And The Results Are In...

Thanks to all of you who voted in my vacation poll, both of you. I think this is a ominous sign that online voting wouldn't necessarily improve voter turnout if it were implemented in political elections. That, or it's an ominous sign that there are only two people out there reading my blog. I prefer to think the former...

Of the options I presented, the trip to Austria and Hungary was the winner, with a whopping two votes. And, as luck would have it, that is roughly where we decided to go earlier this week, before voting was over. On October 1st, we are going to fly to Munich and on to Budapest, where we will spend a few days before training back to Munich, by way of Vienna. This plan has several advantages:

• I've never been to Hungary, therefore I can scratch another country off my list in my life goal of seeing all the countries of Europe. 
• Hungary was once behind the Iron Curtain, and has several Communist-era sights to visit.
• It's been about eleven or twelve years since I last went to Vienna, and I can't remember a thing about it, other than eating lots of wienerschnitzel.
• We'll be in two German-speaking cities, so I can get some practice in, even if the dialects are slightly different from what I'm used to.
• All three cities are bastions of Baroque architecture, one of Dad's favorite styles (and have splendid, but less prevalent, examples of Secessionist architecture, the Austro-Hungarian form of Art Nouveau, which is one of my favorite styles.)

But, then again, I think it would be fairly difficult to go wrong with a European vacation, regardless of where you go. I beyond ready for a vacation, and I'm certainly excited about all the possibilities of our journey to come!