Vancouver Street Food – Japa Dog Takes Gold
By · CommentsThe world will soon descend on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games. As the games approach, I find myself catching the Olympic spirit – and craving a hot dog.
Sports fans who travel to British Columbia should take the opportunity to check out a unique and tasty bite of Vancouver that would surely grab the gold in any street food culinary competition.
If you’re too good to eat at a hot dog stand, stop reading now. But if an outstanding hot dog with a Japanese flair turns you on, then Japa Dog is your place.
More than a hot dog, Japa Dog offers turkey, beef, pork and veggie sausages covered with creative and crazy combinations of Oriental garnishes like seaweed, Teriyaki and soy sauces, grated raddish, bonito flakes, fried cabbage, plum sauce, edamame and Japanese mayo.
It may seem strange to be in Canada standing in line for a Japanese take on an American icon, but it’s worth the wait. You can find the Japa Dog stand on the corner of Burrand and Smithe Streets in downtown Vancouver.
I always enjoy reading my Budget Travel magazine and often find helpful hints and money saving tricks to pass on. February’s magazine is no exception.
In this month’s Reader Tips, Anita from Washington suggests exchanging emergency information with your travel partners. She suggests that everyone in the group enter the full name, date of birth and emergency contacts of every member into their cell phones. A good tip.
There’s also a helpful little article highlighting three hotel comparison sites.
Travel to Nerja: Stay at the Hostal Don Peque
By · CommentsIf you find yourself needing a place to sleep when you travel to Nerja, along Spain’s Costa del Sol, call on the friendly folks at the Hostal Don Peque.
Very near the old city and just a short walk to the water, the little accommodation is clean and convenient. There’s a handy, but expensive, parking garage nearby and the tourist information office is only a few blocks away. The owner, (I think her name is Clara,) was on hand every day during our visit. The hostal also rents beach towels and chairs.
We ate breakfast on the rooftop terrace one morning during our stay, but found the fare to be a bit simple for the price. I thought 6 € was a tad much for bread, jam, orange juice and tea, but the views of the sea and the rooftops of Nerja were nice.
A great place to soak up some sun, Nerja has plenty of sand, restaurants and clubs to keep any beachcomber happy, and the Don Peque sits right in the middle of it all.
National Geographic Traveler Review
By · CommentsI just finished reading the Jan/Feb 2010 edition of National Geographic Traveler and found two articles to pass along.
First was an interesting piece comparing different methods for learning a foreign language, a skill I have never quite mastered. Oh, I can stumble along with the typical pleasantries in one or two foreign tongues, but stumble is the best I can do. You don’t have to be out of the country for long to figure out that speaking the local language would come in handy when you travel to a foreign land. According to the article, only nine percent of Americans are bilingual but more than half of Europeans speak two or more languages.
Next was a short piece on surviving an airplane accident. The article, which claims “nearly 96 percent of passengers in U.S. plane crashes survive,” has several tips that can help readers avoid that fatal four percent.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find links to these articles on NatGeo’s website, so you’ll have to grab a copy of the magazine for yourself
Travel to London: Don’t Miss and Dismiss Day Trips
By · CommentsDon’t Miss & Dismiss is an occasional series of travel guide posts about the best (Don’t Miss) and worst (Dismiss) tourist sites in cities all over the world.
London day trips is the topic for this installment of Don’t Miss and Dismiss. There are numerous sites huddled around the British capital and below is simply a sampling of a few I’ve visited.
Don’t Miss: Hampton Court Palace
So close to central London it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a day trip, but you could easily spend an entire day at King Henry VIII’s enormous palace. Right on the Thames, the palace is one of my favorites. I especially like the Tudor kitchens and Henry’s apartments.
Dismiss: Leeds Castle
About one hour southeast of London, Leeds Castle has an incredibly beautiful exterior and mostly disappointing interior. Built on two islands in the Len River, the castle’s setting makes for great photos, but the renovated interior is dull and uninspiring. Leeds is 11th century on the outside, 1930’s on the inside.
Don’t Miss: Warwick Castle
If you travel to only one medieval castle outside London, make it Warwick. It’s a little hokey, with Madame Tussauds figures manning the dungeon, but the ancient fortifications and elaborate halls and staterooms help fight off the commercialism. About 2.5 hours from London, day tripping to Warwick makes for a long day, but it’s worth every minute.
Dismiss: Stonehenge
It’s hard for me to call it a dismiss, because I always wanted to see Stonehenge, but it’s really just a grouping of big rocks in the middle of a field. An England icon, I was relieved to see the stones had been restored upright after Clark W. Griswald knocked them over during his family’s European vacation. As I look at my photos, I might have to rethink this dismiss.
Don’t Miss: Blenheim Palace
Just north of the university town of Oxford, a worthy travel trip in its own right, Blenheim Palace is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Built between 1705 and 1722, the stunning palace is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
Travel Entertainment – No More Hungarian South Park
By · CommentsTech guru Dan Weitman (Twitter: @newmediazine) follows all things new media at www.newmediazine.com. He recently posted an item on his news feed about the MediaHub HD, an interesting contraption that allows hotel guests to play their portable devices through the hotel room’s TV.
Although I don’t generally spend much time hanging out in a hotel room when I travel to a distant land, I have spent my fair share of time watching the repeating loop of information on CNN International, typically the only English-language station on the dial. In a decade of trips to four continents, I’ve watched South Park in Hungarian, Dawson’s Creek in French and Air Force One in German. I’ve seen countless soccer matches and scratched my head watching cricket.
While I think it’s a fun part of the whole cultural experience to take in some local television, even cool Japanese TV can get a bit old. Wouldn’t it be nice to just hook that iPhone or iPod right to the in-room TV and watch something you downloaded from home? Here’s hoping all hotel rooms worldwide adopt this technology.
Read about the MediaHub HD here.
Miep Gies Saved Anne Frank’s Story for the World
By · CommentsNews outlets are reporting the death of the last surviving member of a brave group that helped Anne Frank and her family hide from the Nazis. For two years, Miep Gies was part of a small group that aided eight Jewish hideaways in the “secret annex” of a warehouse building alongside the Prinsengracht Canal in central Amsterdam.
After the building was raided by the Nazi SS and Dutch police, Gies gathered and saved Anne’s writings, reportedly without ever reading them. Gies returned the diary to Anne’s father, Otto, after learning of Anne’s death at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Anne’s diary is the centerpiece around which Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House Museum is built. A moving tribute to the young writer, visitors enter the secret annex through a cleverly-concealed staircase, just as those in hiding did more than six decades ago. The rooms of the hideout are preserved as they were in August 1944. The photographs and postcards Anne pasted on her bedroom wall can still be seen. Her original diary, since translated into more than 60 languages, is also on display.
A visit to the Anne Frank House brings the book to life, and if not for Miep Gies, the world may never have known this most important of stories.
Travel Around the House – An Obligatory Resolutions Post
By · CommentsToday is the day for grand proclamations and declarations of lofty achievements.
Although I think these annual resolutions are a bit absurd, I feel the need to join people the world over by participating in this time-honored tradition. In that spirit, I offer these travel declarations for my little slice of 2010:
It has always struck me as odd that over the last decade my lovely wife and I have visited three times more countries than US states. Therefore, I resolve to pass on my passport for the next 12 months and spend my time and money exploring my own country.
Along those same lines, I resolve to discover my hometown and my native state as a tourist instead of a jaded local. The land I belong to is grand, and I resolve to see it through new eyes.
There, my obligatory resolution blog post is complete. Look for me around town. I’ll be the guy with the camera and backpack. Does Rick Steves have a book on Oklahoma?
Disclaimer: New Year’s resolutions are null and void in the event travel opportunities unknown at this time become available.
Gifts and Gadgets: Holiday Travel Gifts – Part 4
By · CommentsNow that Christmas 2009 is in the books, it’s time to buy what Santa forgot to bring. In our final installment of this year’s holiday gift guide, we cover handy travel accessories for your new Christmas gadgets.
If you unwrapped an iPhone, iPod, e-reader or laptop computer, take a look at these useful extras.
The list printed in today’s Edmond Sun.
Off the Coast of Belize My Christmas Regret Lies
By · Comments
Christmas Day is the anniversary of my greatest regret.
I’ve been blessed over the last decade to visit some amazing places, see some incredible sights and meet some wonderful people. There have been a few disappointments and expensive tourist traps, but overall, I really wouldn’t change a thing.
That said, I wish for just one do-over.
At this time last year, I was snorkeling in the deep blue Carribean waters off the coast of Belize. I’m not a strong swimmer, as my swims-like-a-fish brother helpfully reminded me, so I was a bit nervous as we splashed off the side of the boat into the warm, clear water.
Once I realized I wasn’t going to die a horrible drowning death, I quickly became enamored with the colorful fish, gliding stingrays and spirally conch shells that populated my new underwater world. I was so captivated, in fact, that I never noticed when my wedding ring slipped off my finger and drifted secretly to the ocean floor.
“So what.” you might say. “It was just a gold band. Go buy another.”
If it were only that simple.
The ring I wore for almost a decade was more than a metallic marker of my marital status. That plain gold band was my link to a loved one lost.
When my father died in 1998, my mom took the rings they had exchanged 20 years earlier, melted them together and gave me the gold. The wedding band my beautiful bride placed on my finger almost ten years before was forged from history, a round reminder of the love my parents shared and a promise of what was to come in my life.
Distraught, I searched the sandy bottom, hoping against hope to see a shiny reflection against the soft sea soil. I retraced my path as best I could, but my treasure was lost. I cursed and I cried.
When we celebrated our 10th anniversary a few months later I was sans band, and my finger is still bare today.
You see, just any old ring simply won’t do.
