It is said that a former governor of the island who suffered from severe headaches, believing his malady was aggravated by the sun’s brilliant reflections off the white buildings, mandated that building exteriors be painted any color but white. Despite later discovery that the governor was a shareholder in the island’s only paint store, the…
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Get Outta my Dreams and into my CAR Here I was, over 130 countries visited, on my quest to see all 193…and almost all of the “tough” ones done. I’d purposely visited the harder ones first, to get them out of the way in the beginning. And this strategy had paid off: For example, if…
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I was attacked in the Congo…by a monkey. The Tale of Two Congos Country #133 for me was The Democratic Republic of The Congo, hereinafter referred to as the “DRC.” They say the visa for DRC can be tricky: it involves a signed and notarized invitation letter before you can even apply. I cover all…
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“Mom, what country would you least want to visit?” Her answer: The Congo. Motherly Advice I think the first time I’d ever even heard of The Congo, was decades ago, as a curious kid, when I was asking my mom general questions about “the world.” “What country in the whole wide world is the most…
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You Missed A Spot What do Vatican City, Haiti, Lichtenstein and Andorra all have in common? I once happened to be thiiiiiiiis close to all of them, yet completely ignored them. A travesty, really, as today I spend hours and hours–days upon days–planning and plotting the perfect trip routes to make sure I include as…
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One of my favorite activities in life…ever…is receiving massages. You may not know it from the looks of my travel, but I’m actually quite the workaholic, and getting a massage every now and then helps me hold on to what little amount of sanity I have left. Enjoying an hour massage treatment is a way…
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A Sweet Surprise A long drive out of Barcelona and a scan through the local radio dial led me to radio station Canal Tres; which was playing sort of this 60’s “lounge music” show, with an announcer that sounded like he was hosting Sunday Night Slow Jams, only with a Spanish accent, as he described…
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Wham Bam I’d have just 29 hours in Bucharest, so I’d hit the ground running. Actually, sleeping…as I landed at 3AM. My taxi got pulled over for speeding on the way to the hotel, so I wasn’t asleep as soon as I wanted to be, but it was finally lights out at 4:30AM. I packed…
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