Ngilee

The mountains around Salzburg

July 9, 2016 Ngilee Comments 0 Comment

The journey to Salzburg started with me missing my 8am train, luckily, I only had to wait for another couple of hours to catch the next one. That was by far the only (slighty) stressful situation I was in, not bad at all!

Salzburg is the fourth largest city in Austria, most people know it for the Sound of Music and Mozart. The city got its name from producing salt aka “white gold”. I personally like it for the beautiful mountain ranges and its old town feel. From the Fortress, you see the fairy-tale like town.

There was a summerfest going on while I was visitng, and the whole town was out partying. For non-dancing folks, people met in the old town (“Altstadt”) and watched movies together.

Just an hour of train ride away from Salzburg, you can find natural ice caves (Eisriesenwelt) in Werfen. The ice caves are only open in the summer, and it can be reached by hiking and riding a cable car to 1641 meters. Here are pictures of the cave entrance. Since they don’t allow pictures inside the cave, you’ll have to imagine this: A freezing cave with ice growing from the ground and from the ceiling. The thickest slab of ice is 20 meters thick. Climb 700 steps of stairs will bring you to a high point where you can see naturally sculpted ice statues. You end the tour by coming through an ice tunnel. Its worth the trip!

One of my favorite spots in Salzburg is the Hellbrunn Garden commissioned by Markus Sittikus in the 1600’s. The trick fountains next to the palace are clever and intricate. There are not many dry spots in the garden since the fountains ambush people from the most creative angles. All fountains still run by hydraulic power, and each fountain extremely intricate.

Next, I visited Unsterberg which is the highest mountain in the area (1856 meters). Here, I took up the hobby of taking panoramas, but I will only show you two and a picture of a cute dog.

My airbnb host came from Germany, he invited me to watch the Euro Cup with him and his friend. He equipped me with a German scarf and we went to a beer garden to watch the Germany vs. Italy game. Of course we had to drink German beer.

Recommendations: Airbnb is about 45 euros per night, most hotels are way more expensive. For first timers, get the Salzburg card which gives you free public transportation, access to all museums, a boat ride, and a cable car ride. Visit: The Alstadt, the Fortress, HellBrunn, Unsterberg, the Dome quarters, Mozart’s birthplace (and museum), and the ice caves. If you like Sound of Music, you can take a tour to see the film locations.

Baths, Cafes, and Castles- Budapest

July 2, 2016 Ngilee Comments 2 comments

Budapest is the largest city in Hungary and serves as its capital. It is one of those cities which you could get excellent pictures just by holding up your phone and snap pictures without looking. Its natural beauty makes it impossible to take bad pictures. (Below: pictures of the Parliament from afar and up close).

Budapest is an easy city to navigate, the metro system brings you everywhere. The city itself is also compact/well designed as most interesting places are within walking distance. The streets are packed with restaurants, clubs, cafes, and shops. Budapest is a vibrant city to say the least. What impresses me the most is the balance between the old and the new. A lot of the buildings are old (some of them retrofitted), but that doesn’t stop modernly designed cafes, bars, and shops from being adjacent to these old buildings, or even occupying them.

One of my highlights of the trip is meeting up with my friend, Timea, she pampered me and brought me to lunch at Most followed by a few hours of soaking in the Szechenyi Themal Bath. We wrapped it up with desserts at Gerbeaud. Selfie time-

Since you can’t see the thermal pool behind our heads, here is another picture to give you the full view of the outdoors pools of Budapest’s biggest thermal bathhouse with 18 pools. Budapest is famous for its thermal bath houses, some of them feature outdoor pools (Szechenyi), others rooftop pool (Rudas) or art decorated bathhouse (Gellert).

I also love the castle area in the Buda side where the art museum, national museum, the library, and the castle are located. I will spare you from more pictures of buildings, but here is a statue:

Near the church in the castle area, I stumbled across Drakula’s labyrinth. It was 90F during the day and I thought the dungeon caves would be a good break from the heat. Bad idea. The labyrinth which Count Drakula was kept after King Mathias captured him from Transylvanian was creepy, dark, and sparse with visitors. Whoever designed the displays went all out by enhancing the underground tunnel with occasional wax figures dressed in opera costumes and decided to play opera music in the background. Right after I took the following picture, I ran into Dracula’s box.

As one of the visitors put it, the underground cave cooled our outsides, but our insides were boiling with stress from fear. The 30 mins underground felt like eternity.

Anyways, back to the warm and sunny day most suitable for a beer. Ruin pubs is a thing in Budapest where bars are inside rustic/industrial looking buildings. It’s definitely worth a visit!

Other sites I visited: Jewish museum, the opera house, chain bridge, the Basilica, Magaret Island.

Recommendations: I used airbnb and found an $18/night nice apartment in a central location. Everything in Budapest is at least 50% off American price. A typical lunch is about $3-5. You can get a 7 day bus and train pass for ~$15. Beers are $2-4.

Places to eat and drink: Most, Godzu Udvar (Cool food quarters), Gerbeaud, Trofea Grill, Szimpla Kert (ruin pub), Liebling, Vaci ut

10pm Daylight

June 25, 2016 Ngilee Comments 3 comments

Ever since Arun introduced me to the Banff film festival, I’ve been wanting to go to Banff. Leaving Vancouver on an overnight greyhound, it took about 15 hours to get into Calgary. The ride through the mountains was beautiful, like a prelude to what I was going to see in the following few days. From Calgary, I rented a car and drove into Banff.

My first impression of Banff was it reminded me of Aspen- a quaint town wedged amongst mountains. As the first national park of Canada, the Banff National Park has a lot of nature and history to offer. The Bow River runs through the town, and there are dozens of hiking trails fanning from Banff. One special thing about Banff is the flow of “healing water” that feeds the hotspring sitting on top of the mountain. Needless to say, going to the hotspring was the first thing on my agenda once I got to Banff.

I went to Lake Louise for a 16km (~10 mi) hike the second day. I recalled seeing a picture of Lake Louise on Southwest’s in-flight magazine and thought it would be nice to see the lake in person. I started at the Lake Louise Chateau and was greeted by a glassy lake surrounded by mountain ranges.

I did the tea-house to tea-house hike which included two tea/coffee breaks at the Agnes Tea House and the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House. The cute tea houses served hot beverages, snacks, and lunch which was a great motivation to visit both tea houses.

The HIGHlight of the hike was up at the Little Beehive where the whole lake was in view. Up from the top, you could see how reflective the lake was. And if you look really hard, you can see people kayaking across the lake.

The trail to the Glacier Tea House offered a different scene where there were less trees and more mountain views, horseback riding was also an option to explore the trails.

Coming down from the glaciers, the returning trip to the trailhead was mostly downhill and pleasant. I got back to the car at around 2pm when most tourists started pouring in with the rain.

I spent the next few days hiking around and exploring Banff’s cute shops. Coincidentally, the Banff film festival was happening from June to September and I got to watch some epic outdoors films in Banff!

All in all, I highly recommend a trip to Alberta/Banff if you want to be stunned by mountains, rivers, lakes, and forests. Tips for where to stay (as requested by Anna L)- I stayed at the HI Banff hostel, the rooms were very clean and it was reasonably priced. The hostel could provide a free bus pass to get around town, but everywhere is walkable within Banff. Another option is to stay in Canmore- a nearby town about 20 mins of drive from Banff.

Special shout out to Dexter who called dips on first Navigant shout out. Dexter, go learn how to surf properly. Next destination- Budapest.

Plan. Set. Go

June 18, 2016 Ngilee Comments 1 comment

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Hello from Seattle. I did plenty of touristy activities the past few days including going up the Space Needle (see above), hiking, and visiting the Pike Place Market. The best part though, was to catch my brother and sister’s graduation ceremonies and spending time with family.

Meanwhile, I am all done with planning Banff and Europe route. I am looking forward to hot springs, lakes, cool architectures, ice caves, and great hikes.Being the project manager I am, I got excited setting up my schedule, budget, and travel logistics. I enjoy the planning so much that I am creating a page to document my resources for future references 🙂

Special shout out to my wonderful colleagues and friends who sent me off with gifts and travel wisdoms. Based on their gift selection, their message is “be entertained at all times, and protect your belongings”. My favorite is the travel journal sprinkled with each person’s thoughts on a variety of topics. Here are a few snippets:

On important things to prep for the trip- “…Drink 151, bring quick and dirty prank ideas…”
On adventures- “…Don’t fall off (half dome)…”
On danger- “…My middle name would be danger, but it’s actually my first name. You are more than prepared for dangers, but just in case you find yourself in danger- remember that panicking is a totally appropriate response…”
On people- “…To me the most important thing in life are the people. You have been such a wonderful and important connection in my life…”
On random thoughts “… I miss Kristin, I should catch up with her…”

Armed with wisdom, I am fully prepared for the next few months! My plan is to travel till I hit my budget limit or when one year is up. A lot of people are curious about how to afford extensive travelling. So here are my two cents on the topic:

Save Up Now

Going abroad had been a habit of mine since I was in college- studying abroad, interning, backpacking between school and work etc. I knew one day I would be travelling, so I was saving up for this trip way before knowing about it. I encourage you to save up now even if you don’t know whether you are taking time off. What is the worst outcome? Having a lump sum of money sitting in your account?

Find Deals

The four major categories of travel expenses come down to accommodation, transportation, food, and activities. One of the easiest way to make travel affordable is to find great deals. Find places with low cost of living and stay there for a longer time. For example, you can easily find a private room for ~$15/night in Taiwan or ~$20/night in Netherlands. I also love stalking flight deal websites such as one travel, travel pirates, airfarewatchdog, and kayak to get great flight deals. My round trip ticket to Hong Kong comes in right below $600. Remember, extended travelling is different from vacation, sometimes you could be trading off comfort and convenience for good deals.

Next stop, Vancouver and Banff!

Let the Sabbatical Begin!

June 3, 2016 Ngilee Comments 2 comments

As many of you might know, I am taking a break from the 9-5 to do some thinking and reinventing. Taking this step is easier than I thought with the overwhelming support and excitement from everyone. I am surprised that even my 94 year old grandma told me to “go for it”.

Well then, I’m going to look for some adventures these following months 🙂

For my first post, I’ll start with sharing – why, what, when, and where. As events unfold, I’ll post my sabbatical updates and share my how-to’s. If you are thinking of doing something similar, I hope my experience/lessons learned will benefit you too!

Why (Sabbatical)?

One of my wise friend says “because life needs managing sometimes”, and I couldn’t agree more. I have been fortunate to be working with really smart and good people the past five years in the clean energy field which I am very passionate about. I come to realize that work has been my primary driver and other parts of life have been giving in. That’s not what I want and I need to redefine it. I’ve always wanted to do more travelling, so why not?

What?

Travelling, having fun, learning new skills, diving, starting an on-line business, catching up with family and friends, reading up on the industry, thinking, being.

When?

I am planning out my travels now, I start my first leg on June 13th

Where?

Here is a map of where I’ll be going for the next few months, this is an open invitation for you to join me for parts of it:

Map

Tentative plan:

June 13-June 20: Seattle

June 20-June 25: Vancouver and Banff

June 25-July 1: Budapest

July 1-July 4: Salzburg

July4-July 8: Munich

July 8-July 13: Netherlands

July 13-18: Belgium

mid-July- early August: US National Park tour

August: TBD (hoping Iceland)

Sept- Nov: Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea

Future: New Zealand, Australia, Philippines

Ciao!

Upcoming Destination

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Author: Ngilee