The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist

Potpourri from Helsinki

I can’t tell you how many times over the last few weeks I’ve thought: I want to blog about this random thing… and then didn’t have access to my laptop.

I’m taking that as…

Travel, Euro Adventure, Helsinki, Random
Apr, 22, 2026
37 Comments

Epic Europe Road Trip Day One: Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, & Switzerland

Well… that was epic.

In less than seven days, we drove over 2,200 kilometers through eight different countries. Fun fact that I only learned on our road trip: the Alps span eight countries, and…

Visiting the Schönbrunn Palace Easter Market in Vienna

We came across a few Easter markets randomly in various cities here in Europe and I was impressed.

Then we went to Schönbrunn Palace and they blew the rest of them out of the water….

Walks Around Vienna (AKA: A Giant Photo Dump)

My camera was overflowing with random pictures from Vienna that didn’t necessarily fit a specific theme but I wanted to memorialize them on the blog in some way. Hence a giant photo dump with…

Euro Adventure, Travel, Vienna
Apr, 20, 2026

A Special Guest Post by Belle: Top Five/Bottom Five About My Mother

For the first time ever while travelling as a family, we ended up with two separate hotel rooms last night. We split things up by gender, so Belle and I got the chance to…

Personality Insights, Random, Top Five/Bottom Five
Apr, 19, 2026
46 Comments

Cool Bloggers Walking Club April 2026: Week 2

I figured I wouldn’t have much time on our road trip to blog… and I was right. (All the posts that were published this week I wrote back in Vienna.) But I loved receiving…

Beethoven Museum + Virgilkapelle (Our “Free on the First Sunday” Museums)

In my latest frugal post, I mentioned how I always check whether museums offer free admission certain days of the week/month. Over the years we’ve come across a variety of options (some are free…