Boston 2018

What's this? Not a retrospective?

[sorry for typos - trying out a new keyboard]

I traveled to Boston (June 23-26) for a few reasons. The big excuse was to attend a thank you party for moderators on reddit, though that event was only a few hours long. My more pressing reasons were trifold: to see Boston, as I'd only passed through; to give some clothing a trial run before my big trip; and to remember what traveling felt like and to acclimate myself to the sensation.

On the excuse: For a few years now I've moderated several communities on reddit, the biggest of which being /r/vexillology. For whatever reason, reddit corporate decided to start having "thank you" parties in various cities. I attended one of these in their first year (a quick in-and-out zip down to D.C.). I had a fun time and figured I'd follow that up again this year.

Foggy Boston

RETROSPECTIVE: Europe 2011

As all of my photos are on unresponsive drives, you're going to have to settle for this link to flickr.

I'm pulling most of this information from my travel notebook. Check out how big my handwriting used to be!

My huge writing! Key for scale.

Same key, same book, written seven years later.

My notebook starts on 22 May, 2011, though I'm not sure that's actually when I started my trip. To give you a little history, I had met my friend Mike while helping to paint a mural over the summer of 2010. He decided that he wanted to explore more of the world (or something like that) and moved to Berlin. I'd finally saved up some money (I had had a second steady job since around October 2010) and decided I should visit him - why not!

You can tell from that first writing sample that I fell in love with the city pretty much right away - I write "the best part so far was the overwhelming calm throughout the city" - I know now that Berlin just makes me feel at home and at ease.

RETROSPECTIVE: Dan & Simon Race Across Europe 2016 PART THREE

PART THREE: COMING & GOING

12-14 July 2016
Dan & I relaxed in Barcelona (and yes, I did call my mom for her birthday). We did touristy things and we had a great pair of meals (one at the "second oldest restaurant in Spain" - if that claim can be believed) and possibly the worst pair of meals on the trip. We saw the outside of the Sagrada Familia on a bus tour on the 13th, which was followed by one of those worst meals - a place that tourists go to be seen eating. A little more wandering, encountering a super cool community garden, and a little spot where everyone looked local made up for the previous meal (meat & cheese & bread & beer for half the cost!). Laundry, 20+ postcards, bus tours, and all the tame tourist stuff one might expect in Barcelona. When Bastille Day rolled around, I decided to hop on the train to Paris. (Dan would leave Barcelona - indeed, Europe - the next day.[1])

Since it was Bastille Day, I figured I'd go check out the Bastille. Fun fact: the Bastille was torn down during the French Revolution. I mean, I knew they'd stormed it - I didn't know they razed it to the ground. All the celebrations for Bastille Day happen around the Eiffel Tower. Not to be deterred, I wandered around some weird alleys and got myself (intentionally) lost, then found a metro station and made my to a neat little bar near my AirBnB (Cafe des Anges). After a bit of an assault by a drunk patron, I had a great chat with the bartender - I returned the next day to write my journal and talk with him some more.

Returning to my AirBnB I learned of the tragedy in Nice. As it was reported as an "attack in France", I received a lot of "are you okay?" messages. I was both glad to know people cared and pissed off about the attack. Of course, this is before we transitioned to monthly school shootings in the US, so it was a bit bigger at the time than tragedies seem today.

RETROSPECTIVE: Dan & Simon Race Across Europe 2016 PART TWO and a HALF

PART TWO and a HALF: THE ORRERY

A white Audi A80 with a black interior, our car had no frills (except for a sun roof)[1]. No A/C, strictly manual controls, no CD player (thwarting our entertainment plans)[2], it was otherwise in good shape for being 25 years old at the time. On our trip from Frankfurt to Lille, we discovered it had headlights like a pair of bad fake tits and a proclivity toward turning on its oil warning light and buzzer (the buzzer was the worst part). We therefore vowed to never drive it at night and to give it a nice long break every few hours.

RETROSPECTIVE: Dan & Simon Race Across Europe 2016 PART TWO

PART TWO: THE RALLY

8 July 2016
Dan & I watched as some absolutely crazy cars came rolling into the parking lot. From the green "Shrek" van with ears and decals to the functional "tiki bar" van with a whiskey-dispensing tap on the hood to the "AC/DC" car complete with full drum kit on the roof[1], we quickly figured out we were out of place. In fact, we'd later meet rally-folk who thought our car was one merely parked in the wrong spot. Everyone did an amazing job of decorating - a favorite was a car covered in gold foil with a big "missile" strapped to the top where the drivers were all dressed like dictators - and we definitely stuck out.

Luckily, we were able to register that morning. We received our instructions and the day's special tasks. We had the longest drive of the race ahead of us - from Lille, France, to Thun, Switzerland.

RETROSPECTIVE: Dan & Simon Race Across Europe 2016 PART ONE

PART ONE: ARRIVAL

5-6 July 2016
After a fairly uneventful overnight flight from Philadelphia, I arrived in Frankfurt about two hours ahead of my former coworker and fellow board game enthusiast, Dan[1]. I did a little writing, noting in my travel log the auspicious sighting of a hawk and a groundhog while on my way to the Philadelphia airport. While I'm not a big believer in omens, I'm a big enough fan of the classics that it brought a smile to my face, symbolizing air and ground travel. Still not sure of what to expect, the two of us could certainly use all the luck we could get.

Dan arrived safely and we soon met up with his friend "Hans" to go car shopping. As you may or may not know, the impetus of this trip was to participate in the "Wacky Rally" - a UK-based race of sorts where the participants could spend no more than three hundred pounds on their vehicles. The rally was two days away and we were still without a car.

RETROSPECTIVE: New York City (Spring Break 2005)

As this happened a decade prior to this writing, details are fuzzy.

During spring break of 2005, a few of my friends wanted to do a road trip to New York City. I’m not sure how we decided that a cold, windy city would make for a good spring break, but we saddled up nonetheless.

The crew consisted of TC, JF, NM, and myself. We would be using NM’s car. We set out and zipped across I-80/90 to our first destination: my parent’s house. A visit, a refresh, and a refuel later and we were back on the road. We made good time to NYC itself, though our first destination was a little beyond. Our lodgings were with NM’s relatives on Long Island. I think it was somewhere in here we got in a minor fender-bender in New Jersey - I remember it being a big deal and little deal, as the car we hit didn’t care and, driving in NM’s beater, we didn’t either.

ITINERARY: Canada & Alaska

For my own reference and due to popular demand, this is my planned itinerary for Phase One of my trip around the world (45-60 days). I suspect I'll be editing this post frequently, so feel free to check back.

AUGUST 2018

Aug 4: Fly to Halifax (done! See blog entry)

Aug 5: 13:00 train from Halifax to Montreal

Aug 9: train to Quebec City

Aug 11: train to Ottawa

Aug 12: train to Toronto

Aug 16: 22:00 The Canadian from Toronto to Winnipeg

Aug 20: 10:00 train from Winnipeg to Edmonton

Aug 24: 09:37 train from Edmonton to Vancouver

Aug 27: bus from Vancouver to Seattle
Underground tour? link & link

Aug 31: 18:00 MV Columbia to Juneau, AK (arr. Sept 3)

SEPTEMBER 2018

Bum around Alaska? Juneau? Homer? Sitka? Anchorage?

Sept 14/15: flight to Los Angeles

Buy a ticket to somewhere else (Phase Two)

RETROSPECTIVE: The Insight Bowl (2004)

As this happened a decade prior to this writing, details are fuzzy.

A brief story about my trip as part of the Notre Dame Marching Band to the Insight Bowl in December 2004. After a mediocre season, which included the firing of coach Ty Willingham, Notre Dame got into a low-ranked bowl in Arizona. I don’t remember much about the travel arrangements (as opposed to the Sugar Bowl arrangements), but I do remember getting my wisdom teeth removed a mere week or so prior to the game. I really shouldn’t have traveled.

Hello World!

NAME

I went with "Standard Travel" for the name. It's the one that got stuck in my head, despite others being in many ways better. You'll see the other names pop up as titles, I'm sure, though I'm not sure what "My Murder Yurt" is going to describe. "Standard Travel" is a decent pun (given my pen name is also a flag pun) and it sounds pretty 19th Century, which should fit well with a vacation based on as many boats & trains as possible.

VISION

This blog, in just a few months, will begin to document an adventure around the world. I'll try to share as much as possible. You have my apologies in advance for the "lists of facts" style of writing I get stuck in - sometimes it's tough to add commentary to things I've done / places I've seen.

The "planned" route

FICTION

I'll try to stick to the facts on this blog, though one of my real goals is to write fiction and the like as I wander. You'll see that on An Irregular Experience... irregularly (I'm the best at naming blogs!). If you don't feel like spending too much mental energy on figuring all this out, well, that's why I chose my pen name. I'm the only Simon Pennon in the world and I have a website with links to both blogs.

OTHER

The format of the blog will probably change. The visual stylings will definitely change. Hell, I might even get other folks to make blog posts for me, as I'm more inclined to write letters instead of type them. I'll try to take pictures, but I'm not the best at that. I'm also going to try to write up travel stories from my past and post them as retrospectives so there's a bit of content every once in a while.

In all though, I hope you enjoy my tales!