2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
Links
| June 21, 2015 - Sunday | Vienna | Austria |
| Now in Vienna Austria. I was staying at a hostel (private room) a short walk outside of the main old town core. As I arrived later in the day I just explored the immediate area. | ||
| June 22, 2015 - Monday | Vienna | Austria |
The day was beautiful and I headed for the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the
summer residence of the Hapsburgs. I toured the palace itself with the
excellent audio guide, and then walked around the gardens, which includes a
maze. This palace remains a favorite. In the afternoon I did an audio guide
walking tour of the old town and visited St. Peter's church.
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| June 23, 2015 - Tuesday | Vienna | Austria |
I visited St. Stephens Church. My feet were killing me, so I spent some time
trying to find new shoes, but eventually settled on better inserts, which
helped immensely.
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| June 24, 2015 - Wednesday | Vienna | Austria |
Day trip outside of Vienna to the Melk Abbey. I took the train there and
then toured the Abbey. One thing that this Abbey makes is apricot schnapps,
so I bought a very small bottle (and it was delicious). Instead of taking
the train back, I hopped on a boat and took a slow ride along the Danube
river to a town called Krems, where I got on the train for the rest of the
way to Vienna.
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| June 25, 2015 - Thursday | Vienna | Austria |
| For my last day here I toured the Imperial Treasury and the natural history museum. | ||
| June 26, 2015 - Friday | Bratislava | Slovakia |
I arrived in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia. This is a fairly small
city with not too much to do. On the advice of the guy running the hostel I
was staying at, I headed over to the Soviet Memorial to check it out.
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| June 27, 2015 - Saturday | Bratislava | Slovakia |
I headed into the city center. Throughout the center are fun statues. There
is one of a guy poking his head out of a manhole cover, another of a sailor
with his hat pulled halfway down his head and others. I'm not entirely sure,
but I believe it was bit of a holiday as on the square by the river there
was an event being held. They had a boar/pig roasting on a spit, and there
was a show on a stage with people dressed up in old uniforms and they did a
"21 gun salute" type of thing. It was interesting, even if I had no idea
what was going on.
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| June 28, 2015 - Sunday | Budapest | Hungary |
I arrived in Budapest, a city which I highly enjoyed and would have no
problem returning to. After checking into my hostel I headed to the city
center and did an audio walking tour up Andrassy Road, which is a main road
and leads to Heroes' Square and a park which has a lot of statues. I took a
detour and toured the Opera House when I got to it on the walk, which was
pretty opulent and interesting. Continuing on in the park I explored
everything there.
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| June 29, 2015 - Monday | Budapest | Hungary |
The day was spent doing Rick Steve's audio walking tours of Leopold Town and
the Pest City Center. I also explored Margaret Island. I saw the outside of
the parliament building, the empty shoes holocaust memorial, various
statues, a church, and a market hall. Lots of walking today.
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| June 30, 2015 - Tuesday | Budapest | Hungary |
Today I went over to the Buda side of the city, by crossing the river. Here
I did an audio walking tour of Castle Hill. I saw the changing of the guard
at the presidential palace. I also saw Fisherman’s Bastion which is right
near the palace. One very cool thing I did on the Buda side was a tour of
"Hospital in the Rock" which is underground and was used as a hospital and
later as a nuclear bunker. As I enjoy all things military related this was
very interesting to me.
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| July 1, 2015 - Wednesday | Budapest | Hungary |
On my last full day in Budapest, I did two very cool things. The first was a
visit to Monument Park. This is a park area outside of the city center (you
need to take the train and then a bus to get here) which contains a number
of statues from the time Hungary was under soviet control. There is a Lenin
statue and other ones, but only the boots remain of a Stalin statue (he was
not well liked here). In the afternoon I went to Szechenyi Bath's which is
kind of like a thermal spa type place. There are outdoor and indoor pools to
enjoy.
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| July 2, 2015 - Thursday | Egar | Hungary |
In the morning I took the train to Egar and stayed here for one night. I
took in the organ performance at the main church which lasted about half an
hour or so. At the university there is one of only two working Camera
Obscura's, which was neat to see. I also went to an art gallery called the
Krepes Gallery which was absolute crap.
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| July 3, 2015 - Friday | Salzburg | Austria |
I left Egar for Salzburg Austria (famous for the Sound of Music movie). I
did the Rick Steve's audio walking tour, which wasn't very good. I also
walked around a bit, but unless you are Sound of Music fan not too much to
do here, so I'm glad I only booked one night. 
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