Today is August 9th and that means it is 10 days before I hit the road for another adventure, The route will traverse Europe and land me in the eastern bloc after a bit of a convoluted trip through Finland and Austria. With the current situation in the Ukraine I wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of landing in Budapest- that's just a tad close ( about 200km) to the Ukraine border. I realize most of the fighting is at the other end of the country, but I am not taking any chances. I don't imagine dissidents would be interested in taking out a bus travelling between Vienna and Budapest.
The purpose of the trip is to join a G Adventures group tour which starts in Budapest on August 24th and works its way through Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia, with a final destination of Split on the Adriatic. After lazing around there for a day or two a flight back to Vienna will allow three days to explore before hopping a FinnAir flight back to Canada.
While this will mark our third stop in Budapest, the rest of the route will be virgin territory. The last trip to this area was with Insight Tours- a bus load of Asians and Aussies with a couple of other Canucks and a token Yank that everyone wanted to string up by his ankles because he was such an asshole.
This trip, the group will be limited to a much smaller number- 15 vs 50 and I am putting some serious money on the fact that I will be at least 20 years older than the group average. That being said, I hope that they will be able to keep up with me.
As is usually the case, internet might be a little sketchy. The first hotel, at the Vienna Airport, wants 18 Euro a day for internet access. As if the $200 a night room rate wasn't enough.
So, barring a major surge in Ebola and massive flight restrictions, I think I can start packing.
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