A New Start in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong on the last day of the official celebration of the Chinese New Year.  It was the start of the year of the rooster.  Our first stop in Hong Kong was an AirBnB in what we would find out was an infamous building called Chung King Mansion.  Located in Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side, this placed sucked. The room would have made Harry Potter feel claustrophobic. It made our very first impression of Hong Kong interesting to say the least.

The year of the Rooster.

Our first Chinese meal.

Literally the entire room.

After 4 days we moved out to the New Territories and a place to stay a million times better than what we had.  We also started our new jobs as English Teachers in a local kindergarten.  It is a new challenge for sure! So far, I thoroughly enjoy it.

We are living in the New Territories now.  Much closer to the Chinese border than downtown Hong Kong.  There are some advantages. 1.) The air is clean and it seems the quality of life is a bit better. 2.) It's significantly cheaper but the salaries for English teachers aren't lower. 3.) It is only about 50 minutes by train to Hong Kong Island.  This has still given us some time to explore the area and see some of Hong Kong.

Our home in Fanling.

Sunday funday in Central.  All the domestic workers come and camp on the streets.

Chicken feet.

Dim Sum for lunch.

An Austrian Christmas

After a year long trip in Africa (and a little Europe) we came home, at least for one of us, to relax with Eva's family in Austria.  Oh man, what a relief not to be carrying a backpack for a while.  Of course the flip side of that was that now I had to carry a hat, gloves, and a winter coat everywhere.  We spent half the time in Bergl (South-Eastern Austria) and half in Vienna.  In between meeting up with people, looking for a job in Hong Kong, celebrating the festivities, looking at schooling, and non-stop eating, we had a busy two months.

The Prater in Vienna.

Willkommen zum Geisterschloss.

When you play men versus women there tends to be one side that wins.

At least someone is happy.

Lucas, Eva's student from Chile, came to celebrate Christmas in Bergl.

Christmas football.

Too tired to move.

Little David the star child.

Doug came to visit for the New Year's.  And he brought some friends!

New Year's Eve beer on the Ubahn.

Walking on the frozen Danube.

Playing with my birthday present.

Budapest

Our final stop on our year trip was Budapest.  The head of the Hungarian Empire and the best party in Europe.

 

 

The Chain Bridge connecting Buda and Pest.

The most expensive building in Hungary.

Europe's largest synagogue.

Eva; colder than Ice Santa.

A Ruin Bar; famous for the nightlife in Budapest.

A real life Disney castle.

Beograd

From Bulgaria we crossed over to Serbia and stayed in the capital city of Belgrade.  Belgrade translates to white city.  The city lies where the Saba and Danube river converge and once was on the border between the Austrio-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.  Because of its strategic importance, poor Belgrade has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times.  It is called the white city from the stone used in its many reconstructions.  Serbia is famous for party, and for a good reason; the local drink of choice rakija will put you under the table before you know it.  Eva and I had some hot rakija to keep warm on those cold, dark Yugoslavian nights. 

King Alexander, liberator of the Serbians.

A nice sample bottle of Rakija.

Belgrade's famous naked man.  His bum is facing Austria.

Ms. Mader warming up with a rakija in the ? bar, Belgrade's oldest.

София

Our Europe trip was just major cities.  From Istanbul we crossed over to Bulgaria and the capital Sofia (seen above in its original Cyrillic).  Sofia in winter time is what I always imagined Soviet Russia to look like.  It was cold, snowy, and chuck-full of communist era statues.  That being said, it was interesting to see and worth a visit.

What nightmares are made of.

No love for Marxists.