With Dracula

Mike and I have spent an amazing 2 weeks in Salzburg. We've seen all the relatives, gone second-hand shopping and found some great things, spent time going through my grandma's apartment and taking things we liked (old Salzburg postcards, complete with Hitler Deutsches Reich stamps; a great hat that can be seen in my current facebook picture; some traditional Austrian jackets with goat-horn buttons, etc...) and of course eaten delicious food to the brim. We've probably each gained at least 5 kilos. But it was worth it! Schnitzel, Marillenknoedel, Eis, Kasnockl, Zwiebelrostbraten, Mohr im Hemd, the list goes on... yum! We haven't done much in terms of real touristy sightseeing, but Mike has gotten a good sense of what Salzburg is like. The weather hasn't been that great either. We definitely didn't pack right for the weather we've had. Every other day has rained and been freezing. Blah. Typical Austrian summer. We should have expected it.

On Saturday morning my parents and my sister Susi are taking a train to Freiburg to visit my sister Nici, and Mike and I are taking an afternoon bus to Brasov (25 hours from Salzburg), located in Transylvania in Romania. We'll explore for a few days, then spend a day or two in Bucharest, and then catch either a bus or a train back to Istanbul and back to real life. Mike got the EF job we wanted, I didn't, so he's set. I'm still searching for one, there aren't many options on the internet. I'll have to start going to language centers with my CV, or start finding private students. Not looking forward to that! There's a part-time job that I got, but I'm still looking for something else. Still apartment hunting too... we found the perfect one on craigslist, but it's a bit out of our price range.

Not much else new- I got a haircut with bangs and Mike got a cavity filled today after 4 hours in the dentist waiting room (and learned that he needs a wisdom tooth pulled ASAP). Hopefully he'll be able to enjoy our adventures in Romania even with a toothache!

I finally got all my Central Asian pictures posted on facebook. Hopefully that's the last you'll have to see of me in Central Asia for a long, long, long time.