It all blends together at this point, but I know I didn’t sleep well during the night. This might have been the night I was up in the middle of the night for an hour or two but managed to get back to sleep. But the jet lag hit me hard over the next week …
Tag: Travel
Riley goes to Vietnam Day 3: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City Monday September 23, 2019
We woke up early but not as early as we would on subsequent days. We went down to breakfast and found an elaborate breakfast buffet, which would become a theme of our trip, as only one hotel we stayed at wouldn’t have one. I had noodles as well because, in my jet lagged state, I …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon Sunday September 22, 2019
We landed in Hong Kong very early in the morning, just in time for sunrise. The Hong Kong airport is gigantic and also quite nice. Not a ton of stuff was open because it was so early, but at least we could walk around. And it’s all glass so the views on one side are …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 1: Saturday September 21, 2019
We left on the last flight from the airport (or at least the terminal) for Friday, leaving at 1:45AM. I didn’t know flights were allowed to leave that late and on the way to my airport my mom and I had a conversation about how we thought there was a bylaw preventing flights from leaving …
Riley Goes to Killington, Vermont – March 21-25, 2019
I have been to Vermont many times. I have skied at Jay Peak something like six times. I have skied at Bolton Valley and Stowe and, once before this year, Killington. But I hadn’t been to Vermont since I was in University, so long ago now it makes me feel old. So it was nice …
Travels (1988) by Michael Chricton
This is a frustrating book for someone like me. The cover pictured on Goodreads suggests it is basically about international travel. The cover of my edition should have hinted to me that it would not be specifically about that, given the stars on it. Anyway, this book is about three separate things: Crichton’s training as …
Riley Goes to Mexico City Day 5 October 29, 2018
We packed a bit the night before, but finished packing this morning. I was up early so I was ready to go pretty early. So I finished Sophie’s Choice. I also tried to read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which my dad lent me ages ago, but I just couldn’t do it. Anyone who …
Riley Goes to Mexico City Day 4 October 28, 2018
For breakfast we once again had Pan de Muerto. We took the subway downtown and it was the basically the emptiest we’ve seen, as it was Sunday morning. (There might have been a car to the track that was this empty too.) We walked up from the subway to the Templo Mayor. This it the …
Riley Goes to Mexico Day 3 Saturday October 27, 2018
For breakfast we had carteras. At least I think that’s what they were called. A quick google produces cakes, and it was not a cake. It was doughy and contained dulce de leche. It was delicious.
Riley Goes to Mexico City Day 2 Friday October 26, 2018
This morning we woke up and headed down to the bakery a few doors down. (There was one right below us too, but they were undergoing renovations into a more conventional restaurant while we were staying there.) We both ordered Pan de Muerto in honour of the upcoming Day of the Dead and because we …
Riley Goes to Mexico City October 2018
So I went to Mexico City over the weekend. The Formula 1 Grand Prix was on Sunday October 28 and we went to see it but also because neither of us have ever been to Mexico City and I’ve only been to anywhere in Mexico once previously, nearly 20 years ago.
A Walk in the Woods (1998) by Bill Bryson
Ever since I first heard about it, I’ve wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. I know I likely won’t so now I say “If I win the lottery, I’ll hike the Appalachian Trail.” Regardless, this is a dream. So I’m very happy to read a book about someone who tried to do it.
Riley Goes to Memphis, Tennessee May 31 – June 3, 2018
So I went to Memphis over the weekend. We chose Memphis for an odd reason: it was our fallback after we decided we didn’t want to go to Nashville, as flights to Nashville for this particular weekend were too expensive, and we both read an article that soured us on that city. So we looked …
Riley Goes to Panorama Mountain Resort, February 3-February 9, 2018
For the past week, I was in the Kootenays, skiing at Panorama Mountain Resort, a place I have wanted to ski at for a very, very long time. (That is true of many ski resorts in North America, however.) I cannot say enough positive things about the resort and I would strongly encourage you to …
Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City (2013) by Russell Shorto
When I was in high school and even when I was in university we learned liberalism like this: The Magna Carta invented “responsible government” Thomas Hobbes invented the liberal constitution but his king had too much power John Locke took the Hobbesian constitution and paired it with better institutions and gave us liberalism Then the …
Assassination Vacation (2005) by Sarah Vowell
This is a funny and thought-provoking examination of Vowell’s personal obsession and America’s greater obsession with the past, with presidents and with their assassinations.
Goes to Amsterdam Friday October 13, 2017
This morning we went to another bakery, more expensive and not as good as the bakery of the previous morning. My tea was insanely hot so we had to wait a while, and I actually had to dilute it was some of our bottled water.
Riley Goes to Amsterdam Thursday October 12, 2017
This morning we wandered around looking for dessert places in the Red Light district until we found a dessert place that had the odd breakfast pastry. We had croissants and a Danish.
Riley Goes to Amsterdam Wednesday October 11, 2017
Though staying at a “bed and breakfast,” breakfast was not included (this city is pricey) so we went out to find breakfast, a little groggily as our neighbours came back at 3AM (they couldn’t open their door…).
Riley Goes to Amsterdam Tuesday October 10, 2017
Our return to Podgorica and our train trip to Belgrade were the worst days of our trip and, though we enjoyed Belgrade despite everything being closed, we were still kind of beaten down when we got up on Tuesday morning. So, given that we had an afternoon flight, and our rather swanky hotel tolerated fairly …
Riley Goes to Belgrade Monday October 9, 2017
Buffet breakfast was included at our hotel, so we headed down and found that it was the most elaborate of the buffet breakfasts we would have all trip.
Riley Goes to Belgrade Sunday October 8, 2017
We got up early in order to make our 8:10 train. We had breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to the train station.
Riley Goes to Podgorica Saturday October 7, 2017
We finished off our watermelon first thing, and then got in the car and I drove as quickly as I could through the narrow street to get down to the downtown. There we picked up breakfast for the road. It was raining rather hard, the first time it had rained hard on the trip when …
Riley Goes to Ulcinj Friday October 6, 2017
After we woke up and admired our view once again, we realized that the only map we had was in Montenegrin and not very good. It was one of those highly stylized maps sponsored by a local business. The maps we had used in Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Kotor had all been exceptional, given their detail …
Riley Goes to Ulcinj, Montenegro Thursday October 5, 2017
We had breakfast at the hotel again, as it was included, but it was in a different room, which was interesting. We never really found out why. The good news is that it was on the first floor, where we a much better view than from the basement, with no windows.
Riley Goes to Zabljak Wednesday October 4, 2017
We ate breakfast in our hotel, as it was included. It was a big buffet that was pretty good, though apparently the coffee from the machine was shit. But the weather was absolutely miserable when we woke up, raining pretty heavily. So we hung out in the room for a while.
Riley Goes to Montenegro Tuesday October 3, 2017
We woke to the bells of the old church next to us, and the sound of children going to school. The only bad thing about our place was its proximity to the church, but there’s not much to be done about that when you want to stay within the old city and then old city …
Riley Goes to Kotor Monday October 2, 2017
The night before, I saw what appeared to be an excellent deal for breakfast. So we went to a hotel for a cheap buffet and that turned out to be a mistake. (Well, we were maybe too late.) The hot food was cold. Everything was not really as good as we had at other hotel …
Riley Goes to Kotor, Montenegro Sunday October 1, 2017
We woke up early because we had not purchased a bus ticket to take us to Kotor, Montenegro and we were a little confused as to how often it ran. We figured the best thing to do would be to get over there as early as reasonable and buy the ticket for the next bus. …
Riley Goes to Dubrovnik Saturday September 30, 2017
I have wanted to go to Dubrovnik since I first saw a picture of it, maybe 20 years ago. It has always seemed like a place so utterly unlike the world I grew up in. I wanted to see a walled city (though I have since been to Louisburg and Cartagena), especially one situated along …