The thing about Vienna is, well it’s boring. There isn't a lot to see, and what there is isn't particularly interesting. So I think a couple of days are more than sufficient - unless of course you are there for the shopping. We naturally hit up some art galleries and museums, only thing of note is that we saw was: 'The Kiss' By Klimt.

Later we strolled around the food market, some flee markets, and grabbed some local food (beer and a hotdog) before making our way to Schonbrunn Palace. The former royal palace and grounds. There isn't much to say about the palace, but the grounds were very impressive - including mazes, a zoo, great views of the city, flower gardens etc etc.

The train ride from Budapest to Vienna took about 3.5 hours all up, and is so much simpler than flying. No queue, no waiting, leaves and arrives on time, and no security searches. It was pretty nice journey, nice way to see the countryside and even catch up on some sleep. After the horror stories you hear of people having their teeth fillings being stolen while they sleep on these journeys I wasn't expecting much.

Vienna is a pretty city, very new and rebuilt after being pretty much destroyed after WW2. Walking the streets, you could tell it was the shopping Mecca for the region, shops lined every street and it felt like I was back on Oxford St with the large amount of people strolling around shopping. We were staying at Wombats Hostel - again highly recommended. Vienna is the home of Mozart, and they will not let you forget it. It happened to be the 250-year anniversary of his birth so every theatre, opera house and outdoor space was showing, replaying or performing a Mozart composition.

The next day, we decided the best way to see everything the city had to offer, get our bearings and meet some people to go out with that night was to hit up a bike tour of the city. The tour was fantastic, and not only would I do it again, I have decided that given the time and the opportunity I will do one at every city I go to. For a pittance you get to see everything (so you can pick what you actually want to go back to), get a wealth of history and meet some cool people.

That night we (Couple of people from the bike tour, Marie and I) went to an outdoor international food festival and sat at a free concert production of some opera I couldn't understand. I could get the gist, poor boy likes girl, girl engaged to rich military guy, poor boy gets girl in the end. Shame it had to go on screaming like strangled cats for 3 hours. I am so cultured!

Hitting the East was as easy as simply turning right instead of left when leaving the hostel. We decided walk across the city instead of taking the metro just to see more of it and get more of a feeling for some of the less seen areas, but in reality you don't miss much by taking the metro. As we were catching the train the next day early to Vienna, we decided to pick up out tickets first.

Budapest maybe as well known for their natural spring baths as much as anything else. There is a large number of them scattered across the city and my understanding is that they are full pretty much every and all day. So we managed to soak up a good 4-5 hours of laying outdoors in hot pools of varying temperatures. I only have a photo of the outside, so you will have to wait for Marie to send me her photos of the inside which was very lush.

Back at the hostel, we hit up some ozzies, frogs and Canadians to go have a night out. Starting in a small dive bar we had a few cheap drinks before hitting the high light of Budapest’s nightlife - Inside/Outside. Strangely enough the outside riverfront club was called 'Inside'. While the indoors was called 'Outside'. The danger was - after your first shot, all following shots were half price. owch. Given it was a Wednesday night, the place didn't really start filling up until 1am and was going strong at about 4am when we crawled home to wake the remainder of the hostel guests.

Awaking from a slumber that challenged sleeping beauty for soundness, Marie and I first headed for the West side of the city - Buda.

Starting with Buda Castle which is naturally situated on top of Buda Hill, this (reconstructed) castle use to house the previous Kings and Queens of Hungary. The Castle is now home to a number of Museums, art galleries and homes for caretakers. The castle has a slightly more modern feel then most other one I have visited. We spent a couple hours strolling around the nooks and crannies of the old town, which is situated inside the castle walls. This time – the hill climb gave us good vistas of the city in the day time.

A sudden brust from the heavens forced us to investigate the underground Caves. What was a natural labyrinth of tunnels was converted some centuries ago into a brick walled vault, which was used for storage, dungeons, dragons, and any other mythical use you can think of. They had tried to be ‘arty’ and ‘modern’ with the caves. There were bizarre drumbeats, obscure statues, underground flowing wine and random mood lighting. Worth the time purely for the ‘errr… what did we just see factor’. Reappearing, the sun was out and it was time for some lunch. We never really discovered what was traditional Hungarian food, but we did have a bit of yummy goulash.

Deciding to leave the natural spring baths for the East (Pest) side the next day, we walked further down the river to a public park on an island in the middle of the river. It was nice and we lay down on the grass for a couple of hours listening to various bands. Feeling refreshed we investigated the parliament building which is obviously copied from the gothic parliament buildings situated in London. They even admit to it. Few more hours were consumed investigating shops before finding a restaurant for a nice meal.

A long day, a hell of a long day. Packing my bags Sunday afternoon before heading into work for a 12hour night shift, my flight flew out the next day about noon. So I was more than a tad tired when arriving. Marie and I easily found our hostel. Which I might add I highly recommend; it was friendly, common areas were comfortable etc. The minor draw back is that it is on the 4th floor so that heavy luggage has to be dragged up some flights.

Budapest looks like pretty much any other typical European city, but there was a distinct lack of people on the streets and although the buildings are of the same style, they have not been well maintained over the last 50+ years leading to them appearing dusty, faded and slightly run down. Giving the whole city a relaxing, slow feeling. Budapest was historically two cities, Buda being on the West side of the river Duna and Pest being on the East. We planned on splitting the next couple of days, first day in Buda and the second in Pest.

The first night I was pretty tired so we went for a walk along the water front, grabbed a meal and headed up Gellert Hill. The city has a Rio de Janeiro type statue at the top of the hill over looking the city. From the top, there are some brilliant night time views of the city with the water front and old (well rebuilt) castle being lit up. Upon returning to the hostel, I promptly crashed and burned out not waking up until late in the morning the next day. This in its self is a rarity given when I normally go traveling I am up at the crack of dawn as to not miss anything.

With my next 11 day 'weekend' fast approaching and other things occupying my mind, I didn't have anything planned. Also not wanting to go traveling on my own and not being able to find anyone with the same schedule I went to the source of all knowledge - the internet. A quick search of the gumtree and I found a little add for someone who was about to start a month+ long tour of Europe starting the day after my shift. A few emails later, it turned out Marie was finishing up work in London and heading home to Canada. She had most of her trip planned and I was more than keen to join her first 10 days from Budapest (Hungry) -> Vienna (Austria) -> Munich (Germany) before having to fly home while she carries on her trip.

So a few last minute easyjet flights and some quick hostel bookings I am ready to go, just need to finish my shift and I am out of her!

Just had this sent through from NZ (via Lisa), it is a photo from our last Waitangi Day pub crawl making the front page of the Dominion Post. My orginal photo is here. Well done Corde and Lisa for making the front page for getting drunk!

Should be back on the photo snapping bug again as I just spent a pretty penny on a Canon IXUS 800 camera. Just in time for next weeks trip to Budapest -> Vienna -> Munich.

Edit 1# Sorry - about the mass email this morning, I accidentally hit send instead of save when fixing a typo. But to use it to my advantage, as this site no longer includes Carmen, if you are no longer interested you can contact me to be removed from the sites distribution list. aaron.grey@gmail.com

Edit 2# Just received two copies of the Dominion Post in the mail, so there is one for both of you Corde and Lisa. Big cheers and thanks to the Newspaper guys!

This afternoon, Tom Kat and I meet up at Westminster Abbey to make our donation and discover another one of London’s main tourist attractions. No cameras allowed inside unfortunately, so you will have to go see it yourself if you really want a look. But it is pretty good, although I wouldn't go back.

It takes about an hour to stroll through the nocks and crannies investigating tomb stones, crypts, sarcophagus, etc. There was a lot of interesting stuff, none of which pops into my mind right now. My main interest was Isaac Newton’s spot after reading about it in the DiVinci Code. Again, not quite as the book nor the movie depicted it to be. If you’re on a tight time line in London, don't go, but if your not - its another must check off item. Afterwards, we simply got a quick bite to eat before meeting some friends for a drink at the local Camel bar.

Given my new amount of upcoming free time to do touristy things, on sunny Sunday Corde, Ela, Tracy and I drove across to Windsor Castle, the Queens preferred home. Ela, has only been driving for about a year was easily flustered so it made for an entertaining journey across central London. This is by far the most impressive castle I have seen in the UK. It is exceptionally well maintained and is obviously lived in and still used.

Unfortunately the Queen was out Sunday, and not available to entertain us. But we were well entertained with the free (well included in the entry price) portable audio guides which detailed the history, important features etc of the castle. What I didn’t realise was the fact I had picked up the kids version, and I still didn’t realised for about an hour into the tour when. Only when the guide started to play eye-spy and I was trying to compete with Corde to find the objects and he didn’t have a clue what I was on about. So little Tommy, on the audio guide was leading me astray.

After the castle tour, we trekked across Widsor town to Eden college, just to have a peak at where the other half learn the three R’s. bah – It’s just another college.

Not entirely sure how, but I think it was the larger than life Mr Paddack that dragged us along to the GBBF. A group of work mates, Brett, Kathi and Matt, Don and Nikki, Raj, myself and Nigel there for opening at 11am, there for closing at 6pm. It was a good ole laugh which turned into a mini pub crawl afterwards as we tried to find ‘just one more’ drink for the road. Even got the souvenir glass.

New Job - Shift trader
As most are aware, I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. I have gone into a gas and power shift trading team at work. First month and a bit were taken up with shadowing and learning, but as of last week I started full time. Well when I say full time, I work a mixture of days and nights for seven days then have about 11 days off. So it will really open up the possibilities for travel. I am really excited about it as it is a stepping stone to what I currently want to get into – trading.

This is my desk - no really. I think I should be able to maintain a decent tan from the 6 screens, and get suitably confused by the 3 fixed phones and cell phone.