2 years ago...

Wow,
Have just been looking back over some of my past blogs over the 5 years of travel.

Amazing.

Even I can't believe all that has been and is now captured forever on some incredible pictures.

Just pulled a few for fun...
Now I look, these are mostly food and champers! hahahaa...

They are not in order, but are all over the place, but are fun to remember for sure.

Vienna, of course. Waiting to go see Phantom of The Opera, in concert, in Vienna with a 50 piece orchestra...Awesome.

Vienna...Right up there in the revolving restaurant...the little bulge under the needle in the image on the serviette...

Vienna with  2 Aussie friends...and the biggest schnitzels in the world.

When you waken to Bubbly, smoked salmon and sacher torte, you know it's going to be a great day. Ball day, Vienna, Jan 2014.

Strangely the property, while being on the market for 5 years, was sold the day we went up there to see it!

Too funny for words...Budapest.

No hang ups over there in Prague...

Prague...crystal heaven...

Vienna, ice cream heaven...2nd only to Split in Croatia!

Have a go...

This was written in 2013...I brought this picture of me breaking a board with my hand a few years ago, to remind me...I can do this house thing. 
You can see the 2 bits of board in pieces on the floor ?...and that's me, just on the downward thrust after amazingly smashing the board into 2 pieces without really touching it, it seemed. 

It took me 3 goes to finally splat it, full on and I remember, not being afraid of trying to break it, but afraid of....I can't even think what I was afraid of, it was so silly, but that fear feeling affected my power and strength. I didn't break or bruise my hand, but the fear that rises while taking aim and trying to focus, was ridiculous.

It is a great reminder to me, to keep on going and break past those silly little fears that can hold us back and weaken our resolve to do. I was a bit wobbly over the past few weeks, with all that happened and did not happen and needed to speak to myself a bit there! (This was when I lost my cards in Amsterdam, in October 2013, had no cash for a month and when the new card arrived, the ATM gobbled it up and I had to wait another 2 weeks for a second one).

I hate doing nothing and having no mission or purpose to accomplish, therefore I felt very lost for a while there.
Petr (my friend in Prague) has been great here, loaned me some cash, helping me a few days a week with looking at online properties, chatting about areas etc. 
I'm full on OK now that I have found a few great places to begin looking at. So let the games begin...in the next few days... October 2013... 

Update Feb 2016....Czech Republic was a starting place for me with this idea to live in Europe. 
You have to make a start somewhere and be guided as you go along. It wasn't meant to be over there in Czech Republic and I ended up here in Hungary! 

Perfect choice of village with all amenities, bus past the door about 12 times daily, a city of 14,000 people 8 klms away and an easy train ride to Budapest.

There are so many cheap air fares to every destination in Europe from Budapest, which now becomes my central hub for touring Europe from.
Was looking last night , checking out flying to Spain or somewhere I haven't been yet, once my visa for EU kicks over again at the end of March. 

I only have permission from the Hungarian Govt to stay here in Hungary without worrying about the Schengen visa, not the rest of the EU. I was rudely awakened to that fact when I was booking to go visit an American friend in Hamburg in March to see Love Never Dies!

Anyways, the air fare return to most places here in Europe is under $200 Aussie dollars return, most being about 80 or so dollars return...if you click through to find the best days, of course!

These are from London, but check them out. They are GBP, double those numbers for AUSD.

Check out the difference in prices . Just imagine if you didn't know this stuff! The cash saved pays for your food and accom, so why not be flexible and have more trips ?

7,500 ft is $38 Ausd to fly to Switzerland from Budapest...then you could fly on from there to say Paris for a few days for less than that, then fly back to Budapest for a similar amt. Probably do the whole lot for about $100 AUSD. 

These fares are with EasyJet. 
If I tried Wizz Air, the Hungarian airline, it may be better prices again. 
Ryan-air is another good one too...very cost effective, but uses out of the way airports to get cheaper taxes and so on.

Have to get all these trips planned out now I have sorted out what is needed.

From April onwards, I can go anywhere in EU, anytime, as I won't be staying anywhere more than a week or so.
It will be another learning experience to have that wonderful freedom to travel Europe at whim...in between Lodge guests to start off with, but once I get it all set up, will have a manager and caretaker in here, so...look out Europe, here I come!!!

Ahhhh, worth all the to-ing and fro-ing of the past 5 years!

Talk soon
xxx
M