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| Email/Newsletter Update: Issue #22 |
| Lisa and Joel's Excellent Adventure: Issue 22 ------------------------------------- -Good New and Bad News!- by Lisa A. Listro and Joel A. Sward Good news and bad news. First the bad news -- Tuesday, July 3rd, day 365 of Lisa and Joel's Excellent Adventure, one year to the day from when we set out, started like a day like any other. The plan was to “max it out” and further check out the scene in St. Petersburg, Russia. We went to The Summer Garden and then The Hermitage. The Hermitage is simply amazing. The building itself is incredible and the collection of art and rare treasures is one of the best in the world. We were in a great mood as we snapped a picture for the front page of the web-site in the square in front of the Winter Palace next to Alexander’s Column, with “Digi” (our digital camera). Sadly though, that would be the last time we ever saw Digi. We were hungry after half a day of exploring, so it was off to the golden arches. (Before you give us a hard time for eating at McDonald's, try traveling independently in Russia first.) McDonald’s was packed! So much so, that we decided to leave. On the way out two young Russian boys were holding everyone up between the two doors exiting the restaurant. Everyone got sandwiched inside and people where pushing and shoving. When we finally got out and walked about 20 feet, Lisa yelled “Joel, your pack is totally open – and Digi is gone!” We ran back to McDonald’s, looked all through the restaurant and even tried to ask a few employees for help, but they couldn’t speak a word of English. After walking around the block a few times, we gave up and went back to the apartment in disgust. We figure the two Russian boys who held us up in the exit-way were in on it. They, along with a couple other of their cohorts, probably saw us take a picture and put Digi in the top of Joel’s pack back at Alexander’s Column. Then they followed us to McDonald’s, two of them purposely stalled us in the exit-way and the others opened Joel’s pack and grabbed Digi from behind. Joel mistook someone opening his pack and stealing the camera for just pushing and shoving and it was that easy – they got away scott-free. Little bastards! They’re lucky Joel just didn’t happen to look back at the exact moment they were in his pack or someone would have gotten the shit beaten out of them. Joel even has a little padlock on the zipper of his pack, but he got in the bad habit of not using it. You just don’t expect someone to open your backpack, in broad daylight, in a public place, without you yourself, seeing, hearing, or even feeling it. Now the good news. Today is Sunday, July 15th, day 376 of this wild ride, and it has truly been a great day! We took a stroll, and relaxed by a pond in Vondel Park. It was a beautiful sunny day. Lunch was a glass of chardonnay and a roasted chicken sandwich next to a beautiful canal. You get the idea -- nice and relaxing. Things are looking much different than they did just after the robbery of Digi. We just bought a new digital camera. (The attached image is the first picture we took with it.) We are in Amsterdam, in The Netherlands, and things are good. We plan on finishing out Lisa and Joel's Excellent Adventure in typical "max it out" style so check out the web site and stay tuned for the next installment of the newsletter. Take care, Lisa and Joel ------------------------- Attached photo: Two Faces That Just Traveled The World, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ------------------------- (c) Lisa and Joel's Excellent Adventure 2001. All rights reserved. ------------------------- Lisa Listro and Joel Sward are currently unemployed, homeless world travelers. For more information on their adventure see http://www.JoelSward.com ---------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to this newsletter send email with subject containing "subscribe". To cancel subscription send email with subject containing "cancel". To change email address newsletter is sent to send email with subject containing "change" and list old and new email addresses in message. SEND EMAILS TO: lisa@joelsward.com ----------------------------------------------------- |