Archive | August, 2008
Tomatocation: The Hottest Vacation Trend This Side of Valencia

Tomatocation: The Hottest Vacation Trend This Side of Valencia

Sure you’ve heard of a vacation: it’s the measly two week period you end up using up for doctor’s appointments and your cousin’s wedding. And the “staycation”? Well don’t get me started– you might as well call suicide watch on anyone that tries to convince you that sitting in the house for a week watching [...]

Read more
From Croatia with Love–Split to Brač and in between

From Croatia with Love–Split to Brač and in between

I took the overnight ferry from Italy to Croatia, landing in the city of Split. Usually when you land in the sea port, you’re down by “the docks” in some quasi-industrial section of town, where you have to walk 30 minutes just find a taxi to get you back to civilization. In Split, you land [...]

Read more
Why You Should Go to Croatia (I’m Talking to You, Americans)

Why You Should Go to Croatia (I’m Talking to You, Americans)

When I announced that I planned to go to Croatia, it was based on a photo I had seen online. It was taken from within a door frame, peering out towards brilliant blue water just few feet away. I thought, “Wow, I have to go there.” When I arrived, I soon found that many others [...]

Read more
All Venice Needs is a Ferris Wheel

All Venice Needs is a Ferris Wheel

Venice in August is a theme park.  You bus in from the airport.  It drops you at the Palazzo Roma, where every other bus unloads hundreds of tourists per hour.  You wait in line.  You pay too much for a ticket.  You get on the first ride, a ferry that takes you down the grand [...]

Read more
5 Clues It’s Time to Change Hostels

5 Clues It’s Time to Change Hostels

I schlepped my backpack, laptop and camera across town, getting properly lost along the way.  The 5 minute walk turned into an hour long hike, as I overshot my destination and searched in the wrong neighborhood.  Finally I climbed four flights of stairs and knocked on the hostel door.  “Hello?  Hostel?”  The woman shook her [...]

Read more
The Lisbon Slideshow

The Lisbon Slideshow

Christine is off to Croatia this evening, after landing in Venice last night, so her trusty sidekick (read: husband) is here to fill in by posting a slideshow of her trip to Lisbon. Let’s send her good vibes on her travels, this is the trip that is requiring the most logistical planning, moving from place [...]

Read more
It’s a Small World, Baby

It’s a Small World, Baby

If you’ve ever been in my bathroom in my former home in Texas, you’d know that I had a certain framed poster hanging on the wall.  I bought it one night from the Michael’s Art Supply store in Plano Texas.  I didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it was cute, plus it matched [...]

Read more
The Castel de Mouro and Being American

The Castel de Mouro and Being American

Under the forest canopy the filtered light looks pale green on the path leading to the Castel de Mouro.  As I hiked towards the Moorish ruins, the crowd thinned as they headed to the bus terminal or shops or back into town.  I soon found myself alone, in the hushed silence of the overgrown forest, [...]

Read more
Sintra Beats Disney to the Punch

Sintra Beats Disney to the Punch

If you were disturbed by the graffiti in the last post, just know that not all of Lisbon looks like that.  In fact, the graffiti is probably the only negative thing you can say about this city.  It’s as warm as Madrid, but with a wonderful ocean breeze.  There are tourists, but mostly from Spain [...]

Read more
The Graffiti of Lisbon

The Graffiti of Lisbon

The image above is me praying for silence.  I can’t hear myself think, the music is at a solid level eight here at the Hostel Lemon in Portugal.  This place is a little different than the other hostels I’ve stayed in, as it’s difficult to avoid the party– there is only one common room, and [...]

Read more