Since mid-December, I’ve putzed around in Vienna, Zurich,
Lucerne, Bern and Cyprus, and in a couple of weeks I’m aiming for another
R&R.
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| Christmas in Vienna |
Last year at Christmas, I headed off to cooler parts and got
a ton of snow, but this time around, there wasn’t that much. Vienna was super
windy but totally enjoyable. It’s a very walkable city, and the flights there
are timed as such that you can leave on a Friday night and return on a Sunday
afternoon. In my case, I took off Monday too and honestly, kind of ran out of
things to do. Fortunately, they had decent movies playing and I saw “Coco.”
Totally recommend it – it ranks up there with my favorite Pixar movies.
My only goal there, really, was to walk around and see
Christmas markets, of which there were scores. I did the little circle tour (as
recommended by Rick Steves, I think) and basically got my money’s worth with
the daily metro passes. It was just nice to wander around in a Christian
country at Christmas.
For New Year’s, I flew into Zurich to meet a friend who
works in Bern. From there, we took a day trip to Lucerne, which was gorgeous.
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| New Year's in Lucerne |
Trains in Europe are awesome and efficient, but boy,
Switzerland is expensive. Even crashing with a friend, I felt like I spent a
fortune. The trains between the cities were each about 50 Euro (even though
Switzerland isn’t on the Euro) and I did one pretty much every day. Not quite
enough to make a pass worthwhile.
Lucerne was gorgeous. We did the cable car up to the top of
a mountain, and it was quite a journey. Two rides in different cable cars, each
about 10 minutes. Pretty darn high. And once up there, it was very cold, windy
and snowy, but I mean that in a good way.
That day trip was exactly what the doctor ordered. We did it
on New Year’s Eve and came back in time to make pizza and have homemade ice
cream and watch the fireworks, but from the warmth of my friend’s apartment. We
could have gone outside, but it was just so warm.
She had AppleTV and I feel like I caught on watching all
kinds of stuff. First, we went to the theater to see “The Last Jedi,” then we
maxed out on Apple TV. First was “The Big Sick” on Amazon, I think, then “Get
Out” on maybe Hulu. The next two days, we jumped over to HBO and went with “Big
Little Lies.”
Then, over MLK weekend, I took a quick trip to Cyprus to wander
around. It was offseason and I should have rented a car but instead just took
local transport. There was a really cool structure that they called a castle
but was really more of a fortress on the harbor. I’d gone with a colleague and
we did various photo shoots from each perch, getting the same boats at so many
angles.
Now I’m hunkering down for the last leg of my Istanbul tour.
I realized today that I am officially down to five months left. My target
departure date is June 27. I’m adopting the Peace Corps countdown method of
setting short-term milestones.
And planning around travel. I’ve got a couple upcoming trips
planned – Egypt, Antalya and the Baltics – and a few more long weekends to plan
around. I’m thinking of taking a few more vacation days to add on, but nothing definite.
Accepting ideas for more new travel. I really don’t have many
dates left.
Oh, Antalya is the 10k again, and this time I am rooming
with a friend closer in than I did last time. And in April, I plan on
participating (note: not using the word “running”) a half.
It’s nuts, but I
really want to do it. I figure it’ll take me over three hours but I just want to finish.
