Starting early for the holidays, here’s another pattern meant for mitties: reindeer charts
Packing and Bags October 23, 2008
I travel light. I don’t like to carry stuff, so I do everything I can to leave stuff at home. Since the days of the airline liquid ban, I have also found it more convenient to travel with those little pre-soaped cloths than a bottle of liquid face soap, which is also apt to spill all over the few clothes I do bring. And I leave in my suitcase at all times a prepacked zippy bag of travel-sized soaps and creams, just so I don’t forget. On my trip to Charleston, I forgot my hairbrush. I could have bought one, but rather than acquire more stuff, I decided to experiment to see how not brushing my hair would go over. It worked out really well (shoulder length hair), especially given the rain which was ruinous to begin with.
So that’s in my suitcase. But what about day-tripping out of the hotel? Take a backpack? A purse? I don’t like the way the backpack works, not only because the zipper is out of your sight (crime!), but because they’re so unwieldy in restaurants and small spaces. I have banged into so many people with my backpack, I figure I owe strangers a little better than that. A purse, however, is not large enough to carry the things I have with me: one guidebook, water bottle, umbrella, pen, paper, phone, wallet, camera (which is not small). So today I invested in a little messenger bag. I like that messenger bags sling across your body, redistributing some of the weight better than a hand or shoulder bag. The big ones are too big, but this one seems like it will be just right. I am looking forward to traveling stylishly AND functionally to Germany in just over a week.
Lasik in Travel October 8, 2008
This is only slightly related to travel, but how about that fortune cookie post, huh?! Was that related?? No. Next week I am going to see the Lasik doctor. I like to think that I am getting inspected, and as long as they don’t call me funny looking, I’m in. I’ve been waiting all year, since about January 20th, to get this done, and it’s only because of the FSA money that I’ll save that I haven’t done it yet. Over the course of a lifetime, Lasik is not “cost effective”. I mean, if I live 70 more years, I will never spend as much in my lifetime on contacts and glasses and eye doctors as I will on this one procedure. But there are so many perks that this luxury is totally worth it.
I want to wake up in the morning and see the clock. And in thinking about my upcoming trips, I want to not have to pack contacts and solution. I want to not worry about losing glasses or contacts and running around blind for a week. I want to swim and scuba and not worry about losing a contact. And most of all, I want this scratch right in the center of my current glasses to be gone, and I never want to hassle with another one! I can’t wait. I will be in the office having it done January 2nd, hopefully!
Fortune October 2, 2008
I don’t think they have fortune cookies in China. But I like Americanized Chinese food all the same, and for the record, my fortune is: “When the moment comes, take the last one from the left”.
Atomium and Mini-Europe September 30, 2008
When talking about Brussels everyone says “See the Grand Place!” and of course I will because it just doesn’t make sense not to, and plus, how could you miss it? It’s just… right there! But if you take the metro north, there are sights I didn’t discover in the guide books. Sights so fantastic that I feel they cannot be missed, and I am surprised that I have not heard more about them: the Atomium and Mini-Europe. Brilliant!
The Atomium is this atom-looking structure made of shiny see-through silver. You can not only take pretty pictures of it as it lights up at night, but you can go in it! It’s the Eiffel Tower of Brussels! (in fact, they were going to build an upside down Eiffel Tower, initially) The Atomium was built in 1958 for the World’s Fair (aren’t all massive, decorative structures built for the World’s Fair?), and it was restored in 2004, so it is nice and shiny once again. To top that off, THIS is the 50th anniversary! I am expecting wild celebration around the Giant Atom as well as to have it lit up better than ever. This is the year to see it. And while I’m there, how could I miss Mini Europe? It’s right next door.
Mini Europe is a “park”, and I picture a theme-park without rides, really, more than a city park-like setup. It is a collection of miniatures of 350 of the most attractive and “representative” buildings in all of Europe, at a scale of 1:25. How on earth, I ask, could someone miss this? Not only is this a completely marvelous idea, and if you look at the pictures, the buildings are really detailed and neat looking, but it also would be massive savings on seeing all of Europe! Not that this would happen, but just think: if you saw the buildings of Vienna, and they didn’t really strike your fancy, and you never reeeeally thought you wanted to see Vienna, anyway, then you can check it off your list. Brilliant! Certainly this is a device that would help with ranking cities you wanted to see. Or take closeup photos of things as if you were there. Fool your friends! So many, clever uses!!
It may be snowing, or worse, raining while I am there, but rain or shine, I have big plans to witness these two, unsung world marvels.
SCUBA September 29, 2008
I started and finished a learn-to-SCUBA course this weekend. It was a small class, and we did all the skills in the pool, and I only drank about a litre of pool water while I was there, so big win! I feel fully prepared to jump in the ocean off a boat and see shiny things. My instructor said that he’s more interested in wreck diving, but I think I’ll stick to pretty fishies… and sharks. Chomp, chomp! Which leads me to the check-out dives. I could do them in Maryland/Virginia, but the quarry is supposed to be yucky, at least compared to the Caribbean waters. So I will probably do them with K on vacation. She can float around in the water until I’m done and then we can see shiny things together! But where?
The Florida Keys are the most obvious choice, given that they’re closer to us than most other fancy destination SCUBA trips. But neither of us has been to Hawaii, so what about that? Okay, that’s probably a bit out of our price range. In fact, anything international probably is, given that I am a newbie so we can’t even see the Good stuff immediately, anyway. So Florida it is! I think we’re thinking January or February. That means I only have three months to find a pink wetsuit! I’d better get on that!
Germany September 26, 2008
In November we’re flying to Frankfurt for a week, which is seemingly the cheapest place you can fly to in Europe. I guess it’s a big airport! We got our tickets out of Baltimore for under $600, and we’re flying through Chicago (which is a little backward!). The time we have to change planes in Chicago, about an hour, is somewhat disconcerting because of not only baggage, but also what if our first plane is at all delayed (not that that ever happens in Baltimore). K thinks it will be fine. She is playing the optimist to my pessimist!
Frankfurt, from what I understand, is not worth visiting as a tourist for very long, so we are hightailing it out of there! We had the option to hop on a RyanAir or EasyJet flight out of there to Spain (or wherever) for about $40RT, but we decided it would be fun to see southern Germany since neither of us have been. So we’re going to do a circle around southern Germany by train. It will definitely include Munich, Straousburg, and Heidelberg, and we’d like to see some Alps, but that is about as far as the planning has gotten! It will be cold! There will be plenty of beer consumed.
Planning should have commenced already, but it hasn’t. There are schedules to make and hotels to book! Or maybe we will just play it all by ear, arriving with the Rick Steves book and no reservations, and take it from there. That might be adventurous!
Hawaii to Japan September 25, 2008
I was thinking of what it would be like to live in Hawaii. Trips to Europe should be expensive while trips to Asia should be cheap… I thought that it would be cheaper to fly from Hawaii to Japan (or Australia) than it is to fly from Baltimore to Japan (or Australia). It turns out I am wrong; every time I’ve checked, it is about the same cost. We suspect this is because they have to truck jet fuel in on barges. We might be wrong. It could be just that everything in Hawaii is more expensive. Maybe that is wrong-thinking, too. Maybe nobody knows why it is this way, or maybe it is just us!
Charleston and Savannah September 24, 2008
I have booked my flight (moderate), car (cheap), and hotel (cheap) for visiting Charleston and Savannah. I’m staying at a Days Inn near the airport because it is cheap. Apparently I have picked a very popular weekend to visit Charleston — many hotels are sold out while others seem to have extremely high prices, even in comparison to their other weekends’ prices. I have read that, statistically, the weather should be perfect. I arrive Friday at 11am and depart Monday at 11am. Friday I will walk around downtown Charleston and its Civil War museum. Maybe I’ll take a ghost or a Gullah tour. Saturday I will visit two of the four plantations north of Charleston and then maybe go to the beach area or back to the city. I knew Charleston had been destroyed during the war, but I didn’t realize all of the plantations had been destroyed, too. Sunday I will drive down (and back) to Savannah where I will see the historic city center and perhaps the Mercer House and their war museum. Savannah is not very well planned yet. I also thought I might stop by Hilton Head on my way back from Savannah. I like seeing mansions!
This will probably be a fairly relaxed trip. I have never been down to South Carolina, but for some reason I’ve always wanted to go. I anticipate fun!
Brussels and Brugge September 23, 2008
This trip is work-related, and my boss said I could go (without taking him along) because Belgium is boring, and I would find that out for myself soon enough. I don’t buy that Belgium is boring. Certainly it is far more interesting than Baltimore and San Jose are. It has museums and Gothic architecture and history and chocolate and beer and a quaint, European feel to it, unlike anything we have here in the US. As a neither-here-nor-there tidbit, I did attend a War of 1812 reenactment recently, and we were commenting on how Americana that sort of thing was. It’s nice to be able to experience all sorts of cultural oddities, and I am sure I will find some in Belgium.
I picked up the Rick Steves book last night and did a lot of reading about Brussels and Brugge. Well, maybe it wasn’t a lot. The book was shared with Amsterdam which took up half of the ~400 pages. In the ~200 Belgian pages, though, there seemed to be plenty to do to accomodate my free time out of work. I’m working M-F and vacationing S/Su, flying out M. Also, since my stay in Brussels (actually in Leuven, about 15 miles east of Brussels by metro) is pretty much set, I really only have to worry about accomodation in Brugge. I was going to go to Ieper to see the WWI museum, but it is kind of out of the way, and I think there won’t be time; I really only have the weekend, and there should be enough in Brugge for a weekend with a very brief pass through Gent if possible.
There is a special ticket on the Belgium train system called a VIA ticket. VIA tickets will get you from point A to B via C for cheaper than buying two separate tickets. I may stop over in Gent for the morning on my way to Brugge. Or I may try to hit Gent on the way back to Brussels depending on how busy Brugge is. This is not a concern and will be very much played by ear. In Brugge at this time of year (and all over Belgium and Germany) there are the open air Christmas markets. In Brugge, in particular, I am told there are also ice sculptures. All of that combined with the cathedrals, museums, architecture, and walking tour should be plenty to do!
This is one trip that I will probably not overplan; it helps that it is a practically free trip and some of it is already planned, for work. I am going to play it by ear and hit the main sights, but probably just spend time relaxing and absorbing the culture. My Germany trip, though, will be a different story: there will be a lot of taking trains, and scheduling will have to happen prior to our November departure date. There should be more about that here soon.
