The hardest day of travel... EVER!!

I don't want to get into too much detail about the days events except that it was about a 19 hour day of travel and almost everything went wrong. Everything except the fact that Nik and I were always safe and we never took our frustrations out on each other. I will leave the itinerary of the days events and some video so you can get the gist of our tough day.

7:30 am - 4 hours bus ride from Budva to Dubrovnik. No a/c (It was HOT) and an hour wait at customs where we had to exit the bus and have everything searched
11:30 am - 3 hour wait at the airport
2:30 pm - Plane delay to Milan, Italy (30 minutes late)
4:00 pm - Baggage delay in Milan (25 minutes late)
4:50 pm - Bus delay to Milan Central train station (40 minutes late)
6:20 pm - 40 minute bus ride ended up being about an hour and a half. Bus driver thought he was giving us the grand tour of Milan. Just joking, but he did drive around the entire city before finally stopping at the train station.
6:30 pm - Missed train at Milan Central to Lake Como
6:40 - 8:30 pm - Tried to find another train and tried to find someone willing to help us out
8:00 pm - I broke down and started crying from the frustrations of the day
8:45 pm - Nik figured out where we needed to go, then we had to run to the train before we missed it
9:45 pm - Switched trains at another station
10:45 pm - Missed our stop at Lake Como, because there was no sign, announcement or any other indication
10:55 pm - Ended up one stop to late in Switzerland (we think)
11:30 pm - Took train back to where we missed the stop
11:45 pm - Caught a taxi from Como to Menaggio (70 euro)
12:15 am - Arrived at hotel... WE MADE IT!!!!
12:25 am - Roberto (hotel owner) served us the best lasagna we ever had
12:45 am - Nik and I were happy campers and ready for bed

The enchanting city of Kotor

Nik and I decided to catch a bus to the city of Kotor for the day. It was about 30 minutes North and we wanted to explore as much as we could of the country before we had to leave the next day. Kotor is another walled city in the Gulf of Kotor. It is butted right against the mountain and there is a fortress that towers high above the city. We spent the day shopping around, eating a magnificent lunch, checking out the Orthodox churches and going to the maritime museum. We enjoyed the maritime museum because it gave us a little bit of insight into the history of the city. Basically Kotor was constantly being invaded by the Turks, but because of the monstrous mountains, their fortress and the walled city it was never taken over.

For most of the day I kept looking at the top of the mountain at the fortress. I was curious to see what it was like up there, but I didn't think there was anyway of getting up there safely. There are vipers here and who knows what else. We weren't about to make our own trail. While sitting for coffee and chatting with our families via Skype on our phones, I noticed a few people making their way down the mountain. It was doable!! We headed straight for the trail and slowly worked our way up the steep grade. Mind you, I was not prepared for a hike, I had flip flops and a skirt on. As soon as we started to see the views, nothing would stop us from getting to the top. The fortress at the top was nothing to exceptional (I'm sure it was in its day), but the views of the city and the Gulf below were breathtaking.

We had to head back to Budva in the evening because we had plans to meet up with Nik's 3rd cousin. Nik hadn't seen him for about 8 years, so he was very excited to see how he had grown up. Miki is related to Nik, because their grandpa's were brothers. Miki lives in Hercig Novi, a town right on the border of Croatia and Montenegro. He met us at our hotel and he took us out on the town to hangout and catch up. It was great to see Nik and Miki together. Miki was a super nice guy and I know Nik was so glad he got to see some distant family. He invited us to stay with him next time we come out and we encouraged him to come to the states to meet all of his other Kosach family. 

Both of us were sad to leave Montenegro. It is such an amazing country that hasn't been over crowded with tourists. We both see ourselves coming back here many times. Beautiful, affordable, friendly people, not over crowded and great weather. What else could you ask for? 

Awww Montenegro

I fell in love with Montenegro. Maybe because of the beautiful mountains, the clear water, the old citadel towns, the wonderful people or maybe because they named a beer Nik Gold (their most popular beer). We stayed in Budva, a town just south of the Gulf of Kotor. When we arrived into town we were starving, so we headed to the boardwalk on the beach to look for a good place to eat. There were hundreds of restaurants, small shops and gelato places to stop at. We had fun eating our first meal together in the country I have heard so much about. Steves' parents (Nik's dad) were from Montenegro, so Nik fit right in with the locals. He knows very little Serbian, but enough to impress the people. Our hotel staff loved him and they would get so excited and smiley every time we came around.

That night we went out to explore the old citadel city. It is a wall lined city with streets as wide as Nik's arm span and cobblestone streets. People still live in the city and it is filled with cute shops and restaurants. Budva is known as being the young party city of Montenegro, so there were plenty of people dressed their best out on the town. It was fun people watching and wandering through the walled city.  

 

We decided to sit along the coast at a beach restaurant and enjoy the weather with an amazing view of the walled city from the outside. Just sitting there enjoying each others company, talking about life, each other and our future was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. I really must say it made me appreciate my life so much more and all the wonderful people I have in it with me.

Our first day we decided to take a morning run. This is something Nik and I like to do when we travel because it gives us a chance to scope out the town in a short amount of time and we get some exercise. It was already hot, but we managed to break a good sweat and make ourselves feel better about the massive amounts of Nik Gold we would be consuming (just joking Mom, we were very responsible). We spent the day laying on the beach. We both swam in the Adriatic and enjoyed the hot sun, but we only lasted about 3 hours. It always sounds fun to lay out on the beach, but I always get to hot and we both couldn't stop thinking about all the fun places we wanted to explore. Plus, no more burns for this  girl. I had on 30 SPF the entire trip. Afterwards we shopped around and went to the grocery store. I know, I know the grocery store? But, truly the grocery store is always one of my favorite things to do in a new country. It is so interesting going into a grocery store and seeing all the different kinds of foods. We picked up some prosciutto (which is a huge staple there), some feta, tomatoes, and bread. Then, we went back to our hotel and enjoyed the snacks on our balcony. BTW, it was by far the best prosciutto and feta I had ever had. Nik agreed. Going to the grocery store also allowed us to try the local foods without spending a fortune.

That evening we decided to go back to old town and explore during the day. This time we decided to pay to go to the top of the city and see the views. It was right around sunset so we were fortunate to get some good photos.

 

Dusseldorf to Montenegro

Planes, trains and automobiles

Danny was headed back to the states for his time off and Nik and I were headed down to Montenegro. Luckily we were all leaving from Dusseldorf so we caught the train together and headed to the city known as having the longest bar on earth. Nik and Danny have become really good at German so getting around is a breeze. They have even figured out the train situation so we were able to get all 3 of us to Dusseldorf for €30. Not bad considering it is an hour and a half away and we could have spent €30 each. 

It was a lot of fun walking along the Rhine river with the boys. Danny was super excited to head home and Nik and I were waiting with anticipation to head South. I had quite the laugh with the boys appetites though. After stopping at McDonald's (apparently it is good here) for a couple cheeseburgers (those were appetizers) Nik and I tried a German delicatessen which is raw hamburger meat on a slice of bread. I surprisingly liked it a lot. I don't remember what it is called, but people love it around here and it helped substantially with my hunger.

Our night was spent walking along the longest bar (multiple bars and restaurants connected through a series of walking streets). We enjoyed some of the local brews (alt beers come from this region) then headed to our hotel. We shared a room, which was actually really nice, but it consisted of 2 twin beds pushed together. The three of us laughed about who got the crack. Nik was kind enough to take up the duty.

The next morning Danny had to take off early so we said our goodbyes and joked about how Nik and Danny might go through separation anxiety because they have spent so much time together over the past three months. Truly I think they were looking forward to a break. Nik and I then headed out mid morning to catch the train to the airport. The flight was a breeze and we had reservations for a place to stay in Budva, but we weren't sure how we were going to get from the airport in Dubrovnik to Budva about 3 hours and a country away. Upon arriving we asked around looking at car rentals (€250 just to cross the border), seeing if there was a shuttle or just taking a taxi. We chose the taxi  to the first city past the border, then got on a bus and trekked the rest of the way on public transportation. The funny part was the taxi across the border was €60 (which was a 30 min ride) and the bus was €10 for the rest of the ride. The ride was spectacular, even though it was hot and bumpy. 

We drove along the Bay of Kotor enjoying the most incredible mountains (steep and jagged shooting up from the water) and watching all the hundreds of people soaking in the crystal clear water (kind of like Tahoe).

 

Back in the States

I have officially made it back home safely. Nik and I had the trip of a lifetime and we are both sad to see it end. I have to apologize for not updating the blog while I was gone. We decided to spend our precious time with each other instead of worrying about how we were going to keep in contact with family and friends. Rest assured though, we took tons and tons of video and photos that I will surely post on the blog with all the great stories and adventures along the way. 

Now that I am home (without my Nik) I will have plenty of time to organize and write about the fantastic adventure. 

Overheating in Northern Germany

Being able to watch Nik play ball again was very exciting. It was a scorching hot day, pretty rare for this region, and all the guys were all uniformed up. Poor Nik as the catcher has to wear the most gear. He would spend his time between innings putting a cold wet towel on his head or dunking it into a bucket of water. Nik played really well, getting multiple hits and performing some exceptional defensive plays (including throwing multiple base stealers out). They won both games against the team from Bonn. I spent the day in the shade of course drinking water and trying to stay cool. At the end of the day Nik was full of energy insisting on making me dinner and having a good time. The heat hit him like a ton of bricks, either his adrenalin wore off from the wins or his body just couldn't handle the heat any longer. He started feeling really sick, dizzy and he wasn't sweating anymore. One minute he was great the next he was terrible. Me being a pervious EMT, I thought I could recognize something like this a lot sooner, but Nik was having a clear case of heat exhaustion and if we didn't do something quick he could have heat stroke (the no sweating was a bad sign). I immediately put cold packs on his head and neck and he continued to drink cold water, but he wasn't cooling down. He didn't want to move but I convinced him to get in the shower. He sat in a cold shower with all his clothes on and soon he slowly started to feel better. We got him some electrolytes and put that in his water and he sat outside with his wet clothes just letting his body recover. He started feeling better and eventually ate dinner. After dinner he was pretty much back up to par. It was a scary end to his exceptional day. I was so glad I was here to take care of him, because I no a little about what to do, but of course I was scared and worried about him. We spent the rest of the night taking it easy, because we knew our great European adventure was starting tomorrow.

Like we never skipped a beat

Thankfully this trip to Paderborn was much less eventful than the last one. No volcano eruptions, no swindling my way on to a packed plane and no train rides across a couple different countries. I did however leave my house at 4 am to catch a 6 am flight. I arrived in Dallas to sit on the runway for 30 mins because our gate wasn't ready and then our flight taking off was a few minutes late because they were cleaning the plane. I thought that was a funny excuse to be late for takeoff. Also, when we were just about to take off they decided to shut down the runway temporarily for God knows what reason. Thankfully that was only about 30 minutes. I just kept thinking to myself, this is nothing compared to the last trip and as long as I land in Frankfurt and find Nik, life will be grand. Dosing in and out of sleep the entire time, I felt like time was slowing down instead of speeding up until my arrival. My flight ended up being just about an hour late and I touched down in Frankfurt 9.5 hrs later (8:20 am Frankfurt time).

I couldn't help but feel the butterflies in my stomach with anticipation and excitement. It has been over 70 days since Nik and I have seen each other and I couldn't help but think, "What if things have changed? What if we have grown apart?" We have talked everyday and things have been great, but of course I still had the wondering thoughts. I waited for my bag, thankfully it came, then walked to the exit where I was hoping I would find Nik just outside. Sure enough I turned the corner and there he was with a huge smile and looking incredibly handsome. We hugged and kissed and didn't let go for a really long time. I felt like the entire crowd of people waiting for their friends and family were watching us but I didn't care. It was great to see him and I instantly knew nothing had changed.

Nik didn't get much sleep either. He had to leave his house by 4 am borrowing his roommates car to make it to the airport on time. On our way out of the airport we each got coffees and spent the entire ride having the wonderful conversations that we always have. It was so refreshing to know even though we are 6000 miles away, we have been able to keep our relationship strong.

We will be in Paderborn until Monday, then we head off on our adventure of a lifetime. 

4th of July War Zone

As I am packing for my upcoming trip, I can't help but hear the sounds of fireworks all around me. This isn't just tonight, but it has been the last few nights. I guess I am not used to this because in Nevada, as we all know, fireworks are highly illegal. Here in Portland everyone takes it upon themselves to have their own fireworks show. They don't mess around either. These fireworks are as large as any I have seen at any fireworks show. Every few seconds for the last few days I hear loud sounds, like gun shots, all around me. I must say it gives me a little bit of an uneasy feeling, because I never know when it is going to stop and I don't know when they are coming. Large booms followed by long drawn out popping sounds. I keep imagining I am in some sort of war zone hearing these sounds and never really knowing when I will have to duck and cover. Thank God for our independence and freedom, because I don't know if I could handle this if it was a real war. 

Today I was lucky enough to have the day off, so I spent the day going for a long run, preparing for my trip and barbecuing with my roomies. We made good ole' american food; hamburgers, salad and sweet potato fries. I had been craving a hamburger lately, so this was a great way to satisfy the urge. This fourth was definitely different from most I have had. It was much colder weather and I wasn't at Lake Tahoe. I have to say I missed being there, but I still had a great time relaxing and enjoying the day. 

Happy Fourth of July to all my family and friends. 

I hope you enjoyed our countries birthday. I know Portland did!