Adventure of the month

October was coming to an end and with it, so was my four month workation in Rotterdam. With just one break and diminishing funds remaining, I left the final destination up to chance. Whatever flight was cheapest on my days off, that's where I was going. A couple of searches via cheapoair, skyscanner, momondo and finally Kayak later, fate determined that I was going to Bergerac, France. With that decided, I had a new, more pressing question. What was I going to do in Bergerac for five days? The town is best known for two things: wine and a large-schnozzed romantic. I like wine. I vaguely remember Steve Martin playing this guy, Cyrano de Bergerac in a movie a million years but nothing about this combo sounded interesting enough for five days.  I expanded my search a bit and saw that Bordeaux was less than a two hour train ride away. C'est le done. This was going to be a wing it (and wine it) kinda trip.

1. The architecture. A beguiling mix of Moorish and Gothic, it gives the city a wonderfully mysterious air and encourages the visitor to walk around taking it all in even if the temperature is slightly less than that of the sun. Without question, the most recognizable building is the Seu Cathedral, sitting on the water's edge. Built upon the site of a Moorish mosque, it was first consecrated in 1230 but was not completed until 1601. After an earthquake in 1851 destroyed a portion of the cathedral, Antonin Gaudi was brought in for the redo to work mainly on the interior portion. After a couple of years, he got into a fight with the contractor and did his best 'take this job and shove it'.

There is a lot to see in Lebanon. Like almost too much, really. Particularly if you only have a couple of days to see and do it all. But as they say, the struggle is real and sleep is for suckers. In order to cover as much as possible, I decided to sign up for two day trips, both which started much too early in the morning. Day one, I headed north. As with all things in life, the tours would be a mixed bag. There would be would be some really great stops and then there were would be some that were just "eh". After reading the description, I mentally placed the first stop firmly in the 'eh' category. It would be a stop at the Jeita grotto. I have nothing against grottos, per se, it is just that I have been to so many that after a while all those stalactites and stalagmites start to blend together. That is probably why after taking a cable car up to the upper grotto, I was completely ok with their rule that you put all phones, cameras, etc into a locker. Less to...

Me (dealing with some issues with my condo): "Hey, I am going on vacation for the next five days and I don't know what the phone situation is going to be so if you need to get a hold of me, just email me and I'll get back to you when I can." My lawyer: "Sure, no problem. I think we've got everything under control. Where are you going?" Me: "Beirut" Lawyer: (silence) Me: "In Lebanon" Lawyer: (silence) Me: "You see, I'm trying to get to all the countries and I am fascinated with Middle Eastern culture... Lawyer: "You're insane. You are going to Lebanon! For vacation!! Isn't it super dangerous?" Me: "Something, something...Paris of the East"

Although this summer has been going wonderfully, there is something missing. I may be traveling, meeting some amazing people and finding that the Netherlands has seriously stepped up their vegetarian game.  However, there is also a distinct lack of blue-eyed zombies, dragons and little blond badasses in my life. In other words, I want my Game of Thrones back. Seeing as George R. R. Martin is not taking my calls and I inadvertently cancelled my HBO subscription (but not before the finale of Westworld), this situation called for drastic measures. If the seven kingdoms would not come to me, then clearly I must go to the seven kingdoms.  I've already been to King's Landing (aka Dubrovnik) and Braavos (aka Girona), so maybe it was time to check out the Iron Islands, the wall and pretty much everything else in between. In order to do this, a trip to Belfast was in order.

I know what you are saying, dear fictional nitpicking reader. Is Kosovo actually a country? Like, for real? Well, they did declare their independence on 2/17/08. Out of the 193 UN member states, 111 recognize this declaration. The other 82, namely Russia and China, still see it is as a province of Serbia. The fact of the matter is that while crossing the border from Macedonia, it is a Kosovo stamp that I got in my passport. I did not actually want this stamp, as it may cause problems if I ever want to enter into actual Serbia in the future, but I had taken a crowded jitney-type bus from Skopje and the customs official had us all pass up our passports and off he went. I had no chance to make my "no stamp" plea.  While this stamp business may cause me some headaches in the future, I was glad that the customs process was relatively speedy since it was getting late and I had to be at the National Theater at 11am for a free walking tour of Prishtina . As it was, I kept sending...

Have you ever been so pleasantly surprised by something that it made you angry? Or maybe just slightly annoyed? I know this sounds weird but hear me out. As part of my quest to hit all the countries, I'd booked a flight to Skopje, Macedonia. This in itself was a kind of consolation prize because I actually wanted to go to Ohrid for some sunning and funning. Those flights, in the middle of July were way too expensive so I'd settled on the larger, less water-adjacent city. After checking into the wonderful  Lounge Hostel , I'd realized that I had left my European power-adaptor plugged into the wall of the Belgrade airport and had to rush out to replace it before the stores closed. It's possible that this situation had put me into a disgruntled state of mind. How else explain my reaction when I first saw a massive Alexander the Great presiding over this very imposing square.  As I gaped at all the perfectly restored neo-classical architecture around me, my first thou...