piwowarRTW's VirtualTourist Home Page

<b>Where are we now? </b>( <IMG SRC=/p/i_new.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE WIDTH=28 HEIGHT=11> updated itinerary format at the bottom of this page)

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<b>American Thanksgiving 2001</b>
We are home, safe and sound, with so very much to be thankful for. It was an absolutely wonderful trip. We came home better friends than we left. We didn't spend much more money than we had planned. We have super memories. A dream come true.
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<! -- <IMG SRC=/p/i_new.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE WIDTH=28 HEIGHT=11>
<! -- Germany and Denmark AND France travelogues are finished! Enjoy! Let us know what you think, we'd love to know which parts (of our travels or our writing, your pick) you find funny, exotic or just plain curious. >

<b>Who are we?</b>
Hello all, and welcome to our little online travel journal! We're John and Heather Piwowar, recently married (Feb 03 2001, <b>woohoo!</b>) and we're taking our dream honeymoon: A 10-month trip around the world!

<b>Pictures?</b>
Pictures currently not viewable because Ritz changed their online format and we haven't had a chance to update yet. Sorry!

<b>Stories?</b>

This is where we'll update with tales of our travels, so check back here occasionally to see what trouble we're getting into. Getting pictures online might be difficult, but we'll try to make up for that with entertaining text. :-)

To those of you that are new to the Virtual Tourist site and are trying to puzzle out how it all works, here are a few pointers:
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<li>You don't have to be a VirtualTourist member to read about our travels! Just click on the links and enjoy. :)
<li>On the right-hand side of the screen is a sidebar (PiwowarRTW's World Travels) that shows all of the countries or cities which we've visited or are going to visit.
<li>If we haven't been to a country yet, but plan to be, there will be a green dot <IMG SRC=/p/i_willbe.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE WIDTH=12 HEIGHT=12 ALT="going there..."> next to the name.
<li>If we've already been somewhere and have written about it, there will be a picture like a piece of notepaper <IMG SRC=/p/i_txt.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE WIDTH=10 HEIGHT=10 ALT="Page with Content"> next to its name.
<li>If we've written a longer piece ("travelogue") about the country or city, there will be a little clipboard <IMG SRC=/p/i_art.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE WIDTH=13 HEIGHT=10 ALT="Page with Travelogue"> next to it.
<li>To see our page for a particular country or city, just click on the location's name in the "PiwowarRTW's World Travels" sidebar. If there isn't a green dot, clipboard, or note next to the name, we haven't written anything about it yet! :)
<li>To read a travelogue about a location, go to that location's page and click on a travelogue name in the "PiwowarRTW's Travelogues" box above the "World Travels" sidebar.
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<b>Where have we been and where are we going?</b>

An overview of our itinerary follows. You can tell how far we are into our travels by how many of the countries on the "PiwowarRTW World Travels" list at the top right have content. Or, check out the world map on the top of this page. The red places we've been to and the green are still ahead of us!

Got married on Febrary 3, 2001. YAY!
Left <b>Pittsburgh, PA USA</b> on Febrary 10
Drove to <b>Toronto, Canada</b> with John's parents
Took the train from Toronto to <b>Vancouver, Canada</b> from Febrary 13-18. Canada is big!
Stayed with Heather's parents in <b>Maple Ridge, Canada</b>, a suburb of Vancouver, and celebrated our marriage there too :)
Flew to <b>Rarotonga, Cook Islands</b> for the tropical-island honeymoon part of our trip!
Flew to <b>Queenstown, New Zealand</b> to meet up with our fellow-travelers Matt and Lara <a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/moritztravel">(also on virtualtourist!)</a> on March 5, and travelled around the South Island on a biking/camping bus
Flew from<b>Auckland, New Zealand</b> to <b>Sydney, Australia</b> on March 20
Travelled by train and bus to <b>Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin</b>
Flew out of Darwin, Australia to <b>Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia</b> on April 12
Took buses and trains to <b>Melaka, Cameron Highlands, and Penang, Malaysia</b>, then on to <b>Hua Hin, Bankok, and Chaing Mai, Thailand</b>
Flew out of Bankok, Thailand to <b>Istanbul (not Constantinople) Turkey</b> on May 14
Took a backpackers bus to <b>Gallipoli, Ephesus, Koycegiz, and Cappadocia</b>
Flew from Istanbul, Turkey to <b>Moscow, Russia</b> on June 5 and immdiately took the train on to <b>St. Petersburg</b> before returning to Moscow a week later
Took the train from Moscow to <b>Kiev, Ukraine</b> on June 19
Took the train from Kiev to <b>Budapest, Hungary</b> on June 23 for a few days, then on to <b>Vienna, Austria</b> on July 1
And more train on July 1 from Vienna to visit friends and Lara's relatives in <b>Solingen, Deitlingen, and Berlin, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark</b>
Took the train from Copenhagen to <b>Brittany, France</b> on July 28 for two weeks of bicycle camping, then the train to <b>Taize, France</b> for two weeks in an ecumenical monastary!
You guessed it... the train! From Taize to <b>Lisbon, Portugal</b> on August 26
The train from Lisbon to nearby <b>Sintra</b> and then to <b>Seville and Barcelona, Spain</b>
Leave Spain for <b>Venice, Italy</b> on September 27, and then explore <b>Tuscany, Rome, and Florence</b> with friends
Take the train from Florence to <b>Paris, France</b> and then on to <b>London, England</b> via ferry to visit Heather's sister around October 15
Fly from London to <b>Mumbai, India</b> on October 28
Fly from <b>Varanasi, India</b> to <b>Kathmandu, Nepal</b> around November 21
Fly from Kathmandu the LONG way (via Bangkok, Seoul, and San Francisco, with about 24 hours in airports and only slightly more on planes) back to Pittsburgh, PA on December 10, arriving on December 11!
Visit family and friends in and around Vancouver, Canada sometime in January 2002

Recover, relive, enjoy a normal life
<i>And then.... The Next Trip ;) </i>