April 13th, 2002
Addenda
Countries I've looked at from across a river and/or sea: Liechtenstein, Morocco, Poland
Countries I've been to that don't exist as of 2002: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, German Democratic Republic, the USSR
Little known fact that's only extremely tangentially related: the word used for indigenous New Caledonians is in fact a European insult imported by the French, which is still used in Germany as a slur for foreigners (F Kanak, G Kanaker); it's been appropriated by the Kanaky thesemves as the 'correct' word for their nation, of all things
Countries I've been to that don't exist as of 2002: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, German Democratic Republic, the USSR
Little known fact that's only extremely tangentially related: the word used for indigenous New Caledonians is in fact a European insult imported by the French, which is still used in Germany as a slur for foreigners (F Kanak, G Kanaker); it's been appropriated by the Kanaky thesemves as the 'correct' word for their nation, of all things
Aha.
You'd never believe it, but Zinfandel and Primitivo have finally been identified as clones of the Croatian Crljenak varietal. UC Davis announced this in late January 2002, and I didn't happen to catch any articles about it at the time. Pretty wild, eh?
We've got a definite return date.
I've just called United and confirmed our return flights to the USA. See you on January 29, 2003, at about 10 in the morning, nonstop from Sydney!