Cal & Rachel Litwiller's Adventures

Sloviaka, Poland, & Romania

Christmas 2018

Ever since Mt Pleasant Evening Rotary Club hosted Corina Zaharia from Romania, I have been interested in visiting Romania. I am not sure what intrigued me about Romania, but it did – maybe it is Transylvania, but I’m not sure. Romania was on my bucket list, but low!

Last spring when Cherie and I discuss where we wanted to meet to travel together, over spring break, this part of the world was mentioned. Last Christmas we had a wonderful time exploring Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, etc. After that experience, I had a stronger pull to the Balken countries than before.

In the spring Cal decided he would not travel with us, so when we discussed where he would prefer to travel, the Balkans or France, he said that he preferred the Balkans, So, spring break of 2018 found Cherie & I in France.

Serious discussion of this trip began in August 2018, when friends in Mt Pleasant, were celebrating their 50^th anniversary. Both married daughters were home with their families. As usual, the one stopped by the house to say Hi. In the course of our conversation, a trip to Slovakia was discussed. They live in Bratislava, Slovakia, and will be there one more year. They invited us to visit and to be sure to include Cherie. The girls have been friends since grade school.

Cherie’s job responsibilities are keeping her extremely busy, but she needs to use some holiday time in this calendar year. She can carry 5 vacation days over into the following year, but she needs to use the rest of the vacation days now. Plus, she really does need a break from her intense work responsibilities.

We determined our best flight would be directly from Chicago to Vienna, Austria with Austrian Airways.

Dates were finally set. We are leaving Mt Pleasant on Monday, December 10, which is Cal’s birthday, arriving in Vienna on December 11. Our friend will be at the airport to pick us up.

At the outset of our planning Cherie was going to arrive Dec 10, but all of a sudden there was a change in her work schedule. She will be joining us on Friday, Dec. 14.

In the meantime, I contacted the former Mt Pleasant Rotary exchange student in Romania. After sightseeing in Slovakia and Poland, we are flying to Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. At first, we thought we would spend Christmas in the city, so as to not interfere with their family Christmas, but, No, we need to spend Christmas with them. We accepted their generous offer to experience a Romania Christmas.

Monday, December 10, 2018: Mt Pleasant to Chicago to Vienna:

We closed the suitcases, closed the house and were on our way, driving to Chicago. We decided to drive to Chicago, park at the Crown Plaza Hotel, and spend our dollars upgrading our flight to Premium Economy. Everything went as planned and we were at the gate with plenty of time. We were the first ones seated in Premium Economy, and only 2 other couples joined us. It was unreal! There is a total of 24 seats in Premium Economy and only 6 seats were filled. The regular Economy section was full. We asked the flight attendant about it and she told us this section was full on the flight into Chicago, so who knows.

Premium Economy is very nice. The extra space is wonderful. The food and drinks are upgraded too.

It was an uneventful flight, which is exactly what you want.