I made the mistake of telling a few people I was going on a journey through the Balkans of Europe.  They impressed upon me the importance of blogging while on the journey. That sounds great in theory, but puts pressure on the blogger.  These trips are often filled with events and stuff, leaving little room for blogging. But I thought it would be worth a try.

Sitting in Steinbach waiting for our trip to the Balkans we noticed that some of the countries we are going to visit, like so many of our provinces in Canada, have serious wild fires spreading to communities. Are we hopping from the frying pan into the fire? Are flying into an inferno? Is the world becoming enveloped in flames? Is this the apocalypse? Now?

Not pleasant thoughts for the beginning of a travel adventure. Actually, I don’t want any adventures other than adventures of the mind. That is the only kind of adventure travel I enjoy and look forward to.

I never had a burning desire to see Romania, or Bulgaria, or Serbia, or Croatia or Hungary. But these were the countries we signed up to see. So here we go. Why?  Well, after returning from our jaunt last year across half the country and back again, to Nova Scotia and back, we were tired in body and soul. It was a bit much for old timers. And we are old. There is no denying this unpalatable truth.

Then friends were going on a trip to Europe to join a cruise up the Danube River from Bucharest Romania through all of those countries, and there happened to be 3 rooms open. That woke us up from our doldrums. And with very little thought, we plunged. We signed up without analyzing carefully what was involved. We liked the idea of letting someone else transport us after a long car trip. Being with friends might be fun, though we usually favored trips by ourselves or with close family members.  Specifically, we never asked ourselves why would we go to these countries? After all, I wanted to go to Scotland. The land of the Scottish Enlightenment. The home of David Hume. Secondly, we never looked very closely at the price.  The health insurance alone was astronomical. We never added it all up. How was the possible?

After we committed ourselves, we were frankly shocked at the total cost. As an example, our health insurance for 2 weeks through relatively average countries with average health systems, would cost us more than a 3 month stay in the USA where they have the most expensive health care system in the world! How does that make sense? But we were committed. Stupid and committed. Not a good combination.

Then I decided to do some research into these places and I was very pleasantly surprised. They were interesting. Maybe we were not so stupid after all. The trip looked fantastic. The countries looked fascinating. We were travelling with congenial friends.  Who would not want to sail through the “powder keg of Europe?” The Balkans. The place where the Great War began? Well, when I put it that way. I don’t know. Who would want to see that?

So off we go.