6 countries in 6 days!

 Well, it took God only 6 days to create the entire universe, but He didn't get tired afterwards (despite resting on the 7th day). I feel like I've been dragged about quite a bit after a whirlwind tour of central Europe with my sister and her family!

After visiting me in Ukraine, we traveled together by hot, airless bus to Warszawa, Poland - a tortuous 20+ hours thanks to lack of fresh air and 1 hot, fussy little boy (my dear little nephew). My poor sister had this little human heater on her lap for most of the 20+ hours trapped on the bus! Let's just say that when we saw some bicycles, we all thought it would be quite nice to bike the 500+ km to Warszawa and escape the bus! ;-)

From Poland, we flew to Frankfurt (round-trip for 129 USD - not too bad) where we got a rental car and drove to the center of the Austrian alps, after getting lost for an hour in the middle of the night trying to find our first host in Germany where we spent the 1st night. Oh and I forgot to say that 2 car seats and a normal-sized person didn't fit very well in the back seat of the rental vehicle. My sister and I took turns sitting in the torture seat, where one could barely squeeze one's hips between the seats and one's shoulders and torso definitely didn't fit! We also had a hard time finding our host in Austria, thanks to poorly marked roads, a non-detailed map, and no directions from the host! Thankfully, after another hour of riding around and asking for directions (without any of us speaking German!), we found it and after being greeted by a very hospitable hostess were able to relax and enjoy the quiet beauty of the Austrian alps.

The next morning, we drove to Italy and spent the day wondering in the unique beauty of the Italian Dolomites. Although much of the alps is similar to Colorado or the 100-mile wilderness of Maine, the quaint towns, wickedly twisting roads, and different languages created a new experience for all of us. The pictures just can't capture the interesting Dolomites! I'd enjoy going back sometime...

We left Italy and headed for Liechtenstein, a tiny, friendly country that each of us has always wanted to visit (perhaps b/c of it's very smallness) and then headed back to Frankfurt via Switzerland and Austria, driving through the night until finally stopping at the last rest stop on the Autobahn before the airport at about 03:30, where we each curled up and tried to sleep for a few hours before needing to catch our planes to our respective homes. I curled up in fetal position in the back - once we cleared out the luggage and the kids slept in the back seat while my sister and her husband slept in the front seats. We left at about 05:45 and eventually found a gas station (after an adventure in the corkscrewy parking garage, trying to find where to return the car) and finally got the car parked, unpacked, and entered the airport.

I had gotten sick during the last day of the trip and was feeling really miserable, so I prayed that there'd be reasonably priced tickets from Warszawa to Kyiv so that I'd not have to try to hold together during a long wait in Warszawa and then a much longer bus or train ride through the night (none of which went directly to my city). Praise God, there were affordable tickets left and I was able to get a seat on a plane to Kyiv and only had to wait 4 hours in Warszawa airport, where I was able to rest and even shower (yes, they have showers there - quite cool)! So, instead of getting home sometime on Friday afternoon, I got home at about half past midnight on Friday morning - and was able to get to bed and sleep for about 7 hours before being awakened by both 2 different neighbors doing renovations to their flat with hammer-drills and hammers!