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Showing posts from October, 2007

Exactly whose fantasy is this?

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I just returned from Key West, where the annual Fantasy Fest celebration is in full swing. During the week-long festival, there are a series of theme nights (ie. red night, plaid night, toga night), but somehow they all amount to one thing, people running around in various states of undress. This in principle may sound like a good thing, but trust me, it is not. When you see a man in a loin cloth or a woman wearing nothing but body paint, and your first thought is "Where are his/ her grandchildren and why did they not stop him/her?", or when you find yourselves searching for a sharp stick with which to poke out your eyes to make the vision of the wrinkly woman in the thong go away, it's a bit of a problem. Yet despite all this, it is still Key West and it can still be counted upon to provide awe-inspiring sunsets, wonderfully off-kilter locals and crystalline waters. Visiting only makes me want to go there more often. Only I think I will wait until the body pa

Changing of the Leaf

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Just returned from Portsmouth, NH, where they are supposed to be in the midst of the glorious "changing of the leaves" that everyone raves about. In hindsight, I probably should have checked before boarding a "leaf watchers" cruise, to see if this was actually taking place. I also really, truly should have checked the weather. That way I would have known that (1) for the most part, the leaves are just as green as they have been all summer (I swear the exceptions in the photos above smelled suspiciously like spray paint) and (2) the temperature in Portsmouth is nothing whatsoever like it was this summer (read bone-chilling, Happy Feet kind of cold). Live and Learn.

Country #67: Krakow, Poland

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There is a certain irony that I alluded to back in August. I noted that during this past summer, which was chock full of blog-worthy travels, I had no time to post anything. Well, now I am experiencing the inverse. For most of October I have been home bound, which has given me plenty of time for a frantic game of catch-up on this blog. It is in that spirit that I am now posting the last of the unposted summer adventures. (insert heavy sigh of relief here). From August 27th-30th, Shawn and I hopped on a cheap-o flight to Krakow, Poland (love, love, love the European cheap-o airlines; they are often cheaper than the trains and the crappy service really is no worse than that on most US carriers). Upon arrival, we checked into the ultra-friendly Mama's hostel, right down the street from Rynek Glowny, which may or may not be the largest square in Europe (Venice's San Marco square provides the only competition and the answer

Dammit!

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Just as I was celebrating putting this Netherlands thing to rest, I realized that I had not posted nearly enough photos of Amsterdam itself. This had to be remedied.