i volunteered to help my buddy with a golf tournament fundraiser...while personning the door prize booth, i met another volunteer from slovenia...we talked for a bit about ljubljana...i remember that city for several reasons: the old town looked reconstructed, like a city in epcot or disney world...it was clean like brand new...not just scrubbed clean...and there was that unusual bridge that connected the sections of old town...we also enjoyed an open market; and the cherries were delicious...we met a waiter who knew all about waikiki...it seemed he was a porter on a royal caribbean cruise ship...fun city...
there was a registrant wearing a machu picchu cap...so we talked a bit about the experience of visiting this world heritage site...about the thin oxygen at that level...i had to remind him about the unusual train exit out of cusco...the pretty people serving as train attendants, doubling up as models, showing and selling alpaca goods...i enjoyed cusco a lot more than machu picchu...it felt so much more spiritual than machu picchu...maybe the guide taking us through the city sites in the evening with camera flashes creating weird reflections off people's sneakers made the city seem more spiritual...the indians amalgamating their ancient ways with christianity...their christian god and saints taking on the characteristics of their ancient gods...of the last supper with a guinea pig...
and the gal at the mulligan table had just come back from buenos aires where she spent a month, unable to get out to other parts due to weather...we didn't experience any such misfortune so i got to tell her about our visit to mendoza and malbec wine (she was jealous, having fallen in love with malbec)...i told her about the wine tasting experience in san telmo where we met a vineyard owner...she told me how the exchange rate was now 4-1; and, although she got great meal deals, everything else was very expensive, heavy clothing going for $500 to $2,000...i remembered the exchange rate was 3-1 and my travel buddies were gobbling up leather goods like crazy because the prices were so good, a leather computer case going for $150...i told her about our love affair with the taxi drivers, so friendly, so courteous; and, because of the exchange rate, we only rode cabs...our best food experience was in boca where we had a great steak dinner from soup to nuts for $25; a comparable meal in the states would cost nearly $200...
the last experience this weekend that brought back former trips is daniel silva's portrait of a spy...he has gabriel meeting shamron in an apartment in rue lepic in the montmartre area...i remember the street when i stayed at a comfort in on rue des abbesses...it was a street with many chinese takeaways with roasted pork hanging in the window, a street that wound through montmartre where vincent van gogh stayed in an apartment at 54 rue lepic (i found it on a rainy afternoon)...and now gabriel is in gare du nord heading for the eurostar and london...i can see gabriel using his "fake" passport, going through immigration and then heading for the lounge area for the train to be called...i wonder if he bought his snack at paul's???
ah, the fun of traveling...
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