Austria – John Collings

The Best Posts of 2021

2021 was another rollercoaster of a year, and though Covid continued to make life difficult, things loosened up enough to allow me the opportunity to travel a little more this year than the previous one. It is always fun for me to look back at the posts from the previous, and it shows me how great the last year has been. I hope you feel the same way as you take a trip back through the year of 2021.

#10 – Hindsight

This is the perfect post to start off this list for the year 2021 considering how difficult a year 2020 was. Based on how little we learning this year and how it feels like we are in the same place this year where we were last year, it might be an important poem to start the 2022 year. This post is also one of three poems that appear on this list which is the most that has ever appeared on any of the end of the year lists I have ever created.

#9 – The Dead Sea, Jordan

I moved to Jordan at the beginning of August, but did not have the chance to explore it much until October. There are many places that I want to visit, but I got a gift card for a night’s stay at the Kempinski Hotel at the Dead Sea, so this was the first place I voyaged off to. It was a great experience, and floating in the salt water really surprised me by how easy it is to do. I am hoping to post many more travelogues from places I visit in Jordan and other close-by countries in the coming year.

#8 – Rain on a Work Day

I do enjoy sharing the poetry I write while traveling with you, but only a select few people really get into it. This is why I love it when one of my poems pops up on the top ten list for the year. This one was written during a rainy afternoon in March when I was visiting Khao Sok, a reservoir in southern Thailand. I had taken off work to take this trip, and I enjoyed the way the rain forced me to take things easy on a day that I should have been working.

#7 – A Desert Feast – Wadi Rum, Jordan

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. It is not about spending more or giving gifts. It is all about sharing time with family and friends. Since I have moved overseas, this holiday has meant something a little different for me, but this year I was able to have an experience that will make it one of my favorite memories of this day of celebration. I was able to head down to Wadi Rum with new members of my school and spend some time with the Bedouins that live there. The meal was not a traditional Thanksgiving feast, but it was the best one I have ever had for a meal that was cooked underground. You seemed to be intrigued by this process as well to make it one of the bigger posts of the year even though I posted it so late.

#6 – Walking Street – Koh Lipe, Thailand

I did get to travel to a lot of different places in Thailand during the pandemic, and I feel lucky to have had that experience. Out of all of them that I went to see, Koh Lipe will always hold a special place in my heart. Not only was it a beautiful place to relax during my Spring Break right before the country went back to lockdown. It was also my last hurrah while living in Thailand. Though there were many parts of this island paradise that I wrote about, it was this feature that resinated the most with my followers. I hope the information I gave will give those that eventually travel there the hints to enjoy this place as much as I did.

#5 – Elephants in the Morning Mist – Khao Sok, Thailand

One of the many stops I was supposed to go on my road trip through Thailand last Winter Break was to the reservoir at Khao Sok, but we had to cut that portion of the trip out when the country started to close down. Luckily, the people at the resort let us rebook for a time in March. It create a moment in my life that I will never forget, wild elephants eating breakfast while I was kayaking nearby. This was even more remarkable considering that these elephants rarely come out to be viewed. I was told that because of the recent decline of tourism, they are more willing to come to the shore, and I was happy to be able to share this moment with those who cold not travel there and see it for themselves.

#4 – Problems and Possibilities

Late in 2020, I received an offer for a new job opportunity in Amman, Jordan, and I spent a lot of my time early this year preparing for the move. Part of that preparation meant signing on to a new email account at my new school as I started to transfer things over. The head of the school sent out an email describing the difference between problems and possibilities to inspire his staff who had been struggling with the pain of online teaching. It was the inspiration for this poem which seemed to connect with other people. It also makes me happy when one of my poems connects with people in this way.

#3 – Elk in the Backyard – Black Butte Ranch, Oregon

I have written a lot about Black Butte Ranch in central Oregon because I am lucky enough to get to spend a couple of weeks there every summer. It is also a place close to my heart because it is where I got married. The place is a beautiful collection of cabin-like houses underneath the shadow of Black Butte that is off the beaten path of the busy tourist towns and cities of central Oregon. Because of this quiet atmosphere, the wildlife likes to hand out in the forests. Most of the time this is squirrels, deer and coyotes, but I had never seen a herd of elk, so when they came wandering around the house I was staying at, it was reason to pull out the camera and take some pictures. Apparently, other people enjoy seeing these pictures as well because they kept of visiting this post long after its first publication.

#2 – The Bat Cave – Railay, Thailand

One of the nice things about Covid was it forced me to explore Thailand than I would have normally explored it. I spent the whole of the last Winter Break traveling through the southern portion of the country, and the city of Railay was one of my favorite spots. It was a small isolated town that can only be reached by boat where people go rock climbing, kayaking, and lounging on the beach. One of the most prominent features is a cave off of the Princess Beach that people hike up to all the time. My wife and I made this trek one day, and the story of how to get there has now helped a bunch of other people make the same hike.

#1 – Wingspan versus Everdell

Board games have become quite the hobby for me during the pandemic. They have been a great way to get together with friends, and continue to be social. The first one I bought to bring me back to this hobby was Everdell, but I had spent a lot of time researching whether this one of Wingspan was the one for me. I ultimately chose to build a woodland village, but I did have a chance to play Wingspan over the summer and compare the two. I have given my thoughts on both games in this post, and which one I thought was the better buy. The post did so well that I have considered doing more board game reviews in the future.

Honorable Mentions

Though there were many posts from the last year that were worthy to see, here is the lists of posts that continue to do well even though the were written in previous years.

The Mythology of Thailand – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Never Forget Dachau – Germany

A Toast to the End of the Semester

Being Indiana Jones – Hua Hin, Thailand

Lessons from Angkor Wat

Bend Sucks! Move Somewhere Else – Around the World Day 39

Hindsight – The Best Posts of 2020

It is that time of the year again where we all look back at where we have been, and reflect on the lessons learned there. By far, 2020 will be remembered where there was a lot to be learned. I hope that we can take a lot from the experiences of this year and use it to grow not only as people but also as a world wide society.

When looking back at the posts that got the most views this year, I noticed that they had a sense of positivity to them, and I know that not all that I posted this year could say that they had that spin on them. It is nice to know that even though I might have found some dark places in this dark time, it did not bring people down and they still searched for that positivity in their lives.

I hope you enjoy the look back as much as I enjoy presenting it to you, and I hope, like me, that you look forward to 2021 with a new sense of revitalization as to what great prospects it may bring.

#10 To Choose a Side of the Valley – Wangen versus Murren

Most of my posts come from the first few days of 2020 when there was only a hint of disease taking over a small town in China. At this time, the hope of the year was still in front of me and I was wrapping up one of the best trips I have been on in a long time. It was great seeing snow again, and being forced to wear winter weather. This picture was taken on one of the last days on this trip as I sat on the balcony of our hotel room in Murren, Switzerland. My mind often wandered back to the beauty of this part of the world.

https://johncollings.com/2020/01/10/to-choose-a-side-of-the-valley-wangen-versus-murren/

#9 In a Valley in the Swiss Alps – Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Like I said, many of the most popular posts come from my trip to Europe and the beginning of the year, and this is no exception. Lauterbrunnen is a small town in a valley in the Swiss Alps and is the perfect home base for exploring these mountains. It is not nearly as cold in the valley as it is when you find your way to the towns closer to the top, and the views from down below are still as dramatic as they are up top.

https://johncollings.com/2020/01/06/in-a-valley-in-the-swiss-alps-lauterbrunnen-switzerland/

#8 A Phuket Sunset – Siam Summer

After a tough semester of teaching on-line and being quarantined, Thailand had done well enough with the world-wide pandemic to allow travel to open up again, but only for those who were living in the country. It was never my plan to get to know Thailand as well as I did this summer, and it was interesting to drive down to Phuket and see how much this island had been affected by Covid-19. It has picked up since then, but it is still wrangling with the devastating effects it had on its economy. I got to experience it with mainly only its residents, and I still wonder what it would be like to see it when it is full with its regular amount of tourists.

https://johncollings.com/2020/07/20/a-phuket-sunset-siam-summer/

#7 Never Forget Dachau – Germany

I am actually really glad that this post had the reception that it had. Dachau was one of the more earnest moments of an unforgettable year. I did not know it at the time that I walked around the site of the Nazi’s first concentration camp, but a lot of the images and lessons learned there would haunt me all year long as I saw similar things play out on the political stages all around the world. It is one of the places that I believe everybody should see at least once in their lifetimes, right up there with Auschwitz and Hiroshima.

https://johncollings.com/2020/01/04/never-forget-dachau-germany/

#6 Koh Yao Yai – Siam Summer

Koa Yao Yai was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. I was able to travel to this exclusive island in mid-July just as it was starting to open its doors again, and they were trying to entice tourists to come and stay. The prices were too good to pass up on this amazing island, and I am so happy that I was able to stay in this little paradise. I am pretty sure I will never be able to afford it again, but it is one of those things that make me look back at this year and realize that I was pretty lucky to be stuck in Thailand for this worldwide crisis.

https://johncollings.com/2020/07/17/koh-yao-yai-siam-summer/

#5 Fortress Hohensalzburg – Salzburg, Austria

This was one of the more touristy posts I gave on this trip. It is a must do if ever traveling to Salzburg, and it is really hard to forget about because no matter where you are in town, this imposing fortress is staring down at you from its hill. It is a fun way to spend a day in Salzburg and really lets you feel that medieval experience that you want to get when you travel to Europe.

https://johncollings.com/2020/01/01/fortress-hohensalzburg-salzburg-austria/

#4 James Bond’s Peak – Schilthorn, Switzerland

When I was in this part of the world back in 2007, I was on a very limited budget and could not afford the brunch at the top of this Swiss peak. I almost did not believe it was worth the price earlier this year, but I am glad that I decided against being frugal and went up to this restaurant and had breakfast. It was fun going up and coming down this mountain, and I will never forget this experience. The post really picked up after the death of Sean Connery which is weird because this peak is most famous for the first Bond movie after he stopped playing the iconic character.

https://johncollings.com/2020/01/08/james-bonds-peak-schilthorn-switzerland/

#3 Their Insanity

I have only had one of my other poems make the top ten list, but there was something that struck a nerve with a lot of people when I first posted this poem. It was early in the lockdown stage that everybody in the world was feeling, and they might have understood the sentiment I was trying to get at with this poem even though that was not what it was written about.

https://johncollings.com/2020/05/03/their-insanity/

#2 A Toast to the End of the Semester

The image of a half full bottle of champagne sitting in front of this statue on the university campus in Salzburg is what inspired this poem. I did not post the poem with this picture until the end of the last school year, but it was around the holiday season this year that the poem started to gain in popularity. It took a year to get back to that feeling of the end of the semester, but I hope it helped everybody rejoice when the difficulty of both school semesters ended.

https://johncollings.com/2020/05/18/a-toast-to-the-end-of-the-semester/

#1 It’s No Rayong – Siam Summer

The title of this post started as a joke between a few people that I travelled to Rayong with earlier this summer. It was one of the first places that opened up after lockdown, and we went there for a couple of days before traveling to Koh Samet when that finally opened up. Rayong was not the best place to stay, but it was nice to be out of Bangkok. This post was about a comparison between Rayong and the amazing island of Koh Yao Yai, and people must have really loved it because the still visit it today. I do not know if it is because they want to know more about Koh Yao Yai, or if the title makes them laugh, but either way thank you for visiting it.

https://johncollings.com/2020/07/16/its-no-rayong-siam-summer/

Honorable Mentions

As always, these are posts that received a lot of traffic this year even though they were not posted this year. Some of them have taken a couple of years to gain in popularity, but the last one is the one I can guarantee somebody visits on a daily basis. The funny thing about “Bend Sucks! Move Somewhere Else” is that it was a throw away post that has now become one of the ones that gets the most traffic. It just goes to show that I do not know what will speak to the public, and what will not. It is always surprises me which posts do well, and which just disappear into obscurity.

You Can’t Go Back to the Green – The Holidays Day 20

https://johncollings.com/2019/01/09/you-cant-go-back-to-the-green-the-holidays-day-20/

Being Indiana Jone – Hua Hin, Thailand

https://johncollings.com/2019/10/13/being-indiana-jones-hua-hin-thailand/

Lessons from Ankor Wat

https://johncollings.com/2017/10/11/lessons-from-angkor-wat/

Bend Sucks! Move Somewhere Else – Around the World Day 39

https://johncollings.com/2018/07/25/bend-sucks-move-somewhere-else-around-the-world-day-39/

Thank you for joining me in my travels this year. I am sorry that it was not as diverse as it has been in previous years, but it has been an interesting year for everybody. I hope that when things loosen up again next year that you find these posts and the other ones that I will continue to post inspiring and that you get out there and see the world. It is a great way to experience life and I would love to hear about some your adventures some day.

Thanks again for the interesting year.

The View from My Window

One of my favorite things to do while out on a long vacation that will take me to new and exciting place is to take a picture of the view I can see from my window of the hotel or hostel or Air B+B that I am staying at. It is surprising to see the differences of the places, and I think each place really show what certain places are really like. These are the views from the six place that I stay at.

Bad Windsheim, Germany

This was a really nice Air B+B we stayed at in Bad Windsheim, Germany. It sat above a nice pizzeria, and overlooked other people’s backyards. This feeling of being at home and comfortable in the very private surroundings that describes this quaint Germanic town.

Fussen, Germany

We only spent one night in this town that is most famous for the two big castles that sit on the mountains just outside of town. It was a small little hostel that was very crowded with only two bathrooms that I had to squeeze into if I wanted to use the shower. The building right across the street described the feeling of this place perfectly.

Salzburg, Austria

We stayed on the campus of one of the colleges in this town in a hotel chain. It was very comfortable and the staff was great. They had a nice community bar downstairs that many people visited throughout the day, and wherever you looked you saw other guests. The fact that I could look into other people’s rooms demonstrated this fact nicely. I tended to look over the building though at the mountains that surrounded the town.

Munich, Germany

I was back in the city with this hostel. We had a private room in the place, and it even had a sink in our room which made things a little more comfortable. There were a couple of shared bathrooms, and I could see during a busier time of the year it being a problem, but due to the fact that we were there at the beginning of the holiday after hangover, it wasn’t ever really a problem. I really enjoyed this place even the view could have been a little better, even though what should I have expected while staying in a city but a view of the city.

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

This was a great hostel and the views were amazing. It had a really nice kitchen and a great patio for each of the rooms. We did not use the patio because it was just a little too chilly, but that was the reason we came out here in the first place. The room was big and the people we shared the place with very friendly even though there were very few of them. It was exactly what it was like exploring this place that has easily become one of my favorite places in the world.

Murren, Switzerland

We like to splurge on one place on trips like this, and this was the place that we chose to do it at. The place was right across from the train station, but when you are in a town as small and quant as Murren, this is not something that should cause alarm. We were the only people staying at the place that night as well which made for a fun experience, and one again, the views were just spectacular. It also a a patio, and even though it was cold outside, we took advantage of it, and had a drink while enjoying the moon rise over the mountains.

Fortress Hohensalzburg – Salzburg, Austria

The view of Fortress Hohensalzburg from the city below.

It is impossible to travel to Salzburg without seeing the large castle perched on top of the hill in the middle of town. No matter where you go in the older part of town, its presence is looming down upon you, and it just begs you to go and see what it is all about. It is probably the single tourist spot in town, and at the same time it is a little scary because it requires a hike up the hill to visit it.

In reality, the hill is not that bad to hike up, and it only takes ten minutes, but it will still wind a person who is not in the best of shape. But for those who wish to take the easy way up, there is a funicular that can be taken to reach the summit, and it is part of the ticket price to make it back down so you do not need to do damage on your knees as you make your way down.

The view of Salzburg from atop the fortress

It is worth getting up there either way because not only does it offer the best views of the city, but it is also a pretty interesting place to see. It was designed by a series of bishops in the year 1077 as way of protecting the people of Salzburg against an eminent attack. That attack never came, and over the years they continued to add to the fortress with the latest edition coming in 1991 when they updated the funicular to make access more easy.

Despite the ground of the fortress which transports you back to medieval times and it still used for celebrations during the holiday season, it is a great place to learn what life was like during this time. It boasts of a small chapel where the bishops went to worship, a blacksmith room, an organ that woke the people of Salzburg up every morning, a torture chamber that just held devices of torture but were never used against an individual, a dungeon, and a wall that you can walk through to get various views of the expanse of Salzburg and the surrounding hillside. There were also quarters that were built so they could hold the prince in safety and eventually they added spaces for cannons that could be used to defend the city.

Statues that can be found in the museum portion of the fortress

There are also a couple of museums housed within its walls. One of them is interactive and is a lot of fun for kids who come visit the fortress. My favorite part of this section was a series of cannons that were pointed at the fortress and you would aim them to see if you get hit the fortress and which part you hit. Despite its digital game like quality, it was very informative and told me a lot about the place I was visiting. The other museum was a little weird. It held a lot of different artifacts collected over the years, and some of them made sense. When they started talking about World War I and World War II, I started to wonder why these things were collected in this place considering they had nothing to do with this fortress. The informative signs were a little strange as well. They were either written by a ten year old as report on the things he was seeing, or a real bad poet that was trying to write like the same ten year old. Though they were informative, the information they gave was kind of obvious and made for a bigger laugh than actually giving insight.

Despite this little flaw, overall this is a must see place while visiting Salzburg, and demonstrates how important this city has been to the growth of Austria, and Europe as a whole. It not only shows how a stronghold can defend a population, but also gives insight to the time period in which it was created.

Augustiner Braustubl – Salzburg, Austria

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the different sights that can be seen from my travels, or talking about the people and cultures I get to experience, but I do not spend enough time talking about an important aspect of traveling, the dining experiences. This can sometimes be a very stressful part of travel because you get hungry and you need to eat, but the various restaurants can be very intimidating. Each country has their own customs about how to order, and pay for your food, and if you do it wrong, you are afraid that people will look at you strange. But once you get it, the way a culture handles the dining experience can be more efficient and more pleasant than what you are used to. I would say that South Korea has the down the best, but there is a place in Salzburg that might compete for that title, Augustiner Braustubl Beer Hall.

If you do go to this place, do not expect to have much choice in beer. They only have one available, a pretty good lager, and it comes in two different sizes, a liter or a half liter. You should also not expect a server to come to your table to take your order. What you do instead is you walk up to the shelves that hold rows and rows of the mugs. You grab the size that you want, and then go wash it at the marble fountain in the middle of the entrance. You then pay for your beer. They give you a slip saying that you have paid for it, you take your mug and ticket up to the keg master who fills them for you. Then you join the party.

It is quite the party too. They have at least five different halls that I could find, but that does not mean that they have more hidden some place. In each hall, they have long tables and you just find a couple of seats, and sit down with your new best friends because let’s be honest, how can you not make friends with the person sitting across from you when you are both drinking a liter of beer. The place is noisy and when I was there, it was filled with mainly locals, but I can see that during the summer months, this will change to a group of tourists.

They serve food as well, but once again it is not like you are used to. One of the hallways in-between the beer halls, they have set up various vendors selling anything from roasted pork, to fish and chips, to breads and pretzels. You can find something for everybody there except if you are vegetarian. I am sorry, but I have not found many places in all of Germany and Austria that cater to this cuisine choice. If you like meat though, the choices are excellent. You just go up to the counter that you wish to have food from and order directly from that vender. You then bring it back to your seat and enjoy it.

It easy to enjoy a complete evening at this beer hall, and I am glad that it closes at 11:00 or I would still be there. It became one of those dining experiences that made me feel completely comfortable with its system, and I did not get stressed out by the customs I had to adhere to. I am glad that I read up a little bit about it before I went to dinner here, and it is what made the experience great. I can’t wait until the next place where I get to enjoy a new experience such as this.

A Stroll through Altstadt – Salzburg, Austria

The view of Salzburg from the Mozartsteg

Salzburg, Austria was one of the more important cities in Europe not only because it sat at a crossroads of trade, but also because it became the place where the precious salt was shipped through before it was distributed to the rest of the European cities. It was this important commodity that gave the city its name, Salzburg, and it eventually grew to be know as the Rome of the north.

The view of Fortress Hohensalzburg from the edge of altstadt

It is an impressive city that still has a hold over people as tourists come here to see its sights, shop among it many shops, and enjoy the beautiful nature that surrounds the city. It is one of Europe’s biggest tourist attractions and it all starts at the heart of the city, the altstadt.

A skating rink set up during the Christmas markets in Mozartplatz

The old part of town is basically a huge series of squares that are surrounded by various Catholic churches. I have never seen so many churches collected in one single place. It seemed that every corner I turned there was another church that I could explore. I was curious how such a small population of people could support that many churches.

The greatest of these churches is the Salzburg Dom or the Salzburg Cathedral. It is different from many of the other cathedrals found in Europe because it was built in only fourteen short years, and is designed in Baroque style. When they were creating it, they made sure not to supply it with stained glass windows because they wanted natural light to illuminate the altar instead. Its main focus was on the music that would be performed during the service and Sunday mass still draws in many people to experience it. There are four pip organs that surround the crossing of the asp allowing the music to come at the people in surround sound.

The Baroque architecture inside the Salzburg Cathedral

Of course, this was the place where one of the world’s most famous musicians, Mozart, got his start. Salzburg was his birthplace, and he got his start playing music in this cathedral before he went off to write his own symphonies, and operas.

His childhood home is actually on one of Salzburg’s more famous streets, Getreidgasse. This street used to be the main economic center of Salzburg with various shops lining the street, and not much has changed over the years. People still come here to do their shopping but they now can find modern shops among the coffee shops and long established restaurants. The old signs still hang above the new ones allowing you to see what it was like back before the chains moved in.

The biggest attraction looms over the city though, the Fortress Hohensalzburg. This was built to show military might, but was never actually used in this fashion. Just by having it above the city prevented anybody from trying to take it over with force. It was eventually opened to the public and has become the number one sight for anybody that is visiting the city.

Another Catholic church in the graveyard of Salzburg

There are many other treasures that can be found while strolling through the many walking streets of Salzburg’s older portion of the city. It is a great way of introducing yourself to the city before you dive further into what the place has to offer.