July 20, 2020

No Return Cities

By roads-rus

I have no desire to be in Oranjestad again. This Dutch influenced town is the capital of the Caribbean island of Aruba. It has tourist goods including lots of gold jewelry for sale and many resorts; but the rest of the island appears ordinary, backward, and dry. I recall being blown away by the extent of the one-time Dutch empire created by the West and East India Companies. I saw it in an exhibit in Amsterdam. What remains in the Caribbean are the 3 sometimes hurricane-blown colonial territories of Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten.

I had my fill of Broken Hill, Australia, in one visit. A declining mining town in very west New South Wales on the edge of the vast inland wasteland, Broken Hill is often used to represent the Outback in films and TV series like Mad Max II, A Town Like Alice, and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. At least 50 entertainments have been filmed there.

I’m really glad I saw Tallinn, the capital of Estonia on the Gulf of Finland but have little desire to return to this Baltic state. This is not true of Latvia and Lithuania. Estonia has a 99.8 literacy rate and a multi-lingual population. Like other Baltic states, it has a medieval feel with a walled old town. I had trouble eating here. Its national dish is traditional blood sausage called verivorst. I almost sampled mulgipuder as a main course in a restaurant. This is a stew of mashed barley, potatoes, and, often, bacon.

I’m glad Ruth & I visited the 2nd richest country in the world and one of its smallest, but I feel no pressing need to return. We took a bus ride around the country after having dinner. It ended up unexpectedly at Luxembourg City’s airport.

We loved Galway, Ireland, but went from there to Limerick during the Christmas season and got tired of stepping around vomit on its streets caused by overindulgence in alcohol. There wasn’t much to do other than visit its cathedral because other attractions were closed and Ireland was experiencing a record-breaking cold wave.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
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