Geo: 55.2025, -6.52583"There are only two kinds of people in the world, the Irish and those who wish they were."I was starting to get very comfortable with Spud (so named because, in just the right light, our sewing machine on wheels looks like a large peeled Irish potato), so it was time to get out on some of the winding coastal roads that surround the Emerald Isle. Rental cars in Ireland are often times returned with missing mirrors and scrapped up side panels, and it was easy to see why as our trusty GPS had us navigating narrow lane ways that were ostensibly two lane roads. And I'm guessing that Irish property owners will reluctantly allow the government to take what they need to build their roads but not an inch more- to emphasize their point ... read more

Geo: 41.3879, 2.16992It's probably not fair to lump the beautiful Spanish cruise stops of Malaga, Alicante, and Mallorca together into one blog but for a couple of different reasons it ends up as our reality. Before detailing the first reason, our friend Hal G needs to stop reading (Hal's name used to be John but after some great experiences on the cruise line Holland America Line aka HAL, he officially changed it). We're serious… stop reading Hal.One of the few downsides to wandering the planet the way we have is that the threshold for what qualifies as a WOW! does tend to go up, but that said, we struggled to add to our extensive collection of Wows as we looked at these stops. We scoured the tours offered by the ship and we dug through the ... read more

Geo: 38.5333, -28.6333I'm not sure that our stop in Horta is blog worthy but given that it's the first time in days that we've seen dry land it's probably worth a pin in the map. It's a clear sign that you're travelling too much when you opt to take a 26 day trans-Atlantic cruise to Europe rather than put up with the miseries involved in flying. To be fair we had a good time on our last, somewhat accidental cruise so we thought we'd jump on one that, in addition to taking us across the ocean, would take us to a number of destinations that would likely be one day stops even if we were traveling without the aid of a floating tour bus. We had planned on joining the cruise as our Mexican exit but ... read more

Geo: 55.9503, -3.18761We had originally planned on bringing in the New Year in Prague but then we found out that Easy Jet offered a $50 direct plane ride to Edinburgh Scotland. Why was this significant? Edinburgh is consistently ranked as one of the top places to be in the world when bringing in the New Year. The blindingly obvious thing we overlooked was the notion that we were no longer twenty-somethings who enthusiastically strive for an alcohol induced coma crowded together with thousands of their new friends.New Years Eve is so big in Edinburgh that they give it it's own name, Hogmanay, and they extend the celebration for 3 consecutive days. The roots of Hogmanay, although a little uncertain, perhaps reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Norse (and this invites a ... read more

Geo: -26.1538, 28.0389Our initial plans for Johannesburg were very limited- we had heard all of the warnings about Joburg and the downtown area in particular remains something of a war zone. Johannesburg is the second largest city in Africa with over 3 million people calling it home and crime remains one of its biggest challenges.We picked a hotel in the relatively safe Sandton area which even offered an airport pickup service. Unbeknownst to us this pickup service came with the services of a very proud and passionate South African driver who soon convinced us that we had to explore a little bit more of Johannesburg (Joburg to the locals) particularly the famous/infamous Soweto Township which was Ground Zero for many of the bigger Apartheid related struggles.We made arrangements with our new friend, Themba, Themba's passion for ... read more