Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, & Budapest
You guys, I’m so excited.
This time next week I’ll be somewhere in between Prague and Vienna galavanting around eastern Europe. EEKK!!
I had someone say to me in an e-mail “I need your life – you’re going from France to Prague and I rarely even have time to leave the shop for the grocery store!” And to that, can I just say – this is not my normal life! I don’t go prancing across Europe most of the time. I struggle to get to the grocery store most weeks. This is something special that I’ve been waiting my whole life to do. Ok – a tad dramatic, but I’ve been waiting a while!!
The year after I graduated college I wanted to back pack across Europe. It was a dream of mine. Hot delivery man and I had just broken up so I thought now’s the time! I’m gonna do it!! I had the whole trip planned out. I had maps, train patterns, destinations, travel books. You name it, I had it. I was ready. I was getting ready to buy my tickets but something held me back. I found out a week or so later that I was pregnant.
I remember sitting there, trying to wrap my mind around how my life was going to change. Trying to think if I could possibly back-pack through Europe with an infant. How I could possibly make this trip work. Turns out, that’s not really the best idea. My life had changed (for the better, although at the time I wasn’t too sure) and all my plans were flushed down the toilet with one (well, many) pregnancy tests.
Now, don’t get my wrong, my son didn’t ruin my dreams. Yes, him coming into this world tweaked my life a bit and I am really forever grateful. You’ll have to keep reading our love story to see how all that turns out. However, you might have guessed, I never got to do my trip. The Lord knew exactly what I needed though and he put me here in France to kind of soften the blow. My husband and I don’t do ‘normal’ very well and this un-normal life has fit us perfectly – even in the hard times.
About a year ago, a friend of mine who had been living in Switzerland moved to Vienna, Austria. The moment I found out I knew I had to make it out there to see him. I have never been and I’m dying to add to my list of countries visited. However, my husband can’t really travel like I can. He has basketball and then more basketball and then a little bit more of basketball. He gets one vacation a year and it’s at Christmas. He also didn’t feel too comfortable about sending his wife to eastern Europe by herself to site see.
Well, when I’m a woman with a vision I make things happen. Step one: find a way to visit where my husband feels comfortable letting me go. Another man to keep me safe! Well, obviously not any other man because that would just be weird. But thankfully I have a big, strong, older brother who has a love for travel as well, hasn’t left the States in a while and was itching to take a trip.
Me: “Babe – what about John?”
Babe: “ya, that’d be cool.”
Travel partner: check.
Now to talk said travel partner into coming out to visit. It’s quite the trip and he owns his own business so it’s not that easy to get out of there. But he loves to travel, so that part wouldn’t be hard. He was down visiting my parents this summer when I went for it.
Me: “Come on John, all these years and you still haven’t visited me!! You’ve gotta come. And we’ll go see Chris too!”
John: “Okay, let’s look at tickets.”
Found one at a good price and booked it right there on the spot.
Travel partner booked: check √
We talked to our friend in Vienna who we’ve known since we were something like 5 years old and he is always down to have friends visit. There’s something about being a fellow expat that just bonds you together, you know?
Plane tickets Paris to Prague: check √
Hostel in Prague: ummm, we’ll do that later.
Transport between Prague & Vienna: err… uh that should be easy to do later, right?
Friends in Vienna: check √
Day trip to Bratislava: check √
Transport from Vienna to Budapest: We’ll find a bus or something…
Hostel in Budapest: ummmm we’ll figure that out later.
Tickets from Budapest to Paris: check √
Sounds like we’re all set to go on our very organized tour of Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest. Oh my gosh, I am SO SET.
I asked on Facebook the other day and you guys had some SUPER amazing ideas of what to do while in those cities. So in case I have some new readers here with some new ideas on what to do and what to see, I’ll ask again! Any ideas of what to do or see while visiting any of the above cities?
My brother is on the train right now heading to us & I’ll go pick him up this afternoon. NO ONE can take my happy away today!!!
**You can follow my trip on Facebook or Instagram if you’d like!**
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Natalia Owner & Author
Natalia is a mom to two crazy boys and wife to one handsome dude. She lives in France part of the year where her husband plays professional basketball, but she hails from Southern California. The hubs was born & raised in Nassau, Bahamas, which makes them an intercultural, interracial family traveling the globe together since 2007. She loves to cook (but mostly eat), hang with her fam, be adventurous, & find ways to stay girlie in a house full of men. On her site you can find loads of hair tutorials, makeup ideas, & fashion tips for the everyday woman. She believes that beauty and fashion don't have to be intimidating and that every woman should learn to embrace her own beauty. TwitterFacebookGoogle LinkedIn
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