5 Food Places I Wish I’d Taken Advantage of When I Lived in New York

I don’t miss living in New York. It’s a difficult, cold city if you’re not head over heels in love with it. But I also think back on all the missed opportunities—the places I now wish were only a $2.50 subway ride away from me, the flavors and atmospheres I missed and the ones I should’ve been devoted to instead of wasting my time on… other places I don’t currently miss or even remember.

While I won’t get that era of my life back, I know where to go when I visit. And I visit a lot.

Fuera del Centro

So a second one means this is actually happening, right?

Sweet.

Here's my latest article for my column Escapadas (in Spanish), published in beautiful ink and paper on the pages of the De Viaje section of El Nuevo Día.

Basically its about what to do in Madrid once you're done being a tourist-- specially if you're looking to not sleep.

Oh, and I don't pick the titles.


De juerga en Madrid.

** I feel this picture pretty aptly describes what most nights in Madrid turn into.

Nothern Bohemia: Part Two

Kladno

After searching Google using phrases like “coats shoes hanging from the ceiling” “mining town performance art czech republic” my efforts at finding exactly what it was Otto took us to in the Central Bohemian town of Kladno proved fruitless. I searched Kladno in the New York Times online which turned up stories from 1939 with headlines like “German policeman slain near Prague; Nazis punish area” and lots of news about the Kladno soccer team. I visited Kladno’s official website but they’re not exactly flouting the abandoned mining facility just outside town that gets taken over by experimental Eastern European performance artists once a year.

So for now I really only have a story and some cool pictures for you, which is really all I ever have for you.

Why I impulsively bought a ticket to London

Almost everyone I know who has traveled even a little bit has a I-was-in-a-party-in-London story. This is something that I want very badly.

OK, you're right, that doesn't quite answer for my 2am purchase of a ticket on Icelandic Air for a week in October doing God knows what in the capital of England .

Would the fact that its my birthday week help?

You're right, its my birthday every year and unless I happen to be in a foreign country-- like when I studied in Prague-- still not a good enough reason for why I would decided this year I want to celebrate it in London where I hope my ex's friends will invite me to a party to fulfill my desire for a good story.

Northern Bohemia: Part One

Mosquito Mountain

Northern Bohemia is a region north of Prague where fourteen NYU film students spent 48 hours they would have otherwise spent in clubs and bars. But when our professor Otto Urban—a Czech art historian and curator who is as cool as his name—told us he was taking us to Northern Bohemia, it didn’t set up much in terms of expectations. When we pressed him for details he said things like mosquito mountain, bone chapel, mining town performance art piece… In other words, we really just had to trust his judgment on this.

I has a column

Not that I don't love my blog but I have to plug the first issue of my new column Escapadas now in El Nuevo Día, the largest newspaper in Puerto Rico. The theme this week was The Caribbean so I wrote about one of the best vacations I ever had there: St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Its an awesome little island for camping, hiking, beach-going, and has a few decent pubs, as well as their own brewery.

I'm a little nervous about it obviously since its my first piece fully in Spanish and its my first piece so think of it as an early Simpsons episode: the animation is still a little weird, the characters aren't quite there yet, but hopefully it'll have a long run.

If you get the print edition of the newspaper check out the spread in the De Viaje section. Let me know how you like it and any improvements you'd like to see.

Cheers!

http://www.elnuevodia.com/comoperderseensaintjohn-739511.html

Middle of Nowhere Little Towns

Sprawling metropolis are always fun, as are days out in total wilderness, although small islands with perfect beaches probably head the list of desirable destinations. But few are the accounts of those little in-between towns, the one-road, semi-suburban dots that connect on the road to the big city or the big mountain. For road trippers and bored twenty-something year olds with a car, those middle of nowhere little towns are pure traveler anecdote gold. Here are some of my small town stops, what are some of yours?

Guánica, PR

The best beaches are the ones the pirates used to dock in.

Cruising down the southern highway of Puerto Rico you speed down a road flanked by empty green mountains and farmed valleys, as large vultures called Guaraguaos glide in slow circles overhead. Pass Yauco—a coffee town painted pink and orange against the mountain— and take exit 116 onto a narrow road that seems to go on forever. Walls of trees, cacti, and green brush create a tunnel around you until eventually you hit la Central de Guánica.

Cheat Sheet: the Caribbean

In honor of my new column, Escapadas, and the theme of the week in the De Viaje section of El Nuevo Día here's a cheat sheet on travel basics for the Caribbean. Simple enough to follow and they will make your travel experience that much more awesome.