I’d be remiss in wrapping up my sabbatical – or more specifically, my sabbatical blog – if I didn’t mention my experiences as a laptop, Internet and wi-fi user on this trip.
First, the laptop itself: I’ve done the majority of my e-mail and blogging on a Toshiba Portégé with Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology. The Toshiba is a delight, weighing some ridiculously light amount without the supplemental battery, and a very reasonable weight with it. Battery life has typically been 1.5-2 hours, or 5-7 hours with the extra battery pack. The only thing that’s left me scratching my head is that the laptop seems to have a mind of its own; it decided at some point during the trip that it is European, actually changing the settings in Microsoft Word to prefer the British spellings of words like “favourite” and “colour.” No matter how often I reset it, it changes itself back, so I’ve come to accept that it’s just happier that way.
Unfortunately, I found that in many locations I visited, I wasn’t able to find a wi-fi connection, or even use my laptop with a LAN connection. Some hotels and Internet cafes used dial-up connections that wouldn’t work with my laptop; others refused to let me connect directly, for fear I’d use a lot of bandwidth in a short amount of time (i.e. connect for just a minute to send several e-mails I’d written in advance).
When I did find wi-fi connections, they were typically either difficult or impossible to connect to, or very expensive. I thought the $6-10 per day I’ve seen in the US was a bit high, but in Europe I’ve been charged up to $30 a day! At those prices, suddenly a quick stop at an Internet café starts to look pretty appealing.
My favourite wi-fi service in all of Europe has been Eurotel in Prague. There you buy a pre-paid card that can be used either to charge up the minutes on your cell phone or to log into the Internet wirelessly on your laptop. The prices were great, it was easy to use, and their hotspots were in places I was comfortable using my computer for a while, like a mall or a coffee shop. (Somehow hotel lobbies just don’t cut it, especially when you’re not a guest there, and it feels a bit conspicuous to sit in a public square or park doing e-mail.)
The blog has been a great way to stay in touch with family and friends without having to repeat the same stories over and over, and it will be a great memoir of my trip to look back on. It’s also been interesting getting some direct experience with the whole blog phenomenon, and it was especially fun to watch it get 800 hits in one day when The Inquirer linked its “crazy picture of the day” to my site.
Surprisingly enough though, the majority of my visitors weren’t from the Inquirer; in the last seven weeks I’ve had nearly 2,500 visitors to the site. In addition to my family and friends, I’ve noticed in the last couple weeks that a fair number of hits are coming from Google searches, which was entertaining when I figured out that I can see the search terms used. Here’s a sampling of exactly what people were looking for when they ended up at my blog:
• Drunken debauchery
• Charles Babas
• Ischia spa nude
• Italian pedicure
• List of French foods
• What not to wear (this one came up many times)
• What shall I wear to Prague?
• Barbara Grimes blog (there’s a shocker)
• Absinthe Prague
• Absinthe makes the heart grow stronger
• Gnocchi
• Pilsen neighborhood folkloric clothing stores
• Day after absinthe
• Prague blog
• Dr. Strangelove front
• Miss Prague
• Somewhere over the ocean
• How do you say gnocchi?
• Mcdonald's grimace photo
• Intel blog
However you ended up here, thanks to everyone who has followed along with me on this trip from afar. Your support and comments have meant a lot to me!
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