Tashi and Lauren graciously volunteered to grab me from the airport! I met Lauren in 2023 at NerdNite after she had just moved to the island for a court clerkship. Tashi lived in SF but I met him a few months later when he visited.
Alison glows just like her soul! I started feeling really tired after my redeye and I did not want to chance getting sick so I ended up taking a nap. Everyone else went on a walk to get to know each other, plan success!
An amazing vegan breakfast. I love bringing people together! From left to right behind me: Tashi, Lauren, Alison, and Vimanyu (VJ)!
After breakfast we headed out to Pacifica to go to the beach and check out the Taco Bell Cantina!
Apparently Pacifica State Beach is a popular starting surf spot? Their version of Canoes?
There was a beep that kept going off close to our outdoor table at the cantina and we couldn't figure out if it was the bird or the emergency door.
Taco Bell Cantinas serve alcohol which is what stood them apart from regular Taco Bells. This one had a machine that served alcohol though the bottom of the cup rather than pouring it from the top! Of course I had to try it even if its 9 in the morning and in the cold!
Shelter Cove in Pacifica.
Some bird.
Aliyu in Pacifica!
Loved the colors of these trains. Blue and Orange will always be one of my favorite combos.
Free Palestine.
Zurich Main Station.
This caught my eye because its a kid playing at the park with a statue of a kid.
Was this a message for tourists like me?
Bahnhofstrasse was the main shopping street of the City. My layover fell on a Sunday and so the area was quiet as most shops were closed as per national law.
Got to Lindenhof, a park overlooking the river. Here was a walking tour, a thing I will later learn to love and then hate.
There were a bunch of people playing this game where they were throwing balls onto other balls. Apparently this is bocce, and there was a local tournament that day.
St. Peter's tower in the background.
A couple playing chess at the park. Looks like endgame.
A cool patio overlooking the river.
Photoshoot?
Grossmünster, another Zurich cathedral.
Stadthaus Zürich, or City Hall (fun fact: I work in Honolulu Hale, my city's City Hall).
I wandered into this beer garden called Bauschänzli which is a small little island connected to the rest of Zurich via pedestrian bridgeGot my first wurst of the trip and it was very good. Unfortunately, too good, as it was the best wurst I had all trip. It was meaty, juicy, and peppery. Of course I had to try the local brew and enjoy it with the view.
Sunday boaters.
Flowers by the docks.
Some Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) enjoyers.
One of my favorite shots. I intended to take a picture with this guy sitting but then saw this guy about to walk through. I waited for a second, then boom!
This view! I got off the plane greeted by these gigantic walls of rock right by the airport. I wished I was awake for the landing. Reminds me of the landing in OGG in Maui, where the planes go in between mountains.
Got to town on the bus after the bus driver let me board for free. Loved The mountains were nice to look at as a backdrop of the City in between buildings. I stayed at Hotel Nala, which has random direction signs around town (one pictured above).
Interesting name for an Austrian...
Was walking by and this cat was totally sleeping upright. But it woke up as soon as I got my camera out.
A date, maybe, in front of the famous colored houses.
I loved how the statues looked like they were listening in to these ladies' conversations.
Food truck.
Sat down by these two guys who were eating gelato and they recommended the place across in the plaza. We talked a little bit about the mountains and then:
I got one of my own! Pistachio and hazelnut.
The backyard of my hotel. This hotel was amazing, would recommend 10/10. Each floor and room had a theme. The staff were friendly and helpful. NALA individuellhotel.
They also had a lot of taxidermy.
Triumphpforte - built by Maria Theresa in 1765 to celebrate her son's wedding.
Bunte Häuser Innsbruck or the Painted Houses of Innsbruck.
Loved this gilded cast iron sign for a restaurant. And then the faux quoins. Don't worry, I did find actual real bona fide stone quoins later on in the trip (they’re really common, the fake wall paper ones are actually rarer).
The Innsbruck Hofsburg Palace.
A walking tour.
I wondered if the Hofsburgs placed this statue here knowing that people will juxtapose it like this...
A map from the Nordkette website.
The Seegrubenbahn then takes you the Seegrube house and lookout and has another train (Hafelekarbahn) that takes you to the Top of Innsbruck. The cable car ride I was on on the Seegrubebahn was really full and I didn't want to squeeze in with people in the next train ride. But maybe I just wanted an excuse because…
…I saw this sign saying I could reach the top in 1.75 hours so I decided, okay, lets hike! Mind you, I was dressed for city walking, with sneakers, khakis, and a cotton tee.
My first sheep encounter of the trip!
There were some hikers in front of me and their dog was chasing/scaring the sheep. You can see the dog here coming down while there's two sheep up cornered by the metal grates.
Ended up hiking with this grandma for a bit.
Passed grandma. I was getting really sweaty and my cotton tee was getting soaked. I started questioning my decision to embark on this hike.
I see the top, a peak called Hafelekarspitze. At this point I have taken my shirt off so my sweat can evaporate and my shirt doesn't get too wet. Now, the trail splits and I can go left where all the tourists are or...
....right and around the peak and come up though the other side. I'm glad I went this way because I was able to take...
This panorama!!! Probably better if you view it here.
I went up to this little peak and a bunch of other people climbed after me.
Finally got to the peak: Hafelekarspitze, or Hafele's peak.
Austrians (maybe Europeans in general) love to put crosses on top of mountains!
A view of Jausenstation, the end of the cable cars and a 5 minute walk to Hafelekarspitze. If I had opted for this mode of transport, my t-shirt may not be completely soaked!
A view of Innsbruck from the Top of Innsbruck.
Frandstand at the top!
I head back down to town (all cable car, no more hiking) and walk to the Innsbrucker Hofgarten, a city park.
This scene got me as it is NOT a scene you'd see in Hawaiʻi: lots of people just chilling at the park under trees.
The Musikpavillon in the middle of the park.
I returned to the Hofburg palace to wander around.
Back to Altstadt or "old town" to grab lunch before heading to Mayrhofen.
Tourists looking at the famous Golden Roof.
Lunch!
Dan, Einny, and I arrived in Vienna at 9pm, ate dinner, knocked out at the hotel, then woke up to these Viennese rooftops.
A lady and her coffee.
Dan with his pourover. I don't usually drink coffee but this was really good.
Einny joined us after breakfast.
Saw this light and ran to the other side of the street to capture it.
Schloss Belvedere or Belvedere Palace which was under renovation and was covered in a canvas facade. I thought it still looked pretty cool.
Sphinx in front of Belvedere.
Sphinx guarding the garden behind the palace.
A view of the back of the palace. No facades here.
Katholische Kirche Mariä Heimsuchung from the garden.
Lower Belvedere.
Some people by the bathrooms.
Einny by the arches.
French Embassy.
Acorns?
The Vienna City Museum, which we visited for free, contains a lot of the history and the current story of the city. If I could only prioritize a few things visit in Vienna, this would make the top five.
Karlskirche or St. Charles's Church right across from the Wien Museum. It is so interesting to see the two spires/columns which you'd rarely see in western cathedral design.
This building stood out because the gargoyles looked very Soviet to me.
After the museum, we visited the Naschmarkt or "snack market". They had a lot of tourist traps and nearly identicalstores so I'd say you only really need to see the first half unless you are looking for a specific store.
Pictured below are shops with different kinds of produce. I really loved the colors of the fruits and vegetables.
Free Palestine.
We ate our baklava in this park.
Love seeing the small details like the small mosaic above the street sign. W is pronounced V in Deutsch. Wien is Vienna. The word wiener comes from Vienna: It was originally wienerwurst or Viennese sausage in english!
I saw a nice doorway that wasn't a part of the walking tour, but I stepped in and entered Deutschordenskirche which means Church of the Teutonic Order which means it was built by some German knights in the middle ages.
Coronation of Saint Elisabeth of Thüringen by the Virgin Mary and Christ, together with Saint George and Saint Helena (Tobias Pock, 1667).
The tour ended right at the foot of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The F.1. on the roof is for Franz Josef 1, I think. Or it could be for Franz I. One of the Royal Franzs. Maybe its for me, you never know.
A Viennese Flower Shop.
One of my favorite street photography shots! Unc was just taking a nap in the sun in the middle of tourists.
The South Tower of the Cathedral was the tallest point of Vienna from 1578 to 1999. It is 256 stairs to the top. From there you can see this:
Finally got some shadow pictures. This picture was not edited for desaturation!
St. Stephen's Cathedral is known for its colorful roofs.
At the Vienna Opera House we saw Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, an opera based on Shakespeare's Othello.
After the opera, we went to find a drink by the Danube River. We found a bar, got drinks to go and watched the bikers, passersby, and the water flow until we returned to our hotel.
Szabadság híd or Liberty Bridge was originally called the Franz Josef Bridge, yes that same Franz Josef!
Street Trams.
Eva found us lodging in the Jewish Quarter. This is on the way for our first foray into the Hungarian City.
We were right by Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe.
This guy somehow was able to nap in this position.
Mascarons are decorative faces in architecture.
Had to take a picture of this building as a lot of its details reminded me of ʻIolani Palace. From the quoins and the roof details, corner towers, and the building materials, I was like "Hey I've seen that before!".
Outdoor bookstore.
A lot of buildings have damaged walls and facades. My guess is from an earlier war. You can definitely see the difference between Vienna and here in terms of building maintenance.
This guy's stall is one of the most popular but he doesn't seem too excited about it.
The well known brightly colored tower of the Central Market Hall.
The Main Customs House Building, which also contains Corvinus University, has similar quoins to the building I saw earlier. It also has 22 statues of Greco-Roman gods.
Are you even in a bustling city if you don't have locals people-watching from their windows?
Budapest Óriáskereke or the Ferris Wheel of Budapest.
This church is called Szent István Bazilika by the locals, or in english...
Eva waiting for me to finish taking pictures.
We got a little snack to share and decided to chill at this memorial with the locals.
The main square outside of parliament is named after Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva or Kossuth for short. He was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman, revolutionist and governor-president of the Hungarian State during the war of independence of 1848–1849 and is considered one of Hungary's national heroes.
Lovebirds at sunset by the river.
Count István Imre Lajos Pál Tisza de Borosjenő et Szeged or Stephen Tisza was a politician who served as prime minister of Hungary from 1903 to 1905 and from 1913 until 1917. He was also a political scientist, international lawyer, macroeconomist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and champion duelist.
Views along the river.
Across the river is Buda, and some of the main attractions that we're planning on seeing the next day.
Some restaurant boats on the Danube!
Night view of St. Stephen's.
The Ferris Wheel at night.
We were wanting dessert and Eva kept talking about getting Chimney Cakes (Kürtőskalács) so we found a place! The lighting inside was serving (as the Zs would say) so I took a few pics of the ladies from outside the shop.
While we waited for our chimney cakes, I saw a person with a camera taking a pic of this street so of course I followed them and took the same pictures to see what they see haha! After dessert, we head back to our lodging.
Headed up to the main attractions of Buda, after struggling on trying to cross the river on scooters.
Budavári Nagyboldogasszony-templom or The Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle is where we were supposed to meet the tour guide. Unfortunately, we got there a few minutes too late and the tour started without us. We unsuccessfully tried to find the group.
Szent Gellért-szobor or St. Gerard Sagredo Statue depicts Gerard of Csanád, a bishop and eventual martyr.
A view of Pest as we look north from the hill.
A view of Pest as we looked south from the hill. You can see the Main Customs House with the Liberty Bridge and the Gellert Thermal Bath on the Buda side on the right.
We found this place called Borpatika, a local pub. The barkeep was very very local (the kind of gruffness you get when you've never left your hometown, or you left once and will never make that mistake again) and very annoyed that we were tourists.
We ordered the Borpatika Plate which had: smoked knuckle, knuckle boulangère, fried sausage, gipsy roast, bacon, mixed garnish and a side salad. It was really good but had a lot of fats and grease. We shared it between the three of us.
A T-mobile phone booth??
Okay I may be being dramatic here, but the emotional pain was worse than the physical. This would be the second year that I would be injured and would probably miss the marathon again. and months of PT and possibly wearing a boot or a brace All because of a not paying attention for two seconds.
Made my flight to Los Angeles where I had a short layover, but my great friend Arlette (who left me in Hawaii by moving back home a year before this) took me out to lunch! She braved the LAX traffic took me to one of her favorite pho places then dropped me back off..
My one and only picture on my camera that day, which I'm glad about since I was doing Project 2025.
I got pho, she got bbq chicken, and we both got pandan drinks!
An amazing end to an amazing time.