Libations & Explorations

The Harsh Terrain of Nepal “ I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.” These are the opening words of Theodore Roosevelt from a speech he gave in 1899 in Chicago.  His speech about the merits of the ‘strenuous life’ came to define Teddy Roosevelt throughout his Presidency and life.  A perfect example is, after his Presidency, he led an expedition to the Amazon in search of the source of the Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt).  Between the potential for disease, mishap, and head-hunters; he knew that the journey would be extremely difficult and could very well kill him (in fact, it almost did). But he went anyway, he pursued an interesting life ...

Travel has changed massively in the past 20 years.   Sadly, the act of going somewhere has become more about creating consumable 'content' than actual discovery.  When you go visit Santorini and take a photo, you will most likely be recreating a photo made and posted by millions of 'influencers' and other wankers. The joys of technology, I suppose! In October of this year, I went to the Mount Everest Base Camp. Before I left, when telling others of my plan, the reaction I received was…interesting. The question I kept getting was “Why on earth would you want to do that?”.  They had a point... The English climber George Mallory, before famously disappeared trying to ascend Everest in 1924, was asked by a reporter why he wished to climb it.  His answer, of course, was "Because it's there".  Perhaps a silly reason to freeze to death on a mountain, but I think for the real traveler, the non-influencer; this is the motivation for adventure.   I can say ...

  As the great Anthony Bourdain said, “The journey changes you”.  Notice he said ‘journey’ instead of ‘delicious meals’, or ‘sunsets’, or ‘beautiful experiences’. No, it’s the JOURNEY that changes you…and part of the journey is getting out of your comfort zone and doing things you don’t really want to do.   I landed at Charles de Gaul Airport at 6.30am, Saturday morning.  The flight had been a terrific First Class affair from JFK, and I was very excited to go spend the day in Paris.  I booked a hotel at the airport as I was flying out to Istanbul the next day. After dropping off my bags and changing my underwear, I fired up Google Maps to figure out my plan for the day.  I have been to Paris many times, but shockingly I have never seen the Eiffel Tower!  I always felt it was too touristy; but it was a winter day so I figured the crowds would be light. This is the moment disaster struck.  From my previous journeys I knew that getting to Paris from ...

(Absinthe in Avignon) French Drinking Culture As my good friends will tell you, I enjoy a good drink!  Other than that time in Rotterdam which all parties involved agreed to never speak of again; I rarely drink to any serious level of intoxication. Just enough to relax and enjoy myself. I also genuinely enjoy the taste of certain alcohols (and I only consume drinks I like the taste of).  You will never see me having beer (aka, cat piss). The past two weeks of living in France has shown me how shockingly puritan America is when it comes to alcohol.  Yes, the drinking age is 18 in France (21 in America), and yes you can buy hard liquor in just about any shop you can think of (NOT happening in Pennsylvania); but it goes much deeper than that. In the mornings, in France, you will see people at their local cafes having an espresso or two to start the day.  You will also see people having a glass of wine or a beer. Indeed, even the local indoor market in Avignon has a bar ...

A Politically Incorrect Review of Marseilles Over the years, I had heard that the French seaside city of Marseilles was know to be a bit ‘dodgy’.  Much of this comes from the zeitgeist, such as the film “The French Connection” which was based on a real heroin smuggling operation that ran from the 1930s through the 70s.  Unione Corse, the Corsican mafia that makes the Italian mob look like a bunch of cupcakes, ran copious amount of heroin from Southeast Asia to the United States and Canada via the port city of Marseilles.   Are these characterizations of Marseilles being a “Gotham City” of Europe valid in 2024? Well, like all stereotypes, there is an ounce (or two) of truth in them… I arrived in Marseilles via train from Avignon.  Full disclosure, Avignon is a very clean and quiet city (they have four homeless people and all of them are quite charming in their way); so that certainly influenced my opinion of Marseilles.  When I arrived, the train station was pack...

  I’m going to be ill… “OMG, look honey! They have New York hats, let’s get some so our friends back home will know we were in Fraaaaaaance…”, said the American tourist. Bloody hell, where do I even start? This utter tragedy happened at 10.32am, Central European Time, at a gift shop in Avignon, France.  I had gone in there to buy a cute bag I had seen for my groceries as I had left mine at home.  Now I wish I had just paid the few for a plastic bag at the Carrefour… To describe the perpetrators of this hate-crime against intellectual robustness, I think of the ‘Great White Shark’; massive beasts of the ocean that consume everything edible in sight.  I guarantee they both bitched about how small the plane seat was on the flight over… I know I shouldn’t let incidences like this annoy me; but, dear Lord how can you move past hearing something like this?  These people had children, so this idiocy has already been passed to the next generation.  Sacrebleu! I pro...

To the more seasoned traveler, the late Anthony Bourdain is a hero. He inspired a whole generation of us to pack our bags, get on a plane, and not eat at the hotel. When we are researching our trips to far off and exotic locations, we imagine we will be eating street food with the locals...reality tends to be a bit different. Most of us don't have a camera crew, bodyguards, and medical professionals to look after us when things go tits-up abroad.  I for one spent literally, not figuratively, 24 hours in the lavatory of my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City after I ate some dodgy fish. Stories of overseas dining gone wrong are far from uncommon; but as Anthony himself said, "Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomach. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way".  Fortunately for Doina, Svetlana, and I; the risk didn't bite us in Morocco. For our first night in Casablanca, Doina had...

Streets of Loano (Canon P/Ilford Delta 400) We live in a world of social media, where life can be presented however one wishes.  Digital technology and AI has recently taken things to the next level; we are bombarded with entirely fictitious places and people that don't exist in the 'real' World.  So where is the authentic?  Where is the genuine?  I found it in Italy. For me, something becomes painfully inauthentic when it is a performance.  This is why I have no desire to go to Epcot in Walt Disney World (actually, anywhere in Disney World sounds like a nightmare to me). Epcot presents an interactive performance and says to you, "This is what life is like in Italy".  But, if you have never been to Italy, how would you really know?  You could look at pictures online I suppose, but that doesn't tell you what life in that place is really like. Fiat 500 in Florence (Canon F-1/Ilford HP5) I have been to Italy twice traveling through Lombardy, Tuscany, Vene...

Monaco (Canon P/Kodak Tmax400) I stood on the high-rise exterior deck of a rented apartment and looked out onto the Mediterranean Sea where a yacht was lazily sitting before the dawn sun.  I then looked down at the city below and realized; 'My God, I am in Monaco'. Not bad for someone going on six months of being unemployed...  Technically I wasn't IN Monaco, I was in Beausoleil, the French city that overlooks Monaco. I wasn't going to split hairs. As far as I am concerned, if you can step outside of your Airbnb and five minutes later be in the Casino Monte Carlo, you are staying in Monaco. Our 'ménage a trois of travelers' (Doina, Svetlana, and I) came in late the night before from Sanremo across the border in Italy.  We had a hilarious moment when Doina had to climb up the side of the apartment complex (she is very short) to retrieve the key fob for the parking garage.  It's always an adventure with us. We only stayed that night as we drove on to Nice the...

(Canon P/Ilford Delta 400) ‘Dolce far niente’ is an Italian expression which means ‘The sweetness of doing nothing’.  It goes hand in hand with ‘La Dolce Vita’, another expression meaning ‘The Sweet Life’.  On the surface it seems so simple: value a relaxed, peaceful state of living over material things. However, there are times when your ‘sweet life’ makes another’s not so sweet; I learned that first hand in Sanremo. When I downshifted the little red Fiat right before entering the tunnel which leads into the centre of Sanremo, I was living my ‘sweet life’. The tiny three cylinder engine howled at 6,000rpm and a smile came to my face.  Doina, my travel wife, laughed at me from the passenger seat.  Svetlana, my travel girlfriend, was sleeping in the back. ‘La Pigna’, Sanremo (Canon P/Ilford Delta 400) 45 minutes later I was NOT living the sweet life.  Not only had I had an incredibly vexing altercation with an Italian parking meter machine, I was now officially p...

Loggia dei Lanzi (Canon F-1/ Kodak Tmax400) To say that Florence has 'earned it's place in history' would be a bit of an understatement.  Originally a Roman garrison on the river Arno, Florence would grow into a mediaeval commune and eventually the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. In 1301, Dante would be exiled to there. In 1504, Michelangelo's statue of David would stand there. And in 2023, I would have the best pizza of my life there. Doina, my travel wife, and I arrived in Florence on a Trenitalia train from Milan (Business Class seats, naturally).  Being only 2 hours from Milan, we decided to take on Florence as a day trip.  As always in Europe, be prepared for a bit of walking! As Doina and I are utterly predictable, our first mission was to secure a cup of coffee.  Unbeknown to us, we would be having that coffee in the oldest cafe in Florence.  Cafe Gilli was founded by Swiss immigrants in 1733.  In 1917, it moved to it's current location i...