This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Right then, where were we? I’m realizing that, given the long and travel-rich future in store for Kat and me, I may need to develop some different blogging habits. Traveling alone, days end relatively early, giving plenty of time for blogging. Traveling with another, dinners…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Catching up a bit – a late dinner last night meant I didn’t get a blog post up. Yesterday was a day of milling about and exploring further. Most importantly, this meant a trip to the Mercato Centrale, wherein I buy far too much balsamic…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 On my last visit, I went to La Specola, the taxidermy museum. La Specola is run by the University of Firenze, and they run a few other museums as well. Today, we ticked some off the list – the Geological and Paleontological museum, the Mineralogy…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 A long, but thankfully uneventful travel day brought us to Florence mid-afternoon on Saturday. A short taxi ride got us to our AirBnB and our host, Marilena. I’ll do a full tour of our apartment in another post – it’s frighteningly charming. I hadn’t realized,…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Shakespeare was talking about gelato right? I don’t think there’s a way to say “heading back to Florence, again” without a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness. But hey, it’s me, so there’s always a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness, right? Regardless, we depart…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today I took a somewhat odd trip to the Mekong Delta. I had presumed it would be a big bus tour with a bunch of folks from all over. Instead, it was myself, an Australian couple, our guide, and our driver, in a Sprinter. I’m…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 This evening, I took the Foodie tour from XO Tours. The gist is that a group of folks travels the city on the back of mopeds, each driven by a woman in traditional dress, stopping to eat the street food that you don’t normally eat…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Yesterday, my body (or a helpful bacteria) called timeout and asked me to stay in bed (or the bathroom). So, no big news there. Misery, a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, and more misery. All better now though! I’ve only spent one day wandering…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Like Sleepless in Seattle, just a different kind of horrible. Yesterday, I made the trek to Hoi An. Hoi An is part Ye Olde Town, and part beach resort. Because the river silted in, it was basically frozen in time a few hundred years ago…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Sitting in Hoi An, having flown from Hanoi to Danang earlier to today, I’m feeling reflective on my first week in Vietnam. At this point in the trip, I have nothing but superlatives for this country. Hanoi is a seething cauldron in the best possible…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Last day in Hanoi – a bit sad really. I’ll write up my thoughts on the city, and week on in Vietnam, tomorrow. For now, let me just say that Hanoi has quickly propelled itself near the top of my list of favorite cities in…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today, I got on a boat full of interesting people for adventure. A good start to a day! I did a split kayak/climbing day with Asia Outdoors on Cat Ba. Somewhere around 18 of us got on a boat and headed out into the bay…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Cat Ba Island, and, I’m lead to believe, all of Ha Long Bay, is in the category of “places which cannot possibly be real but apparently are.” It’s too perfectly picturesque, like it’s been staged for a film. It’s lush and dramatic and unlike anywhere…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today was more or less devoted to a trek to the Perfume Pagoda. The “Perfume Pagoda” itself is actually a cave, at the top of a mountain, with a Buddhist temple inside, and it’s part of a large complex with many pagodas. This was one…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 (“that’s hot.” Hey, is she still alive?) There is a point at which it can be too warm to enjoy yourself. Or at least, there is for me. Parts of today reached that point – temperatures were again over 100, with humidity in the high…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Let’s talk briefly about The War. As a bleeding-heart left-wing America-apologist, I can’t help but experience Hanoi with a tinge of guilt. I know that that’s reductionist and inarticulate – and hey, at least we’re not the French – but it’s the truth. I obviously…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 The Shanghai airport may have lots of redeeming values. I cannot say I experienced them. In many ways, it reminds me of all of the things I dislike about CDG, minus the angry French. Landing in Shanghai, I simply needed to transfer to an outbound…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 I had no reason to think that Tokyo would be anything other than amazing, and yet I left the states feeling a bit silly about the decision to add a layover there. Was it really worth the cost? The hassle? Turns out, the answer is…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Short Answer: because Mike and Rebecca already when to Thailand. Since I live vicariously through my friends, I figured I’d pick somewhere new. Long Answer: Because Top Gear rode from the south to the north on scooters. Because Bourdain speaks of it with such passion….
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