I was a speaker on a 20-night cruise from Liverpool to the Adriatic on the Fred.Olsen ship Bolette. It’s a mid-size cruise ship with a capacity of about 1,350 passengers. I’ve been on cruises down the Nile and the Mississippi but have never been on an ocean trip. I was one of four speakers from Past Preservers, which matches up academics with (mostly) people making documentaries. Recently, they have added opportunities to be speakers on cruises. Fred.Olsen caters to a mature audience, and its three ships each have a capacity of about 1,300 passengers. The crew was friendly and there were plenty of activities.

Talking to myself, aloud, in public. At least in South America, I do that mostly in English. Crossing downtown Florianópolis from my hotel to the bus terminal, I saw a girl walking in the opposite direction. She had a tattoo on her throat. I said, “Bad choice.” Then I passed an office of Banco do Brasil. I said, or rather intoned, “The full faith and credit of.” Luckily no one was there to hear that.

(And I do mean that was lucky. Brazil’s national banks – this one, Itaú, Bradesco, Caixa Econômica – all have the magic Soviet power to cause citizens to stand in very long lines for very long times. Even before they actually open in the morning.)

Packing for travel is often more stressful than traveling. My wife and I have traveled the world for several decades, so we have learned through trial and error how to balance what we absolutely need to bring to avoid lugging the stuff around the planet that we should have known we would never need. We never check our luggage. If you check luggage your vacation is at the mercy of a vast bureaucratic system that is not your friend. Everything we think we need has to fit in a carry-on piece of luggage and a backpack no matter how long the trip is. It should go without saying that we differ on what constitutes the essentials.

We differ on shoes of course. I won’t denigrate Mrs. Pessimist’s choices but I stick to a lightweight pair of hiking boots that are waterproof and very comfortable. I only wear them for travel and serious hiking. You can recognize good hiking boots by the spots of epoxy glue that repair the worn seams. I haven’t worn them for a while, but when I tried them on yesterday, I thought, “I may sleep in these things.” I also bring simple lightweight rain gear. A camera, some deodorant, charging wires, and travel clothes that can be washed in the sink and worn the next day.

I don’t miss work but I do miss Brooklyn.   For many years I worked at a “major international bank.”   One of their office centers was across the street from the Barclays Center … smack dab in the middle of hipster-heaven Brooklyn NYC.   And while I don’t miss the 3 trains each way to get there, the neighborhood itself was tremendous.   Entertainment, food, parks, bars, boutiques, history, unparalleled people-watching…it has it all.   But two of my favorite places are the Brooklyn Museum of Art and its next-door neighbor, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.  I hadn’t been there in a while.   It was a gorgeous weekend so the lovely Mrs. E and I headed to the Botanic Gardens.

The Botanic Gardens share a parking lot with the Museum, so on a whim, we decided to wander into the Museum first.   What a score!!!!   From now through August 18th is an exhibit of about 250 photographs taken in 1963-64 … the onset of Beatlemania … by Sir Paul McCartney.    It’s amazing!  They are part of thousands of photos McCartney shot during this period but were never printed before.

 We are nearing the end of our European trip (Danube Christmas river cruise) with a short stay in Budapest.  It’s a day shorter than planned as Lufthansa cancelled our Christmas morning flight to Munich so we are on the train tomorrow.  We have been walking around both sides of the river here and in Vienna and I’ve noticed kids from all over Europe wearing US themed clothing.  Little Eastern European girls in “I ♥️NY” hats.  And lots of clothing that sort of simulates US stuff – a 40ish guy had on a “Camp David Auto Repair” jacket with a big trademark logo. And I haven’t seen a single Che Guevara shirt.  I guess you need to be in the US to find young people that stupid.

I can never quite put my finger on why the American stuff is so prevalent.  Is our popular culture so ubiquitous that it’s popular with all these freedom loving Hungarians?  Jeez, wait until they find out about Buc-Eees.

Today it finally snowed – big, wet flakes so it really feels like Christmas.  Apparently the entire city shuts down tomorrow so it’s probably good that we are getting out of town.