Pécs is another smaller town in Hungary. While Eger is in the north-east, Pécs sits in the south-west and is a little further away.

I managed to see it in a day, although I’d probably recommend staying a night and using it as a stopover along your way out of Hungary and into Slovenia, Serbia or Romania.

The drawcards for Pécs is the awkwardly named Mosque Church and the museums. The museums house artifacts that illustrate the Turkish occupation and influence within the town (e.g. said Church with many features that are typically found in a mosque).

I really liked Pécs for the marble, sandstone, and brighter coloured buildings which give it a real mediteranian feel.

More photos from Pecs are here.

Eger is an easy and worthwhile day trip from Budapest; about two and half hours by train.

I made the trip to see what Hungarian life is like outside of the capital. It was nice to see similarities in the peoples hospitality and the architecture around the place. The cleaner air and less crowded public spaces were also appreciated.

The highlight of the day was probably relaxing in Dobo Istvan Ter (the main square) and watching the world go by.

I also found and quite liked a monument to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It features an Uprising Flag which is essentially the Hungarian flag of today, with a hole torn from the center. The reason being that at the time the Hungarian flag featured a communist coat of arms. One of the revolutionaries ripped it out in protest and this action quickly spread. The site isn’t listed in the Lonely Planet so for anybody interested, it’s on the left hand side as you walk into town from the train station (on Hatvani Kapu tér, I think).

As always, I’ve uploaded a few photos which I hope everybody enjoys.

Now that I have paid for a ‘pro’ Flickr subscription, I’ve started uploading a selection of highlight photos for everybody to see.

Enjoy!

After 24+ hours travel, I’ve just ticked off a full twenty four hours in Munich. So far so good.

The flights over were reasonable thanks mainly to the various Qantas and BA lounges I was lucky enough to gain entry into. During the flight to Singapore I kept myself amused by figuring out a Desktop Publishing application. After re-boarding and settling in for the cruise to London I caught a decent nights sleep before watching Casablanca in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

I also happened made friends with a German bloke, Wolfgang, who had the seat next to me. He had a few interesting stories to tell and was on his way home to wrap up a few things before making a more permanent relocation to Canberra later in the year. I’m sure we’ll keep in touch.

Munich and Germany in general is such a great place to start the trip. There’s a really good vibe from the other backpackers and the impending Oktoberfest action. The thing is that it has just the right amount of culture-shift on offer. Everything is just a bit more challenging than at home while at the same time it’s very easy to just relax and enjoy. Highly recommended.

After leaving the airport by train and arriving at the Central Station, I vaguely recalled the street our hostel is on from my last trip here in 2006. I walked a bit of a circle and eventually found the street and the hostel. With even more luck found Brad and Kate already milling around waiting for the 2pm check-in time to roll around. It was great to see a couple of familiar faces.

We got settled and went out to find a late lunch. As one might imagine, this turned out to be a sausage and beer at the Hofbrau beer hall. Magic. Afterwards we cruised back to the hostel to wait for Matt and Wes to call me and announce their arrival The call never came but the boys did show up, much to my surprise. After exchanging the standard pleasantries, it was off the Augustiner beer hall for dinner and beers. A great night was had by all!

No doubt there are plenty more great days and nights to reflect on in future posts.

Last December I went to New York for a few days. This was during one of my blogging hiatus so I never wrote anything about it at the time.

Benny D., a good friend (who can be found on FaceBook), is on his way there as we speak. Right before he left I got an SMS asking me to email him with some tips. Rather then do that I thought I’d post them here.

So without delay… I present to you, in no particular order, my NYC Top 5:

Good times.