vienna: not a cure for eastern european withdrawals

this will be my second day in vienna, austria and during my short stay i've made a few observations.

pizza and kabobs are taking over the world!

okay, but seriously. 

in vienna alone, pizza and kebobs are at almost every corner. and they're doing some serious work. 

you won't hear me complaining though. bring it. 

i'm not really sure what to say about vienna at this point. the weather hasn't been the best, it's been somewhat of a challenge to converse in english (i know i know we're in austria!)

still! a few days ago, in belgrade! out of all places, i did not have a single problem.

and

i was always under the impression that western european countries were tri-lingual, right? anyways...

i'm slowly shaking my belgrade blues away. it hasn't been easy 

yesterday we went inside belvedere palace and wow! the place is one massive and magnificent piece of work. 

not just structurally but the whole garden and landscaping aspect of it all.

my mexican side definitely sees the beauty but also cringes at the tough work of the upkeep.

to our luck, a massive spanish tour group was entering the palace, so naturally my friend phillip and i turned on the spanish, and brianne turned on her new-mexican, which pretty much includes the entirety of the taco-bell menu and in we were. 

once done fantasizing about what it'd be like owning a palace such as belvedere, we headed back to the city, but through a different corridor. apparently we found ourselves at the first district and from the euros that we saved at belvedere, libations were ordered.

ok, it's a bit of blur after that...

today, hopefully after a better breakfast than we had yesterday, we'll make our way to another museum or two and hopefully hop on another subway, get lost, and discover something new.

serbia, i miss you

today i woke up in a bed that wasn't perched on the highest part of a five-story building. the roof didn't have quirky looking slanted roof windows, and when i woke up i didn't find my arm and back riddled with mosquito bites. 

no, this new room had none of these features. 

yet

still, i miss it. 

i miss the turkish coffee in the morning.

i miss the faint rumbling noise of traffic from down below

i miss the random conversations of earlier former yugoslavia 

i miss the fact that a half liter of beer was never more than $2

these past 4 days spent in belgrade were great. nobody really treated us like tourists. maybe because hardly anyone comes here. if i'm right, i sure hope it stays that way.  

if you ask me, i can't really say why i came to belgrade other than my friend brianne being an insane novak djokovic fan and wanting to visit his cafe; which is amazing if i might add. 

the specifics of choosing a city are never set in stone. 

it's rare to find a city that once done circling and prodding, you'd come back to. 

belgrade, is one of the few exceptions.

last day in belgrade

you know the guy, the one who thinks he has all the time in the world? 

yeah, 

i've been that guy lately.

and so with that it saddens me to think that this will be my last day in belgrade. 

serbia-not to be confused with syria-has been nothing but a pleasant surprise. it might not seem like much at first. you wont find any slabs of distinctive architectural stone or an intricate system of fountains running through city. 

but take a walk to the city's fort and you might be lucky enough catch a sunset over the danube.

and if you keep walking further you might stumble upon bašta, a jazz club perched next to the danube river bank.  

as i write from the top bunk of my room- scratching and turning- the sun has made it's climb up through our ceiling window. 

there is still one day to go and plenty much to see. 

the cure for august funk

a few weeks ago I met up with my sister and brother in law, along with some other friends in las vegas, nevada.

and in the course of just a few hours, i had my wallet and phone stolen.

i haven't really been able to shake that off. actually, i haven't been able to shake off much of what seems to be a parade of disappointments, all being tightly packaged in this month of august.

 

i just keep thinking about them. 

so, in order to remedy this depressing month i decided to do what I normally do during these kind of situations; get some new ink.

this time, it's the city of belgrade in serbia. this is the view from my hostel balcony on the 5th floor. 

and just like that, august isn't as depressing as it was yesterday.

harry und eva's b&b

the minute we pulled up to the b&b, we were quickly greeted by harry. with a warm smile, he helped us with our bags and showed us to our room.  i can easily write a paragraph on how comfortable and cleanly our room was but i'll just say this, it was definitely more than what i expected. granted, i'm a dude and all i really need is a bed, shower and toilet (sink being a bonus), this b&b had it all and superseded my every expectation.  

that very same day, after a nap and an evening of walking and figuring out salzburg's rules of the road, my friend and I returned to the b&b. by this time eva was home, both were in the kitchen cooking schnitzels. the plan was to say hi and go straight to bed.

it didn't quite happen like that.

3 hours flew right past us as we conversed about our travels and cultures. speaking to eva and harry, you cant help but feel like you've known them for a while. they are such interesting and passionate people and the b&b shows it. mounted all over their walls are pictures of the countless corners of the globe they've visited. all of them stunning!
 

this was breakfast (omelet not pictured)!
 
my friend and i fell in love with salzburg.  it truly is that picturesque town you see on postcards, the kind you doubt if it even exists. but harry and eva sure deserve much of the credit to our great experience. i'm sad that our stay was so short but if life ever decides to send me anywhere near austria,  harry and eva's b&b will definitely be a place i will be staying. 

a nelgected passport

it makes me sad to see my blog and the absence of entries. i have neglected my passport for far too long now.

things will change, soon!

the motherland will have to wait

in this crazy economy, who in their right mind would ever voluntary choose a three month leave of absence? that would be me. especially when someone(like me) works for a company like virgin america who lets their employees keep full flight benefits.

so what does a person do with a blank boarding pass? he gets scared, lands a job at a restaurant and forfeits the gypsy lifestyle.
ok, not quite entirely. did i mention i'm in panama?

panama city, panama is a trip! pun unintended. separated by six hours of flight time, panama originally was merely going serve as our launch pad to the long awaited return to the motherland aka cuba. long story short: it didn't quite happen like that due to the complicated mess of the us embargo. but thanks to the helpful tips of jesus -the friendly copa ticket agent- i will definitely be giving it another go in the near future.
but in the meantime, with no plans, no reservations, and with quite an empty working knowledge of panama, what does one do? he smiles a hails a cab.

save the headache and do yourself a favor, grab a taxi. the cab scene didn't seem like it was dominated by bureaucratic bullshit like in bigger airports. these panamanian cabs come in different size and colors. you'll prob get hit up for a ride as soon as you walk past the terminal so poker faces on people and let the haggling begin.

the cab driver charged us $18 for both my buddy phillip and i. it took us about 40-60 minutes to get to the city from PTY airport. traffic was miserable. with all of the pretty shiny skyscrapers, you would think that panama city would buy into the concept of infrastructure; nope.

having an unlocked smartphone comes to be super handy in times like these. while in traffic, i looked up hostels and hotels nearby. we found some but all were booked so the cab driver brought us to hotel terra nova, which in panama translates into prostitute central.
we paid the cab, grabbed our room key, and just like that we were in the heart of it.

the night scene is pretty lively, nothing crazy. just your typical clubs on one side of the street, gentlemen's club on the other, a schwerma shack in the middle, and a pub at the end of it. i hit that schwerma shack hard. then went to that pub called the londoner and had some of the local brew. after, we tried walking into this locals looking club/bar called "ashe" but the tall black panamanian demanded money. he did let us chill in their patio and have a few more brews. in the midst of it all, a parade of scantily cladded women walked in and out of the classy establishment, with customers hand in hand. kinda sad to watch but it is the oldest profession in the world. business was good

in between then and now, we ditched the hotel for a hostel a few blocks away. and now perched up on top of my bunkbed i lay awake with my faithfull ipad while phillip snores his hangover away. what can i say about panama city? i can't say much honestly. from the little i've seen i feel like this place has alot to say. there are so many different shades of skin, slant of eyes, width of hips, that really has me wondering how they all came to be here. but with all those variances, the panamanian people are warm, welcoming, and friendly, which is why i'll be coming back again.