So, I have a sister who likes to travel. Damn near every year she takes all of her vacation time, which is a considerable amount, and goes somewhere far, far away. The past couple of years it has been somewhere in the UK.
She has a friend who visits another friend who resides in the Champagne region of France every other year. On the other “every other year” this friend comes out to visit my sister’s friend here in Seattle.
This year is the year for going to France. Having met this French friend when she was out last year, my sister was invited to visit this year, and she accepted. She is visiting Versailles today.
A couple years back, before I was laid off and went away to learn welding, her and I had made plans for a grand European vacation. My sister has a romanticized ideal of Berlin, and would love to go, but not alone. I told her I’d sherpa her around Berlin and greater Deutschland, if we could spend an equal amount of time in Prague and maybe a few days in Budapest.
Well, I got laid off and had to go to college so as to be employable, and that plan was put away.
I had dinner with her the night before her flight to the land of the Francs, and she brought it up again, since I’m employed and she still really wants to go.
I agreed to our departure next September.
I knew of the “refugee crisis”. And of the hassle of getting a rental car anywhere east of Germany. And of having to get a new phone, since US phones don’t work “over there”. And that, not counting food, fuel and other daily costs, this trip is going to set me back $2500 before I even get to the airport. But I agreed anyway.
Trust me, I do want to go. Rather badly, actually. If only to see Prague and Budapest before they get swallowed into the caliphate (but I’d also like to visit the CZ factory in Brno, and leave some flowers for Vaclav Havel, and maybe urinate on some infamous communist’s graves, etc), but also because, if I don’t take her to her favorite historical monument, the remnants of the Berlin Wall, she’ll likely never see it.
So, any bets on whether Germany, the Czech Republic and/or Hungary will be touristable in a year’s time?
On a more realistic note, does anyone know if there is a “Security Personnel” certification I can take so I can go in heavy? My sister is a VIP (to me at least).
