Travel The World

Here are some more pictures from Presov. Some of my friends took me to a Salt Museum one day. It was very interesting hearing about the history of the place and techniques used to extract the salt. I'll put some more pictures of the place up in the next few days. http://picasaweb.google.com/mccoy4984/TravelogueSlovakia14SaltMuseum

I'm still fighting the jetlag although it's getting better now. When I first arrived, one of my coworkers insisted that I take a supply of Nyquil/Sudafed from him. I resisted but eventually yielded after he kept bugging me. He told me that I would catch a cold the first week as all the others had. He was right, I caught a cold and a nasty cough within the first few days. Apparently, the change in altitude (7,000 feet) and the 'fecal matter' in the area have this effect on everyone.

Well, I arrived here in the wee hours of Thursday morning after a arduous journey that began last Saturday. I tried to see the trip as an adventure, but it was also very tiring. It was also quite the experience trying to catch military flights from point A to point B with luck playing a big part. All in all, my first impression was positive with the base I'm living on resembling a small, European village. It has many ethnic restaurants to go along with it's multi-cultural population. I'll give you more details after I get settled in and recover from the jetlag.

I'm currently in Baltimore awaiting a late flight this evening that will ultimately take me to Afghanistan. I'm a little apprehensive and a little excited, but mainly, I just want to get there and get settled in. The airlines lost my luggage of course but I got it back early this morning. I will be off-line for the next week. I'll post something as soon as I can get internet access. What in the world did we do before we got the internet? Russ

I just received an update on my departure date to Afghanistan. I will be leaving on 14 June and flying to AF via Baltimore, Germany, and Kyrgyzstan with possibly even more stops in between. I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty tired at the end of that trip.

About a month before I left Slovakia, some of my friends decided to throw a 'goodbye' party for me. They rented a villa at a ski resort (although there wasn't any snow yet) and we spent the night there. We had a wonderful, catered meal as you'll see in the pictures. The roast pig was especially delicious and cooked in the traditional way. I want to assure you that all drinks appearing in the pictures are non-alcoholic! http://picasaweb.google.com/mccoy4984/TravelogueSlovakia13GoodbyeParty