Central Europe

 My grandparents, tired of the pogroms and persecution of Jews in "Russia," as we were told it was called, decided to bounce. My Dad's parents left Czernovitz, then part of Romania, and my maternal grandparents left their bialys in Bialystok, then, I guess Russia, now Poland. They arrived early in the 1900s, and never looked back, though the dark joke "A pogrom is a pogrom" remained one of my Dad's favorites.

My parents had ZERO desire to visit "the old country." Their only dream, as proud Zionists, was to see Israel, which they did in 1969, taking me along. Truth is, my 8 year old self cared far more about Apollo astronauts and the NY Mets, but it WAS my first airplane trip, and I still have memories of our 3 weeks in Israel. I would go back a second time years later, with Wifey and the Ds, after both Ds had been on Birthright.

Wifey was born in Israel, to Holocaust Survivor parents originally from Poland. Her Dad was a big city boy - from Lodz -- and her Mom from the much smaller Sosnoviecz. They enjoyed lovely, loving childhoods until things went South under the Nazis, but their youth and strength to the Nazis as slave laborers allowed them to survive, and emigrate after time in the same DP camp, in Feldafing, Germany, to the Promised Land.

I would have thought they would have never wished to set foot in Poland again, but I was wrong. Wifey took both of them back, to see their childhood homes, and my mother in law so fetishized her youth, she had Wifey bring her back a second time -- looking to recapture, I guess, all she had lost as a young girl coming of age.

My father in law LOVED Israel, though he saw more opportunities for his family here in the US, and so emigrated here in 1960. My mother in law was never a fan. She had difficulty conceiving for years, and then finally got pregnant, but had a stillborn boy. My suegro's family was kind of mean to her, too, and she just never bonded with Israel. Years later, when D2 was showing a montage of her trip on Birthright, to the tune of Hatikva, my father in law watched tearfully and my mother in law clucked her tongue and walked away. It truly is a miracle Wifey isn't more screwed up from these loving yet heavily damaged parents. But I digress...

So in a bit more than a month, Wifey and I, along with Eric and Dana, are going back to that part of Europe -- in high style, on a luxury Danube River tour. I took essentially the same trip with the Ds back in 2007, when Wifey was homebound on account of a bad back, and got to see Passau to Budapest. But Wifey never did, and Eric and Dana haven't been there, so Wifey contrived a way to get me to travel again -- setting up a trip with my dear friends.

Of course, when we're in Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, we'll be bordering the places where all the really bad happened -- Poland and Germany. Hey -- it was 80 years ago, right? You gotta move on -- from cattle cars towards concentration camps to luxury boats to Michelin restaurants.

With all the Trump craziness, hopefully we all make it back ok -- especially Wifey, whose passport shows she isn't a native born American like Eric, Dana, and me. I guess worst case scenario they'll ship her back to Israel, and we'll get a condo there -- Haifa is indeed my favorite city -- and move on with life.

I really wish the thought of travel excited me. We were out Saturday with Joelle and Kenny -- they LOVE it. They visit Europe more frequently than I go to Key West, and are planning a big trip to Vietnam and Cambodia for next Summer -- with great excitement.

The only Asian country I have any interest in seeing is Japan, and I got to live that through D1 -- on her honeymoon. I now stock Japanese whisky -- classic Japan -- took something some other nations came up with and made it better -- like cars and electronics.

But for now, Big Man willing, Central Europe awaits. I look forward to reprising something I did for the Ds on our Danube trip. On a grassy bluff in Austria near where the ship blocked, I put "The Sound of Music" on my phone and the 2 of them danced like Julie Andrews in that classic beginning to the movie -- actually the first movie I recall seeing. Dana and Wifey can enjoy that moment...