Ready or not, here we come!

Here we are again, on the doorstep of another spectacular Eurotrip.  Everything seems to be falling into place - finally.  One year and some change has passed since last year's adventure.  If you want to reminisce about our trials and tribulations in Germany and Belgium, just look to the right (down a little bit).  We have provided you a handy dandy link.

We began planning this trip almost a year ago, and have been waiting like giddy little children anticipating Santa Claus' arrival on Christmas Morning.  That's what you have to do when you are a little anal retentive like me and think such is necessary to get the best deal on airfare, hotels, transportation, etc.  In reality it probably wouldn't have mattered, as I actually was able to change our flight for a better one (that resulted in a Delta points refund) a couple of months ago.  I also like to plan things (maybe that's why I'm an engineer??). Whodathunkit?  

Not to digress, but our original flight was probably going to be a little hellish.  The plan was to fly to Prague, but all I could get was a connecting flight through JFK.  That's fine, except the flight from Atlanta to JFK left at 7:00am, and the flight from JFK to Prague didn't leave until almost 5:00pm!  We thought long and hard about what to do during those long 7 hours at JFK.  We investigated the possibility of going over to Hoboken, NJ to see if we could meet Buddy Valastro and crew at Carlo's Bakery (since we are both big Cake Boss fans).  However, it didn't take us too long to realize how long it would take us to get there and that it would have been a really risky move time-wise.  So then I started researching what I should have been researching all along - how to get rid of the stupidly long layover.  It was still ridiculous, even though I was able to see the bright side (we could have had a couple of false starts leaving Atlanta and probably still made our flight to Prague).  But the wonderful folks at Delta came through for me - we were able to get a direct flight a day earlier and for less frequent flyer points. 

Anyway, we had so much fun over there last year that we decided almost immediately (literally) that we wanted to go back.  Excitement has just about boiled over.  This year's itinerary will take us through four major cities in four different countries:

-Prague - where we will meet up with two close friends and their brand new baby (this is the same couple we spent a few days with last year outside of Cologne).  Neither of us has been to Prague, and Czech has been difficult to pick up, to say the least.  But we are excited anyway, as most of our friends have loved their experiences there.

-Vienna - not seeing anyone special here, but we will be doing special things, including eating lots of wienerschnitzel (well, me at any rate - I wonder if there is such thing as a veggieschintzel).  And, no doubt, lots and lots of chocolate.  The German spelling of Vienna is Wien.  While it is pronounced "veen" I have had lots of fun going around calling it "ween," mainly because I think that is cool and sounds better.

-Budapest - we will be seeing our dear friend Gabor, and meeting his friends and seeing his parents and family again.  For those of you that don't know, Gabor lived with my family on an exchange program almost 12 years ago when we were in high school.  We went to meet his family and see Hungary 11 years ago, and Susan and I are the only Henschen bums that haven't been back to Hungary see him since.  Although, we kinda half way not really made up for it by forcing him to come to Munich last year.  I have always liked the German pronunciation of Hungary - Ungarn, which is pronounced "OON-garn."

-Munich - yes, we are going back to the beloved land of beer glasses you can fit your whole head inside and big fat tasty sausages.  We couldn't get enough of either last year and need to satisfy our sausage and beer habits.  We love it so much that we talk (jokingly, at least at this point) about moving there.  Seriously though, last year, when we were staying in Munich we spent almost every day seeing something outside of Munich that we only saw a couple of things within Munich.  We loved what we saw, but we felt like we missed out too.

Specific things we are excited about include, but are not limited to the following:

-Experiencing new languages and cultures
-Beer, Palinka, Wine
-Chocolate anything (especially Chocapic)
-Buying trachten (lederhosen and a dirndl) - fortunately we know of a couple reputable shops that sell these items pre-loved.
-Seeing old friends, and making new ones.
-Eating more sausages, goulash, schnitzels, and dumplings than we probably should
-Walking and walking (in part to make us not feel as bad about the eating)
-Swimming
-Using a reliable transit system that actually goes where we need it to go
-Leaving the blackberries at home
-Watching world cup games in cities where they take football/soccer seriously (more seriously than some people take college football here).

We went back and forth about the title of this blog, and I'm not entirely sure that it will remain the same through the trip as I'm not 100% happy with it.  We tried a few different things, but weren't really happy with the way any of them came out.  We studied the four crests of each country, but couldn't come up with a common theme.  They all have angry-looking birds except Hungary.  We thought about "German And Gibberish," as that is what my dad thinks of when he sees Hungarian in print.  Czech is sort of the same way.  We thought about something having to do with Hunter (our dog), like maybe "Hunter's Lament" (since we would be leaving him) and writing it from his perspective.  But we decided that would be a little to difficult to keep up, especially after a few pilsners in Prague, palinka in Budapest, or Maß in Munich.  While we would love to call it something like "Imbibing through Europe," we don't want it to make it sound like we are going to ONLY be drinking.  For now, at the very least, it is titled "Europe Called - It Wants Its Henschens Back."

Anyway, Hunter is off with his babysitters (thanks Bonnie, John, Mom and Dad).  All the travel guides are packed along with a whole pile of confirmations and tickets.  I think we are ready to go.  So please, grab a brew or two (or three) and join us on our trek though Central and Western Europe.  It's sure to be a wild ride!

Cheers!
Na zdravi! (as they say in the Czech Republic)
Egészségetekre! (as they say in Hungary)
Pros't! (as they say in Germany and Austria)