| Ok, it is your time to vent… your luggage
has been lost, there’s no hot water in your hotel room and
something moved on your plate during lunch. Now your drunken tour
bus driver has passed out and you discover the souvenir gifts you
just purchased could be bought for one-tenth the price in the next
town.
Welcome to T-Boy’s Travel Nightmares. Share
your worst with us.
Featured:
Story
of Lost Luggage
by Steve Rosenfield
...My wife and I arrived at Heathrow at about 8:00 AM with the
intent of going to AA baggage and trying to find any of our luggage.
We were escorted to the pen where all of the missing/delayed bags
were being stored and, with the assistance of the AA personnel
there, searched all of the bags without finding our luggage. When
we asked about the one bag that American had told us was found
and was to be delivered to our London location, no one could tell
us what happened to that bag despite someone from the baggage
department having physically seen and touched that bag several
days earlier.
Turkish
Trots
by Eric Anderson
...He glanced nonchalantly over his left shoulder then abruptly
stiffened, turned his petrified ashen face to us and shouted,
"My God! He's going to shoot." Margaret and I snapped
our gaze to the right. A sentry had jerked a machine gun up to
his shoulder and was leaning forward to fire. "My God. Stop!"
shouted our guide-in English.
Egg
Waffles
by Feaster from NW
...I sat down one lovely warm Georgia morning to another breakfast
at the House. I couldn't wait. I remember some small talk with
the short order cook, a thirty year old man or so. His demeanor
and cooking skills raised no suspicions. However, when the meal
arrived, I noted that the scrambled eggs looked a bit undercooked.
Wedding
Party in Maine
by Terry Masen, Hoboken, New Jersey
...We took an early morning stroll along water's edge, then opted
to luxuriate with late morning naps. Suddenly, we were awakened
by the noisy sound of some sort of caravan. Peeking out the window,
we saw at least 20 vehicles, led by a limousine, heading down
the dirt road. Our nightmare was about to begin –-- the owner
had rented the quarry house for a wedding reception.
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Three Musical Pilgrimages: Mozart, Grieg and Hendrix
Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was
five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the
Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first
became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father
conducting a lesson to his older sister. This led to a childhood on the
road, where the young prodigy performed before many of the royal courts
of Europe.
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Treasures of Ireland: The Irish Goodbye (Dispatch
#20)
The Palladian Traveler brings to a close his 20-part
series on the Emerald Isle from an upscale restaurant in downtown Dublin
where he files his final dispatch and then quietly slips away.
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Two "MUST SEE" Truly Spectacular Places
in Europe. Here's Why.
The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name
of my Traveling Boy feature is "Travel With a Difference," it's
important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around
the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and
they're absolutely worth a visit. One's in Scotland and one's in Belgium.
Culzean (pronounced CULLANE) Castle is located near Maybole, Carrick, on
the Ayrshire coast of Scotland.
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Highway 49 Revisited: Exploring California's
Gold Country
In the 1840s, the population of California was only
14,000, but by 1850 more than 100,000 settlers and adventurers had arrived
from all over the world – and they came for one reason: gold. James
Marshall had discovered the first gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in El
Dorado County, creating the largest gold rush in history.
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Lake Charles’ Family-Size Low-Key Mardi Gras
The Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras in Lake Charles,
the second largest in Louisiana, does not need parents there to avert their
children’s eyes. This is family entertainment and children are very
much part of it. The main office of the Lake Charles CVB has costumes from
last year’s Mardi Gras but it also has figures to fascinate little
ones from country boys fishing for their dinner to alligators who have already
fed and are rubbing their stomachs.
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Puerto Vallarta: Magic and Mayhem on the Malecon
So I heard that you could spend from dawn to dusk on
the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and never get bored and I thought,
"Okay, I'm up for that challenge." Well, maybe not the dawn part
– I'm not a morning person – so I had no problem leaving those
early hours to the joggers and those seeking an early start to catch their
red snapper for dinner.
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Relaxing at The Inn at Laguna Beach
There is nothing like sleeping in an ocean-front room
and awakening to the sounds of waves crashing against the sand. It is
one of the finer things in life. And it is exactly what I experienced
recently on a memorable getaway to The Inn at Laguna Beach. The adventure
began when a friend I pulled off the 5 Freeway in Orange County and took
SR 133 south nine miles through winding lush hills and wilderness areas
to the ocean.
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Tim Robbins On His Road To Stardom
Award-winning Tim Robbins began his career on episodic
television. Robbins' film work, however, is what catapulted him into becoming
a major movie star including "Bull Durham" and "Mystic
River" for which he won multiple awards. Equally at home behind the
camera, he directed the riveting "Dead Man Walking." He is Founder
and Artistic Director of The Actors' Gang, which he formed thirty-five
years ago and has directed multiple provocative productions.
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NOLA: New Orleans, Louisiana
Mardi Gras, the French Quarter, the Garden District,
the streetcar (now a bus) to Desire, the jazz clubs, the beignets at the
Café du Monde and breakfast at Brennan’s come to mind when you
think of New Orleans. But that’s not all there is to this unique American
city, filled with treasures both culinary and cultural.
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Japan: Bullet Trains, Monkey Shows and Whale Steaks
Last month, I went to Japan for three things... Ok,
let me back up a little bit already. The #1 reason I went to Japan was to
visit my girlfriend, Yuki, and she will kill me if I don't say that, so
there it is. Hi Yuki! Anyway, so after that, reasons number 2, 3, and 4
were the following: I wanted to ride a bullet train, go to a monkey show,
and eat a whale steak. That's right. That's right.
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Tahiti and Her Islands
Just their names (pronounce each vowel!) conjure up romantic
images: Tahiti Nui, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, Ra'iatea, Taha'a. Her
people are gentle; the air, tiare-perfumed. Warm lagoons, majestic peaks,
tropical fruits from the land and bounty from the sea all tantalize the
senses. Paradise! As near as can be found on planet earth. And, in my
experience, the finest way to explore her is on a ship designed for that
single purpose.
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Leviticus 20:13
Sent by Tom of Pasadena,
CA
It all makes sense now. Gay marriage and marijuana
was legalized in the last election. Leviticus 20:13 states
"If a man lays with another man, he should be stoned..." We've
been interpreting it wrong all these years!
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California Road Trip
You would never guess that you didn’t have to
leave the mainland USA to find an Island with lush gardens, oceanside views
and fabulous food all minutes away from downtown San Diego. I wondered what
exactly we were heading towards, an Island in the middle of a city? It sounded
slightly absurd, never-the-less, we drove onto the property of Paradise
Point Resort and Spa and were pleasantly surprised.
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Costa Rica's Green
Sitting at an umbrella table in downtown San Jose overlooking
the Plaza de la Cultura is like a page out of Hemingway's "The
Sun Also Rises." The plaza is laid out in a maze of stalls where
passive vendors sell sparkling silver jewelry by the trayfull, hand-carved
clay masks, colorful Guatemalan belts, area rugs, and hammocks perfect
for a midday siesta. Three men play an old wood marimba over the buzz
of the crowd while a steaming plate of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) is
served to an elegant lady who was performing with her guitar...
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