Austin: World of Fantasy

Austin Texas! I went to Joanna and Toshia's apartment, a 3-minute walk away from this:

Inside they had Japanese Batman t-shirts, santa-hatted Hulk, and the stop-motion Ben Franklin special that they don't show in Canada for some reason:
We went out for Tex Mex right quick, as one should in Texas. I'm surprised it took me this long to take my first picture of this little darling:
We couldn't finish our meals, which is also pretty America. But Freebirds' takeout boxes reminded me that I was in a safe and supportive city:
It wasn't enough Tex-Mex, of course, so we went to Baby A's for dinner and Everclear purple margaritas. I agree with Rockin' Spanish Santa:

Uncertain Origin

Bengali woman on the plane: "This is a nice pen! Where is it from?"

Me: ... [don't say Gallifrey don't say Gallifrey don't say Gallifrey]

Travel Day

Travel days used to mean waking up at god-awful o'clock, until I just stopped sleeping. The day wasn't bad, though, and I ran into a couple of Facebook friends of mine on the sky shuttle:

The Metro

I always think "aw man! The Metro always play the movies I want to see when I'm out of town." Then I remember that they always play the movies I want to see all the time.

Almost Home

Neil, Nijmegen's tour guide extraordinaire, also pointed me to the best place to layover in O'Hare:

He was right, of course, a byproduct of the fact that he appears to know everything. The beer was tasty, and the bar was a good place to stage this photo depicting le chat losing one of his last legs:

Silly Things in Amsterdam

Here's how Madame Tussaud thinks of our President - not far off?

Here is what, for the love of God, a SHOPPING MALL looks like in Europe.
Finally, we have found it:
This is not the steepest staircase I saw, nor the steepest staircase at a place of intoxication:
Here's one of Holland's pervasive bicycle attack zones:
If it takes you fewer than three days of almost getting hit to remember how to pick these out, you're a better traveler than I am.

Amsterdam Picnic

My plan was to spend my last 28 hours in Holland awake and wandering the streets of Amsterdam. Luckily, Pud could spend the first 7 or so hanging out in Amsterdam with me. We managed to do everything we wanted, including grocery-store cheese and The Other Heineken, which we enjoyed at a canal-side picnic:

Where we managed to fend off a concerted attack by the local pigeons: