Home Sweet Home
Well, I've finally gotten home. Been gone way to long but have seen many interesting things along the way. many many many interesting things. Not the least of which is the fact that I am up to 43 countries. Interestingly, I increased the number of countries I've been to by 33% in just this trip alone. I really do NOT recommend doing this. I spent 9 years getting to this point. Doing over 3 years (avg.) worth of travel in one go is just excessive.
So, I suppose I should post highlights:
- Le Meurice, Paris - Favorite new restaurant. Incredible food. They had a white cream reduction sauce made from some sort of vegetable puree that was simply to die for. And we were very lucky to have it served with 3 of our courses. ;)
- Le Cinq, Paris - Favorite new restaurant. Incredible food. Ironically it wasn't the food that impressed me. They gave me water. No, no, no. Hear me out. This water had no flavor. No, I'm serious! I know most of you will say, water doesn't have flavor, but it does. It's faint but it's there. This water had nothing, no trace metals, no anything at all. It was simply wet. *Sigh* Fine, don't believe me. Frankly, I wouldn't believe me either, I guess it is something you just have to experience. And no, I don't know the brand name. It comes from an exceptional small company in France that sells only to the most extremely expensive restaurants. But I've digressed badly and should at least plug the food one more time. Service was exceptional but it's what one has come to expect when dining at a restaurant of such caliber. Actually, and interesting thing happened. When our main course came (Squab and Rabbit), my date and I, having tried each others dish, decided we both preferred the others meal more. Now, it is not that hard to "pick up a plate and pass it to the other person", even if there is a table full of glasses and a lot of silverware. Even so, a nearby wait-staff-person jump to our table to assist us with this procedure. A whopping 2 seconds later and it was complete. Approximately 15 seconds after that, our head waiter stopped by to see how our meal was and instantly realized that we did not have our 'proper' respective meals. After making doubly sure that we were very happy with our meals, he left us but I have to give him serious kudos for so quickly recognizing the situation. Well, this became longer than intended.
- Barcelona - Favorite New City. Very much like London but warmer. Great public transportation. Very very friendly people that don't hassle you. Just really loved my time there. Oh, and it was the only hotel on the entire trip w/ free internet.
- Tour de France - Favorite Bike Race. Okay, there is just something about seeing the greats in person. Particularly when you are at the finish line. Awesome.
- Venice - Favorite Overpriced City. It was incredible, but from a financial point of view, some place I could have totally skipped and hit in the off season when it should be "in theory" just "way more expensive than it should be" instead of the "bleed you to death" that it was... But that should not take away from the fact that it was incredibly beautiful, and the hotel was a mere 2-3 min walk from Piazza San Marco. And maybe 5-10 min to the Riallto (sp?) bridge. And the food was good (but really expensive too ;)
- Wedding #1 - Fun, Beautiful, and got to see some old High School friends. A little crazy. Good times, good times.
- Egypt - See next post.
- Jordan - See post after that.
- Wedding #2 - Fun, Beautiful, and got to see some old High School friends (again). HOLY CRAP CRAZY. I was practically drunk when I got to the ceremony. 5 serious shots of this homemade apricot brandy stuff that was around 100 proof. At that was at 3:00 pm, the cocktail hour before the ceremony. Then at the reception... things got worse! :) Donnie drank so much he almost passed out into the cake. Zollie, up and decided he wanted to go back to the hotel and didn't tell anyone. It's like a 5 miles walk. We spend some time looking for him in nearby alleys and gutters and finally decided to check the hotel. Well, he didn't have the key, and sure enough we found him asleep, outside, on the park bench! *LOL*. I'm probably on about 1/2 of the wedding video just because I was sitting next to those 2 guys and the videographers were filming them constantly for all the crazy stuff they were doing. Good times, good times.
- College Friends. I ended my trip with a visit to an old college friend. Stayed a little too long, but that's what happens when you book your tickets w/o having much of a plan. Really loved it there. Beautiful beaches, warm water, friend people, exceptionally safe. It was just great! Plus I got a fair amount of great business advice from a friend who is now running his own company of 8 employees. It's very do-able. And I am seriously thinking of doing it.
Pictures will be forthcoming in the next days/weeks. Well, a link at any rate.
And with that I bid you goodnight, or morning, where ever you are in the world.
Yonaput, Kalispera, Adios. (Good Morning, Good Night, Good Bye).
Ps. Best bad translation from a foreign language into English on a Menu.
Item #211.
Gay ice cream-surprise for children.
Message me if the pic fails to load and you want a copy. Needless to say, I opted for #202 Capri Chalice.