Most Commented Travel Blogs (264)

My dad was born and raised in New York City. He and some of the kids in his neighborhood, joined the Navy during WWII and traveled across the Pacific Ocean a few times. He returned home, married and started a family. An amazing fact: he was aboard the battleship USS Missouri where Japan signed a surrender in 1945 that formally ended the war.

When it was time for vacation, I remember lots of road trips of a few hundred miles to upstate New York, Canada and a few trips to Miami to see relatives.

Around the time I was 6 years old, my parents decided to travel by car to California. The uncle who lived in Florida, reenlisted in the Navy as a career and traveled the world. He was stationed in California and moved his family there. They invited my parents to stay with them. The thought was a great idea to get out of New York City. Also, my dad had some Navy friends living in California, so that made the idea more attractive. Our stay was short. Less than a year later and fate had both families locating to Miami, Florida.

Most of the family travels as a kid brought us through the Southern route across America. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and a few days in Las Vegas! I think I've seen enough endless stretches of desert and mirages. The best memory was the leather fringe jacket purchased at an old west tourist attraction in Tijuana. I wore until it literally fell apart! Miami became my home. I only traveled when necessary and really not for enjoyment.

As a musician, I traveled the East coast a few times, including two tours into Canada. The money was good for a while, but things soured and I was glad to be home, started back at college and anchored myself for many years.

My brother took the Army as a career and made lots of address changes in the US and about 6 years in Germany. My parents traveled to see him at least twice and one had a stop in Italy... Rome and the Vatican. My mom was okay with travel, but it was my dad who had the travel bug!

I've been on a few cruises to the Caribbean, usually sponsored by the company I was working for and twice to Grand Bahama to manage a project assignment for hotel interiors we were contracted to do.

At least 4 trips to Ohio to see my brother... I couldn't wait to return home each time. Probably another Ohio trip is in my future this year.

Ten years ago, one trip took me half-way around the world. Door to door to a major city in South China was about 32 hours and I lost 10 pounds during that trip as I didn't consume food on the flights. Me, food and travel don't always agree. I decided to become semi-retired just as COVID hit, so my travel plans to return were dreams up in smoke.
I'm working on a few long-term projects right now and it won't be this year, but there's hope for an extended visit next year. At least 2, possibly 3 months stay to make it worth my while. My interest is meeting two grand children that I've only seen on video chat. The trip will have meaning and not to satisfy any desire to be a travel bug!



Blog #1,673 and system blog # 71,206.

....both of us staying mostly in hostels, backpacks on, using public transport, (including the Wuhan-Shanghai cruise, before closing of the gorgeous gorges), but of course never on China Air.
Wonderful people, scenery and food. Beijing-Moscow train trip of a life time.
But watching things change there, we have been loosing interest in going again. Once, high in the bucket list, perhaps to teach, as a certified teacher, and NOT of English, as so many unqualified ones do. And by immersion, to learn Mandarin, ideograms and all, along with some study of ancient acupuncture texts.
B U T---
Oz FT and ABC ( the later once great, now dreadfully lib PC), pair of reporters finally allowed to leave for home, after a little time under interrogation in lock up. Expats always say these stints with police were a delight. Valid charges---not so much.
All have seen my blogs and posts here, and elsewhere, simply stating the truth, good and not so much, about the downsides, VERY downside, of the wannabee Communist one party, workers' paradise state. As here right now.
Perhaps someday again, but not with current rule.
Great material and military progress in the PRC, over the decades, even with the many murderous, heavy handed, government blunders. But it'll take time for things to change, and then only after the cure of the great fear, VERY great, of the peoples' thinking, via higher ups in the Party.
Hope is often eternal. Great people can do it, if properly ruled. Hopefully with minimal violence.
King George learned the hard way.

At work earlier today, there was an ad on the radio about travelling, and the sound of bagpipes came on, which made me think about just how much I miss Scotland. Then, I though to myself "I should really go to Glasgow again at some point next year". On my way home, I did some searching, to find out when it was cheapest to travel to Scotland, and I found out, that May was the cheapest. I can get a return ticket for the less than a new games console.

While I would love to travel alone, I did think that I would bring someone, so I asked K if she wanted to visit Glasgow with me. "Sure, but I don't know when I can afford it", was her answer. Now, being that the flights to Scotland are cheap, I thought "Why not give her a trip to Scotland as an early birthday present".. So now I am looking at deals for when I am getting paid in about 8 days time. I also need to time it with regards to my New York trip. The plan is, that I will arrive home from New York on the 8th of May, and, if all goes well, K and I will depart for Scotland on the 17th of May. I have 11 days back in Denmark before I head out of the country again. May is gonna be busy AF, but I love it.

I will not book tickets for Glasgow, but Edinburgh. There is a bus there, that travels all the way to Glasgow from Edinburgh Airport. The last time I took it, it was £18.50 for an open return ticket. The price might have gone up since then, but it sure beats taking the train, which will easily cost me a few hundred pounds.

It's gonna be amazing getting back to Scotland. I miss the food there, the people and the scenery! It's gonna be awesome!

.....on the way, stopover on the lovely Azores, for the hikes around volcanic Lago Azul, and highlands. Perhaps around all of Sao Miguel Island. Inviting all my CS septuagenarian homies. Younger ones as well, by invitation only. Dogs and women need not apply. Feliz Navidad.

Tag: rhymes w/ buffalo.

Buffalo gals / Springsteen
.. Bethlehem steel / Grant Lee Buffalo
Darkest darks, Lightest lights / white buffalo
For what it's worth / buffalo springfield
.. expecting to fly../ ..Ibid.
Buffalo soldier / Marley
... Total.} Positive Friction / Donna the Buffalo
A R ] S O U L . S A G A.../ Q. Jones...

One of the bloggers here, commented about dreaming live and dead people, and his experience, kinda reminded me of this diary entry from several years ago, and then I realised, this December it's all happening again. How creepy a coincidence can be! So here it is:

I am going insane. I must really be going insane... The visions in my dreams are becoming clearer with every week passing. The feelings I have, cannot be described in words. The idea, whether it is true or not true, is absolutely gorgeous....I even woke up crying a few times. Think what you will, but I, me, instead of writing/talking about sex, or cool cars or work, instead of talking about depression, instead of talking about any number of topics that are repeated every f*cking day...I am going for the impossible. Through the majestic beauty of being lost in the middle of nowhere, I am SUBLIMINALLY sending out signals to anyone, hoping that someone/something would pick up on the concept I have, and answer this messenger's cry for help.
Should I buy a radio at the Clas Ohlson down the Nacka Forum?

Well, to me it makes some sense. I dunno, to me, this idea is the greatest idea in the history of love/friendship. Don't judge it, suspend judgement, and just think about how I felt at that moment. Try to feel it, go back to the message I wrote and read it over...DO IT NOW!

Yeah man, I mean, I have to come back, mostly not specifically because of the last trip to XXXXX, but because the first trip to XXXXX. Because I was lost. I was lost AND found. My life started over on that day I lost the BSÍ flybus in XXXXX, because I hated that cold, dark and lost place so much, but I made up my mind to do it, and here I am; coming back. Because when I got there I felt a calling, I felt like my life was going to be good, and I felt the f*cking Earth move under me when I felt the stunning presence of the spirit. For the first time I had faith, and it got me high, REAL HIGH. I was tripping balls dude, hard already. Let's just say I went up, and I haven't come down. So I guess you could say, what goes up doesn't necessarily have to come down once you have faith, true faith, and love.

So yeah, it'll take a few months, and I'll be back, this time for good, forever; because I won't fight its will anymore. It wants me back forever, and I need to keep searching for that thing forever, so it's a good deal.
Hopefully the bad dreams will stop when I come back. All those moments from my past, from the last years. Those moments were the scariest occurrences of my life. I would wake up pressed against my bed. My eyes would be open, but I couldn't move at all. I was paralysed and it took all the strength I had just to lift my arms and break free. I could wake up, be pinned and be looking at the clock. I thought I was being possessed by demons. I would pray like crazy asking Jesus to help me make the demons go away.

I still remember the marks of the sheet wrinkles printed all over my chest.

(this was a gift frome a friend btw, I know who this is, I just felt very... identified).


I am a sick man. ... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can't explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot "pay out" the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well--let it get worse!

I have been going on like that for a long time--twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!)

When petitioners used to come for information to the table at which I sat, I used to grind my teeth at them, and felt intense enjoyment when I succeeded in making anybody unhappy. I almost did succeed. For the most part they were all timid people--of course, they were petitioners. But of the uppish ones there was one officer in particular I could not endure. He simply would not be humble, and clanked his sword in a disgusting way. I carried on a feud with him for eighteen months over that sword. At last I got the better of him. He left off clanking it. That happened in my youth, though.

I have finally met my goal regarding the amount of dollars that I am bringing with me to the US, since I went and got $600 today, bringing my total up to $1003. In my last blog on the subject, I falsely claimed, that I only needed $550 to reach $1003, but that was because I was convinced, that I had $453. I only had $403, so that's a mistake on my part.

Either way, I am now finished with all my monetary preparations. Now begins the tedious, and frankly expensive, preparation for what I am bringing with me. I need to pack clothes, but what else do I need? A toiletries bag would be nice. I am not packing shoes, since I plan on buying some when I arrive in the US. The same goes for clothing. I might just pack two sets of clothes, and then buy the rest when I get there. All you really need to bring, when you travel are:

Phone, passport, visa (unless you can travel visa free), money and boarding pass - everything else you can buy on the way there, or when you get there.

More updates to follow soon!