer. But...It was early may for us.

We arrived early evening looking for a place to stay. The common thing there is to get an apartment from these little old ladies outside the train station. But we decided for a hotel and hiked for about an hour into the city looking. Here we are looking for the hotel.

We found a very shady spot downtown, great location. But no hot water. Odessa City turns off the hot water from May to October. So unless the building does it itself, you're out of luck. But again, it was only like $15 a night, total! The street next ours was pedestrian only, and horses. So everyone was out on that. We found a booth selling Bad Ass Schwarma's. Basically, its their version of a hamburger. So we got those and walked to the Irish pub. Another theme of the trip was always ending up in Irish Pubs, usually a good location to meet Expats and see whats going on in the city. We went both night in Kiev too. But here, these expats were clueless. Well, everyone here was apparently. Cause its a Wednesday, and there are people everywhere. But no one know "the place" to go. So we end up at the big off-season club, Palledium. Very nice looking, but no people at all. Like before, people on the streets..but where did they all go??? Eventually we checked out a sketchy Turkish club. It was actually cool, we just sat and watch a bunch of girls having fun dancing, they looked professional.

Thursday we did the tourism thing. Lot to do here. FIsrt we grabbed a cab to the catacombs. This is really cool. Odessa has 3,000kms of limestone mine shafts running underneath the city. With entrances all over the place. So, during the Romanian Occupation during WWII (they were with the Nazi's), the Ukrainian underground based themselves from here, underground!! Apparently, they were a big problem for the Romanians, btu they were never able to find them in the tunnels. We took a tour from a cool guy who spoke very accents English and kept talking about the fascists. Here's Ben infront of a command post with a picture of Stalin on the wall.

Next, we went to the beach. It was cold and windy, but we still saw 2 old ladys going into the water. Then walking through the park back into town along the coast, we ran into a military ceremony. They were practicing for something later. So it was cool watching, because the officers were yelling when they messed up and the kids were all rolling their eyes and laughing. Reminded me of West Point. It was neat to see another military gong through the same BS.

Next we went to the Potemkin Steps. This is a big history post here because of a massacre. Back in early 1900's a battleship off the coast mutinied and the people of the city revolted with the sailors. Then the police massacred about 3,000 on these steps.

That night was basically the same story as the night before, I guess these people only have fun in the summer. We got up at about 9am the next morning to catch our train.

Kiev, THE Ukraine 1 May - 3 May

Ahhhhh, the old Soviet Bloc, how wonderful. As you can imagine, much of the trip ws spent dogging the Soviet Union. I've been to old Eastern Bloc countries before, but this is way way east, and still has many soviet overtures. But, don't get me wrong, they are definitely Westernizing, it is a very cool transition to see.

Kiev, is a HUGE town, big streets, big blocks, big buildings, BIG Monuments! We took a crazy taxi ride from the Airport that is about 30 minutes out of town, so it was neat to see some of the development in the suburbs. We had pre-booked an apartment, but they screwed us and messed up our reservation, so only 1 bed. Luckily, we arrived on May Day, so they had the streets blocked off and everyone was out and about. The main square, were the Orange revolution happened last year is very cool.

Here's where the Orange Revolution took place.

Russian folk dance.

We saw a fun Russian Folk Singing/Dancing concert that was fun. Monday night we managed to find "the place to go." Took a 40 minutes cab ride way out into the suburbs, cost us about $2. Amazing. But for some reason the bouncers made us wait for 20 minutes. I just don't get it, they know we are going to spend a ton of money comparatively, why hassle us. Its not like the place is too crowded. But we had fun, and managed to see the sun rise...

Tuesday was our tourism day. Luckily we did pretty good about the tourism thing the whole trip. We jumped on the subway, which is like 2 miles beneath the earth, can't remember why. But the escalator takes 5 minutes to descend, then, there's another one!!

We went to the park on the south side of town. The whole thing I dedicate to "The Great Patriotic War." So, eventhough the Soviet Union has fallen, everywhere we went, they are still proud, like us, to have defeated the Nazi's. The monument was awesome, but the Museum closed at 4pm and we missed it. Here are some photos, I actually really like how the communists do their monuments...

Here's Pappy and Ben infront of some Russian tank and the "statue of Liberty", HA! She was as big as a football field, though.

Just beyond the flowers you can see the cement monument, very well done, supposed to show the unity of the fight. Lots of women holding rifles, that sort of thing. It the background are some orthodox churches.

Tuesday night, we were unable to find "the place." So, basically we just walked around, lot of people out, but we were never sure where everyone was going, this was a common theme on the trip too. At one point we cut through a park and ended up scaling this large hill, a bit off the beaten track, still didn't find a bar. Oh well.

Before I forget, language here is strictly non-English. Nothing like western Europe. Very very few people could speak English her, Russian is their Lingua Franca. So we had to learn some Cyrillic and a few Russian words.

Wednesday morning we took an 11 hour train ride to Odessa. Wasn't so bad, we had our own compartment. But, about half was throughout the trip, the door swung open and 2 orthodox priests all decked out came in chanting. Then one took a brush and dipped it in a bucket of water and then whipped it at me, "blessing" me I guess. Then they wanted a tip!

Travel from Trier - 30 April 2006

I left Trier on Sunday night and took a train to the Frankfurt airport. Unfortunately I arrived at 2am, 5 hours before my flight. So I slept on the floor for a bit. I went to check in at 5am only to find out that our flight to Milan had been canceled, great start! But, just as Pappy strolled up to the counter, they gave us a direct flight on Lufstansa to Kiev, so that was really good. The funny thing was that we ended up on Ben's exact flight. So when he came to the gate and saw us, he was very confused, cause we were supposed to connect in Milan. But we just played it off like it was the plan all along. We were also hoping for the flight we should have been on (Milan to Kiev) would be in a firery crash, so we could feel like the lucky people. But, they all survived.

But the really crazy thing about this flight was that...It was virtually Americans only!! Over a hundred people from Frankfurt to Kiev! It was 2 groups. One was a senior citizen tour group going east for a river tour into Moscow (Very cool). But, no offense, I've never seen a line like that for the bathroom on the air plane before. The other group was abunch of college kids on a missionary trip. Random...

Eastern Europe Trip - Begin Here!

Ok, I've been back from my two week jaunt across eastern Europe for about a week now. Since its raining today and the Mosel River bike ride is out of the question. I thought I'd finally do the write up for my trip. I'll try to write everything up as chronologically as possible. But it probably doesn't matter all that much. I'll also be adding pictures later too. I'll put a lot more than I usually do. It'll take time, as I'm currently in the process of paying off a Russian who managed to "find" my camera. So he's sending it to me....I hope. Seriously, he's a good guy and I'm sure he'll pull through. Also, if you want to read more about our trip. You can go to my friends blog site, similar to mine (Ok, I stole the idea from him). http://benjaminbaughman.blogspot.com/
He just got out of the Army, so he left us in Albania and is continuing a 4 month trek around the world. It'll be fun to follow along.

Let me introduce my 2 friends who went with me. Patrick (Pappy) Murphy, and Ben Baughman. Pappy was in 4-3ADA with me and Ben was his roommate in Wurzburg. Pat's Aunt also happens to teach in the same school as my mom. They both went to Notre Dame, so you can understand that much down time turned to talk of college football.

Ok, so here it goes...6 countries, 9 cities, 12 Days.....