HOLLAND!!!

 

 
 

The Boot Whisperer

 

So! This month I'm back in Texas! My extended family spent some time together in Wimberley, a quaint little retirement town located in the Texas Hill Country. While there I was almost convinced to buy some boots from a German lady known as "the boot whisperer." Apparently she can look at a person's foot and correctly guess his boot size. She and her husband own and operate a successful second-hand boot store in town. Check out the ones I wanted... too bad they didn't come in my size ;-) just kidding!

365 Project Day 4: I like to move it, move it

My travel last month took me to Hong Kong. One of the most densely populated areas in the world (according to Wikipedia), Hong Kong is an interesting mix of capitalism/western culture and traditional conservative Asian culture. The city was impressively clean and well-run. There were signs posted on business doors assuring customers how many times a day door handles were sanitized as well as signs about hand hygiene and how to properly cover coughs and sneezes. Sometimes I would forget I was in Asia until I would see people wearing avian-flu masks. A foreigner that I met who lived there for a while likened Hong Kong to London. Wouldn't know because I've never been there, but it's not surprising since Hong Kong was once a British colony. I like that this photo displays the orderly traffic lanes and three different modes of transportation: the red taxis, the yellow double-decker bus, and the pedestrian footbridge above the road. Can't you almost hear the rush of millions of people getting to work to make a buck?

Travel Tales

- While stuck at DFW airport after hours: secretly watching a random man weigh himself on the baggage scales at the check-in counter while muttering to himself - Figuring out how to sleep on airport seats - Another random guy stuck at the airport yelling at the airline people on the phone (while I was trying to sleep) - Repacking my bags twice. The first time was to remove 9.5 pounds while I was at DFW so that one bag wouldn't be overweight. So much for "packing light" - The Nalgene bottle casualty at Chicago OHare: Security person was unmoved by "but I promise I put that water in there AFTER security at DFW!!!" - Upon entering the country: Being ushered into an empty room with one chair sitting in the middle facing a glass partition with a man in it who motioned to me to sit down and then promptly pointed a laser at my forehead with no explanation as to why (later found out it was to test my temperature to check for swine flu) - Doing kickboxing in the dining room on day 2 in country and "thinking" I had this jet lag thing under control...and then jet lag set in...

Trip Stats & Lessons Learned

**18 days **8 flights **3 countries **7 cities **4 travel buddies with me **14 taxis (at least) **Lots of walking **Countless cups of tea Lessons Learned **When in Egypt, walk like an Egyptian. There are only two types of pedestrians in Cairo: the quick and the dead. **Kurds are not Turks, Arabs, or Persians and they'll let you know it! One must remember this when traveling in the land of the Kurds. **How to pack lighter: doing laundry in the sink and giving stuff away. **When deciding where to move, pick the last place you ever thought it would be and that's where you'll end up.