About me

Hello world and welcome to my website!

A few basics about my person:
I live in Austria and was born in 1978. I grew up in a small village in the region called Muehlviertel. Currently I am living in a town called Eferding, married and raising two kids with my lovely wife.

Hiking in the Austrian Alps


The motto I try to live by is “Don’t waste the best time of your life, waiting for the best time of your life.

This is my earliest record of beeing online, the Geocities Account confirmation from 30th of June 1999. I started with a „AON“ Account at the Austrian Telekom around 1998, but I unfortunatley lost all that data.

Screenshot of my Geocities Account confirmation
Screenshot of my Geocities Account confirmation

Some pictures are still online on homebeach.info, Espaciall on the UK Pages and the USA pictures. I had been using a free webspace provided by Telekom Austria since late 1998, but those files and any trace of that time have unfortunately been lost. 

According to www.blogheim.at I am the oldest Travel-Related Blog in Austria.

Ältester Blog zum Thema Reisen in Österreich

I have used „Giovanni Aureel“ as an Alias since 1998. When I signed up for for Geocities, Yahoo suggested to use an Alias and not my real name (times have changed since then…) and a lot of people ask me how I came up with it and if I have Italian ancestors.

Antactica 2008
Antactica 2008

Here is the answer:
I am 100 % Austrian, but I have a great affection for Italy – I’ve been there since early childhood and now started taking my kids there. ONe of my alltime avorite city is Venice. Giovanni is the Italian translation of my real first name and a lot of people use Giovanni (or Gio) as a nickname. Aureel – sounds also a bit like my real second name. I choose it because I love writing and it is inspired by Marc AUREL (The Philospoher Emperor)- a roman emperor who died near Vienna in Austria.

As a teenager one of my big dreams was visiting the USA. But there was a lot of uncertainty and the fear of travelling to a foreign country with little knowledge of the culture and the language was overwhelming.

Then I went on a trip to South England and London in 1998 with my godfather. London became the first big city I explored on my own. I realized there, wandering around that fantastic metropolis, that travelling on my own can actually be a very rewarding and intense experience, sometimes pushing boundaries and sometimes seeing the most amazing things. Most of all its learning about other cultures and at the same time learning to appreciate where I come from.

As my initial fears and worried had vanquished, I started to plan my first trip to the USA. Luckily my lovely cousin decided to join me – so I had the best company I could imagine. We started in LA, gambled in Las Vegas, hiked in Arizona and Utah, took the elevator up to the World Trade Center, travelled through the country by Greyhound busses and finally finished our trip in Chicago.

Chicago, 2000
Chicago, 2000

My first solo trip took place in 2000, when I decided to do another trip to Chicago to visit a friend I had met in 1999. Of course I saw a lot of things, of course the city was amazing, but I didn’t fly all the 4500 Miles just to see the Sears Tower or the Chicago Bulls, it was about the people and the culture. To this day, the thing I enjoy the most is the people I meet on my trips. At the end of 2000 I also managed to do a road trip in Florida and a cruise to the Bahamas. Again I was very lucky to meet great people there to host me and show me around.

In the year 2001 I won an online competition at www.worldsurface.com, with one of my pictures.

Antelope Canyon, 1999
Antelope Canyon, 1999

This allowed me to get funding to travel around Thailand and Australia for three months as a Global Reporter on sustainable tourism. Part of it was to write an Online-Diary (these days it would be called a blog) and take pictures for the community. Unfortunatley worldsurface was shut down in 2008 and is no longer available.

Florida, 2000, Melbourne Beach
Florida, 2000, Melbourne Beach

It was an awesome feeling to report for a whole community about my experiences in travelling and I didn’t regret one day of the whole trip (even though I was robbed in Thailand and that I was travelling around September the 11th 2001). After my return I decided to start www.homebeach.info, to share my experience, pictures and stories with everyone (who is interested).

On September the 9th 2001 in Brisbane, while watching the Goodwill Games with a good friend of mine I decided to visit six continents before I reach 25 and also vowed to travel to Antarctica before 30. Goals which I’m fortunate enough to have reached.

At this point I would like to add a big „Thank you“ to my family, who has been very supportive over the years, all the fantastic people out there I met on my travels and last but not least also the companies I worked for, for understanding that travelling is my passion and allowing me to live that dream!

Thailand 2001, Ko Phi Phi
Thailand 2001, Ko Phi Phi

My big trips in the past years:

Beside, there are picture galleries and among my favourites: Rome, Oslo and Norway, Germany, Stockholm and Cesky Krumlov.

I always appreciate feedback and hearing about experience from other people!