Adventure of the month

Up until last month, the extent of my knowledge of Milan was that it's that place you have to go through, no matter your final destination, if are unfortunate enough to fly on Alitalia.  As I loathe both that horrid airline and its chaotic, every-man-for-himself hub airport, I never really gave any thought to the city burdened with these twin albatrosses (albatri?). Therefore,when I found out that I would be visiting for a couple of days, I wasn't exactly disappointed- it is Italy, after all- but I was not exactly thrilled, either.  Granted, I was going via a different carrier and therefore was not going to be subjected to their national airline's DMV level of service, but the lingering resentment over my past Milan experiences, brief as they were, prevented me from doing my usual level of pre-trip planning.  I figured I would just show up and do what normal people refer to as "winging it."

How much do I love Istanbul? Let me count the ways. Or better yet, let me count the photos... cause there sure are a lot of them. This month, I got to visit one of my favorite cities on the planet for the fourth time and added to my ever expanding Turkish photo collection. Instead of waxing nostalgic about the wonderful times I have had during these visits or struggling through a thesaurus finding synonyms for the words "lavish" and "exotic", I think I should just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hi.  My name is Berti and I am a Groupon/ Couptessa/ Living Social addict.  In the past week, I have used vouchers to eat out, bar-hop, workout, get my hair done and, the crowning achievement, to finally- once and for all- visit the Everglades. I will admit that it has been a source of shame for me that these wetlands that sit less than an hour from my front door, this national park that I would have visited had it been anywhere else, had heretofore gone unexplored.  So imagine my delight when I opened my email and found the following offer: $27 for a three hour Everglades tour ($55 value).  And best of all, I did not even have to undertake the one hour drive since the package included transportation from Bayside Marketplace, just a few blocks from home.

August in Amsterdam without enough consecutive days off to do anything other than a day trip.  What to do? There are the museums, the plethora of summer festivals, the renting of boats, the joy of simply relaxing with friends at a canal-side bar- I partook in all of it and loved every minute of it.  But there was still plenty of time to fill, so I decided I would take a class of some kind. I considered taking Dutch lessons but- no offense to the kind people of Holland- that language is nothing short of an auditory assault.  It is so bad that it makes German sound lyrical.  There is a part of me that is ashamed of the fact that I have now spent the equivalent of 14 months living in the country without learning the language.  To be fair, I have reached the point where I can engage in very basic niceties, read a menu or tell off a bicyclist with some adeptness but, sadly, I have not pushed myself to progress beyond that.  And this summer did no...

Another summer sojourn in Amsterdam, another opportunity to add to my country count.  Due to a somewhat screwier schedule than usual, this year it was only one country added  ("Only" one- my life, it is so full of hardships, no?)  but it was a good one. With four days off, I flew to Kiev, expecting a couple of pretty Orthodox churches, lots of varenyky (Ukrainian raviolis stuffed with potato), a profusion of cyrillic and some general seediness.  I found three out of the four.

the midst of my manic home renovation projects, a ridiculously sweet opportunity fell square into my lap, wholly unbidden.  How would I like to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a couple of days?  Oh, and it would be during the weekend before my birthday.  How's about I bring along some friends?  For free.  Yup, this happened. Times like this, you have to realize that life does not suck. Although Puerto Rico is a scant two hour flight from Miami, I had previously never had a chance to fully explore this Caribbean island.  Joined by four of the funnest people you could ever travel with, Ivon, Jorge, Lily and Israel, I was able to right this egregious wrong.

I know. I know. I have been really slacking off on this here blog.  I chose a blog title that would force me to post at least once a month and yet for the past four months, this site has sat woefully abandoned and ignored.  By way of excuses, I will say that earlier this year I became a homeowner for the first time.  As a result, my adventures have lately consisted more in choosing which loud primary colors to use for my walls (correct answer: all of them) and figuring out why my kitchen tile has developed such an explosive temperament (google 'tile tenting'- it is a thing), than my usual galavanting around. But this does not mean I have become a sedentary being.  Far from it.  Another reason for my absence, has been a hectically busy work schedule, one that has taken me on a number of  journeys to places both new and familiar.  Among those stops, way back in May, was an extended stay in one of those familiar places, Kaiserslaut...