About four weeks ago, I got back from a five-week vacation in Eastern Europe, London, and France. I visited St. Petersburg in Russia, stayed for a week at a 14th-century castle in France, and along the way hit London, Gdansk, Talinn, Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.

It's taken me quite a while to start posting about the trip, because I took about five thousand pictures while I was away, which I'm only just now getting 'round to processing and putting online. I have thirteen chapters of my travelogue posted in my blog so far, with about seventeen or eighteen more chapters (including the bit about that week in the 14th-century castle, which will probably contain some stories aimed at grownup audiences) to go.

Note: Some of these entries contain *extremely* irreverent humor, snarky commentary about Vladimir Lenin and Lady Gaga, bad words, musings about Alexander the Great's personal problems, potatoes, and discussions about the military history of hats. You've been appropriately warned.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Life on the High Seas
Chapter 3: Stockholm
Chapter 4: More Stockholm for Your Syndrome
Chapter 5: But If it's Made of Steel, How Do it Float?
Chapter 6: In Soviet Russia, vacation has YOU!
Chapter 7: My hat, it has three corners...
Chapter 8: I thought hermits were solitary!
Chapter 9: Wonders Never Cease
Chapter 10: They're Creatures of the Abstract
Chapter 11: I have so many names...
Chapter 12: Urban Life
Chapter 13: Good taste? I've heard of that!

As I do more, they'll be posted on http://tacit.livejournal.com -- enjoy!

awesome, Franklin. several days good reading there!

A most enjoyable read. Many thanks for the post!

Very interesting view of Saint-Petersburg. I don't quite agree with certain opinions, but overall it was great reading. I permitted myself to add some historical tips (under my LJ name, glazomer).
Thanks, Franklin!