Interesting Menu Options

I love it when restaurants are honest about their limited selections....

One of my favorite "International Flavorities" is Filet Migong complete with Fried Friend. I didn't ask if you get to choose which friend gets fried, but I should have.

Forget red, yellow or green curry, when "rad" curry is on the menu. Vegettables and mashrooms are also delightful.

The hilarious thing about this drink menu is that if you lift the sticker that says "ain", it says "ian", which makes it actually printed as Black Russian and then fixed to say Black Russain.

I didn't get a chance to talking with Run, but I'm sure him would have introduce give for me some great food choices.

I LOVE THAILAND!

Chilled Liquor and Hot Liquor

While in London, Mum, Jeff, Tina and I all took a trip to Turnham Green to check out the Griffin brewery where they make Fuller's London Pride beer.

We got to check out all sorts of awesome modern machinery like these giant kettles, but we also saw the old stuff they used to use way back in the day. Well, not way back in the day - the place has only been a dry brewery (no drinking on the job) since 1993. Up until that point, workers got beer tokens with their wages and they could use them on the job. People with icky jobs like shovelling grain out of mashtuns got more beer tokens, so those jobs were actually quite popular. Now they've got fancy shmancy machines to do those jobs, so only the tour guides and the tasters get to drink during the work day.
I was surprised to find all sorts of signs, pipes and machines that referred to "hot liquor" or "chilled liquor", but our tour guide explained....(and I double checked with Oxford Dictionary and Webster's Dictionary)
If you look up "liquor" in the Webster's Dictionary (for Americans), you get this definition: a usually distilled rather than fermented alcoholic beverage. So why do they have all sorts of liquor in a brewery?
The answer can be found in the Oxford Dictionary (for Brits). One of the definitions: water used in brewing. That's why you find pipes and storage tanks full of chilled liquor - it's just brewing water, not something you mix into a Cosmo or a daiquiri.
Did anybody who knows more about brewing than me know this already? I was happy to add it to my list of useless, but somewhat interesting facts.

Gotta Love the Brits...

Why do you have to love them? Because they are so polite, of course! Check out this sign outside "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub". It is a POLITE NOTICE. Isn't that sweet?

They are also very funny. This place is called Bung Hole 57. The name just makes you want to go in - who doesn't want to go into the Bung Hole shop or restaurant?

Really, America?

Misspelled signs are hilarious when you're travelling outside of the country. My birthday cake this year said "Happy Borthday", which was pretty awesome and original.

Did you know that in America, there are bad spellers, too? How awesome is this sign found in the airport in Missoula, Montana? Since when was the plural of "woman" womens?

Fancy Hand Dryers

Here's something I miss about America: signs in English. This particular sign is especially wonderful because it gives 3 step directions for drying your hands. That seems like an awful lot of effort when I can dry mine in one step: wipe on shirt.

The new theaters that opened up in Southcenter in Tukwila, Washington have installed these hand dryers that are fast, hygienic, and environmentally friendly. I have yet to find anything similar here in Casablanca, so drying my hands in 3 easy steps was a pretty exciting experience. Fancy Schmancy!

Language Confusion

Could somebody please tell me what this says? Also, why was this writing on a bus in Rabat, Morocco? Sure doesn't look like French or Arabic to me. Any insight would be much appreciated.

Alkohole

I thought Restauracja was the best Polish word ever until I ran across this sign. It made me laugh. What better place to get a few drinks than the Alkohole store?

Cemetery Wall

Kazimierz is the old Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Katie and I took a tour walking around the area and were quite fascinated with the story of the old Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery was used from 1552 to 1800 and was in some disrepair when the Nazis destroyed most of what remained during the Second World War. After the war, it was put back together as much as possible, but some gravestones were beyond repair. To make sure to honor the memory of the people buried there, the tombstones were used to form a wall around the perimeter of the cemetery.

Some of the gravestones on the wall still had faint Hebrew writing on them. I thought it was a beautiful way to rebuild such terrible destruction.

English Wrapping Paper

It's always exciting when you find English writing here in Morocco - the country has French and Arabic everywhere, so English is not common. I loved this wrapping paper that wrapped one of Krista's teacher Christmas gifts. "Conjugal bliss" isn't what I would pick out to wrap a teacher gift, but with limited availability, I guess it works. :) The metallic foil really added to its beauty.