I got back from vacation a couple days ago, and two days later than originally planned. It was great, but I am definitely happy to be "home." I'm also happy that Moldova feels like home now. :)
I travelled with 3 other volunteers from my training group. One of them has family in Germany so that was our first stop. The grandparents are ethnically German but grew up in Kazakhstan. Anyway, Christmas with them was great! It was a combination of German and Kazakh, with Russian and German food and language and traditions. Then we went to Venice for a few days, where we had crazy transportation issues. Our flight from there to Budapest was canceled due to snow in London, and the busses were all full, and the train was delayed 1.5 hours, and we slept sitting up/on the floor, etc. It was an adventure, for sure!
Budapest was great! I was really happy to have more time to see things there (when I was there in 2007, we only had 1 day), even though we lost a day to traveling. I'd definitely go there again. We ended with a day in Bucharest because we had to go there to get back to Moldova. Bucharest was another adventure. We hadn't originally planned to spend a day there, but when we arrived on New Year's Eve, we found out that the hostel we had booked had closed 2 months ago! So we scrambled and found an actually really nice hotel for a reasonable price right in the center. The Christmas lights were beautiful, and I'm glad we got to have a day there. I definitely enjoyed it more this time than I did 10 years ago. I'd like to go back and do some more exploring.
I do feel more rested, and it was great to have a chance to step outside my life here in Moldova and reflect. I feel ready now to be back in Moldova and get back to work here.
I travelled with 3 other volunteers from my training group. One of them has family in Germany so that was our first stop. The grandparents are ethnically German but grew up in Kazakhstan. Anyway, Christmas with them was great! It was a combination of German and Kazakh, with Russian and German food and language and traditions. Then we went to Venice for a few days, where we had crazy transportation issues. Our flight from there to Budapest was canceled due to snow in London, and the busses were all full, and the train was delayed 1.5 hours, and we slept sitting up/on the floor, etc. It was an adventure, for sure!
Budapest was great! I was really happy to have more time to see things there (when I was there in 2007, we only had 1 day), even though we lost a day to traveling. I'd definitely go there again. We ended with a day in Bucharest because we had to go there to get back to Moldova. Bucharest was another adventure. We hadn't originally planned to spend a day there, but when we arrived on New Year's Eve, we found out that the hostel we had booked had closed 2 months ago! So we scrambled and found an actually really nice hotel for a reasonable price right in the center. The Christmas lights were beautiful, and I'm glad we got to have a day there. I definitely enjoyed it more this time than I did 10 years ago. I'd like to go back and do some more exploring.
I do feel more rested, and it was great to have a chance to step outside my life here in Moldova and reflect. I feel ready now to be back in Moldova and get back to work here.
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