Feeding on popular worldwide confusion between Austria and Australia, tourist vendors here sell t-shirts that say "There are no Kangaroos in Austria". That is of course wrong in a literal sense since there are kangaroos in zoos here, but also in a figurative since we had lunch and "winner" (a wine dinner) with Oliver (who is Austrian) and his wife Sarah (who is Australian). So we have at least corrected that new myth that these tourist shops are trying to propogate. The Belvedere The day started out a little chilled and rainy as had become the custom but I ventured out in my shorts hoping the mid-80s high they had promised us for later in the day would become a reality. So we took a back way towards the Belvedere, gently avoiding the familiar Karlsplatz and ... read more

We are at the Hilton awaiting for a room to be ready for us as we continue our trend of early arrivals. But we got access to the Executive Lounge as usual and are stuffing our mouths with the free food. More later on our trip in. I made contact with my Austrian friend Oliver from my MBA studies and we will be hanging out with he and his Australian (you read right) fiance on Saturday!!! My oh my! Where have all the community dogs gone? The city is incredible and is of course topping our list as our favorite now, so to be fair we will have to devise some categories in how we would rank and you cannot put Vienna in the same grouping as cities such as Belgrade or even Budapest that were ... read more

A dreary day in more ways than one . . . We went to bed at midnight last night after what was a long night (relative to our day) and woke up about 9AM to a dreary gray sky and rain outside. On the one hand we need a break, but on the second I am feeling better. We will go out in a couple of hours and visit the Citadel and maybe go do some shopping for Jennifer who wants something from the many clothing shops on Kneza Mihailova. Despite the dreary day, I'd say Belgrade and the Serbs are still our favorite place and people so far. Italian in Belgrade We had lunch at Duomo, a great Italian place in the "Silicone Valley" street - great because of the food, service, and atmosphere. I ... read more

We're in an internet cafe now trying to sort out banking information since we charged more than we thought we would to the credit card (the LP Guide said all train tickets would be cash and so far only RILA has been), USAA loves international travellers! Our Last Day in Sofia We had an extended dinner at Happy Bar and Grill our favorite place in Sofia where we were taken care of by a most horrible server and then went to the bar where we were taken care of by Victor who was wonderful though he would not sell Jennifer the poster of the monkey eating a banana on the toilet (you'll have to ask her about that one) - she thought he was so cute (the monkey). Victor was an okay guy, but was not ... read more

Redeeming Bucharest Just as our first day in Budapest was not a fair means of judging the city, neither was our first in Bucharest arriving exhausted from a noisy, cold, smoky train only to be greeted by intransigent taxis plying their rip-off tactics. Romania, like China, seems to be a place where the only way to thoroughly enjoy it is to have at least a fundamental understanding of the culture and the way things work. Being a polite tourist doesn’t work, you’ll get treated like garbage and get overcharged, walking away wondering what you did wrong. Better equipped from the first day (but clearly needing a few more day’s practice), we walked the streets of Bucharest starting with Ceausescu’s Palace of Parliament. Well, don’t forget that Romania is like China, so when we arrived at the ... read more