Croatia and Austria (2006)

After succeeding in my goal to see six continents before I was 25, I officially had the travel bug but I also wanted to have a deeper, more meaningful experience in each country that I traveled to. It was this desire that led me to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity International in Szarvas Hungary (something I would do again in 2008). While the build was in Hungary, I wanted some time beforehand to see some sights and celebrate my birthday.

I flew into Austria (where I spent one night in Vienna) and then headed to Croatia for a few nights by myself... it was the first time traveling abroad by myself.

While in Vienna, I stayed in a cheap hostel (where I randomly ran into a family friend from my childhood...the Lafayette connections run wide and deep).  However hostel reservations aside, I had done little to no research on what to do or see in town so I asked the people at the hostel.  They pointed me in the direction of the main square and assumed I wanted to see the famous church.  I had no idea what famous church they were referring to, so I wandered around a bit and found a smallish church in the area that seemed historical (this is before I realized that all European towns have churches on every corner and typically have one massive historically significant one).  I took a few pictures of the small church and continued exploring.  Just a few blocks later I stumbled upon St Stephens Cathedral, the famous church that everyone came to see and I didn’t know existed.  I suppose next time I should have done a little more planning. 

The "famous" church

Some other famous building...

After my one night in Vienna I hopped on a regional flight to Croatia where I was to spend a few nights, including my birthday, before meeting up with the group back in Vienna.  The flight was definitely a budget airline…we flew out of Bratislava and rules were relaxed… on our walk out to the plane two eastern European ladies took the opportunity to have one last smoke on the tarmac.

We landed in Dubrovnik after the short flight and I took a cab along the narrow winding cliffs to the cute little apartment I had booked.  The apartment was walking distance to the beach and a short bus ride to the walled city so I split my time between exploring the historical town and laying out on the beach where I splurged for the lounge chair and umbrella.  I spent my birthday evening eating the best mussels (beard and all) and enjoying a cold beer.

My first selfie (before selfies were cool) in my apartment in Dubrovnik

Views from inside the city walls

And just a few fun photos from my time spent in Szarvas Hungary 

We took a boat ride during one of our free afternoons, and clearly I wanted to drive

And we decided to go bowling one night!

Levy the site foreman

Check out our hard work! Martin would be so proud