Last Week In Travel: April 2, 2010

Slacker, thy name is Everywhereist.

We just got home today, and I spent a few moments trying to decide whether or not I should paint my nails, or post to my blog. Guilt won out, and here I am, having officially spent less time on my physical appearance than my 3-year-old niece.

Who, by the way, is part of the reason why I didn’t get a post up last week. Her brothers also helped add to my slackerdom. As did my friend Lindsay’s baby. And her other baby (she has twins). So while we were chilling with the O.P.P. (Other People’s Progeny), I got very little done. But I had a nice time, had sticky hands for the better part of a week, and contracted a weensy bit of a cold.

But nevermind all that. Let’s talk about last week …

More than a hundred Chinese coal miners were trapped underground after a collapse in a mine last week. It strongly makes me wonder exactly why there haven’t been any improvements made to how we extract and process coal over the last 100 or so years, but I digress. In happier news, over 100 of them were pulled out of the mine alive today. However, the quotes around “Miracle” in the headline of the article make me wonder if the journalist writing it actually believes that the miners made it out there safely. I’m just going to put my cynicism and conspiracy theories aside and hope for the best.

National Geographic has some amazing photos of the volcanic eruption in Iceland (which is perilously close to where we hiked and hung out when we were there). And while it’s spewing magma, it doesn’t seem to stop people from walking right up to it. I’m not going to lie: that sounds equally stupid and AWESOME.

And I know I link to her all the damn time, but once again, Candice Walsh writes a brilliant post about travel that I absolutely agree with: sometimes packing light is overrated, and sometimes being a tourist is just wonderful. Own it, and quit being so judgmental of other travelers.

Some idiotic Australian official said that B&Bs should turn away homosexuals if they so wish. While I agree that you should have no one stay in your home if you don’t want them there (no matter how stupid, idiotic, or bigoted the basis), that’s just a bad business model. I mean, who, besides gay couples, stays in B&Bs anyway? (via TheTravelTart).

And, appropos of nothing, and a day too late for Easter, my dear friend sent me this video of a muppet beating up other muppets … while singing “Stand By Me.” It’s disturbing and horrible and wonderful.

Anywho, that’s the week that was. Since Rand and I are now home for the next (gasp!) month, expect lots of posts about all our east coast adventures over the last few months – from Sleepy Hollow, NY, to the suburbs of Tampa, Florida.