Travel Sites

While surfing for the upcoming summer trip I ran into three sites worth noting here.

First, an incredibly rich place of a Polish globe trotter Wojtek Dabrowski, I spent no less than four hours yesterday reading his 2005 Across Africa trip diary, it was fascinating. Day by day account of a trip lasting some four months, over land, from Gibraltar, across the straight to Morocco, through the Sahel, central African countries to the East African coast and then to South Africa. And he has more journals like that from his other trips to Asia, the Americas, Pacific Islands, and more. Sorry, those pages are mostly in Polish, but hey must learn those languages, right?. If anything, enjoy the pictures.

Second, the Lonely Planet. I'm sure this is not a new discovery for most, but it is new to me, so it counts. I like their traveling checklists contributed to by users.

Third, the World 66 site. I like the visited countries maps tool, here's my European map.




And here are the US States I visited, at least those I remember:




Do:

• Keep a journal when traveling, even if this is a short, one day trip. This not only enriches your live by forcing you to reflect on the events, places, and people that just went by, but also gives you a treasure chest of useful facts and hints that may make your next trip easier.

Do not:

• Put onion skins in large quantities through the garbage disposer. Ok, this may not be a frequent occurrence for most, but yesterday I was coloring Easter Eggs by hard boiling them in onion skins (skins from maybe 5 onions, cook for 30 mins). Afterwards I dumped the skins to the sink and ran the disposer. Most skins just slid past the disposer without being shredded and plugged the pipes under the sink. My wife wasn't very pleased with that.