morgenhund's VirtualTourist Home Page

Amazingly over a year has flown by since I last updated this page... So what have I been up to? Apart from the necessary evil of work, I have been exploring some more of the world. I type this update jetlagged in Hong Kong.

2009 saw me start with a trip to Scotland for a long weekend to Edinburgh and St Andrews. My Alma Mater turns 600 next year and I had not been back since graduation. Then I had a weekend in Innsbruck - flying to have a fuller weekend. A couple of days later I was off to Utrecht for business and in the mean time making preparations for my spring holiday - in Hong Kong with a stopover in Dubai.

2008 started off with trips to Paris, London, Graz and Easter in Prague. After three more trips back to the UK, I was away in Munich before spending a three week break split between Latvia and Lithuania and then a tour of South East Europe (Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia). Conferences then took me to Paris and Luxembourg before Britain for Christmas.

In 2007, although I didn't leave Austria until March, I'd headed off to Czech Republic, Hungary, United Kingdom (twice), Cyprus and Bulgaria before Easter. Plans were revised for my summer break - from an original plan of visiting most of South-eastern Europe, I decided to stay closer to home. My summer holiday was further shortened due to a variety of professional commitments, but I had a long weekend in Bucharest (with Romania becoming country no. 30!) and a few days in Tirol (Innsbruck and Kufstein) at the end of August and start of September. Julius Bär accompanied me on both trips - it took him little persuasion to realise that he should see the world rather than play Texas Holdem on Facebook all summer... Then at the end of September I headed to Helsinki for work and then a few days break in Tallinn as an added bonus. To recompense for my relative inactivity on the travel front, I headed to South Africa in mid November - my first visit to Africa and also the first time I crossed the Equator - sad it had taken me 30 years to do so! I spent 11 days in South Africa, with time in and around Jo'burg, three days in Kruger National Park, and 5 days in Cape Town. All of which was greatly enjoyable - thanks not least to my friends Kerry, Jacques and Roslyn, who made my stay an unforgettable one. After flying visits to Milan and Bratislava in December I rounded off 2007 with a relaxing Christmas in Vienna.

Vienna
Amsterdam
London
Utrecht
Luxembourg
Graz
Malta
Valletta
Budapest
Zell am See
Viehhofen
Krimml
Moscow
Craców
Helsinki
Tallinn
London
Linz
Bucharest
South Africa

Whilst I've racked up 40 countries (latest additions were Hong Kong, UAE, Serbia and Kosovo) having only left Europe twice since 2000 - I've only crossed the pond twice, and crossed the equator only once and have only just visited Asia - that doesn't mean that I don't have travel aspirations.

Below is a list, in no particular order, of some of the places on this planet that I want to visit - and hope to have the chance of doing so! I've grouped them by continents - with the subliminal effect of getting me to explore regions in one go!

Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia

Africa: Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, The Seychelles, Libya, Cameroon

South America: Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Guyana, The Galapagos Islands

Central America: Mexico, Cuba, Cayman Islands

North America: Greenland, Canada, Alaska

Europe: Iceland, Bosnia, Turkey and Greece

Asia: Mongolia, China, Japan, Novaya Zemlya, Kamchatka Peninsula

The Arctic Circle

to mention but a few...

Austria: Graz, Vienna, Klagenfurt, Krems an der Donau, Linz, St Anton, Bregenz, Feldkirch, Judenburg, Murau, Rax, Velden, Laa an der Thaya, Mistelbach, Klosterneuberg, Innsbruck, Ried
France: Aix-en-Provence, Briançon, Marseille, St Brieuc, Paris, Evian, Thollon, Chatel, Rennes, St. Malo, Lauris-sur-Durance, Ile sur la Sorgue, Lille, Beaune, Royan, Sarlat, Rocamadour, Bayeux, Caen, Lisieux, Etretat, Le Havre, Rouen, Courgent
Germany: Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hannover, Koblenz, Lüneburg, Lübeck, Mosbach, Munich, Niebüll, Schwerin, Westerland/Sylt
Mallorca: Palma de Mallorca
Portugal: Lisbon, Faro, Cabo Sao Vicente, Sagres
Scotland: St Andrews , Edinburgh and Glasgow
Northern Ireland: Belfast, Larne, Drummond, Mountains of Morne, Springfield.
Ireland: Dublin, Dunlaoigh
USA: New York
Hungary: Budapest, Györ, Csorna, Sopron
Slovakia: Bratislava
Slovenia: Ljubljana, Bled, Maribor
Croatia: Pula, Zagreb, Dubrovnik
Belgium: Antwerp, Arlon, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Mons
Luxembourg:Luxembourg, Remich
Italy: Milan, Verona, Bologna, Ferrara, Trieste, Venice, Turin, Bardonecchia,
Barbados: St Lawrence Gap, Bridgetown, Holetown, Westmoreland, St Lucy, Sam Lord's Cove
Czech Republic: Brno, Breclav, Prague, Znojmo, Mikulov, Drnholec
Finland: Helsinki, Hämeenlinna
Malta: St Julians Bay, Valletta, Qormi, Naxxar, Mdina, Marxxalok
The Netherlands: Utrecht, Scheveningen, Amsterdam Harderwijk,
Poland: Cracow
Russia: Moscow, Sergiyev Posad and St Petersburg
Denmark: Herning, Karup, Copenhagen
Sweden: Malmo
Switzerland: Interlaken, Grindelwald, St Gallen,
Spain: Madrid, Toledo
Latvia: Riga and Jurmala
Liechtenstein:Vaduz
Cyprus: Larnaca, Nicosia
Bulgaria: Sofia
Romania: Bucharest
Estonia: Tallinn
South Africa: Johannesburg, Kruger National Park, Cape Town
Lithuania: Vilnius
Montenegro: Kotor, Podgorica
Albania: Shkoder, Tirana, Pogradec
Macedonia: Sveti Naum, Ohrid, Skopje
Kosovo: Pristina
Serbia: Niss, Belgrade
UAE: Dubai
Hong Kong

First trip to a foreign country: France - 1980
First flight: Bristol-Munich - 1988
First internal flight: Bristol-Edinburgh 1995
First helicopter flight: East Neuk of Fife - May 1999
First passport stamp: United States - 1997
First transatlantic flight: London-New York - 1997
First time crossing the equator: South Africa 2007
Most countries visited in a calendar year: 15 in 2005
Most countries in a 24 hour period: 8 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary)
Most frequently flown flight route: Vienna/London

5th country visited: Germany
10th country visited: United States
15th country visited: Hungary
20th country visited: Sweden
25th country visited: Russia
30th country visited: Romania
35th country visited: Montenegro
40th country visited: Hong Kong

VT:

250th tip: 16.11.05 Linz transportation tip
First 50 tip location: Vienna 31.10.05
First 50 photo location: Moscow 24.10.05
Went bronze: End of 2002
Went silver 07.11.05
Went gold: 12.12.05
Most positions jumped in a week approx 2700 (07.11.05)
Highest ranking: 624 (28.03.07)
First top 5 location: Vaduz

1500 visits to my homepage: reached on 21.11.05
2000 visits to my homepage: reached on 16.01.06
2500 visits to my homepage: reached on 31.05.06
3000 visits to my homepage: reached on 14.08.06
3500 visits to my homepage: reached on 29.10.06
4000 visits to my homepage: reached on 15.01.07
4500 visits to my homepage: reached on 15.04.07
5000 visits to my homepage: reached on 24.06.07
5500 visits to my homepage: reached on 11.09.07
6000 visits to my homepage: reached on 04.01.08

An ever increasing number of travellers travel with animal companions - I thought I as a child, taking Fred (a dog stuffed with old tights!) was unique in this. Now Bär (full name on his passport is Julius Bär) has been allowed to join me on my travels!) Here on VT there are several celebrity animal travelling companions - let me know if I have missed one off the list:

pocketpiglet - I had to warn him about being careful in Salzburg, we don't want him to end up as a Spannferkel or a Pork Schnitzel!
desert_princess' travelling koala
Norbaert - Another travelling bear - older and wiser than Julius!
littlescrappy - A travelling dog!
OiKnow - barely leaves home without a penguin!
Egonwegh - travels with Eeyore often!
Borneogrrl - also travels with a bear!
christine.j - takes a koala on her travels.

And a friend from university, not on VT used to always travel with Spiderman (a finger puppet) until Spiderman got lost in Colombia on a field trip!

I moved out to Vienna in 2000, as a fresh-faced language graduate after a wonderful time in St Andrews, with a year in Steiermark and two internships in Brussels. It didn't all go to plan to start with although things have gone my way more recently. Vienna is still my playground and home of choice - and it remains a great place to start travelling from.

If anyone is passing through Vienna, let me know - I am often around for a drink or a Schnitzel! I do enjoy a beer, wine, G&T and am very happy to meet other travellers, if you are passing through Vienna then feel free to drop me a line!

I went out for a few beers in Shebeen with chbuchie and a friend of his whilst they were in Vienna in December 2005.
I attended a VT meeting in Vienna in December 2006
I attended a VT meeting in
Vienna
in June 2007

Karelian trip:

Originally this was the plan for summer 2006 (sadly on hold at the moment!):

Vienna - Helsinki - Tallinn - Narva - St. Petersburg- Petrozavodsk - Kizhi - Apatity - Murmansk - Ivalo-Helsinki-Vienna

South Eastern Europe (modified itinerary - hopefully August 2008!):

Planned: Vienna-Dubrovnik-Kotor-Podgorica-Shkoder-Tirana-Skopje-Pristina-Sarajevo-Belgrade-Zagreb-Vienna.