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Last updated July 30, 2005 (newer content at the bottom)

Philadelphia Tourism

March 26, 2005 - Craig Overpeck, my college roommate from my Ursinus days, and his sister, Karen, joined me for a day of playing "tourist" in Philadelphia. We started the day with a surreal visit to the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Township. From the time we got to the front gate, the experience was bizarre. I can only hope that the outstanding collection of Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, van Gogh, and Matisse paintings will be more accessible once the Barnes moves to the Parkway. I could write an entire page just on the wacky hoops the Barnes folks made us jump through while on the grounds, but you probably wouldn't believe me.

After the Barnes, we headed into Center City to enjoy an authentic cheese steak at Pat's. Despite its length, the ordering line moved quickly and we were at the window before we knew it. I ordered "One wit - provolone," which in non South-Philly jargon means a cheese steak with fried onions and provolone cheese. Yes, it's a heart attack on a very good roll. I thought my steak was good, but not great. I've actually had better elsewhere, even though Pat's is touted to be the "King of Steaks." I'll have to try Geno's down the block next time to see if they can actually melt the cheese on the roll.

We finished the afternoon visiting the Liberty Bell and walking around Independence Hall. I hadn't been to the new Liberty Bell pavilion. It seemed odd walking through a security checkpoint in the building that previously housed the Liberty Bell. I didn't care for the attitude of some of the private security guards that were at the screening checkpoint. It was tighter than security for boarding a commercial airliner (which I did two days later). I'm not sure what that says about the value of an American artifact compared to the value of 200 lives aboard a plane.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Citizens Bank Park looked pretty much as I remembered it from the 2004 season when I attended the second home game of the 2005 season on April 6. The biggest change was the modified Citizens Bank logos around the park. I can only imagine how much Citizens Bank paid to re-brand every cup holder, sign, and banner. I had been optimistic that the Phillies would actually win until the eighth inning, when the Phillies let their 3-2 lead slip away and the Nationals scored 4 runs. In the top of the ninth inning Washington scored an additional run, bringing the final score to 3 to 7 in favor of the Washington Nationals.

Birthday in Boston

A business trip took me to Boston, Massachusetts (Cambridge, actually) the week of May 16. While I wasn't able to be with family on my birthday, some transplanted friends from Clemson stood in and made my birthday dinner an enjoyable one. I met up with Tom and Moriah Macdonald along with Jeff Wysocarski and Erin Behnke at Grafton Street.

Following the meal, we wandered over to Finale for some wonderful-looking take-out desserts. My friends bought a very decadent 4" Chocolate Symphony mousse cake for me.

Eastern European Trip

Craig Overpeck and I had similar problems: what to do with the Delta Airlines frequent flyer miles burning holes in our pockets. Readers of this Web site might remember that Craig and I visited the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria) in the fall of 2003. Rather than travel domestically, Craig proposed three international possibilities: The Middle East including Egypt and Israel; an African Safari; or Eastern Europe. With the unrest in the Middle East, I quickly ruled out that option. And while an African Safari would have been nice, I'd like to save that adventure for sharing with a special woman sometime in my life. So, by process of elimination we decided on Eastern Europe.

Craig had previously been to Russia and Estonia, so he was somewhat familiar with life behind the "Iron Curtain." After seeking input from friends and family, we settled on three cities to focus on: Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. Mapping it out, we discovered that it would be easy to add a day in Vienna since it was between Budapest and Prague. IN Vienna, we reasoned, Craig would be able to practice his German skills.

We were late to the table when it came to making European frequent flyer reservations -- especially first class. Apparently, people call six or nine months in advance and we were calling Delta just four months before we wanted to fly. Craig was persistent, and eventually got a workable itinerary. Flexibility was the key, as we'd have to make a full circle in Europe instead of flying into one city and out of another.

With our air travel determined by airline availability, we worked backwards to plan the twelve days of our trip. The beginning and end of the trip would have to be in Prague. Within those two end points, we had the freedom to take planes, trains, automobiles, buses, or donkey carts anywhere within Eastern Europe. We quickly determined that flying between cities in Eastern Europe (like most Americans would naturally think to do) wouldn't be feasible, as low-cost carriers are just making an entrance into that market. Eastern Europe is still heavily dependent upon their relatively-reliable rail network. Craig booked an Eastern European rail pass through Rail Europe. I have to give kudos to Rail Europe since they responded to Craig's initial request with an inclusive rail package that was even cheaper than he expected!

Craig and I departed for Prague (via Paris) from Newark Liberty International Airport on a spacious Continental 777 (my first time on this type of plane) on July 2 just as the Live 8 concert was happening in Philadelphia. We spent a few days in Prague then moved on to Krakow via overnight train. Our first experience in the Krakow area was a day trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. After a few days in Krakow, we took another overnight train to Budapest. We spent more time in Budapest than any other city on this trip, but it passed quickly especially since we spent an entire day in wine country (Eger) about two hours outside of Budapest. Less than three hours via train from Budapest brought us to Vienna. We really breezed through Vienna, spending less than 24 hours in the city, which was just enough time to take in a concert and a couple short tours. After less than five hours on a train from Vienna we found ourselves back in Prague, thus completing a very large circle. Our time in Prague this time was exceptionally short. We had enough time to eat dinner, do some last minute souvenir shopping, and re-pack our suitcases in preparation for the trip home. The alarm clock woke us from our slumber much too early at 4am on July 14. We found ourselves being whisked to the Prague airport by van at 4:15am. Despite an aircraft change and a late departure from Paris, it was mostly smooth sailing coming home. My first flight on Air France was very enjoyable, and quite unexpected based on my preconceived notion. The crew was very friendly and the service was excellent.

I snapped over 500 photos while in Eastern Europe. It's a tall task to sort through them, so please bear with me as I post them one city at a time. As of July 23, I have completed the Prague gallery. Next up is Krakow, which I hope to finish by July 30.

Celtic Woman

My close friends know that I enjoy Celtic music. From the best that I can determine, this passion developed sometime in the early 1990s during marathon studying for organic chemistry exams at Ursinus. I blame it all on Celtic singer Enya, with whom I share a birthday (May 17). Over the years I've developed a decent collection of Celtic CDs from Enya, Clannad, and similar artists. When I saw an ad in a Philadelphia Inquirer that "Celtic Woman" was coming to Philadelphia on their national tour, I was intrigued. A visit to the Celtic Woman Web site and I was hooked (even though I hadn't seen their PBS special).

Figuring that it was a concert and not a visual stage performance, I bought tickets in the "Family Circle," which is the Merriam Theater way of saying "nosebleed territory." From four stories up, we could see the stage and the singers, but it was difficult to make out facial expressions of the folks on stage. (Note to self: bring binoculars next time.) Thankfully, their body language said it all. The four Celtic Woman singers on tour were Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, Chloë Agnew, and Deirdre Shannon; the excellent (and very animated) fiddler was Máiréad Nesbitt. While the performance lacked the overflowing youthful exuberance seen when I attended Blast! a few years ago on Broadway, the Celtic Woman show was nonetheless entertaining and enjoyable. While Ireland has been on my "to do" list for a few years, this concert has inspired me to speed up the process and hopefully get there in 2006.