Saltfiend
Well, at least sweeping will be easy…
It’s looking a little bare at the moment, but I just moved into a new place back in Boston. And guess what moved in next door? A new sushi place. They must have known I was coming. Time to craigslist-shop for a chair, or something.
Posted on Jun 27, 2007 - 07:27 PM
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…And the beer is $1 ‘Gansetts
I used to take the bus between Boston and Hartford a lot and I always hated stopping in Worcester. It seemed to take an extra hour to get on and off the highway and I would inevitably lose the once-free seat next to me to some guy who smelled like he was keeping a week’s worth of wet cigarette butts in his pocket. But there was always one bright spot to the trip: seeing this sign. “Only in Worcester,” I would think while sneaking a glimpse in the always-open front door to see what kind of people “had the time” at noon on a Thursday.
Little did I know that I would soon be a patron at this fine establishment. Ben had told me his band was playing gigs at an old converted hotel, but I guess I had never noticed the name because it wasn’t until we parked and turned around that I realized it was the same place. Let’s just say it’s better than I could have imagined. The main bar has a giant marine-themed mural circling the walls. The second part of the bar was built in the shape of a ship’s galley, and the basement is a former speakeasy once frequented by Babe Ruth. The upstairs used to be a hotel, of the pay-by-the-hour variety. The owner, who looks like he should be setting lobster traps instead of pouring draughts, is eager to tell the history of the place and proudly proclaims that the bar has been open every day since 1901.
Oh, and the show was great. Unfortunately Ben is moving to Alaska for the summer, but they better book some more shows there for the fall.
Posted on May 19, 2007 - 05:04 PM
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The suitcase has been emptied
I suppose it’s high time I post the last chapter of my trip home. After Paris, I took the TGV to Biarritz and then a small train to cross over the border into San Sebastian. After the incredible weather in Paris I guess it would have been expecting a little too much to have nice weather at the beach. When I arrived it was cloudy and cool and stayed that way for the next five days, aside from an hour here or there when it cleared up and I grabbed my camera.
San Sebastian was much bigger and more of a city than I was expecting, which was a nice surprise since I needed to find something else to do other than lie on the beach all day. The hostel was in an excellent location, with a balcony in our room overlooking the old town square. From there you could explore the old town which was full of bars doubling as restaurants, with dozens of plates of tapas luring you in from the street.
The first night there I was rooming with a Canadian girl, and we met up with another girl from California and a guy from France and had an excellent dinner and then some wine on the beach. While sitting around and talking we were visited by a friendly neighborhood bum who stole my camera. Fortunately whatever drugs he was on had slowed his reaction time down quite a bit and I was able to steal it back, and I didn’t even have to stand up.
After the beach adventure we went into the old town and found a bar called Tas Tas. I’ll admit that I thought it was a strip club from the name, but thankfully I was mistaken. The place was absolutely packed; I was practically given the Heimlich maneuver over the bar as people squeezed through. I couldn’t believe how many people were in the city in general… at 3 am the tiny streets were so packed you could barely walk down them. I can only imagine what it’s like in the summer. That was Saturday night though, and the following nights it was like a different town; many of the shops and bars/restaurants weren’t even open.
During the day I spent most of my time wandering around to the different beaches, or up to the Jesus statue that overlooked the city. I also spent a good amount of time hanging out at my favorite cafe on the corner with 1.30 Euro coffee and free wifi. One day I decided I desperately needed a haircut and found a place where they kindly offered to speak bad English. Unfortunately the haircut took them about 90 seconds and cost me 30 euro, and I had to leave with soaking wet hair since getting it blow dried would have cost even more.
After five days the hostel started to feel like home and my roommates like old friends, but it was once again time for me to squish all my very dirty clothes into my suitcase and head off to the airport to catch a flight to Dublin. Unfortunately when I got to the counter my suitcase weighted 23.9 kilos and I needed to get it down to 15 or else pay 8 euro for every kilo over that (thanks Ryan Air!). After 3 tries I got it down to 15.9 and the lady let me slide. I really don’t understand that policy though… isn’t it all going on the same plane? And isn’t it better to have the extra weight in the cargo area rather than stuffed into my backpack which now no longer fits under the seat or in the overhead compartment?
Despite the minor luggage trouble, I made it to Dublin with no problems, threw everything in the tiiiiny 6-person room in my hostel, and explored Dublin luggage-free for the first time. It really is an adorable little city, but feels small compared to Paris and even Prague. I arrived home to a discussion about gun control between my Algerian and American roommates, put in my two cents and then got some sleep. The next morning it was back to the airport and thanks to the back-of-the-seat screens full of games and movies I was in Boston before I knew it. On the way in we did a really nice flyover of the Cape, which was the perfect reminder of why I’m excited to come home.
Once again I’ve got some new pictures up on Flickr here.
Posted on Apr 24, 2007 - 04:48 PM
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Tes Pieds!
Cue that song “I love Paris in the springtime… It was 70 and sunny every day, like we walked into a guidebook. I’m really glad we didn’t buy the metro pass since we only took it when we had to move our luggage. The rest of the time there was no reason not to walk everywhere we wanted to go.
The first day Zuzie and I came in on different flights to different airports, but successfully found each other at the hostel. After dragging our suitcases up a tiny wooden staircase to the 5th floor, we set off and explored Montmarte, which was a much nicer area than everyone made it out to be. We got some crepes and fruit and made our way down to the Champs-Elysees to meet Zuzie’s friend Olivia. We ate at a sort of fruit-themed restaurant that was really good even if they completely forgot about my meal until 45 minutes after everyone else had eaten. After dinner we caught the sunset at the top of the Arc de Triomphe and on our walk home we saw something sparkling in a shop window and turned around to realize it was the Eiffel tower all lit up and gorgeous. I don’t know whose idea it was to put all the little christmas lights all over it, but it looks like some sort of little girl fairy-tale princess dream.
On Tuesday we caught the Pompideu center, Notre Dame, the Seine, and the Tuileries. We made ourselves an excellent lunch of baguettes, camembert, fruit, some incredible orange-mango juice, and dessert, of course. I had a beignet and Zuzie had a tarte au chocolat, both of which were too big to finish but made for a nice snack later after they spread grease all over our bags. We walked back up to Montmarte for sunset and found a great little cafe for dinner. We asked for a menu and the lady apologized and said that they only had the chalkboard, but then walked over and grabbed the big sandwich board and propped it up on a chair at our table so we could read it. Slightly embarrassing, but very sweet of the waitress. All the people who perpetuate the stereotype that the French are rude or unfriendly are dead wrong. Everyone was incredibly accommodating and patient with my meager French. Then again, I did just arrive from the Czech Republic, so the concept of a waitress smiling at me was a little disconcerting.
Wednesday and Thursday included more walking, walking, walking with frequent park bench breaks. We caught some old guys playing a lawn bowling type game. They looked like they had been there every day for 20 years, and they even had a coat rack set up to hang their jackets on while they played. When I’m 75 I’m moving to Paris to join them.
For dinner on Wednesday night we stopped in some crowded tiny restaurant. There was an empty table ready, but the waitress ushered us to a big table up against the front window where there was already a German family and an older American couple. The waitress held her hand out in front of me, and I couldn’t figure out why until the big American guy bellowed in a Southern accent: “Come on over darling! I won’t bite!” So I had to step on the chair and over six peoples’ dinners to get to my seat. Before I had figured out the best way to sit down, a lady on the street reached in the window and showed me the picture she just snapped of me straddling the table. The rest of the dinner was less eventful thankfully, although the American couple were pretty hilarious.
On Friday morning we got up early so we could make the most of Zuzie’s last day. We walked down along the river to the Jardin des Plantes, yet another beautiful and expansive garden. We explored some more of the Marais and got some of the famous falafel on Rue des Rosiers. Unfortunately Zuzie had to pack up and get to the airport, and it was really difficult to say goodbye to my last connection to Prague.
All in all, Paris was bigger, nicer, friendlier, and actually cheaper than I was bracing for. I couldn’t get over how unbelievably massive all the public buildings and gardens are. It’s hard to believe that in a city that big there’s still room for something like a military museum that takes up as much area as the entire center of Prague. We learned the lesson the hard way that comparing Paris to Prague distance-wise is not smart. By the time Zuzie left on Friday my feet (I was wearing flip-flops of course) were so dirty I actually got made fun of them in French. The girl behind us in line to get a metro ticket took one shocked look at them and exclaimed “Tes pieds!” Thanks, as if I wasn’t embarrassed enough of them already.
Here’s some photo highlights of the trip.
Posted on Apr 17, 2007 - 12:24 PM
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Seven months in the blink of an eye
Well, I was expecting to do more of a daily update during my trip, but I forgot how exhausted you get after walking around a city for 10 hours a day. For now though I’m sitting on a train for the next 5 hours, so I’ll start with a post about my last week or so in Prague.
Thanks to Matt’s courageous defiance of jet lag, we packed a lot in his three day trip. He arrived bright and early on Sunday and we spent all day walking around, drank some pilsner in the park, got a huge dinner at around 10 and headed home. I made a joke about dragging him out to reggae night at Acropolis, and next thing I knew we were catching the last metro across town, and we ran into Tizon and a bunch of his friends from Spain doing the same. I don’t know how he did it, but Matt didn’t even fall asleep on the night tram.
On Monday it was gorgeous again so we wandered around the castle and made our way to Sparta stadium to catch a late afternoon soccer game. It was a nice consolation for missing opening day back home, and had the same feeling to it. After the game we got dinner at a quintessential czech restaurant: lots of wood panelling, people toasting, and a waitress who wouldn’t let me order the trout I wanted, and picked whatever else she thought was appropriate. We also got beer cheese for the first time (even Zuzka had never had it suprisingly). It was pretty tasty but smelled godawful. To top off the night we had a few beers at Cross Club. I had never been there on a Monday night, and now I know why. They were playing the most hardcore drum and bass I’d ever heard… on the flyer for the show one of the types of music listed was “Horror”. It fits with the atmosphere though, so I think it made for a proper first impression of the place.
After Matt headed off to London, everything sped up. I had just a few days left to go through my stuff, pack, and make it to one last Afrodisiak show. But for my last full day I abandoned packing in favor of a ride down the alpine slide, bowling, pool, and my first trip to a casino, where I managed to make myself a small fortune in blackjack… at least enough to allow me to eat in Paris. So I sprung for a taxi and we celebrated at an afterhours club, and it was another sunny and beautiful day by the time we left.
I’ve got a few shots of my last days in Prague on Flickr. Check them out here.
p.s. Update from France/Spain coming soon…
Posted on Apr 15, 2007 - 04:17 PM
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Allons enfants
Unfortunately, after my third french film this week I can’t get “La Marseillaise” out of my head. I didn’t know any of the words beyond the first line, but Wikipedia came to the rescue as usual. So forget humming, now everyone will know to steer clear after they hear me threatening to slit the throats of my enemies’ wives and brothers in french.
We first watched an amusing mockumentary on Jacques Chirac called “Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac”. It was nice to laugh at someone else’s president for a change. The second movie was a cute but average summer camp comedy called “Nos Jours Heureux.” I think I had seen part of it on the flight home in December before I fell asleep.
And the last one was part of the Febio film festival which is going on at Andel. They have an incredible amount of movies showing, although the number we can watch is somewhat limited because most of them only have Czech subtitles. So we just showed up and bought tickets to the one with English subtitles. It turned out to be a film called “Indigènes” about the North African army that came to help France in WWII. It wasn’t bad, but pretty typical of a war movie. It did have some relevance due to the ongoing fight to reinstate pensions to soldiers of former french colonies, which had been frozen in 1959.
In other news, we found a great dive bar last night called Al Capone’s that has an impressive list of cheap mixed drinks (a rarity in the Czech Republic). Not that I’m sick of the beer of course, but I’ve got to prevent scurvy somehow…
Posted on Mar 28, 2007 - 07:37 AM
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Check your couch cushions!
Just caught a pretty cool Japanese poster exhibit at the Museum of Decorative Arts. It was on the small side, but the variety was great—everything from stark to overwhelming. I particularly liked this guy’s blue bald spot.
After the exhibition we got some food at a South American bar, and then watched people learn how to salsa dance. I’m also ashamed to admit that I went to TGI Fridays today. But don’t worry, I’ll get back to experiencing Czech culture tomorrow when I visit the Jewish Quarter with Sarah, Sabrina’s friend who’s visiting from Nantes. Not for long though… tomorrow night’s burrito night!
p.s. The watch I lost 4 months ago miraculously appeared under the couch cushions this morning. I am pretty ecstatic about this, although it does mean that I can no longer justify buying this one (with wood grain face!). Which is for the best… I have enough trouble as it is with my analog watch, and that at least has half the numbers on it. One without numbers or marks of any kind is just a bracelet with a battery to me.
Posted on Mar 22, 2007 - 01:44 AM
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On the road again
Hi everybody… welcome to my new blog. I’m about two weeks away from wrapping things up here in Prague. It’s going to be incredibly difficult to leave, but I am looking forward to getting back to Boston too. Prague has a lot going for it, but it’s missing one thing: the ocean. So when I start missing castles and cappuccino and efficient transportation systems and honey cake and my international cadre and strange electronic music, I’ll just take the squeaky blue line up to Revere and drown my nostalgia in the Atlantic.
Until then, I’ll be making the most of the time I have left here. Matt’s coming to visit soon, so I’ll be sure to drag him around to all of my favorite spots. And Sabrina was nice enough to lend me her 35mm camera so I could get some black and white shots of the city to take back home. Anybody know of any community darkrooms in Boston?