Useful Ameri-advice for Euro Travellers not explained in guidebooks

Installment 1: What to drink

Get used to drinking mineral water, coffee or booze. "Still" or "table" water is often served in a caraff that looks like it hasn't been washed since the days of Napoleon. And it's served at room temperature.

Don't even think about ordering a coke. Once by the Louvre, in a bistro lousy with tourists, a 1-liter plastic bottle set us back $17 USD. Yet my glass of wine was a little over $3 USD. Welcome to Europe.

Keep in mind Euro Fanta tastes like Orangina (even less floursecent orange in color), and Orangina practically flows from the fountains in the public squares. In fact, all food (think ketchup) and beverage contains less sugar.

One of the best things to drink is mineral water with a shot of exotic (by U.S. Standards, anyway) fruit juice. I urge you to partake of the juice of the kiwi, the mango, the gooseberry.

Oh, feel free to buy Evian. No longer cost prohibitive on this side of the Atlantic, it's cheaper than Dasani or Ozarka. Go Evian crazy.

Romero confession

confession:

I don't know my home phone #. Arturo finds this shameful. I'm kind of proud of this, sort of like how I've never eaten grits.

Paris!

Wow, have I not posted that long? The last post is from another freakin' year, for chrissake.

Here's a pic from our last trip to Paris in March. I miss it already. I hate summers in Houston. My hair won't feel dry for the next...oh...four months or so.

Post-Ike: I am speechless

Exactly 2 WEEKS after Hurricane Ike blew through H-town, we FINALLY got our electricity back. Yes, our house went 2 WEEKS without electricity. We went through 2 WEEKS of schlepping ourselves back and forth between the burbs and the city, wasting much gas and many hours sitting in traffic.

But now we are back home...in HALF-ELECTRICITY. Our A/C and half the outlets don't work. Something having to do either with the transformer or our house's connection to the power lines. We're not sure. Regardless, we're so relieved to be back home.

2 WEEKS later.