Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

 And off we were........

Two weeks, 6 different countries and a whole lot of great memories. Erin and I made it safely to Dubrovnik, Croatia and headed to Budva, Crna Gora (Montenegro in the western world) not far from the Croatian border. Our plan was to be there for an entire week, but what was shortened by a change of plane scheduling and the desire to go see beautiful Lake Como, Italy shortened our time there. We spent three fantastic days in Montenegro and we ate and drank like royalty. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was unmatched. The Bay of Kotor is beautiful with crystal clear water and jagged mountains sprouting from the beaches. We even met up with one of my distant Kosach relatives who lives in Herceg Novi, not far from where we were staying.

After Montenegro we flew to Milan via Dubrovnik once again and struggled to get to Lago De Como (Lake Como) which sits in the Alps, near the Swiss border. Erin and I got through a very long and exhausting day to reach our destination after 18 hours, but we were really happy when we asked if any restaurants were open near by, and the host at our hotel said, "No, no, no, it is far to late (12:30a.m.) I am sorry....(long pause).... But if you like I can make you some homemade LASAGNA!" Needless to say after not having anything to eat all day it was the best meal we had ever had. Como was great until Erin got sick. And by the time she was feeling better it was time to get back on the train and head for Innsbruck.

The trip to Innsbruck, Austria was not an easy one as Erin was getting over food poisonings from two nights previous, but she was such a trooper and did really well. By the time we got out of the Italy and into the fresh mountain "Alpine" air of the Alps, Erin was feeling much better. Austria was awesome. We hiked, ate, explored, ate, hiked, and enjoyed the night life of Innsbruck which has hosted the winter olympics twice in the last 50 years. The mountains and views were unbelievable and we enjoyed every second of Austria.

We headed back to Germany to visit Munich and its famous beer halls after five days in Austria. This was my third trip to one of my favorite (if not favorite) European cities and the only thing that hindered our entire trip was the rain. It poured the entire time we were there. Not to mention the hotel we were staying at was being renovated and had a noisy ally which made it really hard to sleep. Regardless, we had a great time visiting as many famous Beer Halls as possible. Erin loved the Haufbrau Haus and its terrible service and unique atmosphere, and I got to enjoy some places I had not yet been.

Through all the days we spent together, we were not looking forward to our last one which was in Frankfurt. We had to leave Munich mid-afternoon to catch a train back to our final destination where Erin was flying home from on the following morning. Upon our arrival we made our way to the hotel and chilled. No adventure in Frankfurt for us as we prepared to say goodbye once again.
It was sad to say goodbye, but we have done such a great job of getting through this distance and it is only a few more weeks of Skype and distance before I will be home for good. The two and a half weeks we were together went by so fast that we reminded each other of how fast this time would go by as well.

After we said goodbye I jumped on the train back to Paderborn and once I got home the house was really quiet. I was home by myself for a few days and the weather was bad. We still had a week before we needed to report back to practice and after about five days of sitting around and not doing anything but working out I decided to get out of the house. I jumped on the train and went to Cologne, Achen, and my final destination of Liege, Belgium. I have wanted to go to Belgium since I have been in Germany and I realized this was probably my last chance. I hadn't traveled alone the entire time I have been here either so it was a lot of fun. Good chocolate, beer, waffles, and interesting people was what I found in Belgium. However, as much fun as I had, it wasn't even close to the trip I took with Erin.

I was really looking forward to playing baseball again, and I couldn't believe the schedule allowed us to have nearly a month off in between games. We were guaranteed second place in league as we knew we could not catch Solingen, nor could we lose out to Bonn. We had one more double header in Pulheim before we headed to Mannheim for the first round of the playoffs. Mannheim was the third place team from the south and we played them for two games at there place before we headed to Paderborn to finish the series. The past three seasons the untouchables have lost to Mannheim in the first round of the playoffs and the guys always talk about the ballpark they play in and what a disadvantage it is to have to play the first two games at their place. Regardless, I was looking forward to playing in Pulheim as we had previously lost 2 games to them and they were the only team we had played that we had not beaten.