It's time to leave Prague

After 6 years in Prague the time has come to leave. Last week I've come to an agreement with my job, In a few short months I'll be grabbing the Prague Princess and taking off for sunnier lands, beaches and rum. When we moved to Prague it was never intended to be a permanent. Had you asked me back then how long I would stay, I would have told you 3 years and not a day longer. I've learned however that life has a way of changing a persons plans without consultation - and here I am 6 years later. After last years extended trip in Central America I knew this couldn't last. I was again reminded of what I love in life, and unfortunately I haven't been finding that in Prague for the last few years. The fact that Prague is still one of my favorite cities had made it difficult to come to the realization that no matter how great the city, I have an unnaturally short span of time where I am comfortable staying in one place, measurable in months and not years. Too long in one place seems to bring a creeping despondency.

So the decision has been made, the dates are getting set, plans are coalescing. The vague plan of the moment is to leave Prague in July for Texas and after a couple of weeks fly into Southern Mexico to begin a slow journey through the Guatemalan highlands, Central America and into South America with an eventual ending in Argentina. As we move south we'll be looking for work of any sort that will help to stretch the budget and keep us from having to return to Prague. Other than that there are few details to share yet, and with no set schedule to follow the details will be hashed out as we go. We do plan to stop in Guatemala for a few weeks or a month to take Spanish lessons, but as of now I couldn't say exactly where. Hell I've even been thinking of taking lessons in El Salvador instead. This was the only country I missed last year and I'll not be missing it this time.

Prague - not a bad place for a beer, but it's finally time to leave.

Overlooking Prague

What Americans Fear versus What Americans Should Fear

A nice info graphic from the Matador Network showing the illogical things we fear versus those things we should fear. Of course that doesn't really matter if you happen to be one of the two people ripped apart by a bear each year. If only Timothy Treadwell were around each year to take one of the coveted bear death spots, that second person just might be a worthy sacrifice.

To see the full graphic click the read more link.

My Kindle Addiction

Amazon.com

I have recently found the dark side of owning a Kindle. I am slowly being sucked into the rabbit hole of unfinished books and barely skimmed chapters before moving on to the next one. I love that grey slab of plastic with its non-reflective and easy to read screen, but I may need to impose some rules on this relationship before it becomes more emotionally abusive.

I made the mistake today of looking at the total number of books in my now reading collection (a collection is like a folder if your life is missing the fulfillment of being with owning a Kindle), and see that I am in various stages of reading 12 books at the moment. In the past when I had to haul around dead trees I would normally have 2, maybe 3 books to read at any time. It was a simple time, with few complications. I was limited by the number of trips I would be willing to make to the book store or library. I had limited access to new authors, and when I would see a new author on the shelves I would hope one of my friends had read him before. If not and the book wasn't available in the library I would wait for the book to go on sale before I would give anyone new a try.

The low cost of a discount airline and the offer of a free colonoscopy

If you've ever wanted to know how the discount airlines keep the prices so low, this gives a broad overview.

Out of all the points made the only one that concerns me is the seat density. Whether I'm on a normal carrier or on a discount airline - my knees are within inches of performing a colonoscopy on whatever poor sap happens to sit in front of me, and on the discount airlines it's particularly painful (for my knees, I don't think I've ever actually penetrated the seat back).

I love traveling to new places and have an admittedly absurd  fascination with airports - but until I win the lottery and can leave the cattle cars I'm going to dread being shoved into the metal tube for the flight itself.

You can find the full size on coolinfographics.com.

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Anything to Declare? Illegal, dangerous & downright weird items confiscated by customs

An interesting list of the crazy things people will smuggle, you expect drugs – but all these animals?!?!

Full size available here

Found via Travelblat

Abe Lincoln - Vampire Hunter book review

What if Abe Lincoln freed the slaves to end the scourge of vampirism in the new world? The title of the book, and the audacity of the premise had gotten this book put onto my list sometime last year, but I've only recently gotten around to reading it. The movie version will be coming soon, and despite it not being a great book I think the transition to a movie will do a lot of good for the story.

I'm finding one major issue with having my Kindle is that I can have way too many books stacked up to read. I think at the moment I have 8 books I'm in progress on, and another 20 or 30 I'd like to read this year. Over the last few months I've probably loaded a few hundred books into it, and I have absolutely no idea when I'll have a chance to read thru all of them. Ok I have an idea, but that's for a future post.

Drunken Disorderly at German Beer Festivals

Dirndl's = German Culture

Over the few years I’ve been in Prague I’ve travelled to Germany a few times for beer festivals, once to Munich for October Fest and three times to Erlangen for the annual Bergkirchweih festival. I’d like to say I experienced German culture and did some sight seeing, but let’s be honest – other than the Dirndl no one going to a beer festival is interested in more culture than can fit into a liter stein.

October fest is definitely the most famous of the German drink until you become a jabbering idiot festivals, so this was the first I had to go to. I have vague memories from that weekend of Germans screaming an odd mix of Polka and ‘80’s power ballads and falling off tables as lovely ladies in Dirndls brought a never ending supply of beer. I seem to go with people who see the liter of beer as a challenge, a personal mountain to climb. Over that weekend we climbed the mountain, and became a group of roving drunkards stumbling from table to table, and beer to beer.

Even I can translate this one.

If you have the option however I suggest skipping October fest and visiting one of the many smaller festivals around Germany. People will be just as drunk, and the party will be just as hard – just slightly smaller crowds and easier access to beer and more importantly more free seats. Based on a friend being from Nurnberg I’ve ended up at the Erlangen Bergkirchweih festival several times over the years.

In Erlangen the festival is held on the side of a hill where the brewers historically would store the years beer. Now the beer stored there is probably not enough for the festival alone, much less for the nearby population over the course of the year. After a few liters you realize that this is all part of some strange game show where the goal is to see how many people will roll down parts of the hill. I’ve never managed to see the anointment of the winner, but I think it must be a great honor to have either won by not rolling or to have done the most dramatic roll (I’m not even sure how they would decide on a winner), and whoever that elusive winner is he or she must be held in high esteem for the next year, or at least until the hangover subsides.

The TSA Groping and Pillaging America to Safety

It's an eye catching headline, and an interesting info graphic about the wasteful ineffectiveness of  the TSA. At what point will this massive power grab by the DHS and TSA become too much for travellers in America?

Created by: OnlineCriminalJusticeDegree.com

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