Ahhh, how strange is the Middle East! Almost everyone here walks pigeon-toed. Straight men hold hands all the time. The only things you seem to be able to buy here are mobile phones, spare auto parts, and furniture (see my snapfish page for a small sampling of your options). Ketchup tastes like mashed, rotten, moldy, lemon-infused, vinegary POOP. Very few people seem to be drenched like me, despite the 50-degree Celsius heat index. Until arriving here, I thought we used Arabic numerals... but no, they're not even remotely Arabic. Coins don't have any numbers on them. Peo [View Full Entry]

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I've safely arrived in Dubai, after a fairly uneventful set of flights from Cape Town. Lourens took me to the airport yesterday morning, and hung out with me until I went through security. My flight to Johannesburg was uneventful. When I arrived in JoBurg, I was expecting to be able to claim a refund for the tax I'd paid on some of the purchases I'd made while I was in South Africa, particularly the new camera (the tax amounted to nearly US$100)... Unfortunately, the tax refund agency is unable to issue refunds to tourists who have lost their passports and had [View Full Entry]

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Today was just delightful! I spent most of the day with a tour group, traveling amongst the wineries of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Paarl, South Africa. Our tour guide was a man named Tim, who was a Brit who's lived in South Africa for nearly 20 years... and it showed! He definitely knew his stuff, and kept us entertained with historical commentary, hilarious stories, and savvy insights into South African politics, particularly regarding the pre- and post-apartheid racial tensions. I learned that there have (well, for the last couple hundred years, anyway) been three or four legal c [View Full Entry]

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Here's the story: Yesterday afternoon, I left the guest house on a wander around Cape Town, carrying my shoulder bag, which contained WAY more important stuff than I should have been toting around (including my passport, driver's license, credit and debit cards, all my cash, my camera, cell phone, medicines, and journal). I found an Internet cafe several blocks away and sat down for a quick check of my email. I decided that I wanted a coffee, so stood up and turned around to order my coffee -- and left my bag at the computer console (just feet away). When I [View Full Entry]

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Worst possible thing ever: Passport, wallet, camera, credit cards, debit card, cash, my medicines.... all stolen. This probably means I will be returning to the US sooner than anticipated. I'll keep you posted. [View Full Entry]

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I woke up this morning to a gorgeous day... probably 65 degrees, totally sunny, and all-around perfect. Soooo, I decided to go back to Table Mountain and take the cable car to the top. I walked the 25 minutes to the lower cable-car station, only to discover that the car was undergoing maintenance and won't be functional until August 4: after I leave! The only option was, of course, to climb the mountain the old-fashioned way. It was, shall we say, difficult. On the climb, I had a bit of a revelation: Youth is an excellent thing. There are five blessings [View Full Entry]

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'Ello from Cape Town! I arrived in Cape Town after yet another misadventure! I got up early yesterday morning in Berlin to catch a train to Frankfurt, where I was to fly to Doha, Qatar and then catch a connecting flight to Cape Town. It turns out I took a train to the WRONG Frankfurt (there's another Frankfurt that's a distant suburb of Berlin), and when I got there, it turned out I was even further from the RIGHT Frankfurt than I'd been two hours earlier. So I caught a train back to Berlin, and another train to the correct Frankfurt, [View Full Entry]

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So I didn't get to do any of the sightseeing I thought I was going to do in Berlin, but I did get another pretty cool opportunity instead: Barack Obama was giving his first (and only) speech in Europe today in Berlin, and I went! He's an amayingly charismatic speaker, and he didn't once consult notes or a prompter for what to say: amazing. While it wasn't a particularly policy-laden speech, he did at least mention a number of issues that I'm pretty enthused about: nuclear disarmament, opening talks with Iran, addressing the genocide in Darfur, and immigration reform were among [View Full Entry]

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I arrived without mishap(!) in Berlin last night, and have had nothing but a great time so far. I got an excellent deal with a private accommodation service in Germany; people rent out studio apartments that they own for much below the going-rate for hotels, so I have a 12th floor studio to myself in central Berlin for only €35/night! I've spent most of today sleeping in, doing laundry, buying a few necessities (I ran out of Q-tips!), and wandering. This evening I'll probably go out to dinner and perhaps to a club, but that's not yet decided. Otherwise, not much [View Full Entry]

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Hello hello from Trondheim, the capital of "Middle Norway!" I had another misadventure... my flight from Amsterdam to Oslo, Norway was delayed by about an hour, so I missed my connecting flight from Oslo to Trondheim, and (after sprinting through the airport) only barely made it to the check-in gate for the last flight of the night. Luckily, they got me on the flight, but they didn't get my bag on it. But I had all my toiletries and medicines, thank goodness. I caught a taxi (for 750 Norwegian Kroner, which I still don't know how to convert to dollars) to [View Full Entry]

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