Mr. Swampert2000

May 20th 2012

Gotta love it.  We're blogstars.


The first selected entry in this part is by the very interesting Mr Swampert2000 who travels a lot with his family. He follows the suggestions of Lonely Planet but in his blog he adds so much more to the guide book. As he says in the beginning of his blog, ‘there sure is a lot of computer stuff u need to do when u r traveling these days.  Thankfully the water is blue, the sky is blue and i am not.’

Some blogger who lives in Ikaria liked my blithering enough to review it.

sign of the apocalypse

Who needs the PTA?  My kids' school has a Lice Committee. Those meetings have to be fascinating; nits, mayonaise, magnifying glasses, ugh.

chinese soul food

May 10, 2012

Found my new favorite place on the planet. Haicheng is an 81 year old chinese owned soul food restaurant on 116th st. and st.nicholas.  It gives new meaning to "hole in the wall." and the health grade was pending. However my pork chop sandwich (3 fitty) was mad stupid tasty. There are about 8 old school counter seats.  Old black dudes are eating ox tails with lima beans and cabbage. A take out order costs 10 cents extra.  The vibe is great. There is a beautiful asian woman behind the counter who speaks halting english and refused my request to take her picture explaining that she "was scared." However she seemed to know the regulars orders by memory and smiled each time they reminded her three times that they wanted extra gravy.  One world.

sheila

May 9th, 2012

For the last several months we have been working as a family on a book commemorating the great swampert walkabout of 2010.  Every Tuesday at 4pm we descend upon the quiet home of my elementary school art teacher, Sheila Lamb.  We draw, paint, haiku, crayon, write, paste, and collage our memories onto heavy stock paper. We are closing in on a finished product which is both beautiful and inspirational.  Our experiences on the road continue to illuminate the path ahead.

sign of the apocalaypse

11/10/11

According to the pharmacist at Bigelow (the countries oldest apothecary) there is a nationwide shortage of adderall.

back into travellers checques

11/8/11

One of the major frustrations during the walkabout was international banking and the battle to  access our own money.  Having learned from a prior jaunt to tanzania that lords visa and master do not like random charges from east africa, we were very responsible and alerted our  banks and credit peeps that we would be traveling for several months and provided our itinerary.  Nonetheless, things came to screeching halt in Bodrum turkey.  Admittedly, we did each lose a bank card early on, but we were able to contact the right folks and cancel the plastic.  However, at some point, the combination of lost cards, the one way ticket, the cash advances, the absence of typical tourist financial activity became too much, and the money matrix shut us down. "it's for your own security," the money matrix said.  We said "how secure can we be if we have no money for food and lodging?" Then our phone card probably ran out of Euros.  We ripped through our US dollar cash reserves.

5 worst meals

10/31/11

meal after unsuccessful search for tokat kebab.  Tokat is famous for a kabob which features alternating slices of lamb, eggplant, onion, tomato and the whole thing is studded with garlic. The tower of power spins in front of the fire and the juices from all items intermingle and baste.  We spent several hours in search of this culinary golden fleece.  We tried kabob store after kabob store without success.  Finally, starving, we found ourselves in that paralyzed brain cramp of crum.  Barely getting one foot in front of another we looked up and saw people eating and drinking on a balcony.  It ended up being a harshly lit cafeteria with plastic menus and big color pictures of bad overpriced entrees.  Live to fight another day.

butter tea.  This Himalayan staple is reportedly a tonic that has a lot of vitamins.  However it is made from rancid butter and may be one of those things that one needs to "acquire a taste for."  Let me be more specific--RANCID!

chili and cheese again.  The national dish of Bhutan is chili and cheese.  Bhutan is in a valley surrounded by the Himalayas, and there is no salt occurring in Bhutan.  So historically and currently, chili is used a preservative and to kill bacteria.  Spicy chillies cooked with cheese.  It's actually pretty tasty but after fourteen straight meals...you get the picture

no meal on train.  Our first overnight train ride found us unprepared.  Twenty four hours from Istanbul to Bucharest.  I think we figured that we were going to get fed.  But no.  Twelve hours in and we were rifling through all our bags in search of crumbs.  We located a tin of anchovies (lesvos), a tin of preserved figs (Ikaria) and a jar of honey (also Ikaria).  Our sigh of relief did not last long.  The anchovies had disintegrated to salty hair and the preserved figs tasted like bad spiced liquid fruitcake.  Honey can only get you so far.