I spent a considerable while researching cameras. Upgrade to a newer DSLR? Perhaps a Micro Four-Thirds (MFT) model like the Panasonic G3 or Olympus E-PL1? Maybe a more compact (yet fully functional) Canon Powershot S95?

Ultimately, I went back to the Panasonic LX5. I think it’s a good choice for me at this point of my travels. I’d been satisfied with what I’d gotten out of my previous use of that model (from Japan to Turkey).

Somewhat magically, my “replacement” LX5 arrived the morning after I placed the order on Amazon.com. Compared to my used LX5, the new one feels shiny, crisp, and smooth.

In addition to all the cosmetic nicks, scratches, and general wear on the body of the old LX5, the rear LCD shows signs of corrosion from the seawater that had seeped in when it plonked into the water in Turkey.

The metal body has a lot of abrasions, from grinding against stone, concrete, and other rough surfaces. I’d have to buy a protective cover to avoid these, and I’m not going to bother getting one for the new LX5, either.

The old unit is a Japanese domestic model, so all the labels and digital menus are in Japanese. The bottom of the camera saw so much wear that the serial number has worn away. My new unit is localized to USA/Mexico (English/Spanish).

When it comes to bulk and weight, there’s no question which style of camera is better suited to light-weight travel.

Although I was able to manage toting the Nikon D40 around for several months, locking it in my backpack (with at least the toiletry kit removed) when needed, it really was cumbersome in many situations, drew a lot of attention to me in others, distracted me with worry in some, and made me fatigued more than the compact LX5.

It took me time to get re-acquainted with the LX5′s settings and controls, but after some fumbling, my reflexes returned. At first, it was very weird not using an optical viewfinder, and I really missed the quick response of manually operating the zoom. The LX5 feels a little slower than I remembered, and low-light results are a little disappointing after using the DSLR (with its larger lens and sensor). I’m now also noticing noise/dithering in even bright scenes like clear blue sky at ISO80, but prolonged use of the Nikon D40 made me comfortable with the noise at higher ISO settings, so that’s okay.

I’m still happy with the LX5. It’s very inexpensive compared to a DSLR and MFT (which I’d probably have upgraded to a couple of nice lenses), and it does mostly what I want. I also get to continue to make use of all those extra LX5 batteries, which is a plus. We’ll see how long this one lasts…

The Air Berlin flight from Düsseldorf to San Francisco was an ordeal. My symptoms had been getting worse, and I couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold my left arm without feeling like it was about to pull off my shoulder. My entire forearm felt like one huge, twanging funny bone when it wasn’t feeling tingly, numb, or knotted. My upper back was a similar mess. The in-flight meal was scant consolation.

It’s a good thing that I was returning home anyway. See family and friends, yes, familiar sights, blah blah, quality medical care, sure. My main issue was that with my left arm stricken, I cannot properly wring dry my hand-washed clothes. Light-weight travel, it seemed, is on pause until I can get better.

My sister recommended I see her chiropractor. She even phoned and made a same-day morning appointment for me. Sure, I only had fifteen minutes to go from sleepy-in-bed to the doctor’s office ten minutes’ drive away, but I made it, getting lost only twice.

Some paperwork, one informative video, and a free consultation and neck adjustment later, I was at another office getting my spine blasted by x-rays, with a lead-lined cup hopefully shielding my boys from the worst of it.

At my next appointment (as a paying patient), the chiropractor explained that the mild scoliosis was the least of my chiropractic concerns. Her main concern was the phase one subluxation (vertebral misalignment) in my neck, and a lesser subluxation in my back. From the side, my neck resembles a giraffe’s, without the normal gentle, backward curve. This puts pressure on the sacks of gel padding each vertebra, which can lead to additional problems if left untreated (phases two through four (painful immobilization)).

The doctor mused that my condition has been building up over time, from sitting on planes, trains, and automobiles for too long, too often. Instead, I suspect that my approaches to avoiding snoring (sleeping on my (usually right) side, propping my head up at a steep incline) are the main culprits.

Yes, travel is educational, but it can also be perilous to one’s spine.

My treatment consists of adjustments and exercises, three times a week for four weeks, then twice a week for four weeks, then once a week for four weeks. Pretty expensive in time and money, but if it gets me my back back and me back traveling, then it’s worth it. Three months, though, is a lot longer than I had expected to be visiting…

I was keeping the €50 in the security pocket along with my passport. Maybe it slipped inside the passport, and a ticket agent, security screener, border control, or gate agent thought I was bribing them?

Maybe it will still turn up…

I’ve nearly exhausted my small stash of euros. I’ll need to exchange some of my $ for € if I want to continue doing fun tourist things, like eating.

Unfortunately, Germany isn’t big on independent currency exchange shops. Some banks and the tourist information office are the only places I’ve found in Cologne that will buy and sell cash. Without competition, their conversion rates are poor.

Currency exchange is much more competitive in Poland. Kraków exchange shops charged about 1% off the bank rate, which is extremely good. It’s what I got when I withdraw cash with my ATM card (back when it was un-expired).

Gdańsk had slightly worse rates (maybe 2% off the bank rate), but still bearable.

The tourist information office in Cologne, however, buys and sells around 3.6% off the bank rate. On top of that, they charge a 1% commission off the transaction, with a minimum of €4 per transaction. The effective rate works out to be about what it was back when the euro was strongest against the dollar last year. I’d have to change €400 (around $675 with today’s rates) for the commission effectively 1%. No way I’m going to change that much (not that I even have that much cash on me!). Banks seem to offer even worse deals.

So, changing $100 will get me around €65. That’s about €6 worse than if I had been able to use my ATM card. Of course, if I change more, the commission will cost less proportionately, but then it’s an even bigger waste of money. I should have done more research before leaving Poland. Changing dollars into złoty and then złoty into euros would have been less expensive in Kraków.

Bah. In the larger scheme, it’s not a lot of money wasted on currency exchange. I only need to make it until my Tuesday afternoon flight.

It was very dusty on most of the roads. I couldn’t tell if the vegetation was reddish-brown because it was dry, or if the color was from a thorough coating of the powdery dirt flung into the air. It got so bad that we stopped off at a road-side shop to buy a filter mask for me.

Destinations included a mushroom farm, Wat Sampeu (with deep caves that the Khmer Rouge flung victims into), and Wat Banan.

The highlight of the day may have been a ride on the ‘bamboo railroad’, so called because the ‘train’ is a bamboo platform mounted on a couple of axles, powered by a small engine.

The train tracks had been abandoned during the Khmer Rouge years. Even after, no trains run on the tracks. Despite the poor state of the rails (the ride is loud, jarring, and clackety), enterprising locals started using the tracks for independent transport. Tourists use it for kicks.

Since there is only one set of tracks, and bamboo trains run in both directions, whichever train has the smaller load must make way: the losing side lifts and moves its bamboo train off the tracks so the other train can pass.

Perhaps more interesting to me were the Ise-style udon, which were indeed simple and tasty.

Photos of the inner shrine enclosures are prohibited (there’s no way for a regular visitor to even glimpse the actual shrine), but there was plenty to see from the pleasant walking paths. On the way back to the Ise train station, I strolled through Kawasaki Kaiwai, the old merchants quarter with its long shopping street.

Since I was kind of in the area, I ducked over to Meoto Iwa, the Wedded Rocks, in nearby Futami. By the time I arrived, the sky had clouded over. At least I did my research this time and visited during high tide. There was also a sea park not too far along the shore, but it was already quite late.

I spent an hour at the Futami train station, waiting for a train headed back to Nagoya. It got cold and windy up on the platform! Back in Nagoya, I checked out the view from the observation floors of the Marriott above the JR station before finding a place to eat.

I found myself up in high places a couple of times. The first was up in the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence’s cathedral.

Later, I crossed il Ponte Vecchio, a bridge lined with gold and jewelry shops, and had some of my near-daily diet of gelato.

I spent the late afternoon and evening up at Piazzale Michelangelo on a nearby hill, affording gorgeous views over Florence.

Stupid bed bugs.

The pharmacist marked down on my map a street that was within walking distance. She said that numerous doctors have their practices there. When I got to the area, I saw a bunch of buildings with medical-sounding signs in Polish. I’m not sure if I ever did find a proper hospital in that area.

Another pharmacist suggested walking up to the hospital on Kopernika street. The day was overcast and cool, but still pleasant, and I worked up a bit of a sweat walking over. The activity also helped loosen up my muscles, although they still gave my nervous system a poke every so often.

The hospital was actually a campus of medical services distributed over many buildings. The signs were again only in Polish, but I was able to guess at some. Nefrologii?  Urologia? Nah, probably not.

I finally found signs pointing to an emergency room, but I couldn’t identify the actual entrance. Fortunately, there were a bunch of medical students from America hanging out in front. They confirmed the emergency room, but advised me to try a private clinic on Łazarzas, not that far away. The wait would be much shorter.

I was able to see an orthopedist at the private clinic within fifteen minutes of arrival. The visit cost 100 zł (a little over $30), which I thought was quite reasonable. The English-speaking doctor conducted a brief interview, then checked my spine (no problems) and back (weak and flabby). Nothing so serious that some mild activity and back massages and time won’t fix. Wearing my backpack shouldn’t be a problem, either.

I filled a prescription of 150mg Biprofenid, a stronger painkiller and anti-inflammatory than the ibuprofen I had been using. Luckily, I now know where I can find a bunch of pharmacies.

I’ll see how it goes…

Luckily, I carry emergency cash for just such an emergency (except when I don’t).

I’m flying back home in a couple of weeks. I have one more week in Poland, which is not so expensive, and then one week in Germany, which is quite expensive. In Poland, hostels, museums, and cheaper eateries are often cash-only, but I can at least (probably) pay for train tickets and supermarket purchases with credit card. In Germany, I expect I will be able to pay with credit card more often than not.

I may have just enough emergency cash (including leftovers from a spectrum of countries) to cover expenses through then, but I definitely need to implement some austerity measures of my own, at least when it comes to cash transactions.

That, or I sell blood and then hit the casinos!

I’ve been in Kraków far longer than I expected (11 days so far). Where did the time go?

During my travels, I’ve kept my pleasure reading pretty spare. I’m usually doing utility reading: Lonely Planet, Wikitravel, Wikipedia. “Leisure” reading may be the odd blog or ten.

After a couple of days of sightseeing Kraków, I started reading a Kindle novel to pass the time (the hostel was dead; I seemed to be the only guest). One novel turned into two, two turned into seven…

Without much structure in my life, I don’t have much discipline anymore. I’ve become a creature of impulse.

One day, I woke up with a sharp pain in my back, around my left shoulder blade. It hurt to look up. It hurt to reach down. It hurt to sleep on my front, side, and back. Pinched nerve? Sore muscle?

It was probably from staying on my back or slouching up in bed all day while reading. Reading = bad!

I gave it a few days of rest, at the same time trying to keep some level of activity (walking, stretching) so my back wouldn’t lock up even more. The first anti-inflammatory cream I got from a pharmacy didn’t seem to help. I found some Bengay at a different pharmacy. It seems to be helping a bit. I can now lay on my back to sleep.

Usually, I wouldn’t be too worried about how long my back took to heal. This time, I have a bit of a time constraint. I’ve already booked an inexpensive flight from Gdansk to Cologne, Germany; my flight back home is from Dusseldorf.

I have one week left in Poland. I hope my back doesn’t prove to be a huge distraction!