Hotel @nyware

When the going was good... ...and you could leave no stone unturned

If you smell something burning, it is my future as a travel writer  going up in smoke-  the future of Voyage Journaling  just ain't what it used to be. Sure, shock and awe omnivore revelations that everything is edible somewhere. Dogs, cats and rats come to mind. I certainly visited enough inhospitable  and  exotic locations, also known as "Human Petri Dishes"(Think GERMS)  from Angkor Wat (What?), The  Philippines to India and Dakar; but they're all STUNTS compared to the elevated sense of otherworldliness---a Travel By Proxy---  given  by Melville, Hemingway, Conrad, Kipling and  of course,  Basho's nomadic pursuits, which I emulate(d) in my own Scandinavian  version of Narrow Road to The Interior, where I had The One Taste ecstatic experience---the  definition of Norway's ecstasy is that I was not doing my ordinary everyday routine....essentially stepping into an alternative reality of waterfalls,misty  fjords and VIKINGS---Geirangerfjord, Stavinger, even sailing into urban

Norway

Oslo,  had a mini- epiphany:"I'm past the point of no return. I'll just concern myself with the best way of moving forward."...knowing there is no absolute grid we live in where things occur independent of our own thinking about it. At the beginning of the day, it's all about possibility, at the end of the day, results.

Carma Cafe-No Menus 

You Get Served What You Deserve

@Sea,I practice(d) my own private religion where the bulk of my soul and spirit has been invested-Call it introspective, narcissistic but certainly NEURO. Nevertheless, Travel bring power and Love back into the quotidian life. 

On land, the ANTS come-automatic Nervous Thoughts... In Los Angry Cars and TODAY at a local Garage, the  subject matter  is just too pedestrian, just a round-trip ticket and  a convenient 24 hours away from "civilization".The napsterization of cutting out the middleman, the tivoization time shifting of on-demand entertainment, the CNN Effect -of a 24 hour news cycle---still I believe in the USER FRIENDLY universe- Chance favors the connected mind. I am not looking forward to a power grid electronic pulse meltdown- it would have the same effect as a brain stroke on my thought process.

 I like writing about my travels, but I don’t like the paperwork. So I blog It's digital narcissism.  Literature in a hurry, right?

The THIRD world's analog eyes don’t see our digital world. But does it matter. Internet or InterNOT? Traveling in places with out "switch" in rural poverty are not voyages of discovery, but rituals of reassurance- I won the lottery! It may be karaoke capitalism but I can still belt out a few notes from Bruce Springsteen hit song, "I was born in the USA"

I do not believe in the church of Hello and BUY, the shared superstition of in-your-face consumerism and the treadmill of consumption that says you MUST purchase freedom in a two week vacation. 

If that makes me a heretic, than don't leave out healthy hedonism. Yet “The more you know, the less you need” is an Australian Aboriginal Proverb some spray paint-solvents-sniffing-dude from Darwin ACTUALLY had that  T-Shirt Slogan on! Shucks, with that kind of thinking, you don't need drugs-you ARE drugs.


Although I write  about these places like a news story, In fact, I am less surprised than I  care to admit when I see "faraway" up close. There is nothing more American than visiting a place and then bitching about it in that UGLY way.

How inappropriate to call this place Planet Earth  because it is surely all ocean

My touch and go, hit it and quit it ports of call, are  actually more spiritual and mental moments than physical events. The  conclusion: No Noose is good news. The sailing life comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention. Furthermore, there are ONLY 3 types of people-those alive, those dead, and those at sea. In fact, the cure for  ANYTHING is SALT-Tears, Sweat and The Sea.The place that I would most like to go? Nowhere-which like the sea, offers a respite from movement and distraction. It is stillness.

Arundel, U.K. And I thought...English – Who needs that?  I'm never going to England!

Some day I will look back at  posting  to Facebook and Blogger, feel uncomfortable and change the subject. Like drunk dialing friends, blogging  often leaves  me in a vegetative stupor--a  mouse potato in suspended animation-because social media  is somewhere else — the click and mortar-in the cloud, in the ether, worlds apart from the bricks and mortar-RL Real Life.

For sure, but, more than that, the obligation to come back with something new, to report back on landscape, people, cultures, languages, foods, we'd never heard of—is getting harder each time.
 I inhale a whiff of the post mortem...shucks, Alexander the Great was said to have wept when he realized he had no more worlds to conquer. The world is flat.April  is the start of Spring, but as I look out into the cool waters of the English channel, there's no way I am going swimming today  It's 4 seasons in 1day. You don't get climate here, you get weather, and you there's no such thing as  bad weather just bad clothing.

Brighton Beach

A lot of places claim to be unique. 

This one really is. Reminds me of Coney Island,USA  and New York New York---but Brighton Beach is nothing like its sandy counterpart.


Here, you crunch along the seaside instead of walking on it—it’s pebbles all the way.

1+1= Infinity

The hardest arithmetic I've had to master is the one which enables me to count my blessings. It requires a long apprenticeship (Think Gladwell's 10,000 Hours of practice rule or 10 years).

 Cruising around the world, provides a legitimate short cut for taking things with gratitude instead of for granted. Despite the spectacular sceneries and itineraries:The universe is in our head,and not out there separate from us. In actuality, a world of our own making. We are co-creators of our world, and we can effect that world and the world of others, even at a distance. Read MORE

VENICE,CA-Any man over the age of 26 riding a bike should consider himself a failure--unless of course he is me.It's Failing Better! Failing Cheaper And Failing Often.

That bike in the window  today reminds me....

As long as I am riding a bike, I know I am the luckiest guy in the world. Don.'t buy upgrades, ride up grades!  

The Metal Cowboys-Fooled By Randomness 

Today In Venice Beach- The Epicenter of Narcissism

A Bike And A Prayer 

The Metal Cowboys-Fooled By Randomness 

Stockholm

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. - John F. Kennedy.

Northern Europe is Bike Friendly too

Stockholm

Forget about the Suicidal winters and the reputation for the safest cars on earth. SAAB and Volvo can take a back seat. Stockholm has bike paths everywhere. It's easy to get around the islands that make up the city.

cOPENhagen-Everbody Rides

Amsterdam- Cyclists are everywhere--and you are more  likely to get hit by one than a car as everybody has a bicyc