Coming Home

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We are sitting in Munich, Germany airport. We will be here for another 3 or 4 hours… then a 10 hour flight to Chicago…. Then a 4+ hour layover in Chicago…. And we will finally be in St Louis on Wednesday the 18^th(your date and your time). I think we just added-up that our flights and etc is all over 29 hours. Maybe more? We had an early flight out of Krakow so for “breakfast” on the plane to Munich they served us cold sandwiches – brown bread, egg, and beef pastrami. I didn’t even open the package. Kamie ate his! He will eat anything. We just had a small meal in the Munich airport. I ordered a beef burger and “german fries” (according to Kamie but they were just fat fries) and Kamie ordered a ham, sausage, and cheese tray – the same crap we’ve been served for breakfast every morning for nearly two weeks! He saw my cheeseburger and immediately regretted his order – so I shared and cut it in half for him. ?



So…this trip is about to come to an end. I am about to see my baby – Simon!! We can’t wait to sleep in our own bed and just be lazy one day. The only thing I’ve missed this trip is my own cooking (which surprises even me), large unsweet iced teas from McDs, and I wouldn’t mind a tall iced Dr Pepper either since Dr Pepper does not exist in any of these countries (even Germany to my disappointment). I’ve missed my co-workers too.. but not the work! LOL This is the first trip we’ve ever taken that I didn’t get homesick. I just felt like we could keep traveling and traveling. We are definitely two people who will continue to travel the world once our remodeling is complete and we have a few more things in order. Things will be clearer in a couple of weeks… as it always is with vacation… but for now… Warsaw, Poland was my favorite city followed by Vilnius, Lithuania. I really enjoyed our time at the Bay of Riga and I’m glad we were able to see the ocean in two countries. Our visit to the Trakai Castle was semi-magical – perfect weather, beautiful background, walking around hand-in-hand. It was great. I loved the city feel of Warsaw and sometimes I wished we lived in Chicago or New York. One thing I didn’t realize this vacation was how much I would learn… about the countries, their histories, the former occupations, the KGB, the Gestapo, more of Hitler’s crazy ways, etc. It has been wonderful to learn so much and I’m not even a history buff.



We met some great people on this trip, too. I’ll have stories to tell from them for years to come. Their lives are all a bit more interesting than ours, or so it seems. We became fairly good friends with a couple that sat next to us on the bus every day and I would have thought they were one of the top four youngest couples on the trip (by far). Yesterday, she revealed she turned 70 yrs old this year!!! We could not believe it! Most of the people on this trip were probably in their late 70s, early 80s, for sure. It’s odd because we ran into two other tour groups with our travel company (Gate 1 Travel) while on this trip and they ALL had several couples much younger than us, at least one or two in their 20s, always one parent traveling with a child (usually a mom with a teenage son), etc. We can’t figure out why our group was so much older but our only explanation would be probably that the other tour groups we saw were on tours were headed west to Vienna and Prague which are popular countries to visit.



Back to the old people.. you know how I said they were treasures? They were… however… the longer we were around them the more we realized they are, in some ways, just like any other age group of people. After the first group of 10 people left, our tour guide announced very loudly and semi-angrily that one of the men in the group had lost his vox (headsets they give us) and he had refused to pay for it so now it was coming out of her salary. Well, everyone knew who this was... apparently, it was Wilfred, my supposed second husband. I couldn’t believe it! He is a Pediatric Neurosurgeon and dresses like a million bucks every day and travels the world in first class and he can’t pay for a $50 vox?? Kamie & I were shocked.



Then, one of the ladies told us another story about Wilfred and Pardo…. How they traveled on the same flight in first class into Estonia …and Wilfred acted like he could barely walk and was carrying a cane and was limping along and because they saw he had Gate 1 Tour Group Luggage (this means you have taken at least 15 trips with Gate 1 – then they send you a free suitcase)… so they offered to help him with his luggage because he looked so frail. They carried his bag off the plane and then he disappeared. The tour guide and everyone waited and waited for them to arrive for the bus and then here he strolled out – no cane in site, walking like nothing. In all the time I saw him, he never once had a cane or limped. They also said they never saw him act that way the rest of the trip – just on the plane and getting off the plane. Curious.



We also heard how someone had their passport stolen in Warsaw. No one knows who as this was kept hush-hush. The tour guide did berate them to all of us because we were supposed to leave our passports locked-up in our safes in the rooms but this couple refused, apparently. The tour guide would “tell on” tour group members but then not say who did what and slowly the group would figure out who it was (usually). Kinda like telephone for kids but these were older people. I heard several people mention how they didn’t like being treated like kindergarteners. Kamie & I were the good kids this trip – no kidding. We did think our tour guide was occasionally a little bit scolding to people about tiny things but she had a handful of people to deal with – a very large group – and she had some real characters on her hands.



We also were at the salt mine last night and several ladies got very mad at one of the men because they shut us up in these teeny tiny elevators – packed-in like sardines with no lights – and then you wait – and then you are transported up or down the mines. While waiting, one of the men in their elevator said “Well, when do the showers start?” He was apparently making a gas chamber reference and the Jewish women in the elevator with him were soooo mad at him last night.



And then there is Bob. Bob is a cantankerous old man (the former dentist) who literally got into a yelling match with our tour guide one night at dinner about something he was completely wrong about. We did not see Bob smile the entire trip. I, however, have laughed my butt off at him a thousand times because he’s so mean it’s funny. Kamie does a great Bob impression now.



So basically, the old treasures are just like the rest of the world – some are made from sugar, others from salt. ?



Since our trip is almost over, I unfortunately feel as though I need to defend myself for a just a very quick second over the cigarette incident in Tallin, Estonia. For starters, we hadn’t flown into an EU country in probably 6 years so we didn’t know the law had changed. Yes, I should have done the research. Oh Well. Lesson learned. The thing is… I wrote about the incident here on my blog AFTER it happened and it was 100% done and over. There was no more worry or concern or anything that we were going to have to pay a $10,000 fine or spend the night in jail. It was a lesson learned and Kamie nor I freaked-out about it and once the shock wore off that afternoon, we just went on with our vacation. We didn’t cry about it…. we did whine about it a bit (ha) for a couple of days… and we got a bit pissed at Estonia for pulling us aside due to Kamie’s looks and making some money off us… but we could have cared less about the 82 Euro fine which is nothing to us on vacation. By the time we got to Latvia, the incident was in the past for us. I have my passport, we have our cigarette tax receipt with us at all times which makes the cigarettes legal all the way until we come home – which is exactly what the customs agent told us in Estonia and I have now researched to verify. We were in EU countries (European Union) which all have great relationships with each other and with the U.S.A. We were in less danger on this trip than had we flown to Las Vegas when we had originally planned – the week of the shootings. Also, I told Kamie I was stupid for deciding to be the one to pay the fine on the cigarettes or “take the wrap” – especially in case there had been something go wrong with the paperwork. I regret doing that and will never do anything like that again in my life. It was a stupid mistake on my part. It was a momentary decision I made thinking my passport had loads of stamps and visas and Kamie’s was brand new – I wanted them to see we travel all the time because my passport is full of other customs entry stamps. I wanted the customs agents to see this was an innocent mistake. Kamie had to renew his passport this year so his was brand new and he already looks like a drug dealer. Also, I remembered Brian Bunch telling us officers always show leniency to women over men. Regardless, I thought I was doing the best thing at the time because I’m the negotiator in this marriage… but hindsight is 20/20. It was a quick, stupid decision. Just so you know, I thoroughly questioned Kamie about why he let me be the “one to blame” and we had a long discussion about the situation. I thought Kamie was mad and about to punch the guy the entire time we were there so I didn’t know if he was going to blow-up and land himself in jail or what so I was trying to diffuse some of the tension between him and Kamie. Kamie knows the situation was handled wrongly but at the time, he was so mad he was seeing red. He realizes he screwed-up too and this was mainly his fault for being a smoker and mine for not researching the laws. In the future… even if it is a fly smashed on the wall that is illegal… Kamie is taking responsibility for Kamie. Period. Kamie gets this and I get it which is more important – maybe this happened to teach me a lesson now instead of in the future when it really matters and someone is in trouble – it will be Kamie, not me. The thing is….we could be dead in Las Vegas. Perspective is good sometimes. So, you may all joke with me and make fun of me about it because I’m probably going to be telling that story the rest of my life… but I am not going to quit traveling, hopefully ever, so don’t tell me that. It isn’t going to happen. I will do my research thoroughly before any future international trips, however. And for the record, I don’t know a single person in the world that hasn’t made a dumb mistake in their life. I’m giving myself a pass and learning a lesson. Lesson learned. Kamie and I had already planned to travel in the U.S.A. in the next couple of years anyway. We are going to Hot Springs, Arkansas next year. Niagara Falls and Alaska are on our immediate list too. Someday, we’ll visit South Africa… New Zealand… Scotland... The Azores…etc. We are not finished traveling, we are taking a break to get some bathrooms remodeled and enjoy the U.S.A. for a few years. I think each time we travel we learn lessons and become better travelers. This time was no exception. ?



Which reminds me, last night we sat at a dinner table with a nice lady who has traveled to over 120 countries. She told us she went to Iran about 5 or 6 years ago and it was very scary. She spent two weeks there. On the plane, before they got off to go into the country, all the ladies had to wear head veils/scarves and long black dress/skirts and make sure they had a top shirt long enough to cover their backs – and she said they had to dress that way everywhere they went for two solid weeks. If you didn’t have one in the airport, they sold you one before you left. She said they took almost everyone’s luggage and opened every compartment in from of them and asked lots and lots of questions. She said she had to do a lot of research prior to going there because having an illegal book or illegal medicine would have meant she could have been locked-up for many years. She said they were very serious about the suitcase searches too. I told her I thought she was crazy for going there and she said she would never go back. See, sometimes people learn lessons even dumber than me.



That reminds me of something else. Kamie is was so sick of the other tour members asking him if he is going to quit smoking. They all prodded him about it constantly. “You should quit. Are you going to quit? Have you thought about quitting smoking? Smoking is very bad for you. If you were my son, I would tell you to quit.” It just pissed him off. He is like a crazed animal with his cigarettes. He says he will never quit and the more they ask, the more he smokes. He is super pissed-off about all the cigarette controversy on this trip and says he feels like a second-class citizen. I think he will never quit smoking or he will die early. It will be his choice to die early. All I can do is make sure he doesn’t smoke in our house. It is what it is. Overall, he’s a good husband and I knew he smoked when I married him. We are a team. ?



Well, goodbye and thanks for reading. We are so blessed to take this trip. We are looking forward to home*sweet*home. Also...looking forward to seeing all of you again soon!

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Comments

[Kari]

Safe travel home u 2
Ur trip/time home is like ours home from Australia. Its a test for sure, only the strong survive. U guys had an amazing trip and loved your posts. I dont plan to stop travelling until my body says "no more". What I have learned from international travels is that other countries are far more stringent thsn US.

[Stacy]

WELCOME HOME!!!