I realize that many places do not accept American Express and that’s OK. I have an AMEX card from the company for company expenses, which I use quite regularly.

I booked a The Grove Hotel, Malahide, Ireland over the phone, and they took my credit card details, where I stated that it was an American Express card and they wrote on the paper “A/X” indicating this. When I checked into the hotel, they wrote the credit card number down again and looked at the card. This time they specifically wrote “AMEX” on the paper.

When I went to check out of the hotel, they tried to charge the credit card, and realized that they cannot take American Express cards. They can’t process them.

You’d think they would notice sooner? Heh.

I ate at an interesting restaurant in Malahide, Ireland. It was a place called “Jaipur Experience”, a fancy Indian restaurant. It was interesting mostly because it was fancy.

The whole idea of fancy Indian food is just a clash of cuisine. If you imagine fancy French food, with extraneous vegetables and things cut pretty and arranged perfectly, and combine that with Indian spices, that’s exactly what this place is like. Considering that Indian food is generally meant to be eaten with bare hands, it just felt weird to eat fancy food like that. Odd.

The man would not stop whistling. What would drive someone to whistle incessantly in such close quarters as economy seating on a trans-atlantic flight?

I was sleeping and “wheeee whut” comes a shrill whistle from the man next to me. Awoken by his misplaced musical inclinations, I’d glare at him until nearly falling asleep again, and the shrill whistle repeats. I think he might have been insane.

The funny thing about whistling is that it really carries. I mean really. And it sounds over any music you might be listening to. Hrmph.

Today I started the first of my upcoming travels. I am now sitting at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport, waiting for my flight to New York. The story starts…

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