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One of the best parts about traveling alone is chatting up bartenders. These guys usually open around seven or eight in the evening, but more often than not, people won’t start showing up for several hours, which leaves plenty of time to stop by for a quiet drink and some good conversation. Bartenders are some of the best repositories for local lore and outlandish rumors around. A few days ago I was in Lawrence, Kansas at a dive bar tucked back behind the town's main drag when I picked up this little gem:

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Yesterday as I was standing in front of the Palacio Real, symbol of Bourbon opulence and the largest royal palace in Western Europe, swearing at my over-large map, the kind the tourist office ensures is large enough to identify you as a tourist, so the people with clipboards can attack you for money.

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My first few days in Costa Rica have truly been an experience, and though the daily rainstorms can be somewhat hard to handle, I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. My journey really started when I reached the main office of the Rara Avis rainforest lodge and reserve in Las Horquetas. From there, I was transported with an elderly couple from Holland in an old Land Rover in a state of disrepair followed by a tractor-drawn cart down the most primitive road I have every seen. With the preponderance of potholes, boulders, and mud pits, I am amazed that we even reached the Rainforest Lodge at all.

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In the Roadtripping USA pod before heading off to Montréal:

Last Sunday, I climbed more than 760 steps to get to the top of the world's tallest church steeple (Ulm's Münster).  On Tuesday, I hiked for a hour to reach a simple white church that is perched on top of a hill in the middle of the Swabian Jura (Tübingen's Wurmlinger Kapelle). And on Thursday, I hiked to a bridge that crosses a 170 ft. waterfall to see an enormous palace in the distance (King Ludwig of Bavaria's Neuschwanstein).

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