Survivor Romania

We have decided that this year it was 'Survivor Romania" as first Doug was off, then we left Victor as the team went to Vienna. Then we left Don as the remaining 4 survivors stayed behind in Washington DC. Who will be next?

One at a time the team dwindles...

Here is how the DC thing happened. Imagine that you have just been in Romania for 2 weeks, gotten on a prop jet for 2 hours into Vienna, spent 4 hours walking and eating in Vienna, crashed in bed, got up the next morning to board a 9 hour flight to Washington, DC.

We arrive in DC, go through customs and make our way to our gate for ANOTHER 5 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco. You just imagine how excited we were about getting on that next flight.

When the announcement came that they were overbooked and looking for volunteers to stay overnight on the airlines tab 4 of us jumped on it. It didn't hurt when a little girl watching all of this happen ask us if we are bumping so she and her family can get on the plane. Her family stopped by to thank us and the airline staff also thanked us. What better ending could there be to a mission trip?

Now, to say more about Vienna...

Yes, Vienna was beautiful! We got to the hotel about 5 pm after sharing a cab with the trumpet soloist, his wife and the violin soloist from the concert we had been to in Sibiu the night before. What a small world! The violinist, Daniel, was originally from Sibiu and now lives in the US.

Daniel was staying at the same hotel we were and flying out on the same flight the next day. The other couple was staying on in Vienna for a while and had a hotel in the center of the city. Since they had to get a cab into the city anyway, we were able to share cab fare again. Also, during the flight to Vienna our public relations expert, Linda, made friends with Harold and he gave her a list, including phone numbers and directions, to his top three places to eat in Vienna. Two of them were quite close to the hotel the cab would be dropping us off at and close to 1 hour walk Harold outlined for us. We walked to Plachutta and sat down to eat around 7 pm. We just beat the crowds that Harold said made it almost impossible to get a table.

There are no words to say how wonderful the food was...and it was traditional Austrian fare. The meat was very tender and served with a unexpectedly good horseradish applesauce. Everywhere we looked on our walk was art, architecture, and beauty! More on this later...too tired to go on! Must eat! Must sleep!