Croatia and Montenegro

Backpacking for me has been an incredible journey of peeling off layers of stress, confused identity, reclaiming confidence, and creating a vision of my long term future.  Before backpacking, I had not felt free enough to create a vision of what a future home might be for me.  As an example, when my lease was ending in November 2018, before I lost my job, I experienced a rare complete mental block when coming to a decision about where to move next…

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Bratislava

I took a quick day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia from Vienna, Austria with my Viennese buddy Gilbert.  We met up with a local friend of his too.  We did not do an in depth historical tour of Bratislava but, instead, we kept it simple.  We walked through the lovely market, went for a hike up the hill to the castle, fortress and gardens…

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Vienna

Vienna was the destination for my first European holiday in 2001.  I was so excited to go back, but mostly to see Steffi.  To my surprise, Vienna was way more interesting and exciting than I remember.  The city has definitely changed and has a bit of an edge to it now.  It was also wintertime when I was last there…

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Bangkok

I had first visited Bangkok in 2008 during my first visit to Asia.  I really wanted to go back and see what I could remember.  Unfortunately, I chose the wrong time of year.  It was so uncomfortably hot.  I did my best to make the most of the experience.  I took a day trip to the Ayuthaya historical temple complex and I got to ride the third class train coach.  Mostly, however, I spent my time in airconditioned malls trying the street food stands…

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