Tuesday, May 13, 2008

May 1 - EuroFeet Returns!

So, here is the plan. I am going to try and give you guys an update as often as possible until I get the Europe story told. It takes a while to upload pictures here, so be patient.

So, it was finally here. Escape from Doha for 11 Days….what could be nicer. As you guys may or may not know the frequent flier miles that I have accumulated while I have been here have really added up. (A trip to the US and back really helps!) So I decided to take an 11 day Eastern Europe trip with the best travel partner ever, courtesy of Qatar Airways (FYI-You still have to pay taxes…however I am not going to complain about a $200 roundtrip ticket to Europe). I was going to see Prague one way or another while I was over here, so I am glad that I talked her into going. The ex-military in her makes her so easy to travel with compared to those boys that I trekked with around Europe in 2005.

The day started off with way too early of an alarm clock. We had to be at the airport at about 6:00am…so it was early. The doorbell rang at 5:30 and her and the driver were waiting. However, we had a small problem. Hussein (our driver) had turned off his car when he got to our place, and now it would not start. Thankfully after a little bit of coaxing I was able to get it started and we were on our way. Once we arrived and were checked in, we headed to the Silver Lounge, which I am now a proud card carrying member of the Silver Club of QA. It was early and we had breakfast in the lounge, but to our dismay it was dry. Thanks to a little Yankee and WV ingenuity we went to Duty free and got some ‘tasty beverages’ that mixed well with the orange juice. It was nice not having to pay for food or mixers.

Soon we were on our way to the plane which when we were pulling up to it (Doha uses a bus system instead of jet ways) I noticed that it was rather large. Later on, talking to the flight attendant we found out that it was not the usual plane. It was one they use for intercontinental flights. It was huge and there were only 70+ passengers on board. I asked the attendant when she went by if we could change seats and she had no problem with it. (The seat configuration was 2-4-2) After getting to altitude, I moved up a row and to the middle (we did have the side seats.) Carol moved to the row behind me and we were able to lay flat and get a few more hours of sleep. When I got up about 2 hours later, I noticed a bunch of others had liked my tactic and were doing the same thing. It was a great relief, especially since I had to get up at 0-Dark 30.
Soon, we were descending and it wasn’t long until we saw this sign:



Heck yeah. It was so great to see all the green as we were coming in for a landing. It was great. It was also great getting off the plane and being somewhere where you are in the majority and not the minority. (It is also nice to be in a country that can say your last name correctly!) It took us no time to get some more tasty beverages for the road (It is legal to travel in this country with it) and head for the city.


After some fumbling with the machine and getting on the right train we ended up at the train station we would be departing from in a few hours. After getting some Euros we stowed our luggage in the lockers and headed to find some food. Halleluiah! Right near the station was a bar that had all traditional food and beverages. Before we walked in we decided to take a stroll around the block just to enjoy the nice day and see some of Europe.


Wouldn’t you know it, but a little bit of Doha followed us here. As we were walking around the block I was noticing that a large amount of women were covered. The next corner we turned and ran right into the middle of a Islamic Celebration Party right on the streets of Vienna. Seeing how we just left that culture we decided it would be best to get to someplace that made us feel more at home. So we headed to the restaurant that I mentioned earlier.


Ahh. Wurst, Schnitzel, Kraut, etc. It was so great. Bavarian Beer. MMMMMMMMMMMMM It was unbelievable. After eating and getting ready to leave, we noticed that there were a lot of cops outside. Turns out there was some sort of protest going on and they were marching down the street. I walked out and filmed some and it was great to not feel the least bit threatened. I got some pictures of the signs so maybe I can figure out what they were protesting against.
We headed back to the train station and caught our train to Budapest. We decided in planning to do Vienna last, so we headed to Budapest to really start our trip. We grabbed a second class train and we on our way.


Does anyone think that just Coke was in that bottle?

We arrived in Budapest about 9:00 and were wore out. It was pouring the rain (what’s that?) and I was trying to navigate. We grabbed the metro and found our Hotel which was in a great location. It was right on the River separating Buda and Pest. It was a Marriott and the service was really great. We checked in and were asleep in no time.


As a side note, I am really impressed with Hotels.com. As you all know I do a good bit of research before travelling, and I was able to get some really impressive hotels really cheap. The hotel we stayed in the last part of the trip in Vienna was way over my head. The guide book actually listed it as one of the top 10 Luxury hotels in Vienna and it had many dollar signs after it.


That was May 1. Stay tuned for more!

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