The Hopp Stop » travel

Daily Links, Tuesday, November 23

Hopp — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:30:34 +0000

Earlier this year, I shifted my daily links to the sidebar (Links of Interest?). The downside of the move is that I can’t add any commentary–or rather, it doesn’t show up in the sidebar. I’m going to reverse that move starting today and add some additional thoughts.

James Fallows summarizes the state of security thinking in the US, in light of the recent TSA kerfluffle. As I was telling Vanessa last night, my big issue with the “nude” x-ray machine, enhanced patdowns, etc., is that they don’t make me any safer than under prior security measures, but instead are part of security theater. Fallows touches on this in his post. If I felt that these measures represented a change in thinking in the TSA, a move away from responding to the last near-miss (in this case, the Christmas 2009 underwear bomber), I would be willing to give up some convenience and some dignity. Until then, the TSA is just another source of frustration in my life.
Photos of the long-closed City Hall Station on NYC’s 6 subway line. Spectacular station, complete with skylights.
Another great essay on the TSA.
Robot Unicorn Attack, Christmas Edition! Phil Kong introduced me to this amusing iPhone game from Adult Swim.
Loving Coffee Without Being a Drip: amusing story from NY Times food critic Frank Bruni on his search for a better coffee experience than Mr. Coffee and the French press. He mentions the Japanese V60 system, which Ritual in SF switched to from French presses earlier this year. I’ve been using the Bialetti stovetop espresso maker lately, as the chalkiness of French press coffee is getting tiresome, and may give the V60 system a try.

Good eating in Denver

Hopp — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:53:55 +0000

French toast biscuits at Atomic Cowboy

Blake and I traveled from our respective coasts to Denver for this past weekend’s Great American Beer Festival and some good times with Chris and Kristi. Denver has a far better restaurant scene than I expected, and I’ve had some tasty meals in my visits to the Mile High City since the Waltons moved there. Especially well represented are good breakfast/brunch joints, something that San Francisco does only passably well (jury is still out on NYC–too little information so far).

Brunch at Root Down

Highlights from this most recent trip include French toast biscuits at the Atomic Cowboy (a bar serving breakfast biscuits until 2pm, with a pizza joint also located inside) on Friday morning; an SF-caliber meal at Colt & Gray on Saturday night–shame it was so cramped inside, though; and breakfast at Root Down on Sunday morning. Mmm…

Chris gets ready to dig in to some toffee pudding

The Steven Slater song!

Hopp — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:31:40 +0000

Love it. (I assume everyone has heard about the JetBlue flight attendant that flipped out.)

How to order coffee like a Roman

Hopp — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:07:19 +0000

This Budget Travel blog post has a good video about the Roman coffee-ordering experience. Vanessa and I, along with our friends Danny and Leslie, enjoyed a granita di caffe con panna from Tazza d’Oro, as seen at the end of the video. It’s coffee ice with whipped cream, but that description fails to capture just how tasty the confection is. It’s like the best coffee ice you could imagine, not too cold or too crunchy, with great whipped cream. And you eat it looking at the spectacular Pantheon, since the Piazza della Rotonda is just around the corner from Tazza d’Oro.

Here’s a shot of Vanessa enjoying a caffe (espresso) from a little snack bar one afternoon. When in Rome…enjoy your espresso at the bar in a couple sips.

Euro Diary, June 16: Budapest

Hopp — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:12:24 +0000

Note to readers: I realize that these posts are not going up in order, but I’m publishing the posts as I complete my journal entries. My itinerary has been Warsaw to Krakow to Budapest.

After some cheap Hungarian wine to close out the night on Monday, none of us were up for an early start on Tuesday. Our plan was to take a day trip to Szentendre (St. Andrew), a town up the Danube (towards Bratislava and Vienna).

Hotel breakfast was followed by a quick subway hop across the river to Buda, where the subway station was a transfer point for the HEV commuter train. Continuing our streak of good fortune with transit timing, we reached the ticket station at 11:16am, with an 11:18 train to Szentendre waiting on the platform. 35 minutes of leisurely train travel later, we were in Szentendre.

It is a pretty little town, a nice change of pace from bustling Budapest. There are a fair number of galleries and jewelry shops, as the area has historically had a strong artists’ presence. There are also the inevitable tourist kitsch shops to cater to the tour groups that showed up mid-afternoon. Until the masses showed up, it felt like we had the town to ourselves.

I stopped to have a Lantos, a piece of fried dough with a choice of toppings. Cheese or sour cream are the most common; I went with cheese.

While walking along a street that runs next to the Danube bank, we came upon a little cafe with a free WC (water closet), very important for Mino and his infant’s bladder. While taking our turns in the WC, Mino noticed that the cafe served Unicum, a famous Hungarian liquour produced by the Zwack company. My guidebook described it as like Jagermeister, but harsher. Mino’s said it was like the stuff you drink to force yourself to vomit (syrup of ipecac). Glowing reviews! When in Rome…so Mino and I each took a shot of it. Apparently they realize how foul it tastes, as the bottle and the shot glasses are kept ice cold to minimize how much of it you actually taste. Meghan was kind enough to take a video of our efforts.

In the Unicum heyday (which paralleled Budapest’s), in the late 19th century, Zwack advertised the drink using some great ads that Rick Steves described as “Guiness-like.” I’d agree; see the photo below for a taste. This was hanging on a wall of a building in Szentendre.

After our Zwack attack, we continued to walk through town. At the highest point, there is a very old church set in a plaza with a pleasant view of the city’s rooftops.

Our Szentendre visit then included a relaxing sit at a cafe tucked away on a side street. While the local youths chatted and smoked inside, we sat outside and enjoyed the sunny weather (from the cover of the umbrella, of course). I ordered an iced coffee and received an iced coffee that also included a scoop of ice cream–bonus!

With 45 minutes to go before our boat ride back to Budapest, we decided to sample some Hungarian wine, hopefully better than the 400 Forint Ferenc that we had the prior night. Mino picked out a rose, which might have been decent, except that it was served at room temperature (this, despite the admonition on the bottle to served chilled at 10 degrees Celsius). Some ice in our glasses–a first for me–and the drinkability increased.

Once on the boat, we were all surprised by the relatively dimunitive size of the Danube–not as large as expected given its stature in my mind. The boat ride was pleasant and after an hour we were back at Pest for a walk to our hotel.

We were all tuckered out after several long days, so we made dinner in our hotel room, read and planned for the next few days before calling it a night.

Euro Diary, June 11: Arrival in Warsaw

Hopp — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:08:40 +0000

Note to readers: I haven’t had time to integrate photos into this post, but I have put up some Warsaw photos here.

My early Krakow photos can also be found at my Flickr page.

Today (Thursday) I arrived in Warsaw, Poland after flying from SFO to Chicago, then Chicago to Warsaw on the national Polish airline, LOT. The trans-Atlantic leg was a bit grueling, with the flight clocking in at almost ten hours. In addition to the usual cramped seats in steerage, I was fortunate to deal with a group of ten-year-olds sitting behind me that kept switching their seats (result: lots of banging of my seat) and thought it fun to play with the tray table connected to my seat. Their torment was not limited to me, as a poor older lady two seats over also had her seat repeatedly banged. While she did nothing, I finally had enough, turned around and told the kids in stern fashion to stop it. I probably should have banged the table and seat of their mom, who was negligently sleeping across the aisle.

There was also a large group of Polish teenage girls who had a social gathering in their seats, rather than try to get some sleep on the overnight flight. This didn’t really bother me, as I had earplugs, but it was amusing to watch an older Polish guy hit on these clearly underage girls.

When I couldn’t sleep, I watched many episodes of “24: Day 7″ (the recently concluded season) on my PSP.

Once on the ground, I caught the correct bus from the airport to our hostel. However, there was still a several block walk from the bus stop to Nathan’s Villa Hostel (where Mino and Meghan were waiting for me). I managed to get disoriented and wound up walking about a half an hour out of me, clear off of my limited maps. That made it difficult to find my way back on track, but I was able to do so and showed up at the hostel as a grimy, sweaty guy. Mino and Meghan were there to greet me and, after dropping my bags off, we were off for some sightseeing. However, we weren’t able to get out the door without attracting an interloper: a Canadian gal who was in from Berlin and decided to invite herself along. I’m not sure if that’s common practice in hostel culture, but she wasn’t much of an addition due to her boring personality and interest in vintage clothing shops and ridiculous Polish outfits, to the exclusion of anything else in Warsaw.

Our walk took us north to the heart of the old town, along a lively street (Nowy Swiat) that is part of the Royal Way–what the king would take when leaving town for Krakow, if I recall correctly. On my misadventure from bus to hostel, I noticed that everything seemed closed, and M&M confirmed that the Poles were celebrating a holiday (what, exactly, remains unclear). As we walked north, masses of Poles were walking south. It appeared that a church service had gotten out just then.

The old town in Warsaw is a bit strange to behold, once you know that the town was almost completely leveled in World War II. It was rebuilt to perfectly match the pre-war appearance, complete with crooked buildings in certain places. I don’t find it to be Disneyland-esque, as some have characterized it, but it is strange to look on the buildings and know that they are only 50-60 years old. Also, I was interested to see that the Communists had been in charge during this reconstruction, as their own architecture is so brutal and ugly.

By the end of the walk, I was really dragging after all of my travel and could hardly keep my eyes open. Mino and Meghan were also quite fatigued, as they had taken an overnight bus ride in from the Baltics. We went back to the hostel and took naps.

One thing I realized that evening when we were all getting ready for showers: I packed too much clothing, and some of the wrong kinds of things. I didn’t realize that Mino was doing the true hostel life, with two pairs of travel pants, no jeans, no nice shirts, etc. Luckily I packed somewhere in the middle of a luxury vacation suitcase and a hostel suitcase, but my 4 collared button-down shirts and nice pair of jeans aren’t likely to be used.

Dinner was at a nearby Indian place, with constant rain requiring some dodging from arcade to arcade for cover. We then returned to Nowy Swiat for dessert before turning in at the hostel. Apparently there were some noisy drunk gals hanging outside of our window for some time during the night, but my REI ear plugs saved the day (or maybe it was just my tremendous fatigue) and I slept like a champ.

Off to Krakow in the morning via train…

European travels, first report

Hopp — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:12:02 +0000

[I've been keeping a journal of my current trip to Europe. With all the traveling, it's tough to find time to actually post on the blog. Here's the first, about yesterday (Monday) in Budapest. More to come, and I've got photos to add in as well...]

2009/06/15, Budapest:

Today we slept in somewhat, getting up at 9:30 to make our hotel’s free breakfast cutoff of 10am. From there we were off on a walk through innner Budapest, starting with Vorosmarty Ter and a quick duck into Gerbeaud, a famous cafe that Vanessa and I visited at least once on our 2008 Budapest trip. From the cafe, you can have a cold beverage or a coffee and watch the square goings on.

The weather was warm and humid, with rain expected. Although the rain never came, it stayed warm, in the mid-80s by my estimate. Backs were sweaty all day. I also regretted (1) wearing jeans today and (2) not bringing my convertible North Face pants; Mino was wearing his pair of convertibles.

Vorosmarty Ter connected us to Vaci Utca, a major shopping street that is closed to automobile traffic. It is rather touristy and lacks much of the appeal it would have had under Communism, when it was an oasis of Western capitalism (including the first McDonald’s in the Warsaw Pact countries). At the southern end lay the main indoor market in town. Vanessa and I had not made it here during our last visit, so I was glad to see it with M&M. The market had an impressive facade and was a pleasant surprise inside, with a great selection of fresh produce and meat on the ground floor to go along with the knick knack vendors on the second floor (or the first floor, as it is called here). We picked up some salami and tomatoes as the starting point for a home-made dinner later.

From there, we walked west to the midpoint of the Liberty Bridge, which connects Pest to the Citadella part of Buda. There is an old church carved out of the rock face, see photo. Also, there is a freedom monument on the top of the Citadella that was prepared for the Communists after WWII and repurposed for Hungary after 1989.

After a walk up the eastern bank of the Danube, back on the Pest side, that was parts busy road + tourist buses and parts relaxed cafe scene, we walked over the famous Chain Bridge and then up to Castle Hill in Buda. Vanessa and I took the funicular (elevator that travels at an angle) to the top last year, so I was fine with doing the walk and enhancing my back sweat this year.

I’ve come to prefer Rick Steves’ travel books to those of Lonely Planet, Frommers and the like after using his Eastern Europe book. Among the facts he provided about the castle on Castle Hill: it was a post-WWII reconstruction after the castle’s complete destruction in the war and is not historically accurate. The Lonely Planet Budapest book V and I used last year managed to omit this significant fact, leaving me believing that the castle was very old. It is true that a castle has stood on that spot since medieval times, but not that castle.

Moving on, we skipped the History Museum in the castle, which was fine by me–saw it last year, solid but uninspiring–and moved on to the old town in Buda. The main attraction, Matthias’ Chapel (named after perhaps the best kind in Hungarian history), was unfortunately undergoing significant renovation, so we satisfied ourselves with a quick external look and a view out over the Danube to the Pest side of the city.

We wrapped up our afternoon by navigating the subway (pretty easy, actually) to return home to our hotel for a little napping and soccer viewing.

After a pleasant dinner masterminded by Meghan (salami, cheese, tomatoes, fresh bread) and enjoyed with some Chilean wine (purchased with the last of our Polish zlotys), we were off to Franz Liszt Square, a hopping cafe and bar scene that was only a block from our hotel. Vanessa and I had eaten dinner at a restaurant there, Menza, that is still very well regarded in Hungary. This time, the team focused instead on finding an outdoor table at a cafe that offered a good view of the US/Italy Confederations Cup soccer match, as well as inexpensive half liters of beer. “Incognito” met the mark, allowing us to watch as the US received a horribly unjust red card in the first half to go down a man, then actually led for some time thanks to a penalty kick conversion by Dave Matthews I mean Landon Donovan, but some loose midfield play and excellent marksmanship by the Italians led to a 3-1 final score. At halftime, some folks in their twenties, who had been sitting by us at our cafe, got up to leave. On their way out, one guy stopped by to say in accented English, “So wait, you are Americans, and you like football? Am I getting this right?” He had a smile as we laughed in response and confirmed his understanding.

Back at home, we planned our next day and tried to tolerate some low-quality Hungarian wine from the Eger region, where we plan to take a day trip. That would scare me about the merits of the day trip, but we did only pay $3 for the bottle, so I remain hopeful that better wine is out there for us to try.