Rick Steves Thought of the Day

I have always identified with Rick Steves' ability to find and use hidden gems of knowledge about a city. He litters his books with tips and tricks that save time and money that many guides overlook to pontificate on some factoid that will be obvious once you actually visit.

I found this great quote from The Zen of Journaling on his blog:

Your journey is a facet of your broader life. Journaling thoughtfully relates your travel experiences to your life in general. It brings meaning to eurekas that might otherwise have eluded you. Collecting intimate details on the road and then distilling them into your travel journal sharpens your ability to observe and builds a souvenir you'll cherish for a lifetime.

I always get a virtual high when I travel to a new place, and revisiting my journals is a great way to reproduce that feeling once the vacation is over. On a previous blog post I have mentioned the same phenomenon with collecting souvenirs of my travel, and thinking more about that I realized a big part of reliving the experience is based on sharing the stories of my travels with other.

Travel Tips: Souvenirs

Souvenirs are a great way to memorialize a location, event, or experience on your trip. I love to purchase posters of maps of the cities I visit, and also local liquers that I can drink at home while reminiscing about my travels. However hauling them around in my luggage can be ... well, simply a drag. On my last trip to Europe I decided I didn't want to carry my purchases around for 3 weeks, so I mailed them home when I came across a post office. This plan was a godsend, and left me free to roam new cities with out needing to immediately drop my stuff at the hostel or at the train station, which I would later have to return to to collect my things.

Royal Navy Toasts

Monday: Our ships at sea
Tuesday: Our men
Wednesday: Ourselves (as no one is likely to concern themselves with our welfare)
Thursday: A bloody war and quick promotion
Friday: A willing soul and sea room
Saturday: Sweathearts and wives may they never meet
Sunday: Absent friends and those at sea

The iphone camera isn't great for close focus pictures.

British VI Rum

I picked up this cool flask of rum on the British VI. Interestingly, it is ceramic and has a cork under that metal cap.

Spanish brandy

A tasty brandy I probably bought at the Madrid airport as I was leaving. The bottle doesn't really have a very interesting story, but it reminds me of the streets of Madrid. There was something about Madrid that made it seem dirty, not in a extreme sense, but more raw than many other European cities. The only other bottle I bought in Spain was a cheap wine at the grocery store for a few Euros, that was unforgettable at best.

The best drinking experience I had in Madrid was at a restaurant near the Modern Art museum. I ordered the "Grande" sangria with a girl I had met at the hostel, but she didn't seem too interested in having some. So, I had a whole pitcher of Sangria to myself, and three quarters of the way though it I was feeling pretty good.