The Streets of Melk, Lower Austria, Austria

Eiskaffee on a hot day!

Melk Garden, Melk, Austria

Melk Abbey Benedictine Monastery, Melk, Austria

The Melk Abbey sits on some sort of a hill above the town of Melk.  It is a world-famous monastic site housing an extensive manuscript collection.

The library

Conch-like staircase

Venezia, Italia

The pastel walls in contrast with the wind-swept sky in the summer; the cruise ships and yachts lining up at the docks; the buildings adorned with artworks of paint, glass or metal-- these things make Venice easy to fall in love with. But what I appreciated most was the smell of the sea, waking up to a sun rising from behind the clouds over a hazy horizon, and knowing this: though man can make beautiful works of art, God's handiwork in nature remains unmatched.

Sensational Transylvania - Budapest, Hungary

Chain Bridge

The House of Parliament

As a child, I liked reading about vampires. Not the sparkly, full-of-hair-putty types. The black and red Batman's distant relative types. Say, Dracula. Or Louis de Pointe du Lac. Or Lestat.

I would have picked up a replica of the handwritten notes of Bram Stoker's Dracula if I could understand what was written in it. Two days after, I'm still thinking about the labyrinth, the castles, the possibility of vampires becoming real.

The 'real' Dracula was born somewhere in Romania. But it was called Transylvania then, and Hungary was a part of it.

24-hour travel card for trains and buses.  Very cheap for unlimited rides. (~U$7)

The steel balls on the wall of the Agriculture Building marking the "gunshots" fired by Soviet snipers at kids during the revolution in 1956.

Metal shoes on the embankment of the Danube River that commemorates the Hungarian Jewish victims.

A lion's head at the end of the Chain Bridge.  This is the first bridge built in Budapest.

We were there in time for the Foie Gras festival.  That rolled bread is a traditional Transylvanian pastry.

The fountain of Mathias.  This fountain drips with wine instead of water.  

St. Stephen's Cathedral right on the next street from our lodging.  It has a beautiful exterior....

...and the interior is equally stunning!

The Millenium Monument

Statue of Anonymous.

Every man has a bait he can't resist

I have accepted the fact that I will never be exceptional at anything simply because the time it takes to do all the things I would like to do are beyond the average human's life span. And in the bucket list situation, quantity beats quality. I believe every person, given the correct motivation, can learn to love what they do.

I am a recognition-loving person, and frankly I think most people are like me. In my work, I do what needs to be done and I always try to exceed what's expected of me. Why? Because a pat on the shoulder and an occasional "good job" is like an emotional payday. It doesn't increase your spending capability, but it feeds morale.

Number two on my list is travel. If you ask me if I wanted to work for a few months in Kiribati or Tuvalu or Nauru or Togo, I will have signed the contract before you can finish your question. Bait me with plane tickets and I WILL SNAP AT THAT BAIT!

Note: this is a brain fart from thinking too much about my coming assignment to Vienna, Austria. I am absolutely PSYCHED!

The Twin Steel Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur and the world-famous Petronas Towers.  The second-to-the-last stop of our 10-day Indochina tour.

The day the earth stood still, Bangkok, Thailand

This was the weather on the day we were flying out of Bangkok for Kuala Lumpur.  The low, black clouds were literally creeping over the city.

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

It is a surreal experience walking inside these massive (not an exaggeration) Hindu temples.  For someone who aced his high school ancient history class, I was still left speechless at the sight of these structures.  Of course, we didn't really deal with Cambodian history in depth, but if that was what I felt with the temples of Angkor, imagine what would happen if I had the chance to visit the Mayan temples in the Yucatan or Machu Pichu of the Incas.

Of Tuk-tuk Rides and Golden Palaces, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Independence Monument

Wat Phnom

Photo of a rickshaw taken from a tuk-tuk.

Paintings inside the Royal Palace