Coffee Cups & Campgrounds: The Road Back to France

Coffee Cups & Campgrounds: The Road Back to France

"'Mid pleasures and palaces through we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like Home." -J. Howard Payne"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." -George Moore "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." -T.S. Eliot* * * I stared out the window, watching Germany roll by as we made our way to Freiburg. "You know," I said to Olivier. "I can't recall the last time that I had a decent cup of coffee." He pulled on his beard as he steered our little Renault up the highway, recalling all of the cups of coffee we'd drunk over the past days.Then he said, "We haven't had a decent cup of coffee since we left France." It was true. I had some drip coffee from a bakery with my kanelgiffel in Copenhagen. We made some nasty instant sludge while camping in Sweden and had some watered-down American style joe with our Frühstück in...
Read More
Camping in Sweden: Bork, Bork… Quack!

Camping in Sweden: Bork, Bork… Quack!

Entering Sweden and making our way to Malmö was pretty uneventful. I was still battling the sickness I had acquired during the night that we had spent camping in Germany. We weren't planning on doing much of anything in Sweden, other than relaxing and spending a night in our tent before heading back to Germany. We didn't foresee any problems. We didn't foresee any weirdness. Rest. Dinner. Sleep. Breakfast. Should be easy. We arrived at the Malmö Camping & Ferie Center and went into the office. It was the usual thing: the guy showed us a map, pointed out places to pitch a tent and where to pee. Good enough. So, we were ready to pay. "You also have to buy the camping card," campground employee guy informed us. "A camping card? What's a camping card and why do we have to buy it?" He looked at the two of us as though we might be completely daft. We looked at him as though he might've been drunk....
Read More
The Minutiae of Carniverous Plants & Road Trips

The Minutiae of Carniverous Plants & Road Trips

"I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale." - Anne McCaffrey.It just occurred to me that it has been a little while since I've posted anything here.Of course, that isn't because I've run out of things to say - I've actually got a list of topics sitting next to me that I'll be bitching about in the future, but the thing is... I just don't feel like it right now.I don't read many other blogs.  The reason being, I can't stand to read about the minutiae of other people's lives.  I admit, I just don't fucking care.  Blogs written by new mothers about each time their brand new larvae shits, blogs supposedly written by someone's fucking cat or anything written by someone who has absolutely nothing to say, but just needs attention from strangers on...
Read More