The rain is coming down outside my window almost as fast as the antibiotic drops slide slowly out of my left ear. I have an ear infection and a cough that just won't relent, but I have exactly 18 days until my husband, my son and I are headed to Eastern Europe for a 2 month trip...so there is literally zero time to waste. Well, except for a quick whine, I always have time for that.
Why Eastern Europe you ask? Those not familiar with my previous blog "Fueled by Vivac Winery", let me fill you in. During a harrowing passage on a small sailboat from Panama to Colombia, we became friends with some fantastic Romanians and the idea of visiting this far off, mysterious place started to plant its seed. If you are anything like us at the time, we thought of Romania and of course Transylvania, home of the Dracula stories. We did not think of incredible wine or a sophisticated film industry. Needless to say we were intrigued. Follow that up with judging my 1st International Wine Competition in Rochester NY (Great American International) and tasting amazing wines from Eastern Europe including being on the panel that selected the Best of Show Sparkling wine only to find out it was from Slovenia was the final straw, we HAD to go explore this area of the world.
In order to leave our fabulous, ever growing winery in New Mexico, in the very capable hands of our business partners and staff, requires we get our personal segments of the business in order and running as smoothly as possible with as much scheduled to take place before we leave and when we get back. This is incredibly stressful and I feel my cortisol levels rising...which makes me panic about my health. Jesus, I need a glass of wine just so I can finish writing this! And this is where the whining and wining gets going.
I digress, Romania, what will we be doing and seeing in Romania...nothing as it so happens. Are you feeling as confused as I am? After months of exploring maps and guide books and my husband even learning Romanian, I took on another International Wine Competition, in Texas this time (Texas International) and was honored to judge alongside a highly influential wine judge and Doctor of wine that became my fairy godmother... errrr fairy godfather? He began vouching for my skill to be selected for not 1, not 2, but 3 International Wine Competitions in Eastern Europe over the time we had planned to be in Romania. This phenomenal opportunity came with an itinerary hand crafted to visit remarkable spots of Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria as we travel from competition to competition. This too-good-to-be-true trip honestly put a great big shutdown on making it to Romania, despite all our previous enthralled energy. Oddly enough, I have been invited to judge an International Wine Competition in Bucharest, Romania next year, so maybe this exploration is simply delayed? Regardless, the current trip is a treasure trove of gorgeous hamlets brimming to the top with incredible wines and while our pocketbooks are already starting to sting with the inevitable pinch, we are beyond excited to explore these countries!
Now I just need to figure out how to breathe into a brown paper bag to stop hyperventilating at the same time as ingest enough wine to calm my nerves...oh wait, that must be why people put booze bottles INSIDE paper bags! Genius!
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