A Plug for Buenos Aires

In many ways, one city is much like the next.  All have the same basic features; buildings, highways, airports, homes, and so on.  But there's no denying that while all share a common structure, some cities are hip and fun, and others are quite simply not!  How do you define this difference?  I don't know.  Maybe its the people?  Perhaps you need some history, good or bad to make a place interesting?  The answer, I think is elusive and could be entirely subjective, but the vibe I get from some cities is palpable and real.

 I'm still very much a kid when it comes to travel.  Some places excite me, and Buenos Aires is near the top of this list.  Why?  A few reasons come to mind.   One, this place has a volatile history marked by populist highs and military junta lows, prosperity followed by repression, and on and on.  It was only thirty years ago that intellectuals, college professors, and lets face it, almost anyone with an non-sanctioned opinion brave or foolish enough to voice it were not so quietly "disappeared", more than thirty-thousand of them.  Today, street protests are, common, the government feels like it is one short step away from ouster, and the cycle continues.  There is a hint of tension in the air - I like this.

But apart from history, this place has a lot to offer a tourist like me.  The architecture is very european, in fact walking the narrow side streets of Recoleta, you could easily forget you were in South America.  The food and restaurants are in general superior.  The climate is mild. The people I have met are warm, friendly, and by and large, beautiful.  I dont want to understate this, but these are really pretty people.  Argentina was settled by natives first, and later by waves of Germans, Italians, Spanish, and later still by Eastern Europeans, and I must say, at least genetically it makes for a really nice combination.

And there is still more!  Want a great wine?  No need to import that.  Some of the best wines I've tasted in recent years were Malbecs from the Mendoza region.

Want to learn how to Tango?  Just look down!

Or even look up!  By the way, that not the side of a truck, its the entire side of a rather large building.  They like their tango here.

By the way, if the Argentine Tourism Bureau wants to donate a bottle or two their finest Malbec for these kind words, I'll be only too happy to provide the mailing address!  Just doin' my part for the cause...

The Accidental Tourist

If you travel enough, it will happen.  Your flight will get cancelled, you will miss a connection, weather will ground you - something unexpected will come along to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into your otherwise well planned journey.  This is inevitable.  It happens, and it will eventually happen to you too.  If you are lucky, at least you will get stranded someplace cool.

Departures board at Brussels International

On my recent trip to Europe, I was stranded overnight in just this way. I was scheduled to come home on a Friday for what would be my first full weekend at home in six weeks, and the only one I would have for another four weeks.  I was really looking forward to this.  I had an early morning flight from Prague to Brussels, a late morning hop from Brussels to Amsterdam and then an afternoon departure for home.  Plenty of time between flights was left just in case.  I try to plan  for the unexpected, but sometimes even well laid plans don't work out.  While sitting in the Brussels airport waiting for my flight, I half heard an announcement over the PA.  I didn't get the whole message, but I did pick up the only two words that mattered - "Amsterdam" and "cancelled".  "Crap!  I walked to the nearest departure monitor and sure enough, it was my flight - and it was the only flight to Amsterdam listed.   I was stuck - no way to make my connection.

My first call was to my travel agent who turned out to be fairly useless.  "Do I want to get there using three connections and arrive 30 hours later?  Um, no!!"  My second call was to Delta who confirmed there were no seats available out of Brussels until the following day. I truly was stuck now.  Fortunately, I was stuck in Brussels - This city is famous for among other things, beer, chocolate and waffles - and seriously how can you go wrong with beer, chocolate and waffles

I grabbed one of the few available seats on a flight to JFK the following day, negotiated a hotel room in the center of town with the airline (they will pay for this if the delay is their fault), miraculously found my checked suitcase sitting on a baggage belt while I was looking for someone to help me find it, and grabbed a taxi.

I had only passed through Brussels before, and never saw much beyond the airport.  My hotel being near the center of town, the surrounding neighborhood was very old and the buildings very ornate.  The few cornerstones I spotted dated the buildings to the 1600's.

Oh yeah, and the beer was pretty good too!  I don't get to be a tourist all that often.  I travel for work afterall, and the trips are generally packed pretty tight.  Most of my "sightseeing" takes place in a taxi going from hotel to meeting to airport.  And as much as I wanted to spend this weekend at home, you have to count your blessings once in a while and enjoy your circumstance.  Hey, its a free day in Brussels!  And did I mention the whole beer and waffles aspect...

A few more shots taken at night

If This is Germany, Where is the Schnitzel?

I spent two days in Stuttgart this month.  I really like visiting Germany, much more so than I ever imagined I would.  This is not a place that was ever on my tourist wish list for a few reasons.  First, Germans have a reputation for being a rather cold and humorless bunch (I have found this to be untrue), plus I didn't really know of too many "sights" there worth seeing.   After all, much of the "old Germany" is gone, compliments of the RAF and the USAAC I suppose.  On my first visit to Dusseldorf, I made the mistake of asking my local companion why there were so few old buildings.  "You didn't miss many" was his response.   Oops.

All that aside, I do like Germany and I recommend it to anyone touring Europe.  The cities are very clean and apparently safe, the countryside is beautiful with mostly rolling hills, many spotted with vineyards, and English will mostly get you by.  Oh yes, and did I mention they have beer?  Really good beer?

I was free one evening and decided to try some local food.  I took off walking from the hotel through the Bad Cannstatt neighborhood which had numerous restaurants and bars, but for the life of me I could not find a German place.  Italian?, Spanish?, no problem.  Sushi or Falafel - everywhere.  Sauerbraten?  Nowhere in sight.  Perhaps I just didn't wander enough streets, or maybe I didn't know what a traditional German restaurant looked like.

After wandering for an hour or go with nary a bratwurst in sight, I accepted defeat and entered an asian place where I was greeted by a very petite Chinese looking girl who asked me something in German with an obvious asian accent.  I speak no German, of course and she apparently no English, so almost as a reflex I tried a little Chinese.  She looked at me strangely and rolled her eyes, said something in some other asian tongue and walked away.  After getting a look at the menu, I discovered that this was not a Chinese restaurant but Vietnamese.   Oops once again!

The Vietnamese food was good.

It Must Be My Lucky Day...

Today I entered a raffle at work with multiple prize options such as gift cards, wine bottles, an iPad, etc...  This was a fund-raiser for United Way so I was happy to contribute   Anyhow,  One of my tickets was a winner

I am happy that I won of course, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but seriously! - a night in a hotel?  I spend half my life in hotel rooms.  This is a bit like giving a drowning man a glass of water.  Those who knew me but not my travel schedule were quick to congratulate me.  Those who know my situation better just laughed.  I laughed too...

Tokyo Hotel Room

I've stayed in some very nice hotels, and some not so nice places too.  This is without a doubt the smallest room I have ever seen, at the Shinjuku Washington Hotel in Tokyo.  Had to leave the room to turn around...

Taken from the "far" corner

Here is the closet - a hook!

And the bath!  Pure luxury!

I quite literally had to duck to enter the bathroom as the door opening is less than six feet.  Had to duck in the shower too. 
 

Beijing Duck

I think if you travel to Beijing and you don't try this famous dish, you will miss one of the greatest foods ever created.  Whole duck roasted slowly over a wood fire, basted so the skin becomes golden and crispy, moist and crunchy all at the same time.  And the meat juicy and succulent.  Truly amazing.

Our duck was carved tableside and beautifully presented.

To eat this, you place few pieces of the meat onto an impossibly thin crepe, along with some strips of vegetables, some rich dark sweet sauce, wrap the crepe around the contents and eat with your hands - a rare thing in China.  

The best part - taking just pieces of the crispy skin, dipping this in sugar crystals and eating this like the greatest tasting candy ever!

3 Days Off in Beijing

A few days into this trip, China had a national holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival.  As my customers and colleagues would not be working, I had a decision to make.  I could be a good boy and continue working from my Shanghai hotel room, or I could go f#%& off somewhere.  It took about three nanoseconds to make that decision.  I was going to Beijing.

I had never been to Beijing even though I had been traveling to China for seven years.  I had told my plans to Darren, a british friend in Shenzhen while I was there earlier in the week.  Darren faced a similar quandary, he had also never been to Beijing, and before long a new plan had emerged.  Darren, his girlfriend and a friend of hers would meet me in Beijing!  As they often say in China, "more people, more fun".

It was a great time.  We toured the Great Wall at Mutianyu, we saw the Imperial Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, and we enjoyed some great food too.  Beijing Duck will change your life!

A few pictures follow.

The Great Wall at Mutianyu
One of the "newer" sections of the wall - only 600 years old...

The Olympic Village in Beijing

Tiananmen Square

Huge, crowded and LOTS of security cameras!

Each one of the light poles in Tiananmen Square had a minimum of eight cameras.  I estimate sixty such poles.  More cameras atop the surrounding buildings.  "GeGe" is watching you!

The Imperial Palace

The Summer Palace

On the outskirts of Beijing