We planned to take our annual/anniversary trip a little early this year for a couple of reasons. First, Teresa was already going to Romania for a business trip, so why not extend it into our “anniversary” vacation. Secondly, she normally plans then with my help, but she was SO busy with her job that she asked me to plan the entire trip. Now, if you know me you might have though this might have been a mistake, no? Well, I was even questioning that by the time the planning was done.

When she first told me Romania, I went straight to some travel guide sights (like www.ricksteves.com and others). I wanted to see what was in Romania, in Bucharest (where she was traveling to) and the surrounding area. The first thing I found according to these sites was that Bucharest had nothing.  Oh, there were a few museums, but the castles and resorts and other kewl sights we would be interested in were outside, in the country. I turned to one of the “official” Romanian tourism sites and found that most of the “suggested” tours only lasted 2 or 3 days. I wondered, “Is Romania a small country? Could we hit other countries in a week?”  I answered, “Sure.” 

Well, I am no stranger to driving in other countries (I did it for two weeks in the UK). So, I found a decent mapping site (www.viamichelin.com) that worked like Google maps, but had more details. I routed and planned stops and figured that within a week, we could drive to Prague. I confirmed with Teresa the days we would be in Eastern Europe so she could book her airfare (I’d have to book mine separately).  

A day or two later, I was working through the calendar and trying to book a car for the trip. I called the international auto rental services, like Hertz and Budget. They had offices in both Bucharest and in Prague. But, neither could give me a rate. Many said they would have to research it and get back to me. I was starting to get concerned. Finally, one company told me that they COULD rent me a car, but that I would be paying some rather large fees like taxes and pick up fees. When I asked what they meant, they said that an auto moving from one country to another, even though they are in the EU, is subject to taxes and fees. That they would have to make arrangements for someone to travel from Bucharest to go to Prague and pick up the vehicle and return it. By the time they finished all fees, I could have BOUGHT a car. 

Great, Teresa already had her airline ticket and so did I, what was I going to do? Well, once I confirmed this was an issue with a couple of other services, one guy suggested I take a train. Sure enough, I looked up the trains on Eurorail and was able to book them through the site. The trains ran over night, almost 8 hours between the major stops I wanted, and they were as cheap as a hotel. Now if I could only get a sleeper, we’d be set. 

Once I had all the transportation, I needed to book the hotels. I found a site (www.booking.com) that had many user reviews and filters. I wanted to make sure they were in a decent part of town (one review had comments that the hookers liked to hang out in the bar, so that hotel dropped off my radar). Of course, I wanted to make sure I was getting a decent rate. I was also looking for places that knew what “non-smoking” meant and places that were somewhat central to the tourist areas. I read through the reviews of 50-100 hotels and B&B’s for each of the three cities I had chosen we would have overnight stays at (Brasov, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic). I chose and booked hotels in those towns. It was all coming together. 

Then, about a week before we were ready to leave, we got a call from Buttercup’s kennel. They had had a fire about two months ago and it had destroyed one of their buildings.  They had to close to remodel and reapply for their permits. They had hoped  to be reopened by the time of our trip, but no such luck. Fortunately, we had a back-up kennel that we sometimes boarded Buttercup at (it’s more expensive, but at least it was available). 

Now all we had to do is pack….. 

Note: If you see something in these blog entries in italics, these are historical facts from someone else that we learned.  Many are pulled from other websites or references and have links to these references.