Blog Holiday

It’s been a few weeks since my last update, and a few of you have wondered what’s going on… or as Jay put it, “Man, I lost you guys in Morocco.” So what gives? Well, believe it or not, this venue for information sharing takes quite a bit of work to maintain. I’m not naturally wired to flow prosaic on a regular basis, and over the months it has become increasingly difficult to think of new things to say that are remotely interesting. Besides, I can count on two hands the number of people who actually read this thing… Who would notice if I took a wee break from the writing routine?

Here are the places we’ve been to in the past few weeks… with some very abridged descriptions of our stay (sorry, my memory is not great these days):

• Lisbon, Portugal:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Lisbon
  Spent 4 days here amidst glorious weather. Lisbon is strangely similar to San Francisco with lots of hills and trolley cars and water surrounding the city. There is even a replica Golden Gate Bridge built by the same architecture firm. There’s a neighborhood called Barrio Alto that goes off at night and is a great spot for going out.
• Porto, Portugal:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Porto
  Spent 3 days here tasting different port wines and learning about how they are produced…. basically it’s a fortified wine that retains some of it’s sugars.
• Coimbra, Portugal:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Coimbra
  Spent 2 days here hanging out. This is a university town halfway between Lisbon and Porto known for it’s unique flavor of Fado folk music… though unfortunately we didn’t see any live performances. This town is pretty dead on a Sunday and Monday for live music.
• Prague, Czech Republic:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Prague
  Spent 4 days here wandering around and exploring the city. Prague is one of those places that seemed to escape damage from both World Wars, so the old town area has kept a large number of historical buildings intact and in good condition. Walking around feels like wandering through a real life Disneyland. It’s so weird. We met up with Henry Blaze here, who we had previously met in Laos and Bangkok. The nightlife in Prague is incredible… or as Henry would put it, “Every night is Sexy Night!”
• Bratislava, Slovakia:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Bratislava
  Spent 3 days here… It’s a pretty compact city that’s very easy to walk around in. The contrast between Bratislava and Prague is stark, as it seems that the Slovakians are intent on embracing progress. Lots of newer buildings here, but still really cool. There was a marathon that was running while we were here which was cool as well.
• Budapest, Hungary:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Budapest
  Spent 4 days here, also walking around. I didn’t realize it, but there are a ton of things to do and see in Budapest. Two things of note… Thermal baths: There are some seriously elaborate bath houses here that almost feel like 19th century water theme parks. They are incredible, and would probably give many Las Vegas hotel pools a run for their money. Ruin Bars: It’s just like it sounds, and there are a few really cool ones here. Take a collapsing apartment complex, put up some supporting braces and rain guards, and all of a sudden you have one bad-ass place to party!

A note on traveling in pairs:
I know that it may seem quite romantic to abandon all the comforts of home and take off to see the world, but it can be a more difficult task than one would otherwise assume. Organizing things on a daily basis can be very tiring. Living out of a bag all the time gets old really quickly. Most of all though, being together with someone for such a large amount of time can be a real strain on your relationship. Think about it: when was the last time that you’ve spent 24 continuous hours together with someone? A week? A month? Ana and I have spent every hour of every day of every month together for 10 months straight now… and it gets really easy to get on each other’s nerves under the circumstances. We must have fought and “gotten divorced” at least 4 times, which is never fun. So to Ana I say, “Thank You. I give you my love, and appreciation for putting up with me so well for so long :o)”.