Cape Codder

Hello from Cape Cod! I made it around the world, back to Charlottesville and up to Truro to join my family.

I uploaded the pictures from my trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/dia.black/RTW2007?authkey=AZOnpe-pRvY

Some are labelled, some aren't. Some have been added to the map, some haven't. This could change - or it might not.

The flight from London to Halifax was excellent. Flying in a cocoon that turns into a bed is definitely the way to go. I arrived in Halifax and the weather was perfect. I bargained for a rental car (I only had four hours...) and into town I went.

The Tall Ships were in town, so there were loads of pretty boats and smiling people. Sadly, I didn't have long there. Sadly, I don't have long here on the Cape either.

Tomorrow, it's back to Charlottesville and one final summary/ tally for the trip before starting the whole 'school thing'. In the meantime, I'm off to the beach. Have a great weekend!

London Calling

Hello from the SAS lounge at Heathrow! This is my last official round-the-world on-the-road email update - unless free internets and something exciting happens during my few hours in Halifax. Next task will be posting the pictures I took and doing a final round-up of things seen and unseen.

London was terrific. I forgot how much I love this city. Know what I don't love? That the dollar just about hit an all-time low against the pound. Luckily, I'm staying with friends. This may sound horribly xenophobic, but it was a relief to be in a country of English-speaking smilers (regardless of the quality of British dentistry.) I spent the night at the Heathrow Hilton. All I wanted to do was sleep - but why, oh why did they book me in a handicap room? I demanded a new room and they complied - no roll-in shower for me!

Victor fetched me the next morning and off we went to their house in Royal Crescent. The last

time I visited the Melleny/ Montgomerys, I was in college on my way from Ireland to Scotland. My task was to witness their *very* long will. Anyway, after catching up with them, I spent the day wandering around Holland Park. That evening, I met up with Grainne and Kevin who live a few blocks away. They had arranged for me to stay at their friend's house which is also in the neighborhood. Quite convenient having a friends with an extra house a few blocks away, eh? The next day, I played tourist. You still need to mind the gap in the Tube, and it's still the easiest to navigate, best labelled subway system.

That meant crossing over London Bridge (not falling down), the Tower, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens and all sorts of highly civilized things. I rejected the option to see a show (much to the relief of my friends). I ducked into the Victoria and Albert in search of a quick bit of culture. Oh - and b/c it was free. I'm relieved that they still have the hot pink Swatch phone I had as a phone-chatting teen You'll be glad to know that their exhibit on NY fashion includes a pink Juicy Couture suit and highlights from Sean John aka 'P. Diddy''collection. There were stacks of people gathered round commenting on what a travesty it was to include his crap. Obviously, this was a ploy by the clever curators to inspire discussion and debate about What Is Fashion. Blah blah. I still think broken dishes are lame, and didn't much like the exhibit on Surrealism. Same holds true for all medieval and ancient art, regardless of country or origin or materials used. I mean, once you've seen the Hermitage...

I joined my friends, Kevin, Grainne, Grainne's sister and Grainne's sister's boyfriend for dinner and drinks near Hyde Park. We had this odd experience of standing in the middle of a dead-end street outside a group of pubs that was packed with bond traders and other financially minded Londoners. In part this was because the smoking ban went into effect on July 1.

It was also b/c the weather was gorgeous and no one wanted to be in a dank, dark pub. (Incidentally, those guys' suits are WAY nicer than anything I've seen state-side). The strange thing was that they had men in neon vests who kept pushing people into the street so as not to block the pubs' entrances. I counted the sound of eleven dropped pint glasses, so clearly it was the place to be. It was a great way to spend my last night in London and round out my trip.

Incidentally, Grainne and Kevin hold the record of friends-seen-in-most-cities (Boston, Cape Cod, Hartford, NYC, DC, LA, Dublin and London.) Anyone up for the challenge to cross paths with me in more places? Let me know...

From Russia with Love

OK, not quite true - I'm actually in London at the moment. But you get the gist, right? And since this is an email about Russia, I'm going to use the present tense.

Quick round-up of the tail (or should I say tale) end of my trip to Russia -

Returned to St Pete's. Did I mention it rained just about every day? I've gotten quite adept at predicting which ominous cloud will be a puddle-dumper. (Luckily, the rain never lasts very long. It's never stopped being odd to see the speed at which warm and sunny turned into cool and rainy and back again.) And packing an umbrella was one of the btr decisions I made.

Once back in town, Chris' and my first order of business was finding a place to stay for the 4th. We ended up at the St Pete's hostel. Screens are the new plastics for Russia. Well, that and smiling, but I think there's less money to make in teaching people to smile. And it's not like they're hiding bad dentistry - I suppose that it's just that Communism is nothing to smile about. (On the other hand, perhaps this vendor chain that I insisted on referring to as 'CrapDogs' is?)

After a night in the hostel, we decided we had to leave the country. So, off to various and sundry travel agencies it was. This turned out to be a fairly fruitless endeavour since it was obvious that Chris wouldn't be able to make it back in to the country without a multiple visa entry. (It many cases, I had the first multiple entry tourist visa the agents had seen.) We decided to head to the Consulate of the good ole US of A to see whether they could help.

As you might imagine, security is pretty tight there. I had packed my bag on the assumption that we'd be out of town for a few days. The security guards and officers dropped my camera three times before I closed my eyes and stopped counting. My new fangled passport set off the security alarm (hmm - guess that microchip is detectable...) After some embarrassed initial rifling through my bag, one of the officers asked whether I'd agree to simply leave it with them. I can only imagine what happened to my items while they had it.

In sum: after being greeted by the ominous and somewhat goofy portraits of George, Dick and Condi, it turned out that Americans couldn't help Chris. He'd have to get a new visa when he left Russia, which we all knew would be time-consuming and probably impossible. And, as you now know, I ended up fleeing the country w/o my brother. It also turns out that whether you actually receive the multiple entry visa after applying and paying for it is mostly miss than hit. (I spoke to a bunch of other folks who encountered the same problem as Chris had.)

Despite what the Marine on the first leg of my journey said, there were no mail order brides or their sketchy husbands trying to get approval to come stateside. However, I can't tell you the number of brides there were running around St Pete's.

Tradition dictates that you gather up your wedding party and a couple of bottles of champagne and get your picture taken at all the historic sites. You also have to chant KISS HER KISS HER (even I could translate that one) as loudly as possible and carry her over many bridges and things. While at Pushkin (one of the summer palaces), we counted no less than 15 brides, often featuring multiple parties converging at romantic-looking gardens and whatnot. And this is at 10 am on a Wednesday. Very odd stuff. Pimped out stretch limos also seemed to be the order of the day.

Anyway, our plans for two days outside Russia foiled by the bureaucracy, we had to find another place to stay. One of us insisted that one night in a hostel was MORE than enough, even if there was free breakfast, Something about the onslaught of mosquitoes, the horrible smell, slimy bathrooms and sharing a room with strangers was wholly unacceptable, particularly since we were smart people and too old for this crap. Turns out that height of White Nights is not the best time to book a last minute reservation. So, after finding a small hotel, off we went. OK, I admit - I was a complete and total crank about the whole thing and Chris was right about bailing on the hostel, which was pretty bad. If you ever end up at the Northern Lights hotel (which you probably should consider), don't let the sandbags on the stairs, the dark stairwell, the weirdo smell or the leaking ceiling deter you. It's really a lovely place. With a great breakfast.

So, back to the sightseeing - Peterhof is spectacular, as was jetting over in a hydrofoil. (I'm working on a round up of how many different forms of transportation I've used during my trip, so stay tuned!) The fortress of Peter and Paul and Church of the Spilled Blood (how great a name is THAT?!) are pretty cool too. The prospect of bathing on the Neva in front of the fortress, however, is disgusting, so I wouldn't suggest it, despite what the locals might do. We went to some sort of torture museum that was one of the most bizarre, somewhat upsetting things I've seen. Taking pics of torture devices -good or bad? Hmm) Those Austrians sure have disturbing methods and gadgets. I think that pretty well covers the last bit of sight seeing. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention all sorts of important, awe-inspiring bldgs, but we'll all live.

My trip thus far can be summed up by visiting lots of churches/ religious institutions, seeing weapons and battlefields, drinking new kinds of beer and trying various kinds of food, evaluating branding strategies, modes of transportation and hotels/ hostels. So far so good. Now it's off to explore Holland Park and the rest of London.

FinlanDia

Sunday I woke up and decided to go to Estonia. Why Estonia? Well, it's the funniest of Russia's surrounding countries. And I've crossed into countries by boat and bus, so obviously the train had to be next. So, I got up REALLY early (5:45 wake-up call!) and missed the train by a few minutes. (Did I mention that I dragged my double-entry-less visa brother/ translator with me?) Sooo, then I decided to go to Finland b/c the train left a few minutes later - from a different station.

Off we went to that one. But I missed that train by a few minutes. You know when you've been waiting in line for ages and you're FINALLY next in line and then the person looks straight at you and goes on break? That's pretty much Russia in a nutshell.

Anyway, off we went to the next station to try and catch the train - and I made it! I spent the next few hours staring out the window, watching Russia and Finland go by. Border control is done on the train and I have to admit that the agents couldn't quite understand why I had such a small bag. It's b/c I was only going for the day. But then they couldn't understand why I'd spend more time travelling then visiting my destination. The answer is b/c that's just how I roll. (I think the real reason they even asked is b/c they gave the Iraqi journalist across the aisle such a hard time that they had to at least ask me a question or two.)

Helsinki is a horrible, terrible place and definitely not worth the trip.

OK, that's pretty much 100% not true - I'm just saying that b/c we couldn't straighten out my brother's visa, so I left him behind in the land of binary thinking and cheap booze. Helsinki is gorgeous, easy to navigate and featured the friendliest people I've encountered on my trip.

As we pulled into the station, I started to worry that I knew nothing about the city, had no idea what I was going to see, where anything was or how I was going to spend the day. Luckily, they have a summer tourist program for unprepared travellers like me. Two perky teenagers greeted me at the station and handed me a map and list of things to do and see. I swapped the Finnish (suomi actually) version for English and off I went.

Helsinki is basically the Fresh Fields of cities. All environmentally friendly, clean, a bit expensive (damn Euro!) and logically laid out. My favorite thing is that they have a bike sharing program. So, they have racks of free bikes to borrow. It's all on the honor system - you drop your two euro deposit in the slot and the bike is yours for however long you want. If you don't return the bike, you don't get your deposit back. How utopian!

Saw loads of churches, two libraries, an Irish pub, and other lovely things. All in all, it was a great trip. I have developed a visceral hatred for cruise ships, but that's a whole different rant. That's the quick version. The long version is, well, longer.

The train ride (on a sleep car, no less!) was lovely - I actually watched the sun sort of set.

Then it was back to good ole St Pete's to meet the rush to get to my hotel before the bridges went up. Did you know that, they raise the bridges to the various parts of the city to let ships pass through? Well, you do now!

Next update will round out my trip to Russia. Sadly, it's not a country of free internets - let alone cheap or accessible, so I had to relent and pay for net access. Guess the streak had to end sometime...

Buck o' Five Howdy

Hello and Happy Independence Day from some random hostel in St Petersburg! (OK, it's not random, b/c it's where my brother and I are staying. One of us - not me - had a problem w/ what kind of visa he was issued, meaning no side trips and some regrouping/ booking...) Landing in St Pete's was a surprise.

As you may remember, it was 54C or so in Turkey. In St Pete's? More like 16 It was pretty stunning (and made me feel that much btr about how I packed). We're in the heart of 'White Nights' which means that there's about an hour - if that - of darkness here. The other thing that took some adjustments was the presence of alcohol. Picture yourself, walking down the Mall, and everyone on every park bench is drinking wine, beer, champagne -or something stronger. And every vendor that sells Coke also sells beer. And then there are the Russian women, which are a whole separate email and fashion discussion. Suffice it to say that I am no longer in Muslim territority.

The Hermitage was great. Fodor's says you need years to see the collection. I say four hours - and that's a stretch. Loads of broken dishes, dead men and sparkly things, etc.

Then it was on to Moscow. Flying domestically in Russia is interesting... and the full description will wait. First site after emerging from the subway was the TGI Friday's (more on that later). The Courtyard Marriott had the first alarm clock radio I've seen since leaving DC. They also had CNN, BBC and MTV. I think I'm actually all caught up on my scandals/ news for the moment.

I must give Rihanna and Jay Z a shout out for their world-wide hit -'Umbrella', which was literally played every hour of every day. (It'salso been played in every city I've visited) In fact, my brother and crooning - and ended up having to rally much sooner than anticipated.

In Moscow, I saw something never seen in St Pete's - darkness. The Kremlin/ Red Square, etc was also pretty cool. I have to confess thatI don't really have a fondness for plasticine-preserved bodies (sorry Lenin, Mao and Larry King!) Since my next stop is London, I may have to stop by to see some authentic wax peeps before I can fully comment.

St Basil's was just as goofy and pretty as it looks in pictures, but the singing choir made it that much more impressive. As advertised, the subway stations were cool, as were the other churches we saw. Word to the wise- if you plan to come to Russia, either recruit someone who knows Russian/ Cyrilic or learn it yourself. (Luckily, my friends Liz, Brian AND my brother Chris had these bases covered!)

Anyway, stopped by the Canadian Embassy for a Canada Day shout - out(sadly, they were closed, so we had sushi instead.) US Independence Day eve was dinner at TGI Friday's - I insisted. It was like being back in the States (damn shame there aren't any Cheescake Factories here - yet!). Well, with more smoking.

Today we went to Red Square w/ MGD's from the closest kiosk to toast to Democracy and the buck-oh-five spent for our freedom. Then we went to the Ritz (just opened three days ago and reported to be the most expensive hotel in the world. Riiiiight. Rms start at $1k and the priciest is $16.7k) Anyway, we toasted democracy - well, capitalism - there too. And I started contemplating this whole brand management in the hospitality industry thing. All in all, Russia's been terrific. The sun hasn't set in St Pete's (btw - worst line from any book? "The sun rose promptly at dawn" -Tom Clancy.) My brother and I haven't killed each other, we haveloads of amusing anecdotes, there are entire summer palaces and myriad other sights to see and I found free-ish internets. Stay tuned for more updates...Hope all is well!

PS - Sochi 2014! (!?)

PPS - 66 hot dogs in 12 mins? Blech. USA! USA!(?)

Greeced Turkey

Hello from Frankfurt! (Confused you with the pic from Troy, didn't I?) This airport is just as disasterous as it was in September. So much for precision German engineering and all that. I can confirm that the Black Family adage of one shower = minimum 1 hr of sleep holds true. (Though the idiotic folks behind Luftansa´s lounge rigged a 30 sec shut off on the showers. Obviously, that means you have to keep one hand on the button. Ha! Take that! American wastefulness trumps the environment, concern for others and all that. (BTW - fyi - did you know that the z and y keys are reversed on a German keyboard, among other differences? It´s miles better than using a Turkish or Japanese keyboard, but forgive the typos nonetheless.)

Let me sum up Turkey: I saw a library with no books and a brothel with no... employees... And I still had a great time! Yup, this means I went to Ephesus, among others. Also went to Gallipoli, Troy, Selcuk and a bunch of other places I could neither spell nor pronounce. Dirt. Broken stuff. History. USA! USA! Nevertheless, I did indeed appreciate ut all. Oh, and I realized that I´m a terrible history student, though I´d still argue that Dido could be considered Aeneas´ wife of sorts. Anyway, Ephesus is still awesome after all these years.

Gallipoli - its major claim to fame is being the site of an average of 550 deaths/ day during WWI, largely spent in stalemate. Worst battle was at Lone Pine. The opposing forces´ trenches (Turks vs ANZACs) were as close as eight metres apart. (BTW - if you didn´t know, ANZAC refers to the Australian New Zealand Army Corps, and so it´s a hugely popular pilgrimmage site for Oz and Kiwis. Watched a woman shove her foot far into her mouth when she started talking about awful Americans - and then switch from wine to gin and tonic to wash away her gaffe.) Anyway, being so close for what could easily be argued as a futile endeavor for so many months, the soldiers formed a bond of sorts. One side ran out of cig paper, but had lots of tobacco, and vice versa, so they shared. Truly a tale that would warm O´Henry´s change-counting-challenged heart. (I can´t even tell you how different this was from seeing the Cu Chi Tunnels, though it was definitely still interesting to learn about a battle from the other side - and being charged by the opposition to hear it! I can happily prepare a compare and contrast piece for those of who are interested.) There are loads of great stories (which I´d also be happy to share), which have secured this as one of the last ´gentlemens´ battles´. You know - don´t start fighting til after breakfast and the like. Don´t worry - I´ll round up all the appropriate links and pics some day.

Went to Samos which is a Greek Island off the coast of Turkey. It was gorgeous! The most beautiful, perfect crystal blue-green water I´ve ever seen (even btr than anything in the Carib, etc) So, it basically went - sit under the umbrella. Get hot. Jump in the cool ocean (ok, Sea). Rinse. Repeat. In fact - it was so good that the whole 14-hr bus ride back to Istanbul thing was scratched in favor of more time in Samos and a 45-min flight from Izmir to Istanbul. Even more important was the fact that I left hating Pythagoras a little bit less for being associated with such a delightful island. (especially one which almost completely shuts down from about 2 - 6 for a bit of a rest. What a brilliant lifestyle!)

A quick word about the weather - it was frickin hot. Like locals warn you to stay inside hot. Like hottest weather in 79+ yrs hot. Like 53C hot. And know what? It still wasn´t as bad as Vietnam. Why? It´s not the heat, it´s the humidity! And with that, it´s off to St. Pete´s. Hope all is well!

ps - could the value of the $USD drop a bit more? That´d be great...thanks. And good that every place I´m visiting uses a different currency, eh?

Travel, Travel, Travel - It's Turkey Time!

Just wanted to start with a shout-out to under-appreciated part of Ben Affleck's oeuvre.

Hi from Istanbul! I'm basically killing time until the Whirling Dervish show. Yes, I'm being that touristy. And yes, I'm excited for the show.

First of all, the weather here is fantastic (not a lick of humidity!), the Blue Mosque is spectacular, Haiga, Haiga Sofia was good and Topkapi? Well, I maaaay have decided not to pay to see the museum (I trust you all know my theory on paying to see broken dishes and the like? If not, in sum, it's a no go unless there's something absolutely spectacular. Yeah, yeah, I'm a Philistine.)

Let me back up for a minute - so, my last two days in Nam were lovely. I have to admit that I hit an all-time low/ high on offensive sight-seeing. But it wasn't my fault! It was the official tour! First stop was at the Handicapped Handicrafts Laquerware Factory. Pretty much enough said, right? Right. Next stop was Cao Dai Temple where we all took a ton of pictures not only while they were preparing, but also during the service. It was sort of like your standard Episcopal service, only the men and women were segregated on sides of the temple and they were all wearing various and sundry costumes. Pics to come! Then it was on to the Cu Chi Tunnels where guides gleefully described the myriad clever booby traps and tunnels they developed to attack the Americans. It was pretty much 100% creepy. As expected, the tunnels are small and dark - as in wriggle your way through the dirt and the dark. It was really weird to see bomb craters, old tanks, guns and traps. They also have a shooting range where you can try out a bunch of weapons. Trust me - the sound of machine gun fire mixed with thunder and the darkening skies was completely unsettling.

The next day I shopped and went to ship a box of stuff back to the states. I went to the Sheraton to get a box and have them help me pack/ mail it. I joked that the contents were pretty much worthless and I just needed 'em to get to the States by December. I came back to learn that I had two options: send on the slow boat which would take 6 - 8 MONTHS and cost one million dong, or send by plane for 1-2 months and cost two and a half million dong. Funny thing, the word 'million' - as in, it definitely doesn't sound like thousand (btw - current exchange rate is 16,000 dong \$1USD.) I laughed and laughed and laughed. That's not real money! And I'd just spent hours haggling with teenage girls over things like that whether I'd pay more than a buck for a Tiger Beer t shirt (we started at ten dollars and settled on \n1.50). I took the box back, slapped it into a bag and have added it to my luggage. Now, I don't think I'm ruining any Christmas surprises, but let's just say that the contents of the box definitely didn't equal the cost of shipping.

Anyway, back to being in Turkey. I saw some great movies on the plane here - the Breach, that Chris Rock movie, that Drew Barrymore/ Hugh Grant flick, 23 and the Astronaut. Sadly, no cheap beers or hotels here. And can we just let them in the EU and be done with the whole thing? I have to say that hearing the call to prayer was a bit odd at first, but now it's sort of like hearing church bells. And much like with church bells, I'm still not heading off to pray (sorry Mom...)

First night was in the brand spanking new Sheraton in a room with specatular views. The hotel is badly located, but had free internets and some weirdo convention of Eastern European models. Last night was at a pretty creepy hotel in Taksim Sq (loads of Starbucks nearby, two blocks from the James Joyce Pub and three blocks from the restaurant where I watched a dude pass out after smoking a hookah and then puke over everything. Awesome. Even more awesome not to be that guy!)

Tomorrow it's off to see a bunch of rocks, beaches and some other old stuff. Stay tuned!