Eastern Europe Anyone?

So since I have been living here, I have often felt as if I wasn't taking all the opportunities to travel and see all the cities and places I have always wanted to. I'm not complaining, because come on, I've already gone back to London, saw Berlin, and then spent a long weekend in Paris, which is obviously amazing. However, when I first came here I remember thinking that there were sooo many places I wanted to try and see, and somewhere along my stay I got wrapped up in the daily grind of life (don't we all?) and haven't been out doing a lot of the things I told myself I would when I first came here. For instance, the world famous Oktoberfest begins next month in Munich, which is about 5-6 hours by train away from me here in Bonn. When I first moved here I thought without question that I would go there, I mean if anything is cut out for me, Megan Osgood, than it is Oktoberfest ;) However, here it is, August 27th, and I have no plans of going. That sucks. By this time, it's so late in the game that trying to find a plane or train to Munich, let alone somewhere to stay, would be next to impossible/way to expensive (I've already looked into it, and definitely not a possibility). They say that 7-8 million people (yes, I said MILLION) flood the city and its surrounding areas to partake in the world's largest outdoor 'volkfest', so obviously if you don't make plans a year in advance, or you don't have thousands of spare Euros just lying around, you're not going to be able to make it. Which just sucks. I see that as another opportunity I missed. I just keep telling myself that I will still be around in the future, so that I will always have other ones to go to. I guess we'll see..

With this idea in mind, I started looking around for cheap flights to some places I would love to visit. I found some that are reasonably priced to Oslo (Norway)--a little on the expensive side for an Au Pair, but it's somewhere I would love to go so maybe.. I also looked into flights to Salzburg (although again, I can't bring myself to go here without Suzy Bear, ultimate fan of The Sound of Music), and Copenhagen. But my best bet, in terms of finding the cheapest flights I could would be to book with the cheap airlines here GermanWings, or RyanAir (pretty much Germany's/Europe's equivalent to JetBlue or so). I went to GermanWings' website to see for any special deals or offers they were selling, and on the home page they were offering fares for as low as 54.99 Euro (one way) from Cologne/Bonn (my airport) to Moscow, Russia! I have always wanted to go explore our former Cold War enemy, so naturally I was super excited to see that I could potentially get a flight there and back for around 120 Euro (it's a lot for me, but SUPER cheap for a flight Moscow, so I had to jump on this chance, right?!)  And of course, this is where I started running into some major problems. For anyone traveling into the Russian Federation, whether it be for business, school, or tourism, one must have a visa before entering the country--and a strict one at that. To apply for a visa, (as a tourist), you have to already go ahead and book the place you where you intend on staying and then the hotel, who will act as your "Russian Sponsor" while you are there, goes ahead a writes an "invitation" for you to the Russian Embassy, giving them all the details or your booking and the exact dates you plan on being in the country. Once your formal "invitation" goes through, then you are allowed to actually apply for the actual visitors visa. To do this, you of course send a photo of yourself, and all the paperwork they give you to fell out, accompanied by a fee of close to $100 dollars.. but oh wait, if you are an American citizen trying to enter the country, that fee is bumped up to closer to $200.. awesome. Once the fees have been paid, and the visa is granted, you are allowed to enter the country for the EXACT dates on your said visa (which are the exact dates of your hotel booking). If you leave even a day after the visa was originally said to expire, you might as well get comfy, because you will be stranded in the country while they will try to extend your visa to give you a new exit day, which can often take up to 20 business days... all at your own expense of course. It really is no surprise that the Russians are this crazy about letting people come and go in and out of their country. I mean, hello, their Russia. It's what's expected of them, no? :P And even after all of this, Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world (Fun Fact: They have more Billionaires per square mile than any other place in the world), so I would have to save a lot just to have enough to sleep and eat in the city for about 3/4 days. After looking into it, and really wishing that I would be able to take advantage of the low flight to Moscow, economically I just couldn't do it. Bummer.

So with that dream killed, I immediately started looking into other deals to other cities. GermanWings is cool too because they have a feature called "Blind Booking" where you can pick the type of trip you want (i.e., Shopping/Culture/Nature/Party etc) and then there is a pre-set list of possible destination cities that you could get, and all flights doing it this way are 19.99 Euro one way (about 54 round-trip) You first pick the category you want and then fill in all your information and it isn't until AFTER you have already booked it/paid that they tell you which city out of the pre-set list you have received. It's pretty much the coolest thing/idea I have ever heard of and I have been (of course) wanting to do it ever since I found out about it months ago, but (of course) never have. I talked with Naemi and she definitely wants to go with me, so I hope we can book something soon and go maybe the last weekend of September. The category I most want to choose is the "Metropolis Eastern Europe", which gives me the possible destinations of: Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ukraine), Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Rep.), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Warsaw (Poland), or Zagreb (Croatia). All of those choices sound super interesting to me, with my biggest wish is getting Kiev, Krakow or Sofia. So I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully, Naemi and I will figure something out, book soon, and I can come back to tell you which destination I have been given! But for now, it's time for me to go make some breakfast. Talk to you all soon, and I hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all! xoxox Megan

Ariel comes to Germany!

This is going to be a super short post, but I'm just so pumped for the arrival of an old friend! I'm so excited for our close family friend, Ariel, to come to Cologne next weekend! He flew to Amsterdam today for something work related, and during the weekends he has some time off to travel and see some things, so I told him that Cologne isn't too far ;) And luckily, he took the bait and is planning to stay in Cologne next weekend! I'm so excited to see a familiar face, you have no idea. I'm also excited to finally have someone to show around a bit :) Pretty strange/funny that the two of us will be meeting up in Europe, but like I said, I'm very excited. With that said, I'll let you know how our visit unfolds!

I Suck/Stress

Okay. It's been almost 3 weeks since I have updated this site. My apologies. I just don't know why, but when I am done working for the day and make it down to my room for my cherished alone time, I just don't feel like spending the time and energy to write anything in here. Hence why my trip details of my time in Paris aren't even done. Ugh.. I don't even think my Berlin trip blog is fully finished. Wow. I suck. AKA: I'm pretty burned out. But I just keep counting down to October 6th, when I will take to the skies once more and head back for a 2 week visit to the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. I seriously can't wait. Not only for the 6 day vacation in Las Vegas for my brother's wedding of the century, but also for the week I plan on being the biggest lazy mouse ever on Southwold Court while eating Chipotle pretty much non-stop. It's the stuff dreams are made of!

Life around here, I'll admit, has been really stressful for me in the past months or so. The company Lisa and Kai work for was doing so badly that they decided to move (I think by sometime next month, but I'll get to that in a bit), are getting rid of their cars, got rid of the cleaning lady and things of that nature. Because they are obviously going through this tough time, I am trying to be there for them whenever they need me, but at the same time, the whole feeling of needing a break is always there, and especially now, stronger than ever. My problem of course is that I feel guilty, that I shouldn't feel this way considering I am not in Lisa or Kai's shoes where the real problems are. But even the guilt doesn't change the fact that I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders sometimes. Speaking of a break, we were originally supposed to be on vacation right now on the Spanish island of Mallorca (I wrote about it here before I believe). I was pretty excited, but from the moment when the flight and house were booked (back in early Feb.), August just felt so far away that it wasn't real. Then in around May or so, Kai and Lisa began talking about changing the trip from Mallorca to spending 2 weeks on the sea in Denmark. Lisa came to me in about early/mid July telling me that, now that everything is being changed, and their are no flights involved to the trip to Denmark, that I could of course choose to stay home and have those 2 weeks alone if I wanted them. I thought it over, and as much as it would be nice to go, I also thought (as some of you may have read in previous posts) that I was desperate for some alone time away from everyone. As nice as they all are, it's hard for me being 24 to be thrown back into a young family atmosphere with family trips and things--especially with at the end of the day, they aren't my family. But then came the end of July, where the whole situation with Kai and Lisa's company got at it's worst point. So understandably, they decided to cancel the trip plans and just not go anywhere. Which like I said, I completely understand the reason behind it and everything, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck any less. I'm not going to lie: I was really looking forward to some time off/alone. But alas, sometimes life doesn't work out the way we have planned, right?

The other factor of some major stress for me, and for everyone I'm sure, is the whole pending move we will be making sometime next month. Again, with all the problems in their company, Kai and Lisa decided it was best to move to another house with not such high costs as the current one we are in. From all the places I have heard them mentioning and what not, I have gathered that where ever we end up moving to will be some ways away from Bonn-(The first house they looked at was about 45 minutes by train away, and the most recent one they looked at was a bus and a train away of about 35 minutes or so). Once again, I feel like such an asshole when even I sit here and write all this because obviously it's completely their choice to live where ever they want and really is none of my business. But it just sucks, for me, moving to a new country, expecting to being in one place--which is a city that I have fallen in love with and have finally settled in and know now, and then end up living out in the country. I've already had a hard time here making friends, and just fear that it will be magnified that much more once I'm living out in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

Okay. I guess I got some of that off my chest now, and feel a little bit better. I apologize for the first thing I write since my last post like, 3 weeks ago, is basically me just complaining. And I feel bad. But yeah, I needed to tell it to someone, and with really no one here to talk to that understands it all, I thought what better than to pour it all out into the internet. So sorry. I promise that my next post (and I'm going to be better about updating again!) will be something not so Debbie Downer. I hope all is well with everyone back home, and I am SO looking forward to my 2 weeks spent back in the US in October! I seriously can't wait! And also a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Granny who turns 86 tomorrow :) I miss and love you and hope you are feeling better! Miss and Love everyone always!
xoxox
MegLett