Happy New Year from Santiago, Chile! I want to say hello again to all my friends and family that followed me on the crazy year abroad in Germany, and also welcome to all of the new kids on the block. I hope that you all enjoy sharing these travels and adventures with me as I make my way through South America. :-) I left a rainy and cold Austin, and barely made it out of the snowy Dallas area (global warming, haha right) to arrive in sunny, warm Santiago! Luckily with the new restrictions in air travel I was traveling out of the United States and not into it, they don’t seem to care much what you do once you are out of the country I guess. We had an uneventful flight on a relatively old ... read more

Our departure from Dubrovnik was fairly easy. After being dropped off at the bus station, we proceeded to buy our tickets for the bus to Kotor which runs twice a day. We were glad we arrived early, by the time we got on the bus it was all sold out. There were a mix of cultures joining us, Australians, Europeans, Americans, and locals as well. The well air conditioned bus departed on time and we were off to the border. It took only about 45 minutes to reach the border stations into Montenegro. And the border crossing process was quite easy. Montenegro is a country that I don't believe had ever really crossed my mind before meeting some friends that were from there. A former Yugoslavian country, it was integrated into Serbia and Montenegro and just ... read more

Out adventure to Korcula began a lot later than expected. We had a fabulous time with our fellow hostelers at the bar, well too good of a time, and did not wake up at 5:30 as planned to catch our 6:30 Ferry. Instead I awoke to Justus whispering to me at 8:30 am that we were late, really late. We gathered our stuff quickly and stumbled down to the ferry office to see what we could do in regards to exchanging our pre-purchased tickets. By some sheer luck, we ended up getting money back for our tickets and took a later ferry to Vero Luca on the Island of Korcula and then hopped on a short bus ride across the island to Korcula Town. The countryside was really beautiful, with rocky mountains, lush vegetation and scattered ... read more

A year is over. I am back in Austin, I cant believe that I am already repacking for my next life adventure in Nashville. I have not forgotten of course that no blogs have been written for the last 3 weeks of travel. The last week at home has been quite busy catching up with family and friends as well as trying to readjust to things like driving and get organized for my move. So....here we go. There are lots of blogs coming, so I will start from the very beginning and space them out as much as possible so you don't get overwhelmed. Its a good thing I kept a very detailed travel journal! First up. Stuttgart to Zagreb. After a short train ride from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart Airport, Justus and I caught our flight ... read more

In my time living in Baden-Wuerttemberg, I have been lucky enough to travel around to most of the region and discover a new part of Germany. However, I had never been in the Black Forest or to the Bodensee(Lake Constance) both of which I had heard were beautiful. I was luckily enough to be offered the chance to take a day trip to both, by none other than a local Schwarzwalder, Bruno. Bruno grew up in the Black Forest and therefore was the perfect guide for my first trip to the region. (not to mention he speaks Schwaebisch - a dialect of German that is extremely difficult to understand). Our day began in Karlsruhe around 9 am in a car with 4 German window flags attached. Yes I said 4. Bruno was quite proud of his ... read more