On Monday I took an afternoon trip out to suburb resort towns Cascais and Estoril, which are on the Atlantic Ocean. In walking between the two along a beachfront promenade, I was surprised to see how high the seas were and how the waves were often crashing over the promenade itself. It wasn’t windy or […]
Read More Incoming SeaLisbon is not my favorite Portuguese city. Certainly there are some cool attractions and interesting history and beautiful viewpoints. But I much preferred Porto and Sintra, and now that I’ve been in Portugal for over 1.5 weeks, I’m mostly seeing the same Portuguese things again like azulejos, pastel de nata, cod, canned fish, port wines, […]
Read More LisboaPortugal is home to fado music, so I took in a show one evening in Porto. There was a guitarist, with a Portuguese guitarra player, along with one male singer and an older female singer, though the singers always sang solo and for separate songs. It was enjoyable overall, though it eventually felt repetitive to […]
Read More Fado NationHappy Halloween! 🎃 Conde Nast Traveler readers voted Portugal the best country in the world to visit for the second year in a row. I can see why – it’s got a lot going for it. What’s even more interesting to me is to see that the rest of the top five countries are all […]
Read More The Best Country to Visit?Azulejos are the tiles which decorate many structures around Portugal, including on and in dozens of buildings in Porto. Some examples are shown below. They help brighten up this otherwise grey granite-heavy city. While there are plenty of majestic buildings in Porto, many structures are worn down and look as if they are from a […]
Read More AzulejosFirst I should say that Porto is a very different place than all those eastern and central European cities I visited earlier on this trip! Architecture, people, climate, and more are all notably different, as would be expected. It feels quite unique and very old. It’s been raining off and on continuously since I’ve been […]
Read More Porto, PortugalZagreb is a city that just keeps giving. A 20-minute cable car ride to a mountain peak and ski slope opened up since Colleen and I were here earlier this year. And a robot restaurant has opened as well. Of course I sampled both, and then I also took my first Airbnb “Experiences” experience – […]
Read More Bots & PotsOn Saturday I rented a car and drove up north of Zagreb to explore a bit. First I visited an excellent and thorough museum about a large Neanderthal find (the largest Neanderthal bone collection in the world), then after a drive through some beautiful autumnal countryside scenery in the mountains, I explored an old hilltop […]
Read More Neanderthals“Ruin pubs” are a staple of the old Jewish quarter in Budapest, where I’m staying. This area of town, while quite central, remained largely deserted and dilapidated after the Communist takeover. Much of it is still dilapidated, but certainly no longer deserted! This is the prime party area of town (to my surprise), and this […]
Read More Ruin PubsI arrived in Budapest (Hungary is “Magyarország” in Hungarian, for the curious) on Wednesday. No more Poland, no more Slovakia. I’m still on the Danube, though. Colleen and I visited on a short day trip from Vienna with some friends back in 1998. I don’t remember much about Budapest from that trip, other than the […]
Read More Budapest, Hungary
Major Meander 