Travelogue Filler: Planes, Trains, and Catamarans

Greetings, gheorghies. It has been a while. 

While most of you were rounding out your spring with college basketball, baseball's hope-springs-eternal season (mon dieu, the Mets already), and silly things like going to work, this gheorghie was draining every bank account and leveraging his organization's generous leave policy while soaking in life as if it were in the home stretch. It's almost like I'm on sabbatical like rob!

Travelogues are obnoxious and filled with look-at-me stuff, but since our tiny dictator is now on Island Time and you lazy bastards aren't posting with any regularity, you're stuck with it. 

Here's what I've been up to lately. Eyes wide open as if you care, people. 

As the squirrel out front told you, my travels began in the United Kingdom.

Edinburgh, Scotland
March 9 - 13
13 fraternity brothers/rugby players and fans from William and Mary
Drinking pints in pubs and watching rugby
Spots: The Last Drop, White Hart Inn, All Bar One, Oxford Bar, Murrayfield Stadium, Castle

Not four years, but 34 and counting

Takeaways: 

• Nothing beats old friends; make big efforts to see them, travel with them
• If your group lacks beautiful tradition, make them up from scratch and repeat them
• Rugby = universal camaraderie
• The Scottish brogue can be challenging to some, even a few of our nerd friends from WandM

Barcelona, Spain

March 13 - 17
My elder daughter and I
Catching up, touring the city, eating and drinking like royalty

Spots: Paradiso, Dow Jones Bar, Dr. Stravinsky, Maná 75, Surf House, La Sagrada Família

Life near the Med, Jager at Dow Jones Bar once the market crashed

Go to Paradiso and order ridiculous drinks

Takeaways: 

• Nothing beats seeing beloved family, especially your first-born after she's been half a world away for months
• Barcelona is as cool a coastal culture as I've encountered
• Send your kid abroad if you can; go visit them in their new immersion if at all possible
• The Catalan Español can be challenging to some, even a cunning linguist from WandM

British Virgin Islands: Tortola, Scrub Island, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke, Norman Island, Peter Island

March 24 - April 1

7 would-be castaways on a 42' catamaran
Tooling around the Caribbean and coming ashore for nightlife
Bars: Soggy Dollar, Foxy's, Willy T's, Bitter End, Saba Rock, Nova, Lobster Trap, Pirate's Bight

Takeaways: 

• I'm a sucker for a beautiful backdrop, and a view of that water down there gets me every time
• Painkillers are wondrous and live up to their name... piña coladas, martinis, Mt. Gay + tonics, rum punches, margaritas, and a Carib or Red Stripe w/ lime ain't bad, either
• Don't drive a Jeep on the salt flats
• Karaokeing "Going Back to Cali" is a winner, even outside the U.S.
• Mal de Debarquement Syndrome is real and can be challenging to some, even an old salt like me

4,069 miles separate The White Hart Inn and the Soggy Dollar. They couldn't be more different in look, but the feel -- well, that's the same. Whether it's Robert Burns (And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup / and surely I'll be mine / And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet / for auld lang syne) or Jimmy Buffett (Livin’ it up / It’s takin’ all of his time / But he ain’t givin’ it up / It suits his temperament fine), it's about new times with old friends and family. 

Back to work this week. It's a doozy already. So get out there and live your lives to the very last drop, gheorghies. 

Cheers...