BRIAN O'CONNELL'S roundup of travel blogs
Born on Pentecost Sunday in 1977, Conor is a Kerryman based in The Netherlands. He's blogging his way through his travels at http://conortje.word press.com. We learn that he is a regular enough bloke who hates paying for public toilets, dislikes kiwis (the fruit), has one kidney and is a committed vegetarian. His recent account of a visit to New York is a strange mix of deodorant and doormen, of vampires and vibrating bodies.
He describes Abercrombie Fitch as "possibly the world's most terrifying shop", and his descriptions read like a postcard from Guantánamo Bay, with lack of natural light, booming music and artificial smells pumped into the shop.
All this, our blogger tells us, is done in an effort to make the shopper so disorientated that "you can't hear the cashiers tell you just how much money you are about to part with".
The object of the shopping trip was a bottle of aftershave - although he ended up buying two in the ensuing "sensory confusion".
Traumatised by the experience, clutching the cologne in his sweaty palms, and with a buzzing noise still ringing in his terrorised ears, he did what any self-respecting Irishman would: he hit the town.
Everywhere he went, in true New York fashion, Conor was asked for ID, a process he describes as "utterly respectable and dignified".
We have a tale of internet addiction disorder (IAD) from João Rufino, a Portuguese citizen living in Ireland, who blogs at www.jpprufino.com
During a recent trip to Ukraine, our blogger was without internet for a week, undergoing a process he terms "internet detox".
After several days' nil communication, not helped by his lack of Russian or Ukrainian, Rufino began to feel an intense sense of loss.
"Something was missing," he tells us, "and it made me wonder if I was addicted to the internet". He goes on to list recognised symptoms of IAD, including internet escapism, withdrawal symptoms and risky behaviour.
In the end, he confesses to a "passion", yet he feels that it has not interfered with his personal or professional life. His self-diagnosis: "Being informed is my addiction, and that's not that bad. I think."
Finally, over at the www.thebeerrevolution.blog spot.com, Kieran Curtin, who advocates moderation, describes himself as a beer enthusiast without a beard.
He comes to us with a sweaty tale of finding a new use for beer while travelling recently in Finland.
In the middle of a leisurely afternoon sauna, his host suddenly produced a can of beer, which was mixed with water and thrown on the hot coals.
As the aroma took hold, the occupants of the sauna were gently enveloped in a "steamy, malty, bready, beery cloud".
"Honest, it was really nice," he tells us. "My non-beer- drinking wife even liked it."
Of course, the Finns weren't the first to come up with this unique aromatic closet - us Irish have had them for years. We call them nightclubs.
More from Curtin and his beer travels soon.
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