After my first nine months of Peace Corps service, I was ready to venture out of Albania for the first time, especially after hearing accounts from other Volunteers about how depressing Christmas (or lack thereof) can be in our Islam-dominated host country. The trouble was, I had never taken an international trip before and had no idea how to plan one. Luckily, my friend Danielle approached me about a 10-day central European voyage that would span the holiday season, so a couple other group 16 Volunteers and I jumped on board.

We hit Budapest in Hungary, then Vienna in Austria, then Prague in the Czech Republic. It was an incredible experience for many reasons. First, all the places we went were beautiful and there was something unique about each of them that amazed and entertained us. (Budapest’s was the friendly people, Prague’s was the stunning architecture, and Vienna’s was being…