Last year I took some time to travel Europe alone. My journey took me from the UK → Germany → Czech Republic → Austria → Slovakia → Hungary. It was an interesting trip that brought me much grounding perspective that revitalized my disciple to always improve. Below is a summary of the trip, directly below is a map summarizing my trip,

My first stop was London. The only place in the US I can really compare London with is New York City. Definitely reminds me of all the things I love about city living along with all the things I don't like 10x. Very crowded, especially out in Central London out in Blackfriars where I stayed for most of my trip. I did all the typical touristy stuff: walked the London Bridge, went to Big Ben, Buckingham palace etc... my highlights for London was watching Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty's Theater and the British National Gallery.

My next stop was Berlin. Compared to other places I visited the historical significance of most of the sights and places were mostly concentrated within the past century or so. The food was surprisingly good. Starting in Berlin I began to mostly eat at cafe's and I started to have actually good coffee. Right after I took this picture I went to this German Restaurant right next to the Brandenburg gate, I had some sort of Wiener Schnitzel and this raspberry beer. I was surprised at the amount of people that spoke English. However, my observations led me that German would be a prudent choice in a language I should learn and have been doing so since. Out of all the places in Europe, Germany, in particular Berlin, Dresden or Munich would be places I would live in. As a city, I really like Berlin. Lot's of high speed industry and as a city it doesn't feel cramped or too busy. However, it still has all the amenities you can except from a large international metro city. Also, the German public transportation system is really good.

My only regret with being in the Czech Republic was not staying longer. Juxtaposed with German cities, Czech cities have a really, really old history and feel to them. I stayed in Prague, passed through Brno, and a small castle village in the southern part of the country: České Budějovicee. Prague in particular was so interesting; a really old city with a youthful vibrancy from a lot of the locals. Lot's of fashionable young people with neo-gothic architecture and vestiges of the Soviet Union draping the background. The food was also good here, I can't recall all the names at the time of writing this, but I did enjoy the bakeries and café food as well. English was also spoken quite widely here as well, but Czech seems like a difficult language to learn though.

Now, Austria, specifically Vienna, was my favorite destination. Vienna is a gorgeous city, the food was amazing and the shopping potential is immaculate. I just loved walking around the city, taking the U-Bahn from stop to stop just to take in the contrast between old and modern  surroundings. Being an international city, the blend of people from all over the world was refreshing and welcomed. My favorite spot to hang out was the Golden Quarter. I spent a lot of time here trying out different coffee and different baked goods. The Golden Quarter is primarily the shopping area surrounding Stephansplatz. The streets are lined with shops ranging from Zara and H&M to Dior and Rolex. I much prefer cold weather, being there in November the rain and clouds were welcomed. 100/10 would live here as well.

Hungary was a bit of a sleeper hit for me. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much after leaving Vienna but was pleasantly surprised after I arrived. I knew Hungarian culture was a bit more on the strict/conservative side but I found the people to be the friendliest and most open out of my entire trip. I spent a lot of time in pubs just talking with locals about the history and what it was like living in Budapest. The food was very different from what I was having in other places but was all good nonetheless. I spend some time at the Great Market Hall trying some of the street style food. Very touristy but it was good and also very cheap relatively.