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
| October 1, 2017 - Sunday | Budapest | Hungary |
September 30, 2017 departed for Budapest and arrived on October 1st due to
the time zone change. Went to hotel, and then got a massage nearby. The
Hungary and Romania part of this trip was on a tour, and that night we had
our initial meeting and then went to a ruin bar for dinner.
Tour was with Intrepid. |
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| October 2, 2017 - Monday | Budapest | Hungary |
Today was a “free” day, meaning no planned activities with the tour group. I
spent the day walking around town, seeing the outside of the parliament
building, the market hall, and stuff like that. At night I went out again to
take some night pictures. I picked up a head cold, probably on the airplane.
 |
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| October 3, 2017 - Tuesday | Egar | Hungary |
| We took the train to Egar. I went to the castle, which I had missed on my previous visit. It was not very good. At night we went to the Valley of Beautiful Woman and did a wine tasting of their “bulls blood” wine. | ||
| October 4, 2017 - Wednesday | Maramures area | Romania |
| Long travel day by van to into Romania and our homestay in the Maramures region. We stayed with a local family. | ||
| October 5, 2017 - Thursday | Maramures area | Romania |
We toured the area, including a crappy market, an old wooden church, a
monastery, a prison, and a somewhat famous cemetery that has painted
headstones. The headstones tell the story of their lives, in some cases even
how they died. For example, on one a woman nagged her husband to
death. 
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| October 6, 2017 - Friday | Sighisoara | Romania |
Another mostly travel day to Sighisoara, with a short walking tour of the
town. Still have head cold. Weather for the last couple of days has been on
the chilly side.
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| October 7, 2017 - Saturday | Viscri | Romania |
Traveled to Viscri, a small village with a fortified church. The house I
stayed in had a wood stove for heat, and it was cold out so it was needed.
 |
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| October 8, 2017 - Sunday | Brasov | Romania |
Onto Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle), and then to Brasov. Still very cold
out.
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| October 9, 2017 - Monday | Bucharest | Romania |
Now to Bucharest, and another walking tour. Weather was much warmer. It was
weird, we had good weather at the start and end of the tour, but the middle
was bad.
 |
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| October 10, 2017 - Tuesday | Zurich | Switzerland |
The group tour ends this morning, I talked around the parliament building,
one of the largest buildings in the world. Then I flew to Zurich and had a
nice dinner with a girl whom I had met on a previous tour in Central
America.
 |
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| October 11, 2017 - Wednesday | Zermatt | Switzerland |
We took the train to Zermatt and went up the Gornergrat mountain by tram and
had lunch at the top in the restaurant. We then hiked part way down the
mountain before hopping back on the tram for the rest of the way back down.
Great views of the Matterhorn mountain. The hotel had a small spa (sauna,
hot tub. etc.) so we spent an hour or two there before dinner.
 |
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| October 12, 2017 - Thursday | Zurich | Switzerland |
| We took the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to Chur, supposed to be one the great scenic train rides of the world. It was good, but I would not do it again. Most of my pictures have reflections from the window glass. Back in Zurich we took a short boat ride on the lake. | ||
| October 13, 2017 - Friday | Zurich | Switzerland |
In the morning we split up as she had stuff to do, and I wanted to go to
Luzern. I saw the Lion monument, the old town, and the transportation
museum. Back to Zurich in the afternoon, we met up and took the train to
Reinfalls to see the waterfalls.
 |
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| October 14, 2017 - Saturday | Zurich | Switzerland |
| I flew back home. Would like to go back to Romania and try it again with better weather. | ||