Monthly Archives: December 2013

Top Thirteen Travel Related Happenings In 2013

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  • Best Country I Visited:  Bulgaria, by far.  I cannot express enough how much I fell in love with this country.   My favorite moment in this beautiful country was standing on top of the rocks at the Belogradchik Fortress and knowing I got here all by myself.

Belogradchik Fortress, Belogradchik, Bulgaria

  • Not My Best Destination:  Nis, Serbia.  This was not in any way a fault of Nis, it was my own.  You can never blame a city for someone who lacks the ability to read a map.  Or who did not learn basic language so that when she ordered an iced coffee, she was presented with a cherry milk shake. I am very fortunate that the least best time I had still cannot rightfully have the word “worst” associated with it.  I don’t regret that I went.  I will go back.  Plus, I got a fun anecdotal story about ordering iced coffee in Serbia!

Nišava River, Nis, Serbia

  • Bus Ride From Hell:  Overnight from Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria to Istanbul, Turkey.   Using a squat toilet with spiders as big as my head lurking over me, while developing a fear that the hot florescent lights would cause them to be burned to death and drop into my hair.  Yeargh.  It was totally worth it.  Anecdotal story aside, ISTANBUL.

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Bus Ride From Veliko Tarnovo to Istanbul – Squat Toilets, Spiders, Smuggling and Depeche Mode…Wait…WHAT?

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Last transport of my trip – overnight bus from Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria to Istanbul, Turkey.  This was quite the trip.  Finding out information about this journey before leaving home was nearly impossible.  I could never figure out where I was supposed to leave from, Veliko Tarnovo has two bus stations.  I was able to get some bus company names, but they had no internet presence.

There is a train, but the schedules I came up with were so beyond contradictory.  I also found a bunch of websites saying the train wasn’t in operation right now because of construction.  I would really prefer to take the train but all of this research getting me nowhere was really making my head spin.

So I left the USA without having any clue how I was going to be doing the last leg of this trip.

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Tsarevets Fortress – Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

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The main attraction of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria is Tsarevets Fortress.  I had specifically picked my hotel for the balcony view overlooking it.

tsarevets fortress, veliko turnovo bulgaria, view from balconyI saved visiting the fortress until my last day, when I had several hours to kill before heading to Istanbul.

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Christmas Trip To Atlantic City, New Jersey – Part One

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I spent my entire Las Vegas trip totally confused because in my mind, it was Christmas, even though it was not.  This is because I spend every Christmas in Las Vegas.  This year however, even though I felt like I was in Vegas for Christmas, when I got back home, Christmas still had not happened.  How the hell did that happen?

The obvious question here is “Well then where are you going to go for actual Christmas?” which I answered with “Atlantic City, obviously”

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Day Eight of Eight – Plus Bonus Rambling Content

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December 3, 2013 – Day Eight of Eight

[This is the final day of my 2013 Thanksgiving trip to Las Vegas.  To start at the beginning, go here.]

Last day WAHHHHHHHHHH.

My flight home leaves at 4:05.  So I have until around 1:30 to still win enough money to not have to go home ever again.

I decide to not start gambling until after I check out so I don’t go too nuts.  I also decide that my goal is to not see daylight until it is time to leave to go to the airport.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: December 2, 2013: Part Two of Two

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Monday, December 2, 2013

[This is part nine of a ten part trip report.  To start at the beginning, go here.]

When we last left off, I was leaving the Mirage and continuing on to Flamingo to catch the 202 bus.

Here is the newly redone Imperial Palace.  It is owned by Caesars Entertainment and for some time, it seemed that they wanted us to call it a new name.  But that new name was stupid so I refused.  It seems that my boycott has caught their attention as now there is NO name on the building.  No name is better than calling it “The Quad”

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Aria Animated Sign – Las Vegas, Nevada

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If you are familiar with me, then you know I don’t take kindly to most changes in Las Vegas.  Or in life in general I suppose as well.

But there is one change that I cannot get enough of.  Huge animated hotel and casino signs.   The first property to introduce this was Wynn.   On one night back in December of 2008, I stood outside on a freezing night taking endless pictures of it.  Once I got home, I uploaded them and realized they were all horrible shots where you can see my breath in every picture because it was so freaking cold outside.  I still have it in my head to go back and do it all over again.

On this last trip, I repeated that night.  Only this time, Aria’s beautiful new sign was my model.

I realize not everyone has a sick fascination with seeing 238947238 pictures of a sign.  So I am making this separate post for it so as to not entirely clog up my trip report.

Aria animated sign, Las Vegas, Nevada

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Monday, December 2, 2013 – Day Seven of Eight – Part One

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Monday, December 2, 2013

[This is part eight of a ten part trip report.  To start at the beginning, go here.]

Today is my last full day.  WAH.

I wake up at the Riviera at 8:00.  One of the things I do not like about staying here is that the food options are awful.  The coffee shop is gone.  The buffet is gone (I think anyway, it was inedible so even if it does still exist, it is not an option)  You can have breakfast in their pub, but I don’t want to do that.  I want a very large iced coffee.  The only place you can get one around here is at the McDonalds across the street.  So that is where I go.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: The One With Vomitor and Public Urinator

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Sunday, December 1, 2013 – Day Six of Eight

[This is part seven of a ten part trip report.  To start at the beginning, go here.]

This morning I woke up with my alarm at 9:00.  Figures that I am finally actually sleeping on a day I have to be up to check out.

Today is Free Play Day  I will be using all the free play I have saved up and I will win a bazillion dollars with it.

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