The journey is now complete.

Behold! This picture is an authentic picture of a Croatian slug. This particular Croatian slug was photographed on the stone steps leading up to a cathedral that I discovered while walking with my mother in downtown Zagreb. Although I cannot confirm any personal information about the slug, I believe that this slug may have been some sort of slug priest either travelling to or from its congregation given the fact that I observed this slug on a Sunday night. Also, be sure to not the divine 'v' of it antennae.

I travelled 4,000 miles bring back this (and other) information.

A little about the trip itinerary- we departed from Knoxville to Detroit Sunday the 18th, then Detroit to Amsterdam. International flight technology has grown more than I imagined, and I was able to pick the movies I watched and play games such as solitaire, reversi, and taipai on a little screen in the back of the chair in front of me. I would have taken a picture but cell phones were not allowed on the plane. Alas.

Though our 4 hour layover in Amsterdam was insufficient for us to venture forth from the airport and sample of the fruits of Amsterdam social life, we enjoyed our stay in the airport immensely through the consumption of much beer and the smoking of some excellent cigarettes. As a curious note, I discovered that not only did they still have cigarette vending machines in Amsterdam, but that smoking is allowed for the ages of 16+ as you can see on this picture.

The final leg of the flight was from Amsterdam to Zagreb. It was amazing. The armrests still had ashtrays built into them. They didn't have ice for the Cokes. The pilot spoke in another language BEFORE he spoke in English I knew I had arrived in a foriegn land. When we passed through Croatian customs, our journey through the beauty of Croatia (note - no sarcasm here) had finally begun.

So- over the next few weeks I will be putting up photo posts talking about my trip to Croatia. However all further posts will appear on a new blog page that I will start shortly. The link will be up when the page is. This page will be dedicated to the trip, and when stuff about the trip is done with, it will be dedicated to something else. I am taking this course of action in order to prevent substantial disruption in the usual idiocy, blathering, and tom foolery usually illustrated by this page.

I will close today's entry with a photo of a praying mantis I met on the Isle of Ist. Though I did not have any actual conversation with this mantis, I like to call her Father Head Eater. I know that there are no female priests in the Catholic church and that she would techinically be "Mother Head Eater", I figure that things might work a little different for praying mantises since the male's inevitably get their head eaten. Furthermore, I have no proof of the Catholic inclinations of this mantis, the number of Catholic shrines on Ist island suggests a predominantly Catholic insect congragation. This is a tribute to you, Father Head Eater, keep your congregation straight and true, and eat the heads off those who stray so that they may no longer see the way and thus be more easily be led back to Mantis righteousness.