land of the rising sun via tijuana, mexico

i must've been a boy since the last time i flew out of tijuana's general abelardo l. rodríguez international airport. 

as a kid, i would fly out of here frequently. i used to have a fear of flying and i would say that it was a legitimate one; mainly because my family booked our family trips to southern mexico on an airline called aero-california. 

to those who are not familiar, aero-california was probably one of the worst maintained airlines in mexico. since then, it went bankrupt, twice, and the only remnants of their existence are the skeletal crj remains strewn across the lancaster/palmdale desert. 

i can still smell the smoke of cigarettes in the cabin and the grimy nicotine covered seats. 

for some reason i'd always get stuck with the window and as we climbed higher through the sky, i would sink deeper and deeper into my seat with sweaty palms clinching the armrests.  

my attention would shift and look at the wing, which jolted back-and-fro during turbulence. 

back then i didn't know that it was normal for wings to bend but when i looked at the wings, i couldn't help but notice the splotchy tar stains around the region where the wing and fuselage met. add the imagination of a 8-year old mexican kid to the mix and well, let's just say i was a wreck. 

so now, 20 years later, i am back. 

i never thought i'd be flying to tokyo from this place but i guess it seems fitting. 

i no longer have a fear of flying and as i sit on my window seat, i'm staring at the beautiful wings of aeromexico's brand new boeing 787-dreamliner. this is actually aeromexico's maiden voyage using the dreamliner, so in a way i'm kind of pioneer of sorts. 

our flight to tokyo was supposed to leave at 02:00am but typhoon whipa would have none of that. this category-3 typhoon delayed us about 8 hours. to our fortune, aeromexico's staff has been nothing but phenomenal. 

they kept us informed and even offered us entrance into their premiere lounge for the night where i was introduced to a comfy couch and bohemia's obscura. 

in about two hours we will be landing in narita. according to google maps, it takes about 2 hours by train to get to the apartment we booked on air bnb. 

i'll be lying if i said that i wasn't nervous/scared. the same exact feelings i had back when i was a boy are starting to come back. what did i get myself into?

i'll keep asking myself this question a few more times until the moment we land. from there something usually else takes over. 

but till then, all i could do is sit tight and try and enjoy the ride!

vienna. in a nutshell

long aimless walks

random metro rides

pizza & kebap

schönbrunn palace

rococo swag

vienna state opera house

food

beer

selfies

and some of the sunshine.

this is what consisted mostly during my last day in vienna, and with that my week's vacation in europe.

with no doubt, vienna has to be one of the most beautiful european cities out there.
the gardens

the churches
the state buildings
the monuments
the metro

vienna pretty much has got you covered in everything that is first-world.
if comfort, romance and fine dining is what you're looking for, then this is the place for you.

but having all the right ingredients along with all the right conditions doesn't always mean that you'll have a great quiche.
i really really like quiche!

this is how i feel about vienna. i didn't find a cohesiveness; the type that identifies peoples.
it might be due to the fact that i'm getting older now, but when traveling, the thing that i look forward to are the human interactions more than the shiny and splendorous man-made objects that cities have to offer.
having said that, vienna i love you, your beer, and your brats!
i had fun being inside of you.
till next time, cheers!

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.