The Oatmeal can be a little too South Park for me most of the time, but this comic from yesterday, “The crap we put up with getting on and off an airplane,” made me laugh out loud. It’s a visual representation of one of our most prevalent travel fails: Other passengers.
Entries Tagged as 'Blog posts by Lia'
The Oatmeal’s Travel Annoyance-Off
September 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Quick Post
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Fail ‘o’ the Day: Budget Travel Edition
August 30th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Fail 'o' the Day, Wary of the advice of others
Budget Travel, I want to love you. I have subscribed to your magazine for years. I love your mission of inexpensive travel, and I do believe that you fulfill a good purpose. You’re like the scrappy cousin of the hoity-toity fancies at Travel + Leisure, the Nick Carraway to their Great Gatsby. So please take [...]
Tags:magazines·travel writing
Traveler Beware!
August 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Quick Post, Wary of the advice of others
We hearby dedicate this entry to all the travel writers, travel-store owners, and advice hawkers who convince every traveler that they’ll barely survive their trips without a locking bag, money belt, and/or “slashproof” purse. In Paris.
Tags:travel tchotchkes
My Daily Dutch Commute
August 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Dutch bikes, Dutch language school, Good design, Novelty, Obsessed with the Dutch, Transportation bliss
I had a vision for my time at the Regina Coeli Language Institute (a.k.a Dutch Princess School), and that vision involved biking to and from school, in order to give myself a physical break after a long, mentally challenging day. I admit that almost an Eat Pray Love-style cliche, but I don’t care. I’ll own that’s it’s something almost exactly like this European fantasy.
I searched the Google maps nearby towns looking for a B&B, and mapped out my route using Google street view. It looked like the total commute time by bike would be 30 minutes, 45 tops. After my freakout about how it would work and my test drive in Delft, I found out that the Netherlands really makes biking easy, no matter where you are.
Video of my daily ride after the jump.
World Cup Nostalgia
August 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Obsessed with the Dutch
Today is a beautiful day in Seattle, and I’ll be spending some of it enjoying my Dutch bike on a day off. Hooray!
This morning, I was thinking about how much fun it was to be in Holland during the World Cup, and I was feeling a little sentimental about it. So with that in mind, [...]
Tags:World Cup
Fail ‘o’ the Day: Backpacking “Fashion”
August 24th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Blog posts by Lia, Fail 'o' the Day, Wary of the advice of others
Granted, it can be tough to be a stylish traveler. In general, avoiding anything reversible made of lycra seems like a good place to start. I try to give travel writers a curve when it comes to clothing options. I can almost forgive a pair of blocky mandles, for example, because, let’s face it, judging [...]
Tags:bad ideas
Friday Funny
August 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Quick Post
It’s been a TGIF kind of week, which makes this cute, funny comic series about an international red eye that much better.
Tags:comics
Reviewing the Citizen M: Yes, the Hotel with the Toilet in the Middle of the Room
August 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Good design, Novelty, Obsessed with the Dutch
If you read my previous post (How Zen Is Citizen M?), you probably want to know the answer to the following question:
OK, how was it staying in a hotel room with a toilet in the middle of the room?
But hold on a second–there’s more to the story of the Citizen M.
When I checked in to the Amsterdam branch of the hotel, it wasn’t a good first start. I had made a reservation for the previous week, but had to cancel it. Unfortunately, they canceled BOTH reservations, and had no record of me in their system when I showed up for second reservation. Things were shaping up to be a fail.
The Really Expensive, Really Crazy Travel Plans That Actually Bring You Happiness
August 8th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Dutch language school
The night before my first day at Regina Coeli (a.k.a. Dutch Princess School), I lay awake, and not just because it was the World Cup final, and rowdy Dutchies were still filling the streets.
What the hell am I doing? Who studies Dutch…for fun?
And did I also mention it cost thousands of dollars?
I had plotted out the route to the school the night before, winding my way through a series of wrong turns and construction zones until I found a reasonable path and knew that it would take me roughly thirty minutes to get there.
But the bigger question remained: Why wasn’t I on a beach somewhere, rather than heading to a classroom at 8 in the morning?
The night before, lying in bed, I thought: Maybe I’ve hit my novelty wall. Maybe going to a town you’ve never been to, to speak a language in the most intensive immersion environment possible, is actually beyond the pale. Maybe it was actually a bad idea.
Tags:Holland·languages·Regina Coeli Language Institute·school
World Cup Photo Roundup from Holland: The Good, Bad, and Just Confusing
August 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog posts by Lia, Novelty, Obsessed with the Dutch
As already mentioned in a previous quick post, being in one of the two countries that made it to the World Cup final as the last few games were in progress was–well–really really fun. And, as someone who loves novelty, perfect timing.
