Chicago Travel Guide, Part I

I have heard it said that Chicago is a more manageable New York City. I think that is true. Chicago has the feel of a very large, metropolitan city. But it is not so large; and there is not so many things to do and see that one feels overwhelmed and not able to even find a place to begin.

We had basically a long weekend in Chicago, when we were there.. I would love to go back and spend more time there. But even our limited time, I felt, gave us a good primer, a good introduction to the city. Three days and two nights afforded us the opportunity to hit the main places that we wanted to go. But it was by no means enough time to do an exhaustive tour of the city.

Unless you absolutely detest baseball, or sports as a whole, an absolute must is Wrigley Field.

I truly believe that this would be a great place for anyone to go, even if you only have a cursory interest in the Chicago Cubs, baseball, or sports. This stadium is so unlike any other stadium around that it is truly a novelty.

There is much about modern stadiums to be desired . . . the music blaring through the speakers, the larger-than-life scoreboards, the food that is out of this world . . . those things are all good and great. But Wrigley Field takes you back . . . back to the way baseball used to be. It leaves you to wonder if this is the way it still should be?

Be it that way or not, going to Wrigley is an experience that every baseball fan should attempt to make at some point in their lifetime. It truly is unlike any park around.

Published Again!!

Check it out:

 http://reviews.indietravelpodcast.com/books/2013/how-to-travel-the-world-on-50-a-day-by-matt-kepnes/

Boston Travel Guide, Part IV

You gotta eat. So if you're gonna eat, eat well.

The aforementioned Pizzeria Regina is definitely at the top of my list for things to recommend in Boston. It just might be the best pizza I've ever had.

This place was very interesting:

Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the restaurant's name. I know it's in the North End. I'm 99.9% sure it's on Hanover St, on the east side of the road. What you see is what you get with this place: one room. Literally, that is all that the restaurant is. 4 or 5 tables and the kitchen is literally right beside you. I wound up ordering octopus (by mistake). But the presentation of the meal was incredible. They served it to me straight in the pan it was cooked in. Incredible.

Charles Street, close to the Charles River, is a great street to walk. We found a number of good eateries on that road, including a great breakfast spot, Panificio, as well as some wonderful small Italian restaurants.

I do remember being offended (sort of), though, while at Panificio, from the following conversation:

Guy in restaurant: "Yeah, not looking forward to today."
Proprieter: "Why not?"
Guy: "Gotta go to some little po-dunk town in Texas."
Proprieter: "Oh yeah, where?"
Guy: "Abilene."

I lived in Abilene for seven years. Abilene is not po-dunk.

A good rule of thumb when trying to pick among a number of restaurants (like on Charles St.) is to look for stickers on the door. Along with the stickers of which credit cards restaurants will take, some great restaurants will have certain identifiable stickers on their door, such as Zagat, Trip Advisor, etc. It's not that you can't go wrong when you see a sticker, as we have been disappointed in some places with those markers. But more often than not, I have found, that if a place has a Zagat sticker on it, you will most likely enjoy your meal.

A place I would not recommend going is Cheers.

I was told by others that it was not worth time. And they were correct. It's not worth your time, either. Fortunately, I was in the area, so I was walking by it, anyway. I would recommend only stopping by if you are literally walking by it. If not, you will regret the minutes it took you to get there.

Boston Travel Guide, Part III (Things Worth Checking Out)

My time in Boston consisted of a Thursday morning - Saturday morning. I literally squeezed every minute out of those days to see what I could.

The only problem is it rained about half the time I was there. However, I did not let that stop me. While nearing ruining a pair of shoes and almost catching pneumonia, I walked all over Boston, checking out the sights.

*Harvard--What a great place. The whole area and much of Cambridge is a great place to simply walk and take it all in. Unfortunately for me, my time at Harvard is when it rained the hardest. Therefore, I have almost nothing in the way of pictures. However, I was able to snap this picture while under an overhang. The picture doesn't do it justice because Memorial Hall is beautiful:

*Nooks & Crannies--It seems to be a universal lesson in travel, all around the world that things you find most interesting during your travels are not the things you set out to see and experience . . . but the things that you find along the way, such as this little gem at 17 Milk Street:

Now that being said, there are plenty of things worth your time and energy to see in Boston, like . . .

*The Old State House--You have to pay to go in to see the good stuff. But I just enjoyed seeing how it has been preserved amongst the newer architecture and buildings. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was first read:

*Paul Revere Statue & Old North Church--Boston has its share of statues, many of which are great. This particular view in the Paul Revere Mall is of note because of the view in the foreground of the church from whose steeple the lanterns were seen by Revere, telling him that the British were coming:

*Boston Common--No matter what time of year it is, this city park is great to walk through:

*Be Aware!--Not of crime, of which we witnessed none during or stay, or anything like that. But be aware of your surroundings. Boston is such an old, well-preserved city that breathtaking views are literally all around:

Boston Travel Guide, Part II

If you are in Boston; and you are a fan of baseball . . . or of sports . . . or of history . . . or life, you simply must go to Fenway Park.

I was surprised to see that the Citgo sign is not right outside the left field fence. In fact, the sign is not anywhere close to the field. It's a few blocks away.

Fenway Park is a beautiful sight.

At a capacity of 37,400, it is one of the smallest parks in the country. That also means there is not a bad seat in the house.

The Green Monster seats (on top of the left field wall) are pretty cool.

We were in Boston the week of the World Series. Since the Sox were not in the Series, not that I could have gotten tickets for it had they been, the only way to see Fenway was a tour. I highly recommend the tour.

Boston Travel Guide, Part I

Boston is a great city, full of history and spunk. It was in Boston that it first realized, though I had heard others speak of it for years, that there truly is a difference between the northern part and the southern part of the USA. I do not mean to say that one is better than the other; they are just different. To overexaggerate it a bit, people are overly nice to your face in the south; people pretty much give it to you straight in the north.

We experienced that while on a sidestreet in the North End, Boston's Italian community. We were looking for a specific pizza restaurant, which I must highly, highly, highly recommend. I'm not sure if it's possible to say something is the best. But if it's possible to classify pizza as the best I have ever had, this would be it, Pizzeria Regina:

Darn good pizza.

Anyway, back to my story. While trying to find Pizzeria Regina, we were walking down a sidestreet, off of one of the main drags in the North End, Hanover Street. We realized that we were clearly not headed in the direction that we wanted to be going, so we decided to ask for help. A foreman of a construction crew was the first person we saw. We hesitated to ask for his help because he was in the middle of cussing one of his crew members up and down. But we decided to go ahead and ask for help. It was amazing. He finished his profanity-laced stream, looked at us, asked if we needed help, provided help in a very friendly, warm fashion, then went right back to giving it to his guy. Very refreshing.

The lesson learned is one that we already knew and one that we continue to learn every time we travel. The main roads of a location and the main sights of a town can be very rich in flavoring your experience there. For instance, you simply do not want to miss things like Harvard, Fenway Park, and a cannoli at Mike's Pastry Shop. But what really makes your trip worthwhile and memorable is the places that are not highly touted in travel books, things that you never expected to experiences because these sorts of things get you in touch with local people, people living their day-to-day lives in ways that you do when you're at home. Getting off the beaten path, perhaps even getting lost, helps you connect with the true heartbeat of a place. When you do that, you come across the most amazing things, memories like this on a seemingly remote part of Beacon Street:

Nashville Travel Guide

Nashville is a great place to visit. Even if you're not a country music fan, you can find plenty to do and see during your time in the city. It's a great weekend excursion, though I'm not sure you could make a whole week out of the city, unless you plan on really exploring the area around the city.

I was impressed with the laid-back feel to the city. My first trip to the city found me staying at a retreat center, Scarritt Bennett Center, close to the campus of Vanderbilt University. That area really scratched my itch, as it has sort of an old, historic feel because of the beautiful buildings, mixed with a college vibe, with some organic, locally-grown food thrown in for spice.

Since Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, there is plenty to see and be a part of for the history buff:

There is more than enough to tickle your fancy with music. I was impressed that country music is just part of the Nashville scene. Much has been done there outside of country music. But country music does dominate:

While we did not actually take in the Grand Ole Opry or any other major country music sight, we have been to the Bluebird Cafe a number of times. Since I have already mentioned it in a previous post, I won't go into length here about it. But it is a really cool place:

Regardless of your musical taste, you really need to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Even if you are not a fan of the twang of a country music ballad, the slide guitar of a honky tonk, or the sad feeling of a tear in your beer, this place is very interesting:

I could write multiple reviews about the food. I won't bore you with all the details. So let me just list a few places that I would highly recommend you check out: Pancake Pantry, Fido's, and Donut Den.

Take a drive, walk, or ride up and down 16th & 17th Avenues, otherwise known as Music Rows. Recording houses and the meccas of music line these beautiful streets.

I wouldn't say Nashville should be on your list of places you absolutely must see. But, if you happen to be in that part of the country or can somehow make it there for a few days, by all means, do it.

Published!

Check out the great travel web site, Indie Travel Podcast (indietravelpodcast.com). A part of their site is a wonderful section of reviews of all sorts of different things, from places to accommodations to travel gear: reviews.indietravelpodcast.com

Part of what makes the reviews so wonderful is the reviewers. Ha! (I'm one.)

Anywho, I just had a review published: http://reviews.indietravelpodcast.com/books/2013/frommers-day-day-travel-books/

I've got some others ones on there, as well.

Food Is Good

When my wife and I travel, we tend to base our experiences off of what food is available and what food we consume.

I don't think that's really right or wrong. But I do think it's rather unique.

When others look through our travel photos, they either laugh or remark how good of an idea it is that we take so many photos of  the food we eat. And as we think back over our travel, we tend to rate our trips based upon how good the food was.

So, with that in mind, a trip to Austin, Texas last year was really, really good.

My mouth waters just thinking about it. The top pic is from Juan in a Million in Austin. I wouldn't necessarily say it's the be breakfast taco I've ever had. But it's definitely the largest.

Then there's Kreuz's Market in Lockhart. Hands down, best barbeque brisket I have ever had. Wow. So good you don't even need any sauce. And that's a good thing because they don't serve it, anyway.

Then there's Lone Star Donuts in Round Rock. Yep, they make a donut that is that big. We didn't get it. But their regular-sized donut is out-of-this-world.

One could have a great trip to Austin just by eating their way through these places. And as you find with most great eateries, it's not just the food but also the experience, the charm of the place where you eat it that makes the experience what it is.

Budapest Guide, Part V

Food. I will make some specific recommendations, then try to take a stab at some general thoughts about food in Budapest.

My first recommendation is what you don't have to do.

Literally everyone that we read or talked to about Budapest said that trying langos is an absolute must while in Budapest. It looks good, doesn't it? Langos is a fried, pastry sort of thing. We were expecting something along the lines of a doughnut. Whatever it is, we are not fans of it. We tried it in the Great Market Hall, as Rick Steves recommends. Simply put, just because everyone says it's good and that you must try it does not mean that it is actually good and that you must try it.

I do not know what Vorosmarty ter (square) is like throughout the year. But I know that in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it is awesome, full of vendors selling everything from knick-knacks to awesome plates of food to chimney cake. We had dinner there one night and went through a line pointing at stuff we wanted. The result was the plate of food above. Then for dessert we had chimney cake. Chimney cake is roasted, as you see above, seasoned (with cinnamon is great!), and then put into a bag so that you tear it off piece-by-piece. The result is incredible. As I said, I'm not sure what happens in Vorosmarty ter during the rest of the year. But if it's anything like Christmas season, go. Oh, and be sure to try the mulled wine. Mmmmm.

One of the simplest, yet best pizzas I have ever had, at Millenium da Pippo, a Sicilian restaurant on Andrassy ut (avenue).

Borsso Bistro, close to the hotel we stayed at, Butterfly Home. Rabbit in a paprika sauce, cucumber salad, and egg souffle was my dinner one night . . . and I was not disappointed.

Food in Budapest is a wonderful delight, full of many different options to try. As is true in most places, do what you can to get off the beaten path. While we were able to enjoy some meals on streets full of tourists and places catering to tourists, we really had to work to make that happen. The most enjoyable experiences were places on side streets, places away from the normal tourist tracks.

Of course, going to Budapest, or any place for that matter, in an off-season is helpful, as you will not be one of the thousands of people walking around the city. Restaurants and other businesses will literally be vying for your dollar, trying to entice you to spend some time with them. And your most memorable experiences will come not only from tasty food but also from experiences where you get a chance to visit with locals, where you are able to get to know the people of a particular locale.

Hungarians love their paprika and with good reason. They have learned how to flavor their foods well with this (is it a spice? an ingredient?). Whatever it is, it's good. And you will want to take some home with you. Try to immerse yourself into the foods the locals eat, staying away places that cater to what you normally eat while at home. Chances are, there will be plenty of those places around, wherever you are. For the most part, I would highly recommend steering clear of those places.

But I do have to confess that one of our last meals in Budapest was one at one of those places. For whatever reason, it sounded good. So we indulged our taste buds with it:

Burger King. Not too bad. And it did provide us with an interesting picture (right before a worker told us to put our camera up), with a whopper that costs 1,370 (forints that is, not dollars). And we thought it interesting to have Heineken as a drink option at a BK.