http://insom.com A very emo web journal Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:17:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's Christmas in Heaven There's great films on TV The Sound of Music twice an hour And Jaws I, II, and III. Last Friday, Smalley totally dressed me down for wishing someone a Merry Christmas. I told him I thought we were supposed to say that, and he was like, "You're supposed to say ... http://insom.com/archives/2007/12/25/merry-insmas-3/ I stayed in Amsterdam over four months ago now, so it took me quite awhile to get around to writing this, even by my very relaxed backblogging habits. The widely-recognised symbol for Amsterdam is the three crosses XXX, which despite a natural inference by most people doesn't refer to the city's ... http://insom.com/archives/2007/04/30/amsterdam/ Returning to Germany, the first overnight stop was a town in the Rhine Valley called St. Goar. We tasted a range of white wines, including reisling and ice wine, none of which is really my thing, but I'm happy enough to be seen as refined. Extensive graffiti in ... http://insom.com/archives/2007/02/10/stgoar-berlin-hamburg/ In an increasingly integrated Europe, border crossings seem to be a thing of the past. Crossing into the tiny principality of Liechtenstein, which is run somewhat as a region of Switzerland in areas like currency and customs, you are crossing into neutral, non-EU territory and dudes who technically might ... http://insom.com/archives/2007/01/19/liechtenstein-lucerne/ Our first stop in Germany was the Olympic city, Munich. After a perfunctory look at some kind of historic church we all made a bee-line for the Hofbräuhaus, the enormous Bavarian beer establishment that everyone had been raving about for days. I myself had only heard the name ... http://insom.com/archives/2007/01/08/munich/ Our hotel in Vienna was a treat---spacious rooms, spa and pool facilities, and even volleyball and squash courts, but unfortunately for me, no squash-playing equipment (or indeed anyone against whom to play), which was a shame because I had been hanging out for a game, and indeed for any physical ... http://insom.com/archives/2006/12/29/vienna/ On the way to Venice, we stopped by the Republic of San Marino for just a couple of hours. San Marino is a small enclave of Italy, the size of a town, that has somehow avoided being annexed by Italy over the years that all of the other small ... http://insom.com/archives/2006/12/26/san-marino-venice/ Our first day in Rome, we awoke at the crack o' dawn in an attempt to beat the crowds that would inevitably have amassed at the Vatican Museum if we didn't bust a move. To say that we had beaten a crowd would definitely be a lie---the line already ... http://insom.com/archives/2006/12/26/rome-vatican/ Florence was another city that I enjoyed more at night than during the day. This is simply because we arrived at night and I wasn't hung over yet. When a Contiki bus arrives in a city, it almost seems as though the local boganry has been pre-warned that a lot ... http://insom.com/archives/2006/12/26/lets-a-go-florence/ He knows when you are sleeping He knows when you're on the can He'll hunt you down and blast your ass from here to Pakistan. Grandma got run over by a reindeer Walking home from our house Christmas eve You can say there's no such thing as Santa But as for me and grandpa we believe. Put on ... http://insom.com/archives/2006/12/25/merry-insmas-2/