Railing at Rail Europe

Rail Europe's new website is an exercise in frustration. After trying multiple times to figure out the train schedule from Brno to Vienna, I've given up. Regardless of whether I use IE or Mozilla, and type in various parameters, I get error messages - I can't believe that all train tickets are sold out this early... argh. I don't really want to buy the ticket at this point, just understand when the train will dump me off in Vienna so that I can tell R. what time I can meet her. I guess I'll just have to wing it when I get there.

My last trip to Europe was the jaunt to major cities in Western Europe - Paris, Nice, Barcelona, London (with a short day in Toulouse and an entirely too long couple of days in Carcassonne thrown in). Although D. and I had a wonderful time, I found that booking all of my accommodations in advance limited the experience. Short distances between major cities, plenty of charming and idyllic hamlets in between, and a well-developed bus and rail system (website aside) make it relatively easy to get around. And sometimes you discover that you want to spend some more time in one place and less in another (as D. and I discovered about Toulouse and Carcassonne).

So I'll wing it. I'm not worried - after R. and I called A. in Slovenia today to discuss sailing on the coast of Croatia, I'm floating on cloud nine...

Preparations for Peregrination

My last week at work, and I can barely sit still. After spending six years working at the same company, I am taking the next step in my career and life by heading back to school. Chicago GSB, here I come.

The hackneyed phrase that is used to describe the first semester of business school is "like drinking water from a fire hose." If the first semester is anything like the past 4 weeks of my life, I may be able to get by without worries of overhydration. My preparations for finding an apartment in Chicago during my last trip 2 weeks ago, putting together an itinerary for my trip to Eastern Europe, and figuring out the schedule for the rest of my summer upon my return have been keeping me swamped. Now that I have applied for an apartment *crossing my fingers*, pretty much drafted my itinerary, and figured out approximate dates for moving to Chicago, I can move on to more enjoyable pastimes. I am hoping to find some books on Eastern European history to enjoy during the ridiculously long plane ride.

There are a few minor tasks that I still have to take care of - transferring all of my contact data into some storable, usable form in the next 2 days so that I can dump the Palm V that I got through work years ago (and has been on the verge of dying for the past year), filling out financial aid forms for school, and making sure that I pack everything I need for my trip. But that's what I have a 'to do' list for.

I'll end on a good note - my itinerary for Eastern Europe (not including the many day trips from some of these places):

May 9 - depart San Jose, California, United States
May 10 - arrive in Prague, Czech Republic
May 17 - Český Krumlov (via Český Budějovice)
May 21 - Brno
May 24 - Vienna, Austria
May 27 - Salzburg
May 30 - Bled, Slovenia
May 31 - Bohinj
June 1 - Ljubljana
June 3 - Piran & Koper
June 4 - Pula, Croatia
June 5 - Dubrovnik
June 9 - Split
June 12 - Zadar
June 15 - Zagreb
June 17 - Pécs, Hungary
June 18 - Keszthely
June 20 - Budapest
June 25 - depart Budapest, Hungary
June 26 - arrive in San Jose, California, United States