Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
Overnight Train to Budapest
By Lee | 
2 Comments » 
My friends and I were backpacking through Europe. We were in Prague and we couldn’t agree on our next course of action. We eventually decided that we would all split up and meet up in a few days in Interlaken, Switzerland. I wanted to take the overnight train to Budapest and that’s exactly what I did.
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The Jumbo Jet Hostel
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
I thought this was kind of interesting that a businessman in Stockholm, Sweden bought a grounded and unusable 747 and is planning in turning into a 110 Euro a night hostel in Sweden. There are to be 25 rooms and the main cockpit suite. Sound enticing? Not to me, but maybe to scores of Swedes who seemingly cannot wait to frequent this new “phenomenon”.
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The Running of the Bulls
By Lee | 3 Comments » 
I think that every traveler has a little bit of Hemingway in them. His writings are equally inspiring and interesting. My favorite Hemingway book is The Sun Also Rises. Of course, this brings our hero to Pamplona, Spain for the Fiesta de San Fermin, which is more commonly recognized as the running of the bulls. Ernest Hemingway wrote reverently about the festivities that he witnessed and brought them to the attention of the wider world for the first time. Today, thousands of runners, wannabe runners, thrill seekers and party goers make their way to this small town each July for the eight day fiesta.
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Monte Carlo and Monaco
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
After watching the recent Monte Carlo Masters tennis event this past weekend, I realized I have never written anything on Monte Carlo or Monaco. Monaco lies on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and is completely enclosed by France. Monaco is often regarded as a tax haven, and many of its inhabitants are wealthy and from foreign countries. Monaco is a Constitutional Monarchy and Principality with Prince Albert II as head of state. Despite being independent, Monaco’s defense is still the responsibility of France. Monaco is the world’s second most densely populated country, surpassed only by the Macau Special Administrative Region in southeast China. Monaco is also the smallest French-speaking country.
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The New Heathrow Terminal 5
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a week or so now and finally I can’t think of anything else to write about so I can now take the piss out of the Brits and their brand spanking new Terminal 5 that opened to the public on March 27, 2008. And what an opening it was. On the day of the terminal opening, British Airways, which is the sole occupant of the new terminal cancelled 34 flights due to “teething problems” and was later forced to suspend passenger check-in. A malfunction in the new “state of the art” baggage handling system meant that nearly all flights took off without bags, and people faced delays of up to four hours as a result of waiting for baggage. On March 27th and 28th, 100 flights were cancelled whilst delays continued for a third day. British Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick dutifully admitted that over 28,000 bags owned by passengers were “missing”. Finally on April 2nd, British Airways reported that they were to send 15,000 of the delayed passenger bags destined for mainland Europe to Milan for sorting and return to customers-many people still haven’t received their bags.
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The Belarus Ordeal
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
On a 2004 trip to Eastern Europe, my cousin and I were in Riga, Latvia and we decided that we wanted to go to Minsk, Belarus for a day or two. So we consulted our trusty Lets Go book and it told us where the Belarusian consulate was in Riga. So we got in a cab and showed the taxi driver on the map where it was supposed to be. This is where the “ordeal” started.
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Riga, Latvia
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
Riga, Latvia is the largest of the three Baltic capitals and certainly the most cosmopolitan with everything you could ask for. Riga has a historic old town which has been classified as a World Heritage Site and the best nightlife in the Baltics. It is also awash with history, having been occupied by seemingly every major 20th century faction from the Nazis to the Russians, Latvia and Riga have stood the test of time and come out on top.
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Eurail Passes
By Lee | 5 Comments » 
I get a lot of emails and questions about train travel in Europe. First, train travel is relatively cheap, convenient and the quintessential way to travel around Europe. Trains are very comfortable and timely and since many countries and destinations are close together, you can save a lot of money by using a variety of train or Eurail passes.
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The Belarus Ordeal
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
On a 2004 trip to Eastern Europe, my cousin and I were in Riga, Latvia and we decided that we wanted to go to Minsk, Belarus for a day or two. So we consulted our trusty Lets Go book and it told us where the Belarusian consulate was in Riga. So we got in a cab and showed the taxi driver on the map where it was supposed to be. This is where the “ordeal” started.
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Post War Sarajevo
By Lee | 1 Comment » 
If you’re a twenty-something man from Sarajevo lucky enough to still be alive, you would have lived through a transfer of power from a beloved post World War II regime to a brutal Unitarian Serb nationalist madman. You would have lived through Yugoslavia’s greatest moment of triumph, the 1984 Winter Olympics. You would have lived through Europe’s first genocide since the Nazi Holocaust. You would have lived through the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from the Yugoslavian Federation and the ensuing brutal siege that occupied Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996. You would have lived through the massacre of thousands of Bosnians, Serbs and Croats on the rural lands and city streets of your people. You would have seen friends, family members and colleagues fighting for their lives against an unclear enemy and you would have survived to tell about it. But you wouldn’t want to.
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