Driving to Vienna

To save on expenses we decided to drive the trek to Vienna over Christmas. This added a whole new level of adventure: border crossings, 130 km/h speed limits and inclement weather – all while traveling through 4 different countries, with different languages and currencies - all within a day’s drive.

Besides the distance, I really enjoyed the drive. Once you get into Serbia, an hour from Sofia, they have a major motorway (highway) that travels directly to Budapest and then onto Vienna. The roads are new, big and clear of pot holes. They also have a speed limit of 130 km/h – which in our 2-door VW Golf - it was all it could do to reach 130. Unfortunately we did run into a snow storm in Serbia which did slow us down quite a bit.

Crossing the boarders went well. It seams to be an unfair bias – but it sure is nice to have a US passport. Although the media would have you think everyone in Europe hates the US – actually most wish they could live in the US and they honor and look up to those who do, though we personally have not done anything to earn that respect. That respect goes to our forefathers – but I digress. This is all to say – we had easy border crossings – 15min at most (some have waited 2+ hours). One funny moment with a border crossing guard was when we were on our way back home, crossing from Hungary into Serbia. The guard asked us where we were going and where we lived. She then wanted to know why we lived in Sofia, so I tried to explain that I was working at a Bible School in Sofia. And then, with a very puzzled look on her face, she asked – and I quote “Why do you want to live in Bulgaria, don’t you know that the United States is much better?” We just smiled and really didn’t say anything – she just couldn’t understand why we wanted to live in Bulgaria.

When we left for Budapest – it should have taken us 8 to 9 hours to get there, but ended up taking 11 hours with the snow storm. The leg to Vienna a couple of days later only took two hours – unfortunately it took us another 2 hours to find our hotel once we reached Vienna. The internet directions we had from the hotel were horrible and our map was not that detailed. Lisa had to reach back to her freshman year of German to help read the signs. We eventually got there and had a great time.

I just wanted to share the driving experience with you now in this blog. We had some wonderful experiences in Budapest and Vienna that we will post very soon. Thank you so much for your prayers of safety – as the travel went very well.