• Wine.  I used to hate red wine, partly because of my underdeveloped palate, and partly because of only being introduced to dry, oaky California stuff.  In Italy I had wine with almost every meal, and all of it was pretty decent.  I found out later that almost all Italian red wine is good, regardless of variety or price.
• History.  Something clicked in my brain when I walked up the stairs out of the subway station
  and was greeted by the Colosseum.  It's hard to grasp how long ago 2000 years was, but seeing it and touching it helps a little.  All of the history I'd seen up to that point in my life was a century or two old.  The Roman Empire was a millennium or two ago.
• Europhilia.  Prior to traveling, I was a staunch Europhobe, perhaps even anti-European.  They had their socialism and their losing wars, I had something different.  But visiting a place and having a good time there really helped broaden my horizons.  What with the wine and history, as well as the architecture and nice people, I learned Europe isn't all that bad.

1. Amazon's sole purpose for existence is to make their customers happy.  As a customer of Amazon and a customer in general, I reap the benefits of that purpose and enjoy them immensely.  Almost any practice that leads to my paying less for an item I desire is a win for me.  Unfortunately there's a hidden side to all this, which is the low wages and hectic working environment Amazon creates, as well as its considerable pressure on manufacturers.
2. Manufacturers have an idea of how much they think their products should cost, but merchants are under no real compulsion to conform to that idea.  This gets back to value and cost, and how something is really only worth something if someone is willing to pay for it.  It's interesting that manufacturers are sometimes so attached to the perceived value of their products that they're willing to exclude merchants like Amazon.
3. I have absolutely no compassion for manufacturers who feel bullied by Amazon to provide their products at a lower cost or in a somewhat different configuration.  The option in a free market is always in the manufacturer's favor.  You don't want to sell your widgets to Amazon for less than $10 a piece?  You absolutely have the option to walk away.  But don't whine and cry that Amazon wants too much of your business and it'll force you to cut costs.  By selling to Amazon, you're making a profit.  Don't want a profit?  Don't sell to Amazon.  End of story.

"Test ideas by experiment and observation.  Build on those ideas that pass the test.  Reject the ones that fail.  Follow the evidence wherever it leads.  And question everything."

• The Dominican Republic has a completely arbitrary $10 per person tourist tax that must be paid in cash when you get off the plane.  We forgot to bring enough cash, so I had to go through customs and immigration temporarily to get cash from a human bank teller, who told me my bank declined the transaction but my credit card company accepted it.  I got charged a $15 fee from the human bank teller and a $10 fee by my credit card.  So that was fun.
• Immediately after we got through customs and picked up our bags, some helpful gentleman asked us which limo company we were looking for and assured us he would help us find it, since we had pre-booked the airport-to-hotel transportation.  This gentleman brought us over to a table next to the other limo companies, and after a few back and forth exchanges, I realized he was totally lying to my face and that my limo company was five feet away.  Nothing like a scam with government oversight.
• The weather was amazing.  It probably goes without saying, but the temperatures were in the low 80s, the skies were clear and blue, and the rain came and went quickly and infrequently.  This was especially nice considering the brutal winter we've had this year and the possibility of missing our flight out of New Jersey due to an incoming snow storm.