around the world in 180 days

In an uncharacteristically organized move, Anna and I have figured out exactly where we’re going and when for the remainder of our trip. We were prompted to do this by an unusually helpful tourist info office in the Munich train station, Euraide, sponsored by Deutsche Bahn, the German rail company. We went in initially to find out if it made sense to buy a rail pass or if point to point tickets were the way to go. There are no Eurail passes for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, so that made our decision simple.

The impressive thing, though, was when we decided to book our ticket from Munich to Vienna. The lady helping us told us our options, got us the cheapest fare possible and suggested a stopover in Salzburg, which we enjoyed immensely. We were pretty excited after our experiences in India and Nepal with tourist bureaus. No comission, no nonsense, just straight answers and efficient work. God bless the Germans.

While we were in there, we asked if these Euraide stations were all over the place. They aren’t. They’re only in Berlin and Munich. The process was so easy, and the people so pleasant to work with, that we decided to book the remainder of our train tickets. We spent a day figuring out dates and went back yesterday morning to book the rest.

So here’s our plan: we’re in Vienna for 3 days, and then leaving on the 17th for Budapest in Hungary. We stay there for 5 days and then take a night train to Krakow on the 22nd. We’re in Krakow for 4 days, then move to Warsaw for 3 days, and end up in Prague for 4 days. After Prague, we take a night train to Frankfurt, arriving in the morning on the 4th of July, and then fly to Marrakech in Morocco the next morning, July 5. We’ve a week in Morocco, then fly back to Frankfurt on the 12th. We’ll take a train to Amsterdam on the 13th and fly home from there sometime on the 15th, with a little luck.

Steve has offered to come over to AMS and meet us, as it would be easier for us to get on a flight with his higher preference number, but there are 8 flights a day that NWA operates between AMS and either MSP or Detriot. I think our odds are pretty good even if he doesn’t want to come over. Of course, with 8 flights and Steve’s higher number, that gives us a shot at first class, depending on how full the flights are. It’d also be fun to see Steve again, and wander around Amsterdam with him for an evening.

Today we’re going to check out some of Vienna’s world famous museums. The whole center of the city is packed with museums, old churches and palaces from the days of the Habsburg empire. It is a very cool city, with tons of culture and history and I’m excited to spend a few days here poking around.

This is a fun way to travel: a few days here, a few days there, and on the train to the next town. You never have a chance to get bored, because by the time you do, you’re in another town.

We left Steve and Phuket yesterday, and flew back to Bangkok. Anna was awake the night previous with the dreaded stomach problems and last night didn’t go so well either. She’s taking antibiotics and meds for guardia (which don’t conflict and won’t cause her problems) in hopes to clear this out. If they don’t do any good, then it’ll be back to the hospital to tell the umteenth doctor about her embarrassing stomach problems. I’m hoping the meds will work.

It’s ridiculous that we, but more so Anna, get sick so often. We are as careful as possible with food and water and all that and it doesn’t make any sense that so many stomach illnesses should hit us.  What caused it this time? Who knows? Maybe it was from swimming in the lake 2 1/2 weeks ago in Pokhara. That’d be the right time frame for Guardia. Maybe it was from contaminated ice in our watermelon juice in Phuket. Maybe it was a dirty spoon, or maybe it was any number of other things. I can tell you that she’s awfully sick of being sick and I am too.

With luck, Europe will be better on that front. We booked tickets today, and are flying to Munich on June 11. We’ll spend the next five weeks in central/eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Germany) before flying non-rev (thank you so much Steve) on NWA back to MSP in the middle of July. Since we’re flying non-rev (non-revenue, Steve can fly people on NWA for no profit, as long as he’s with them or they are going to MSP–it saves us hundreds of $), we won’t know exactly when we’ll be back until we actually get seats on the flight,  We’ll probably be flying out of Amsterdam, as NWA has three flights a day out of there. With a little luck, we might be sitting in first class on our last fight.

Before we fly to Europe, though, we feel obligated to see some of the “real” Thailand (as if the beaches aren’t real). We’re going up north tomorrow, to a place in the hills called Chaing Mai that is famous for being a lovely place to visit. As long as Anna’s stomach isn’t causing her trouble anymore, we’re planning on doing a guided trek through the forests to see hill-clan villages and probably be pressured to buy souvenirs from them. We’re also talking about doing a cooking class whilst up there, but of course, all this depends on Anna’s stomach. We’ll be flying back on June 10 to spend the night in the lovely Bangkok airport before flying off to Munich.