Much shorter post than last times today....(thanks for all your input by the way)

I had a gorgeous weekend, randomly spent in Vienna and Bratislava. We flew out on Friday, which was exactly one year after “black Thursday” which was the one time post transplant that my family really thought they’d lost me for good.

Both places were fascinating, I had been very eager to see Vienna as I had heard quite a bit about it but I have to admit having been completely ignorant re anything about Bratislava (which is the capital of Slovakia for anyone who didn’t know) and it has the most beautiful old historical town centre, steeped in history. I’m not really one for appreciating architecture but even I could see how stunning it was. It helped that we had a really brilliant guide who dropped in nuggets of information as we wandered round, keeping it varied and interesting.

I’m not a religious girl but as we wandered into one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen in Vienna, I lit a candle for my donor and had a quiet moment to thank them for allowing me to be here at all.

We also attended a Slovakian party (long story which shan’t be recounted on here) and it was fantastic. The people were so friendly, my goodness can they eat….but the food was delicious, the mountains of homemade cakes being a particularly memorable speciality. Then dancing into the night to various folk songs that everyone in the room (bar us) knew the words to – young or old. A really fantastic weekend.

There was an interesting documentary on last night about CF: A Boy Called Alex. He came across really well, open and upfront and obviously a very talented and determined young man. The doc had the usual traits which annoy me (Dramatic Voiceover: “...but Alex has a disease which could ANY DAY end his life”) but all in all it was a very good documentary. Well done to him and his family for raising more awareness about CF.