Our two week journey started in Valletta, Malta, then had us on to Zurich, Switzerland, Vaduz in Liechtenstein, Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria, back to Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, and finally a short stay in Vienna, Austria before flying back to Japan.

It has been about four years since we’ve made a trip to Europe, mainly because of the impact of COVID on international travel. In 2020 we had tickets to Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Bulgaria – all of which were cancelled due to the pandemic. It was a matter of years before we got our money back – some as cash and some as credit, and so we have been really looking forward to another attempt. Obviously Ukraine was out (this time) and so I cooked up an idea for a trip that would take us to some smaller countries that we’ve been wanting to see, that would keep us in the Swiss and Austrian alps to avoid the summer heat, give us a chance to see our friends in Zurich, and also finally get to Slovakia.

We expected that there would be lots of changes after three years of pandemic, but in the end things were much the same as they were before COVID, and in some ways it was even easier to travel in the age of eSIMs and cashless payments. There were no head injuries this time, and the biggest troubles we had were dealing with a very hot summer and my own personal struggles to understand tipping customs in each city.

We’ve never had a bad visit to Europe and this one was a lot of fun – we were tired out but full of great memories and stories. The purpose of what you’re reading here is to keep those memories alive for us down the road.

So following (from oldest below to newest at the top) are the travel events and our thoughts from each day of the two week trip. Happy reading!

Up early we checked out of our hotel and made the short walk across the street to the station. The machine spit out the tickets we needed, and we boarded the train to the Vienna airport after a short five minute wait. We got great seats right next to the luggage rack, but it was a quick trip and nobody even came by to check our tickets.

It was a bit of a walk to find the terminal we were looking for, Terminal 1A. It was housed in a small almost temporary-feeling building. As you might expect for a flight to Taiwan there were a lot of Chinese folks – part of a tour group – and they were all jockeying for position in line. They were doing it oddly – they had all lined up for self-check-in and then they all lined up again for regular check-in so that they could check their bags through. Some people tried to cut in line a little bit, but eventually we got to the front.

After checking in we did a little shopping before going through security, then a little shopping after security too. Souvenirs, souvenirs, souvenirs! We found a nice bar/restaurant that served us a couple of proseccos and a club sandwich that we split. Again the facilities overseas are way better than Kansai Airport. Our waiter was super professional and looked intense – he was working the room efficiently and without joy.

Soon enough it was time for boarding and we got lucky with an empty seat next to us – we could spread out for the 12 hour flight and really enjoy it. I didn’t really sleep – watched some movies and played some games. I think Kuniko played Bejeweled for like six hours straight!

We slept maybe an hour at the tail end of the flight, and then we arrived in Taipei. We walked around the airport and looked for dumplings, but the best we could find was braised beef noodles. Not bad, and it hit the spot after all the air conditioning – Taiwanese people really like their air conditioners set to high in the summer.

There were lots of flights to Japan – we went to the gate of our flight and actually handed over our boarding passes when we were rejected – we were on the wrong flight. Our actual flight’s boarding time matched this flight’s departure time, both to Osaka. So we had to go to another gate and sit around for a half hour and then try again. A little embarrassing, but we had traveled a lot by that time and I thought it was understandable.

It was just a short trip to Kansai Airport, and then we caught a bus to Kobe and train back to Nishi Akashi. As usual we took a taxi after a quick shopping trip for milk, eggs and other essentials. The ancient taxi driver sort of chickened out when asked to drive down our street – he didn’t believe it was safe. Kuniko handled it so well, give him a warm congratulations when the old guy made it through to our house.

After that it was snacks and prosecco, and sushi on the horizon. I think we’ll be eating fish and veggies for a while…

We had a little bit of a sleep in this morning, and then tried to get the coffee machine working. It was either broken or we were too dumb to figure it out – I’m guessing 50/50 chance. I’m just glad we didn’t buy any milk last night.

Took a walk to a different Billa supermarket, and picked up lots of chocolate nut wafers and peanut butter bars as souvenirs for our students/co-workers back in Japan. The staff wore a funny expression on his face as we bought stacks and stacks of these things. I just said, “These are really delicious.”

Had our coffees down in the hotel lobby, maybe they are making sales based on the broken coffee machines in the rooms. The staff were once again super kind and everyone spoke English well. After I paid the bill the staff watched us go and waved goodbye.

In our room we did our final packing (including all those wafers and snacks) and then left for the station to catch a train to Vienna. The station was pretty busy, and we had to kill a little time outside until finally they posted the track number of our train. However as we got close it turned out that we had read the number wrong, and so we stood around for a while until the number showed up. Then there was a major rush to the platform, but we were in a good position.

The train arrived a little early, and there was an initial rush to get seats. Luckily Kuniko is great at grabbing seats on trains and we got some comfortable ones.

On the hour-long train ride we sat and looked out the windows. There was a lot of agriculture and more windmills – today they weren’t spinning. Next to Kuniko a Serbian(?) guy struck up a conversation – he works at Heathrow airport in London and was doing a little traveling. While he was nice there was another bossy guy walking around making sharp comments to his companion. A scary dude or just under a lot stress?

Along the route we passed some very new train stations that were being completed. Judging from all the open fields and empty space I couldn’t understand who was going to use the stations in the future.

Soon enough we rolled into the newly renovated Vienna train station. It was really nice – lots of shops/restaurants and wide open spaces so easy to navigate with luggage. We walked across the street to check into our next hotel – another Motel One like we had used in Innsbruck. This time our room was on the eleventh floor and we once again had a great view of the city. The room was spacious with a really cool wide chair – exactly like I would like to have up in our library at home. Can I fit it into my suitcase?

From there we went by subway only two stops out to the lively Stephenplatz, and had lots of good memories of our previous trip to Vienna. Did a little sightseeing while we made our way to Demel – it was quite crowded on the streets. The Demel cafe was also really crowded – it looked like we’d have to wait in line for a while. We had eaten here before (and you can buy the Demel cakes in Kansai anyway) so we went back out on the street and chose a cafe at random with shade and outdoor seating. Turned out to be an Italian place, so we had wine and panini while we watched all the tourists.

Next to us a group of older Americans were keeping a low profile while they ate, in contrast to some of the other Americans we have come across on this trip. The food and wine were OK but nothing we’d remember for long.

From here we walked over to St. Stephen’s Cathedral which is inspiring no matter how many times you see it. I wasn’t sure we had been inside last time so we walked through it this time, and I think it was the first time for me. Lots of cathedrals on this trip but I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

We both felt like even though we had spent a long time in Vienna last time we were here it felt somehow more elegant this time around. Maybe we were tired the last time we were here? Despite all the tourists the city was quite beautiful, and it was nice just to take it all in without needing to rush from place to place.

After the cathedral we stopped in at the Manner shop. This shop saved us the last time we were here as it was the only store open in the area selling souvenirs. Unfortunately this time there was an odd smell in there (horse pee?) so we didn’t buy anything and went instead to go look for an early dinner.

Since we were in Vienna we went looking for wieners, and found a restaurant called Zwolf Apostokeller – an underground cellar/restaurant. It was still just the middle of the afternoon so we walked right in and got a seat. The design of the place was such that unfortunately the toilet aromas from upstairs were wafting down into the dining area – not good. But we did manage to get some good food out of it.

We had burenwurst (excellent!), debrecziner (spicy sausages – only so-so), and extrawurst (sliced sausages splashed in vinegar, similar to bologne). We also drank lots of red wine. We liked the St. Laurents better than the Zweigelt, both local wines that we saw elsewhere in Austria.

Our waiter was a little weird, he was focusing most of his attention on a big group of Spanish customers, so we didn’t stick around too long after eating. We caught the train back towards the train station, and then checked out the ticket machines as we’ll need an early train to the airport the next morning.

We went over to the big Billa+ supermarket and did some shopping for our evening: a couple bottles of kefir, two mini bottles of sparkling wine, some water and a salad. We do miss eating veggies! We also walked through the HEMA store near the station. It was kind of a ripoff of Flying Tiger, and it was fun to listen to Kuniko talking through all her shopping options. She was asking me lots of questions but soon I realized that she really wasn’t asking me but herself. This was a situation were my presence was totally superfluous.

So back to the room where we watched the view of the city from the totally cool double wide chair that I wanted to steal. While we ate and drank we saw many young people checking into the youth hostel across the way. A quick google search told us that it was only 9 euros a night! I prefer private toilets and sleeping arrangements but, wow – what a great price!

We’ll do final packing tomorrow for our return journey back to Japan.

In the middle of the night I had a dream – I remember that I was climbing a ladder, not sure where or why. I awoke to Kuniko pushing me away – apparently I was trying to climb her like a ladder. I think for both of us it was a hell of a way to wake up!

We arrived at breakfast ready to challenge to sparkling wine, with the option to make it a mimosa if the wine was terrible. But actually it was not bad. The rest of the breakfast was good too – especially those homemade yogurts.

We checked out of the hotel and rolled the suitcase to the nearest Metro station, and it was an easy ride a couple of stations to today’s departure train station: Budapest – Nyugati. The subway system was so efficient that we arrived quite a bit early for our train to Bratislava, and so we sat on a bench and watched them clean and prep the train. Once they began boarding they loaded up someone in a wheelchair using a very manual system of a platform with a wheel to raise it to the level of the train floor. As soon as they were boarded people rushed to get on.

We had a reservation for our seats – it was required when we booked the rail pass for this leg of the journey. The train was pretty crowded, though. Across from us was (maybe) a German couple – two big people who were friendly but quiet. Behind them was a young American couple who boasted to their Korean seat neighbors that they had been traveling for five weeks through Europe. We couldn’t hear any responses from the Korean couple but that didn’t seem to stop the Americans from explaining all the details of their trip. Kind of like what I am doing right now in this journal.

As we traveled along towards Bratislava an older American woman sitting across the aisle from us was taking her first train trip (ever, apparently). She was trying to figure everything out and was verbalizing everything that she was thinking about to whoever happened to be around. She wasn’t sure where she should sit, how the tickets worked, she tried to use American dollars to buy water. This had us and the German couple across from us trying to stifle our giggles as we overheard it.

An unfortunate German lady sitting across from her made the mistake of using English and so she kind of had to adopt the American woman. The poor lady had to answer questions like, “Is this a non-stop train?”, “Is there a restroom nearby?”, “When do we arrive?”, and my favorite: “What state are we in now?”

Luckily she had a reservation for her seat when the train conductor came by, but unfortunately she didn’t print it out – she claimed that this was the first she had heard that it was necessary to print, but every single other passenger had managed it. She had an email, and the conductor insisted that without a print she would have to pay for ticket (again). But at some point the conductor must have decided to cut his losses, and he managed to scan the ticket from her email and move on.

The older lady drifted off to sleep now and then, thereby depriving us of her amusing comments.

Across from us the big German couple set out some beverages that they had brought on board: a Red Bull and a bottle of apple juice. I was surprised when the big guy took the apple juice to drink. I was even more surprised when his wife drank the Red Bull and then settled in with a blanket to go to sleep. Maybe energy drinks work differently in Europe.

We got off in Bratislava while most of the other passengers were continuing on to Prague. Once we got off the train we tried to follow the signs to the exit but surprisingly for an EU country everything was in the local language. We took a few guesses and found the right way but throughout the city we rarely saw English around – I thought that was unusual.

Our hotel was nearby so we walked over but the staff was loudly telling all arriving customers that they wouldn’t open check-in until 3 pm. He was steering people towards either the bar or the luggage storage closet. We chose the closet and decided to go look around while we had the free time.

There were bathrooms down the stairs on the basement level, and so we went down to use them. The decorations were unique, with classic rock playing in the background and a strange sink that sprayed water at your general direction when activated. Kuniko and I were laughing together about getting wet from the sink as we left the toilet and the hotel staff looked at us strangely – rarely are the toilets so amusing.

The first thing we discovered in Bratislava was that it is not easy for pedestrians to get around. Cars and streetcars had priority, and we often had to calculate carefully how to cross streets or get somewhere. Sometimes there were two or three crossing lights for pedestrians, even for just one street. Cars came from both directions and also from turns so you really had to keep your head on a swivel.

This was our first time in the country and the city of Bratislava was much like other European cities. The buildings were old an beautifully decorated with dramatic facades. The scale of the streets and city blocks was bigger than other cities, more like something you’d see in Moscow or Minsk.

As we walked we took pictures and followed our map and eventually found our way to the historic Old Town district. We saw Michael’s Gate, and looked for a cafe to hide from the sun and get some food. We took a side street and found a place called “The Hidden Cafe” – so we sat down and started checking out the menus. One was in Slovakian and one in English, so we could figure out what we wanted easily enough.

The server came up and we did a double take as she was a dead ringer for Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones. Well, almost – she was wearing super tight shorts and a lot of makeup – kind of like a sexy Sansa. So Kuniko pointed at the area of the menu with the glass wine and said she’d like one white wine, but the problem was she had the Slovakian menu and it was the correct location but the opposite side of the paper, so she was pointing at what was in fact onion rings, and asking Sansa for white wine.

After some consultations we were able to communicate our true order with Sansa and we had a good lunch. All the wines we tried were great in Slovakia, and we also had a plate of different dumplings: sour cabbage dumplings, cheese dumplings (with crispy bacon pieces that were phenomenal) and some pierogies. Also we had an oil-marinated wheel of Camembert. All of this was much cheaper than anything we had had so far on this trip – Slovakia is an affordable destination.

Sitting on the street eating we had lots of people walking by, checking out our food or being amused while I took pictures of our meals. Sansa was always there to refill our wine glasses, and the other staff were really nice as well.

We did a little shopping for a keychain, and then found a supermarket nearby called Billa. It is a chain similar to Spar, but we were surprised how low the prices were. There was even a skinned and shrink-wrapped rabbit for sale for just 6 euros. Wow!

Back at our hotel it was still before 3 pm so a big line formed of people waiting to get their rooms. We went to the bar instead, and had some local beers and sparkling wine, and Kuniko also had a lemonade from a special menu that initially confused the staff as perhaps nobody had ever ordered it before. It turned out to be not that great – oops.

Finally the line started moving through the check-in process and we timed it so that we could get our room. We went up to the third floor and Kuniko had gotten a “premium” room – it was really nice. Lots of red, a free mini-bar, a semi-transparent toilet area, and a giant painting of Marilyn Monroe. Wow!

As soon as we settled into the room outside there was a big boom and we were surprised to see a big thunderstorm come through. The timing couldn’t have been better for us – we were dry and comfortable, so it was a good chance to take a nap and start getting hungry for dinner.

Closer to the dinner hour we went back out, navigating in a different direction to see new stuff and look for the Blue Church, one of our primary sightseeing targets. Kuniko led us via Google Maps (which seemed to be pretty ineffective in this country) through some interesting areas – it seemed safe but slightly depressed. There was a lot of graffiti and some “sex shops” but everyone was friendly and there weren’t too many homeless or people loitering around suspiciously.

It took a while to find but at last we found the Blue Church in a normal sort of neighborhood. The scale of it was a little smaller than we expected, but it was still beautiful and unique – maybe the only time we’ve visited a church that was quite blue.

From there we walked along the Danube river back towards the Old Town. I was really liking the vibe of Bratislava. The pace felt slower than other places we’ve been on this trip, and combined with the cooler temperatures (thanks to the rain) it felt really comfortable.

Out on the river super long river ships were passing. Some seemed like ferries that would go long distance, others for eating/entertaining cruises. We saw the UFO at the top of the major bridge – it was pretty unique but we didn’t really feel the need to go up for the view.

More sightseeing around the Old Town – a large cathedral, and another fortress on the hill overlooking the town. We had seen something similar in Salzburg, and I think Bratislava suffered a little in comparison after visiting Salzburg – I’d recommend seeing them in reverse order if possible.

Old Town was gearing up for dinner and there were a lot of people out. The crowd was different from previous cities – we saw almost no tour groups and most people were relaxing and taking it easy.

We passed many restaurants advertising “Slovak food”, but we had already chosen our dinner place, called “Kaliba Kamzik” because it had a large menu and specialized in local foods. We sat outside the restaurant and the server was very helpful while we chose our food and wine. She had a large bandage on her cheek (what happened?) but she was really kind and did a great job.

For dinner we started with a traditional garlic soup, I had bread dumplings stuffed with smoked meats and Kuniko ordered crispy pierogies. While both of our main dishes were a bit too salty and quite heavy, the garlic soup was amazing. The broth was almost clear, with pieces of smoked cheese floating inside that just melted in your mouth. Also there was some kind of lightly fried strips in the soup – it looked and tasted like Japanese atsuage. I really want to try to make something like this when we get back.

The wine was really good here – and we sipped on that while watching people walk by and listening to the very odd background music (is that anime music?). Next to us a local family was having a big night out.

After dinner we did a little more walking around, taking more pictures as it got darker, and finally made a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home. Our hotel room had a coffee machine and we were hoping to buy a small container of milk. Thanks to Google Translate we didn’t buy “soured milk” and so we gave up on the milk idea and went on back to the room.

Bratislava seems like a good place to relax and take things easy. The low prices are a relief after all the expensive places we’ve been so far. We are leaving tomorrow however, and wrapping up our trip in Vienna before heading home to Japan.

We got up at 7 am and decided to head down to our hotel breakfast. And it was not bad, not bad at all! Right off the bat we knew it was different because there were some sparkling wine bottles on ice next to the coffee machine – I’ve never seen that before in a standard hotel breakfast buffet.

But they also had lots of eggs, breads and cheeses, and even some homemade yogurts with some jam lurking at the bottom – yum!

Our plan for Budapest was to do a little bit of minor sightseeing, as we had already covered most of the dramatic spots on our previous visit. The more we looked around this time the more surprised I was that I managed to get all over the city with a big head bandage. This time there was no head injury in Budapest.

Our first stop was the big market hall across from our hotel. We’ve been to these kinds of places in other countries (like Lithuania) and it is fun to see the spices, meats, veggies and cheese that local people have to cook with. Downstairs we found several stands with old ladies selling pickle jars. The pickles were arranged in the jars to make little smiling characters – clever idea and probably all over Instagram by now.

From there we walked to the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library on the border of the Jewish district. It wasn’t open quite yet, so we explored deeper in the Jewish district and came across the Dohány Street Synagogue – a massive structure out of nowhere. We were interested in visiting – we visit so many cathedrals and it is rare to find such a big synagogue in our travels – but judging by all the tour groups queuing up it might have been a long wait. I was shocked to see the price for a ticket – most cathedrals are free and some charge a couple of euros, but the price here was about 13 euros per person. It seemed high for a quick peek inside.

Since we were still a little early for things to open we made our own little pilgrimage to the site of my head injury, the Budapest Marriott. Ah, here is where I walked through the lobby with the paramedics! Oh, I remember getting in the ambulance over here! It was nice to be in the same spot while not bleeding.

Again the weather was starting to heat up, and so we slowly made our way back to the library to cool down and take a look inside. We had to wait in a short line to buy visitor one-day tickets, and as the library is a popular tourist destination the process was easy. We took an elevator to the fourth floor to walk through the “Palace Rooms”. Originally the whole library was a palace, and the upper floors were preserved as they were (with some library books added in) to see the historical context of the building. It was certainly impressive to walk through, and we were there early enough that it was just us and a few students studying at the tables.

After I had hoped to pop into a Ruin Bar nearby, but despite Google’s information it was closed when we arrived. To kill a little time before lunch we instead went down the street and stopped in a little breakfast cafe. We sat at a counter bar and sipped Hungarian sparkling wine, near artwork featuring Jason Momoa.

Besides the sparkling I drank lots of water and even some banana juice to keep my energy up. I was feeling much better since all that sleep back in Salzburg, the more we walked the better I felt.

Around noon we moved from the cafe to Ghetto Goulash, to have some more paprika dishes for lunch. There was a line forming already when we arrived but the staff were happy to seat us outside at a comfortable table. The location and ambiance were great – it felt like a lunch place for locals rather than tourists, and we ordered a couple glasses of kekfrankos while we waited for our food. This time the wine was a little better, but still not meeting the mental bar that we had set. Maybe we were romanticizing the memory of the wine a little?

Our dishes arrived, beef in tomato sauce with egg barley and lamb paprika with egg noodles. They were served simply and both were excellent. We commented that all the paprika dishes we’ve had so far had less tomato base in the sauce than we’d imagined. The recipes we make at home often have a lot of tomato paste so it seems a bit more authentic to tone down the tomato flavor.

The food had good flavor, it was a nice atmosphere, and we really enjoyed our lunch. The staff brought the bill and I noticed for the first time that since we arrived in Budapest nobody has asked us about our tip amount. Later I researched that more and more restaurants just add a service charge to the bill so it is more streamlined. I don’t like tipping at all, but this system at least took a lot of the awkwardness and stress of the tipping custom.

On our way back to the hotel we popped into a convenience store to look for drinkable yogurt. I bought what I thought was vanilla flavored yogurt but got vanilla milk. It was good, though! While navigating the shop we inadvertently stood in front of some staff trying to pass with a cart – we didn’t notice but the staff just sort of shut down instead of saying something, and it was a little surprising. The cashier was totally dead inside – I felt bad for their situation. We found a lot of people that looked unhappy in their jobs this trip.

We found our hotel again, thanks to a big Thai Massage place that advertised across the street. It was a useful signpost for our navigation. Our hotel room had been cleaned so we could really relax and sip vanilla milk and escape the heat of the afternoon for a while. While researching things to bring back from Budapest I stumbled upon the idea to bring tubes of paprika paste back to Japan.

Since the market was right across the street from our hotel we went over and scored a couple to pack in our suitcase. The staff asked me if I wanted the receipt – I said no, and then he handed me the two big tubes, no bag. Kuniko laughed because I had misheard… he asked if I wanted a bag. So anyway, Kuniko had to carry around two big tubes of paprika paste the rest of the day. What a nice wife!

We walked around through town, passing areas that we sort of remembered from before. As the weather cooled it was easier to traverse the city, and every now and then we found something familiar. We were looking for one particular restaurant cafe where we had the best chicken paprika ever – but either it went out business or we mis-remembered the location.

But near St. Stephen’s Basilica we found a place that we had visited before called “0.75 L” – and so we decided to eat there for dinner and see how it was. We ordered some goulash – beef with vegetables, and also a burrata salad to go with the obligatory chicken paprika. More wine and beer – another kekfrankos but still not what we were hoping for. The food here was really good – a little salty but overall a tasty experience.

Right on the plaza in front of the Basilica is a great place to people watch. While we enjoyed our meal we watched our zen-like waitress handle orders from various customers, most using different languages. Two American guys had lots of questions and their order became like a negotiation. Our waitress patiently listened and delivered all the food like a pro.

After dinner we walked to the river, and started across the bridge to maybe take some pictures of the parliament building as it got dark. It was getting dark quickly though, and we were surprised to feel rain coming down. Photo trip cancelled! We instead ran for cover back on the Pest side, and hailed a taxi back to our place.

It was another hot and sweaty day – almost every travel day has been hot. One of the reasons for going to this area was to avoid the brutal heat but I guess it is just about everywhere. Maybe in the future we need to travel to the southern hemisphere for our summer holidays.