Something I learned traveling around Europe and will never forget is the fact that it is Never a good idea to stay up all night to avoid staying in a hotel or catching some early morning event like a train or a race. Well this story is a tale of a group of travelers about to leave Sweden on a 6am train and have decided to stay up all night to avoid the ludicrous exchange rate of the Swedish Kroner.
While traveling around Europe, our group coined the term ‘dupe’ which is basically to be tricked. Dupes happen all the time especially in a foreign country where you do not speak the language. Thus far I have been rather lucky and I have only been duped twice. Here they are…
Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday. I have never been a big fan of american football. In fact I didn’t even know who was playing until a few hours before. I googled “Where to watch the superbowl in BsAs” and found my spot. Around 10pm I left my house anticipating a night full of english language and rabid football fans frothing at the mouth wearing that football jersey everyone told them not to bring to south america. On the way I stopped by my favorite empenada place to fill up on some cheap eats and booze before I was forced to pay american prices. The place was packed with people standing on toilets and sitting on the beer fridges which is not normal for this place. But it was normal when the TV is showing the Boca Jrs v. River Plate futbol (soccer) game. I decided to stay and mingle with the locals and drink two liters of Quilmes and watch the first half of the game which ended at 1-0 boca. I then found my way to the superbowl bar and watched part of the game. The futbol game was between two of the biggest teams in the country being played at a neutral field so I thought it was a good cahnce to compare to the superbowl.
Once a month during the high tourist season, there is a giant congress of travelers on a small island on the east coast of Thailand called Ko Phagnan. In the summer of 2005, along with my traveling companion Nic, I set my scopes on this congress which is better known as the Full Moon Party. This tale is not only of the full moon night but as well as the amazing island that is kind enough to cater to such a debauchery filled event.
A short distance from Buenos Aires is the small little country of Uruguay. Widely known as the most popular vacation spot for all the Argentinos as well as an easy hop, skip, and a jump for travelers to extend their visa duration. I convinced my traveling companion, B, to join me as we embarked on what ended up being a 1500 km road trip around the south-eastern heel of the country. As usual I made no prior arrangements and was really only armed with stories and suggestions that I had heard from people I had talked to. These stories mostly consisted of “Everything is booked and you will not find anywhere to stay.” and other methods of saying pretty much the same thin since it was the high season.
I love foosball… it can appear to be extremely haphazard and frantic to many people watching. But there are moments in a foosball game where…
This entry was pulled from my travel journal from Europe summer expedition 2003…
July 12th
For Justin, Jen, Mike, and myself, this was our first hard day of travel. An outrageously uncomfortable Ryan-air flight to Pau in the south of France. Get lied to by a taxi driver who said there was no buses to the train station. Our first encounter with the impatient French while trying to buy and then change our train tickets.
Six years ago traveling through Europe I heard about this event called Tomatina which was described to me as a giant Tomato fight. At some point I saw some travel TV show at the Tomatina and at that point it made the list of things I had to do before I depart this Earth or at least settle down in some white picket fence house with 2.5 children and a golden retriever. In the summer of 2008 I made my pilgrimage and here is the story of how it all came to be…
I show up in Buenos Aires and I am antsy for some racing action on mi bicicleta. I go online and look for whatever I can find and come across a very helpful website at http://www.infobiker.com.ar. I look on the calendario for wahtever I can find and see that there is a race in a province of Buenos Aires in a city called Olavarria. Perfect! So I am staying in the province of Capital Federal in the state of Buenos Aires. Olavarria is in it’s own province in the state of Buenos Aires. This basically means that the place I had to go was 350 kilometers from where I am living. No matter, I was committed.
