Adventure of the month

When you take the speed dating approach to travel, you can't allow yourself to get too bogged down in the details. Take for example, my latest adventure. I landed in Vientiane at midnight and had an entire twelve hours before I had to catch a flight to Guam. The sensible thing to do would have been to get some sleep, maybe a quick breakfast and start the new day refreshed (or as close to it as possible when whizzing through time zones). Problem is Vientiane is the capital of Laos, a new country for me and I was determined to see... something, which is more or less how I phrased it when I checked into my hotel at 1am.  I explained to the front desk clerk that I wanted to set up a driver to show me the sights. When asked what precisely I wanted to see, my response was "Uh, I don't know. Anything specific to Laos. Temples, maybe. That monument that shows up in all the Google searches. Anything interesting. No shopping."

I feel like so many of my blog posts begin in one of two ways. Either there is somewhere I've always wanted to go to and Woo-Hoo, I finally did it. Or I kind of stumbled into something not knowing what to expect and found it to be way cooler than anticipated. Then we have my latest adventure, which is a combination of the two. Anyone who knows me is aware of my love of all things Halloween. I begin preparing my costumes months in advance and insist on dressing up, no matter where I am. This can result in some awkward situations, such as the time I was the only person in all of Leipzig, Germany dressed up for the occasion (as a Gothic Barbie Doll no less) but I don't care. It is a holiday dedicated to fun and candy and I am on board 100%. Lately, there feels like there has been a conflation of Halloween and Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration. Both fall roughly around the same time, involve costumes and prominently feature skulls and other "spooky" symbols. Al...

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.