G’day again! Today’s post I continue along my journey from last year as I travelled around the world. When last I wrote about the adventure I was on the beautiful island of Santorini, a place I was certainly sad to leave.

But I had to meet my wife in Vienna, who was coming direct from Australia (via Dubai to be fair) and I think was due in Vienna fractionally earlier than I was. I had booked myself a flight to Athens on Aegean Air, and then from Athens to Vienna on Austrian Airlines, both new airlines for me.

I was picked up early in the morning, I think my flight was at around 830am, so I would have been picked up by seven or earlier. It was 30 Euro, for a short drive only to the airport, but that was far cheaper than the quotes Uber had given me at 40 Euro I think it was, taxis were similar. This was booked by my accommodation at Pension George.

The car… was more like a van, and inside it was ‘limo-like’ and it was only for ME, so I guess that despite feeling like I should not have to pay this kind of price for such a short journey, I did feel rather ‘special’ being inside the vehicle.

Santorini airport, whilst small has a decent sized departure hall and it was pretty busy for the time of day. Being a solely domestic flight, after check in and bag drop I was soon through security watching the plane on the tarmac as passengers on the flight to Santorini disembark. So it was a quick turn around because we were soon boarding the full flight.

It was great though to be able to board from the ground and through the back of the plane. The flight was short, there was a quick snack and drink served, but before you knew it we were descending into Athens.

I was able to grab my checked baggage quickly and soon was checking in for the Austrian airlines flight and going through security as well. Athens airport was busy but the eating was not varied, most places had various sandwiches but there wasn’t a lot else, at least not in my terminal.

All through the adventure around the world so far to this point had been full or almost full, but this flight to somewhere around the centre of Europe was not even half full, and I had three seats to myself. It really makes a big difference in the experience, and considering most European airlines flying inter-Europe just block off the middle seat to create business class, having three seats to myself was like and upgrade!

At Vienna Airport police greeted passengers coming off the plane and for a moment there was a little confusion about whether I needed a visa or not (I didn’t). That was all there was in the way of ‘passport control’ – it was an inter-EU flight.

I had made it to Vienna and I met up with my wife just outside arrivals and we made it into the city via the train and then a tram to our hotel, the old, budget (I guess) but full of character Hotel Atlanta. We had a very basic twin room. I’ll be putting up a hotel review on the YouTube channel at some point this was an interesting one.

We had a couple more days in Vienna before taking the train to Budapest, and then I would go further east to Romania as it was a few weeks from this point to my next flight. This would in the end prove (unexpectedly) the toughest part of the whole round the world adventure, more due to circumstance though rather than issues with where I was. But first I had Vienna to explore, a royal city if ever there was one, seat of the Emperor and Empress of Austro-Hungary, with palaces and beauty I had not really explored the first time I visited in 2004. So – get ready for that in around a week.

Thanks for popping by today! Take care wherever you are in the world – May the Journey Never End!