Apparently there was an election yesterday, although there was hardly any news coverage. Did anyone know about this?

Relax, I’m only kidding!

To say that the election of Barack Obama changes America’s perspective in the world is a massive understatement. This is good news for those of us who want to travel abroad because for some reason, Americans have a bit of a bad reputation. Having family in Germany and Austria, traveling to the region is something I try to do whenever possible, however with the recent economy “changes,” it has been difficult to make it happen. This is the time to travel. Gas prices are down, taxes are soon to be lower for most Americans, and our global image has improved. As I have written about before, the mountains in Europe are legendary. I thought I would share this amusing anecdote with you today.

I went on a ski trip to Austria in 2005. We had a flawless flight, and after a short stop in London, I landed as scheduled. I picked up my rental car in Vienna (a sweet Mercedes-Benz) and headed off on what should have been a 3 hour drive to Klagenfurt, to see some of my family before hitting the slopes over in Innsbruck.

I stopped in a small town called Poggersdorf for gas, as I was nearly out. My German is pretty good, and I chatted with some locals about the weather, or so I thought. As it turns out I was using a very inappropriate German word, with out my knowing it. They failed to point this out. I decided to check out the area and found myself in an area called Pubersdorf. When I started making conversation in this location, one of the locals commented on how rude I was acting, and asked me to leave. I was dumbfounded. Was there some kind of difference in Poggersdorf and Pubersdorf that I was unaware of? I simply could not figure it out. I managed to get lost trying to find the highway, due to the fact that I did not have a GPS rental in Austria. I had no other option but to go into the store I had just been kicked out of. As I entered, the owner rolled his eyes and before he could kick me out again, I asked in English, “Why are you so angry with me?” He immediately started laughing very hard. Apparently he thought that I was someone else. When I met my cousin for the first time, I understood why! He looked just like me! We ended up being the best of friends, and I look forward to seeing him again.

Last year I accepted a forensic anthropology grant to investigate skeletal remains in the Abruzzi region of Italy. My hope was that I could find physical remnants that would give us a better understanding of ancient burial ceremonies. My wife accompanied me on the two month excavation, hoping to do some traveling around Europe while we were over there. My brother has worked for Auto Europe for a number of years, so we decided to use them for our rental car services.

Our decision to rent a car (we were both a little nervous to try driving in Italy) ended up working out really well. We’ve had a couple of pretty bad renting experiences in the past, and this one went the smoothest by far.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect in terms of navigating, but the road network was for the most part just as good as in the states. We used the Auto-Europe travel planner to plot out our trip so we didn’t have to take 10 different maps. We chose to come in on the A25 Highway, which runs from Rome all the way to the town of Pescara. We definitely made the right choice picking this highway, not only was it efficient, but it also contains these neat elevated sections. The highways switchback their way up steep mountain faces, which is really an incredible driving experience, I must say. The A25 has a nice way of meandering along the sides of the hills, often coming around a bend to an incredible panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. My wife actually got some great pictures out of the car window (there weren’t really any scenic overlook stops, at least none that we noticed).

The historical significance of this region is very evident in the surrounding landscape. It seems that everywhere you look there are remains of castles and other ancient buildings. Not to mention that the natural scenery is quite beautiful as well. You definitely don’t have to be an anthropologist to enjoy everything that this region has to offer.

I wanted to write this letter to thank Auto Europe for all their help with my study. They were able to supply me with a really good discount rate for the car that I used during my stay there, and even helped me out when I ran into some car trouble moving around boxes full of stuff from the dig site. If you are headed to Italy, make sure that you pay a visit to the Abruzzi region of Italy.

Sincerely,

Brett Taylor