Rate your favorite story and win a trip to Martinique!
06/27/2008
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Try your luck, rate your favorite story up to 5 stars and win an unforgettable stay in Martinique: 7 nights at the 4 star deluxe Sofitel Bakoua with Breakfast for two!
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Baby on Board
While sitting at my large work desk, which is currently overloaded with baby bottles and paperwork. I pause, and reflect upon my recent magical holiday adventure. I think of my little toes wiggling in the gritty, clean sand, the serene musical voice of the cerulean ocean lapping against the gentle shore, the quiet yet joyful wonder of discovering my first underwater castle, and the multiple cultures and faces that will forever remain with me in my mind as photographic souvenirs.
Our last rendezvous took us to Puerto Rico and the amazing Caribbean Isles. We visited many unique and small islands; each having their cultural, and environmental intrigues and appeals. This holiday was a little more exciting because we brought along our newest little family member Vienna, our 8 month old wonder. She quickly learned that iguanas weren’t to be touched, how important it is to stay close to the group during a 4 street blocked off bomb threat, and how flashing lights and loud noises aren’t always a good thing.
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Rachel Jones, Contest, 01/10/2008
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Stuck Outside of Narsaq, With the Qaqortoq Blues Again
My family loves traveling to unusual destinations, so we visited Greenland in July. One sight we were eager to see was the Viking ruins Hvalsey, and so we arranged for a tour boat. At 8:00 am, we went to the docks, where we were greeted by the captain, a handsome young Greenlandic man who looked a little like a weather-worn Keanu Reeves. Captain Keanu invited us into the cabin and graciously offered us coffee
Later, two older men wearing painting overalls came aboard with buckets of paint and tools. No one except the captain spoke English. As cigarettes dangled from their lips, I worried that one of the bottles of paint thinner they were carrying would burst into flames.
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Glennia Campbell, Contest, 01/09/2008
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Baked Insanity or How I Lost My Mind at a Semmering Roadside Café
The Fachertorte (translated it means “Fan Cake”) is a triple layer decadence wrapped in something between brioche and shortbread. The lower layer is hazelnuts, butter, cake crumbs, and whole milk. The next layer is poppy seeds, honey, more cake crumbs, butter, and whole milk. Topping all this is a layer of sliced apples tossed with cinnamon and raisins. A single slice of Fachertorte contains enough calories to fuel a transatlantic flight but that did not deter me from finishing the entire portion while sitting in the café of Vienna’s Kunsthistoriches (Art History) Museum.
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Pam Mandel, Contest, 01/10/2008
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Don’t Forget Kaliningrad
February 1992 was an exciting time to visit the former Soviet Union. And not just because I got a jaywalking ticket in St. Petersburg.
I’m not typically a scofflaw, but that trip was marked with run-ins with the authorities.
It started off innocently enough. Riding the Moscow subway, I was standing and holding the overhead strap. Seated below me was a Red Army general, reading a book, like most people on the train. What I didn’t realize was that my coat had gotten caught on the stars on the general’s shoulders. The train jolted, and a star came right off his epaulet and dangled from my coat. I had felt nothing, but the general heard the rip and raised a loud commotion. A trainful of passengers stared at me, disparagingly, while I stuttered cluelessly. Before I could figure out what had happened, it was his stop, and he stormed off. I never had the chance to give him the star back.
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Mark Ashley, Contest, 01/25/2008
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Tricky Tricky Tuk Tuk
Bangkok, Thailand
Consider us jet-lagged. Since landing in Bangkok three days back, we’d been in bed by 9:30 each night. We’d been waking early, too. On this day we were awake, showered, breakfasted and on the street by 8:30 a.m. We were also confused.
This was nothing new. Our first day in the city, we’d asked the receptionist at our hotel to mark our location on the map. She’d marked the wrong spot and it had been throwing us off, only we didn’t know this yet. Instead, Bangkok had knotted our brains into a constant state of frustration. Why couldn’t we ever find our way?
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Kelly Westhoff, Contest, 02/04/2008