Orlando on the cheap
November 18, 2008
A young visitor watches the parade at Walt Disney World.
I hate saying no.
Lawsuit seeks to bankrupt Klan group
November 13, 2008
Midnights in Moscow, post-Soviet style
As I raised my hands toward the ceiling and then pointed them toward my head, I had to wonder: How would the 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol feel if he knew that a bunch of foreigners were dancing the YMCA at a nightclub named after him?
Since the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Russia’s capital city has progressed in many ways, breaking free of old social structures while struggling to maintain its cultural heritage.
The city has preserved a lot of its old beauty, boasting monuments such as St. Basil’s Cathedral and gorgeous landscapes such as Tsaritsino Park. At the same time, there are Internet cafes and 24-hour bookstores, and you’d be hard-pressed to meet someone who doesn’t carry a cell phone.
But, as an American studying abroad at Moscow State University, I sometimes felt perplexed in this immense modern metropolis that still makes certain familiar conveniences inconvenient.
In Moscow, kiosks for adding money to your cell phone seem far more common than ATMs. Even nice restaurants with $40-minimum meals — for example, the best beef stroganoff and fried cheese balls of your life — accept only cash, no cards. After two weeks, I never figured out where to buy a nail clipper — but I did see Vladimir Lenin’s body, perfectly preserved since 1924.
At the university, I had to present a special ID card to one set of guards at the entrance, a dorm pass to another crew, and then confront a third layer of hallway-based security before arriving at my room. I also needed written approval from my floor’s “administrator” to take luggage out of the building.
Then, there’s money. Moscow, or “Moskva” in Russian, holds the distinction of the world’s most expensive city, according to Mercer’s 2008 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Be prepared for fees from your bank and the Russian bank whenever you use an ATM. Try to stay away from touristy restaurants for meals, and do your souvenir shopping at Izmailovsky Market (Metro: Izmailovsky Park) instead of in stores.
The expatriates I encountered all echoed the sentiment that Moscow is a city of constant stress. Maybe that’s why I will always love most the Moscow I experienced at night.
The monuments that look mildly impressive by day suddenly come to life with light against the onyx sky. You can look out over Sparrow Hills and see the endless glittering skyline, or settle down somewhere like Gogol (Metro: Tverskaya) for vodka-enhanced beverages and music from around the world. And, as long as you know “Mozhna?” (”May I?”) and “Spasiba” (”Thank you),” it matters less that few people speak substantial English.
Café Bilingua (Metro: Chistye Prudy) is another cozy place to mingle with locals and ex-pats for hours on end — you can have your coffee in the tiny two-story book shop, or take it up to the restaurant and performance section. Another bar I liked is Etage (Metro: Pushkinskaya), right off Pushkin’s Square near a large neon-light sculpture of flowers (how would the great poet feel about that?).
Nightclubs dedicated to too-many-people-to-move dance floors don’t start up until well after midnight. Propaganda (Metro: Lubyanka), conveniently located near the headquarters of the KGB, spins all kinds of dance music — go on a Thursday evening for a less crowded experience.
Then there’s The Real McCoy (Metro: Barrikadnaya), so packed with people that merely crossing the room to stand in the bathroom line requires bumping bodies to the beat. At first we couldn’t even get in because the bouncer shook his head at my Swiss friend. But, as always, it’s all about who you know — my Spanish friend’s Spanish friend had VIP status, so we went as his entourage to an upscale restaurant-like room in the back.
Part of my Moscow nightlife adventures included riding on an overnight train. For my trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow, I had been told at every ticket office that only seats were available. But upon boarding at midnight, I asked a crew member if I could have a bed. Five minutes and $80 later, the fleshy man who took my ticket had locked me into a less-than-closet-sized space with him.
I prepared to claw at the door with my untrimmed nails and scream.
“Close,” he said. Then he unlocked it to demonstrate “open.” He stepped out, gave me a stiff wave, and said, “See you in Moskva.” I sighed and fell asleep on the child-sized mattress.
Among the plethora of Moscow’s unspoken rules: Do not talk in the elevators or hallways of your student dorm. Accustomed to the silence, one night I was surprised to hear the glorious sound of a Frédéric Chopin nocturne coming from behind a security guard’s desk. “Mozhna?” I asked, pointing to the door his chair blocked. He just shrugged, so I quietly ducked behind him and pulled the handle.
Behold, a secret two-story ballroom with tables and chairs and an upright piano in the corner, and a Russian student who abruptly lifted his hands from the piano keys when I sat down. We took turns playing (thus, my failed-love song “Sad Panda” debuted on a new continent) and, in broken but passionate English, he told me how he wished he could sound like the Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz, and said he often comes with his friend to play around 9 p.m.
As if it were the end of a great Russian novel, I never heard music in that hallway again.
Source: thedailystar.net
Inauguration prompts travel rush to Washington
November 11, 2008
Dennis Madsen is planning to drive from Atlanta to Washington so his son, Adlai, can see the inauguration.
It may be freezing in Washington in January, but the city is a red-hot destination for people around the country and the world eager to see President-elect Barack Obama sworn into office.
Historic Boston has great haunts, on the cheap
November 9, 2008
Faneuil Hall is one of the historic sites on Boston
This is the cradle of patriotism, the site of Paul Revere’s historic ride and home to the USS Constitution.
Cowboy boots and haute cuisine mix in Texas
November 6, 2008
Cowboy boots and haute cuisine mix in Texas
The Texas Hill Country, where tiny towns dot a landscape of wildflowers and cedar trees, is the kind of place where cowboys and sommeliers meet. Sometimes literally.
Ask Brandon Stowe. The 24-year-old in cowboy boots was swirling and sipping samples of wine here recently while in town for a wedding, but he and his hunting buddies often stop at a winery to pick up their favorite vintage at the end a day of hunting in the Hill Country.
“It’s hard to imagine six guys who have been hunting all day going to a winery, but we do,” he said, glass in hand in the cellar-like tasting room of the Torre di Pietra winery.
The Hill Country doesn’t just sit culturally at the intersection of cowboy and urbane; it sits there geographically, too. Most of the region’s attractions are within an hour’s drive of Austin, the state’s hipster capital, and San Antonio, home of the Alamo.
And in a state where a drive between cities can be derriere-numbingly long, the Hill Country provides easy stops in a short distance.
“People are starting to hear about it and starting to understand that there are day trips that you can take,” said Debbie Harmsen, lead editor of new Fodor’s guides for Texas and for San Antonio, Austin and the Hill Country. “It’s an area of the state that is overlooked, but it’s one of its gems.”
There are 22 wineries in the Hill Country, seven around Fredericksburg alone, with two more slated to open soon. Texas is now the nation’s fifth largest wine-producing state.
It’s “surprising to a lot of national media folks and consumers as a whole. They don’t associate wine with Texas,” said Ernie Loeffler, director of the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s like, ‘You have what in Texas?!”‘
The wineries clustered together complement each other by sparing visitors long drives between stops, said Ken Maxwell, a former semiconductor executive who started Torre di Pietra in 2004.
Visitors range from new wine drinkers to experienced connoisseurs, he said.
They come from all over the world, but Maxwell notes one consistent demographic: most are women.
“Seventy to 75 percent of my customers are ladies. Guys are a little slow, but sooner or later, they’ll follow the ladies,” he jokes.
The explosive growth of wineries adds a kind of urbane bent to the region’s long popular outdoor activities, including river tubing and horseback riding.
About 50 miles south of Fredericksburg, in Bandera, dude ranches have been operating since 1920. The self-proclaimed “Cowboy Capital of the World” is home to seven dude ranches, where guests can take trail rides and eat cowboy fare.
Clay Conoly and his wife run the Dixie Dude Ranch, a 725-acre spread that started hosting cityfolk in 1937 when Conoly’s great-grandfather was in charge.
Guests ranging from urban Texans to international travelers interested in experiencing the American West stay in the duplex cabins at the ranch all year round.
Twice-a-day horseback rides begin near a century-old graying wood barn — “the most photographed barn in Texas,” Conoly chuckles.
There are hiking trails and other outdoor activities, and lots of room for children to roam.
The ranch also has a heated pool and massage treatment available, for those who find the saddle soreness of ranch life a little too authentic.
“We don’t get cell service. That pretty much drives people crazy, but after they get used to it, they’re sort of glad they don’t get cell service,” said Conoly, wearing his usual white cowboy hat and boots.
Like Dixie, the other dude ranches around Bandera are relatively small and family-run, said Patricia Moore, executive director of the Bandera County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
She compares the dude ranch experience to “an adult and kids camp at the same time,” and she said the town draws visitors who want to try the cowboy life they only know from movies or books.
“You can come here and have some encounters that will leave you like, ‘I can’t believe I just saw what I saw,”‘ Moore said. “I can’t tell you for sure you’ll see someone riding a horse into downtown, but you just might.”
And don’t be entirely surprised if that cowboy decides to wet his whistle with a glass of chardonnay or sauvignon blanc.
“There’s wine enthusiasts all over,” Maxwell said.
If you go …
Torre di Pietra Winery: 10915 E. Highway 290, Fredericksburg, Texas; http://www.texashillcountrywine.com/ or 830-644-2829. Open daily, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tasting fee, five wines for $5.
Dixie Dude Ranch: Bandera, Texas; http://www.dixieduderanch.com/ or 800-375-9255. Daily rates (per person) including lodging, three meals, swimming, two horseback rides daily and other ranch activities: $150 for singles; $125 for doubles; $45 for ages 2-5; $65 for ages 6-12; $85 for ages 13-16. Discounts for groups and weekly stays.
Source: cnn.com
New York’s Lower East Side, old and new
November 5, 2008
A young man shops for clothing at John Varvatos
For waves of immigrants to America, the Lower East Side was a place of first settlement. Today it’s one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods. But it’s easy to find history amid the hipsters.
“This is the quintessential old neighborhood, where tradition meets the cutting edge,” said Holly Kaye, founding executive director of the Lower East Side Conservancy.
Kaye’s organization was part of a coalition that persuaded the National Trust for Historic Preservation in May to declare the Lower East Side an “endangered historic place,” citing new hotels and condo towers “looming large over the original tenement streetscape.” The city Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated 25 historic landmarks on the Lower East Side and is reviewing another 2,334 buildings to see if any more might qualify for protection from development.
For anyone interested in history and architecture, or even just food and shopping, the neighborhood makes a fascinating destination. Big Onion Walking Tours of the area include “The Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour” ($20), “The Jewish Lower East Side” ($15) and “Immigrant New York” ($15); http://bigonion.com or 212-439-1090. The Lower East Side Conservancy also offers monthly tours, $18, http://www.nycjewishtours.org/.
Or create your own adventure. Take the F train to Second Avenue, then wander south from East Houston Street. But don’t wait too long. The old places may not last forever.
Food: Perhaps the best way to experience the Lower East Side is by noshing, the Yiddish term for snacking. It’s easy to eat here on a budget — just don’t try doing it on a diet. Start with an empty stomach and bring a friend to share. (Note that many of these purveyors also offer Web ordering.)
Get a filling knish (potato, mushroom, spinach, veggie and more) for $3.50 at Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes, established 1910, 137 E. Houston St. Old Yonah’s photo hangs in the window.
Russ & Daughters, established 1914, 179 E. Houston St., offers the perfect Lower East Side breakfast: bagel with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon), starting at $8.45.
For lunch, get a pastrami on rye to go, extra mustard, at Katz’s Deli, established 1888, 205 E. Houston St. It’s $14.95, stuffed with enough meat to cater a bar mitzvah, and comes with several pickles.
For a bigger selection of pickles, visit the Pickle Guys, 49 Essex St. Nearby Kossar’s Bialys, 367 Grand St., makes handrolled bialys (onion rolls) and bagels. (The pickle and bialy shops close Friday afternoons and Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath.)
The Essex Street Market at Delancey Street is an indoor market where you can buy everything from fresh produce to gourmet products (closed Sundays). “Mayor LaGuardia created the market in 1939 to get the pushcarts off the street,” said Jeffrey Ruhalter, a fifth-generation butcher who says he is the market’s last original tenant. “It was New York City’s first supermarket.”
Any culinary tour must acknowledge the expansion of Chinatown into the Lower East Side. One favorite among New York foodies is Vanessa’s Dumpling House, 118A Eldridge St. No table service, but it’s worth standing on line for eight spectacular dumplings, a mere $4.
The Lower East Side has numerous upscale sitdown restaurants. Zagat’s top picks include Stanton Social, 99 Stanton St.; Falai, 68 Clinton St.; and the Clinton St. Baking Co., 4 Clinton St., a charming cafe with outstanding cherry pie.
Museums: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard St., http://www.tenement.org, is a must-see (open daily 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and until 7:15 p.m. Thursdays; adults, $17, students, $13).
The building dates to 1863, but its apartments were sealed in 1935 because the landlord could not comply with new housing laws. When the museum acquired the building in 1996, it was a time capsule.
Apartment tours reveal stories of real people who lived there. One family crammed 11 people in their 325-square-foot unit; another apartment housed a sweatshop in addition to a family of five. Residents hailed from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. One tour offers audio recordings of an Italian-American woman who lived there as a child and came back to share her memories.
Josephine Joelson, a visitor from Cleveland who lived in Manhattan in the 1930s, said the museum “just thrilled me. It took me back to my childhood.”
A more recent attraction, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, opened December 1, 2007, at 235 Bowery, http://www.newmuseum.org (open Wednesday and weekends, noon-6 p.m., Thursday-Friday, noon-10 p.m.; adults, $12, students $10).
The museum showcases living artists from around the world. “Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton” features 104 of Peyton’s portraits of celebrities from Napoleon to Kurt Cobain, through January 11. “Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone” includes Heilmann’s abstract and colorful paintings, sculptures and furniture, through January 26. Lisa Sigal’s “Line-up” uses the neighborhood as a canvas for a wide green stripe that starts on a museum wall and continues on building exteriors that can be seen blocks away.
A third museum is both very old and very new. The Eldridge Street Synagogue, 12 Eldridge St., http://www.eldridgestreet.org, was founded in 1887 as the first great house of worship built by Eastern European Jews in the U.S. In December 2007, it completed a 20-year, $17 million restoration, and opened a museum about the synagogue and the neighborhood’s Jewish history (open Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.; adults, $10; children 5-18, $6; free Mondays, 10 a.m.-noon).
Visitors may be surprised that today the synagogue is surrounded by Chinatown. “A hundred years ago, all the signs you see on Eldridge Street in Chinese were Yiddish,” explained Amy Milford, the museum’s deputy director.
Shopping: Economy Candy, 108 Rivington St., is one of the happiest places in New York. “We’ve got everything from candy buttons to gourmet chocolate,” said Jerry Cohen, whose family has run the store since 1937.
“When people can’t buy luxury items, they can still afford candy,” added his wife Ilene.
Economy Candy is also a great source of souvenirs, from Statue of Liberty chocolate to Yankees bubble gum. Marianne Skoglund was buying bags of jelly beans to bring home to Orebro, Sweden. “No jelly beans in Sweden,” she explained. “I have to hand out some for good friends.”
The Orchard Corset Center, at 157 Orchard St. since the 1930s, is famous for telling shoppers they’re wearing the wrong bra. Just don’t be surprised if the kindly saleswoman asks the man behind the counter to publicly guess your proper size. No private fitting rooms; shoppers try bras on in a small common space behind a curtain.
Mom-and-pop stores still sell clothes on racks on the street, but chic and pricey boutiques are on the rise. The John Varvatos boutique opened in April north of Houston at 315 Bowery, where the famed music club CBGBs was located. In addition to displays of vintage boots, audio equipment and records from the 1970s (Deep Purple, anyone?), Varvatos’ designs include $225 pullovers and $1,895 suede and leather jackets.
Gargyle is a new showroom for designers with a country club aesthetic at 16A Orchard St., between Canal and Hester. Even if button-down shirts and striped dresses in the $100-$300 range are not your style, it’s worth a visit to see the old building’s exterior: The stonework is decorated with six-pointed Jewish stars of David.
Hotels: Three boutique hotels offer nightly rates in the $300-$400 range and up: Hotel East Houston, 151 E. Houston St., http://www.hoteleasthouston.com; Hotel on Rivington, 107 Rivington St., http://www.hotelonrivington.com; and the Blue Moon Hotel, 100 Orchard St., http://www.bluemoon-nyc.com/.
The Blue Moon is located across from the Tenement Museum. Like the museum, it’s housed in a building that was sealed for decades. Restoration included salvaging woodwork, tiles and prints. The rooms are themed on old-time celebrities, like Molly Picon, who got her start in 1920s Yiddish theater. Views from the hotel windows mix new condo towers (love ‘em or hate ‘em) with old-fashioned wooden water towers and fire escapes — like so much about the neighborhood, a contrast of old and new.
Source: cnn.com
Vibrant Buenos Aires can be easy on the wallet
November 3, 2008
Tango shows at the legendary Cafe Tortoni are among the more expensive in the city at $20. Many other salons offer cheaper performances.
Vegetarians, beware. It’s Wednesday night at the Garden House Hostel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the unmistakable scent of juicy slabs of meat on the grill is wafting through the halls, luring guests to its source.
Inside, we fill a makeshift dining room set of folding chairs and tables, where bowls of salad and bottles of wine and beer compete for space with our plates, loaded with thick cuts of sirloin and plump sausages (grilled vegetables are an option for herbivores). Glasses clink amid salutations of “que aprovecha,” or enjoy, and the silence of determined eaters quickly falls over the room.
The scene plays out weekly at the hostel, near Buenos Aires’ market and antiques district of San Telmo. The buffet cost about $10 U.S. for all the meat, salad and wine I could manage — a steal when you throw in the hostel’s convivial atmosphere and hospitable staff. Anyway, my friend and I were paying only about $30 a night for a private double, and beds in a dorm run about $10 a night.
In a time of declining currencies and global financial crisis, hostels are no longer strictly the domain of weary backpackers and college students. With the money saved, even a middle-class American with a crumbling stock portfolio can enjoy a city like Buenos Aires — known as the Paris of Latin America — in a manner befitting a profligate jet-setter.
From museums and theaters to international cuisine and bumpin’ nightclubs, Buenos Aires has all the offerings of a major European city without the grim exchange rate. Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis brought droves of bargain-hunting tourists to what was once regarded as Latin America’s most expensive city.
Prices have crept up since then, but it’s still a great value. Amid the current global economic turmoil, the Argentine peso recently dropped to its lowest level in nearly six years.
Of course, the catch is snagging affordable airfare, but even that can be done through travel agencies or patient Web searches for package deals, provided your dates are flexible. The market for weekly apartment rentals is also ripe for those seeking the experience of a home away from home.
Not that you’ll be spending much time in your room. Just wandering the streets and plazas of this sprawling city, where remnants of the city’s colonial European history intersect with 21st-century chic, provides enough stimulus for the most jaded city dweller.
After a deep sleep induced by red meat and red wine, we were ready for the long walk across the city to la Recoleta, a neighborhood where cobbled streets separate towering nightclubs and upscale boutiques from early 20th-century churches, homes and the Recoleta cemetery, resting place of the city’s elite.
With more than 6,400 mausoleums wedged together, including that of former first lady Eva Duarte de Peron, the cemetery provides a glimpse into the opulence of the upper class without costing a penny — unless you want to buy a map of the grounds for less than $2.
From there, neatly manicured parks and green areas dotted with exercise classes and reading groups separate you from just a few of the city’s top-notch museums, including the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which asks for a suggested donation to gain entry.
Don’t Miss
Farther down Avenida Liberador, past rows of grand mansions belonging to foreign consulates, MALBA, or Museo de Arte Latinoamericana de Buenos Aires, offers free admission on Wednesdays, which gets you access to paintings and installation art by some Latin America’s foremost modern and contemporary artists.
Or maybe you just like to sit and watch the world go by. Like many Latin American cities, Buenos Aires’ prime real estate for people-watching belongs to plazas and cafes. A prime example is Plaza de Mayo, in the city’s Centro district, which is flanked by the president’s office, a Gothic cathedral and high-rise office buildings. It offers a panorama of the city’s architectural evolution and an endless parade of portenos, as city dwellers call themselves.
Eventually, all the walking and ogling calls for a caffeine boost. Luckily, you’re never far from one of the city’s numerous cafes, where three U.S. dollars often can buy you a strong cortado (espresso) or café con leche and three medialunas, known stateside as croissants.
But if you’re like me, walking makes you hungry. For those of us who require a more substantial daytime meal, many Buenos Aires restaurants offer prix-fixe meals, though one of the components is usually a drink instead of a dessert or starter. Meal choices include sample sizes of meat, pasta or the signature milanesa sandwich, a breaded and fried slice of meat — usually for no more than 25 or 30 pesos, less than $10 U.S.
Vegetarians are not entirely neglected in the city of steak. Wandering the city’s upscale Palermo district, also the home of many retail bargain shops, you’ll find Arte Sana, a beacon of healthy eating that serves up vegetarian plates and blended juices. Like many natural food joints in the States, a bowl of lentil soup or stir-fry is going to run you more than a McDonald’s value meal, but the cleansing aspect is well worth it after all the coffee and meat.
Then the night calls, with enough options to leave your head spinning. But first, you need tango-ready legs. Not a problem. Myriad salons occupy Buenos Aires’ narrow, congested side streets, offering full leg waxes and more starting at $5 U.S., depending on the cleanliness of the establishment. I opted for the 30 peso range, about $9 U.S. Sure enough, the pain factor was the same as it is in the United States, but for a fifth of the price, I was able to grin and bear it.
Now I was ready for a whirl at a tango salon, considered by many a staple of a visit to Buenos Aires. Those seeking an interactive experience can take free or cheap lessons in one of the city’s many salons and stick around for dinner while professionals take over the floor.
Others content to simply watch can opt for a show at any number of venues — the legendary Café Tortoni being one of the more expensive venues at about 70 pesos, or $20 U.S., for a 90-minute show, plus a one-drink minimum. Plenty more salons offer cheaper dinner and theater packages with performances of comparable bravura, minus only the historic and somewhat touristy feel of Tortoni.
I tried tango once and quickly realized I was better off sticking to the city’s lively bar and nightclub scene, which stands up to its counterparts in New York or London in terms of attitude, sweat and plata, or money. Younger portenos like the ones you’ll meet at the hostel can steer you toward the best option, depending on the night. We ended up at Museum in San Telmo, a converted mansion consisting of four levels overlooking a massive dance floor, for the after-work party, which, apparently, doesn’t start until after 12.
On another evening, feeling the need for a brooding, mellow scene, we opted for live music. Twenty pesos, about $6 U.S., got us a table at Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro, home base of the bar’s namesake 12-piece act.
Led by a singer whose campy costume changes reflect the group’s schizophrenic brand of updated tango, FF employs accordions, violins and a stand-up bass to deliver a moody set that, in the eyes of this foreigner, evokes the porteno ethos: one foot in a romanticized past, the other awaiting its spotlight on the world stage.
Source: cnn.com
Vibrant Buenos Aires can be easy on the wallet
November 1, 2008
Tango shows at the legendary Cafe Tortoni are among the more expensive in the city at $20. Many other salons offer cheaper performances.
Vegetarians, beware. It’s Wednesday night at the Garden House Hostel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the unmistakable scent of juicy slabs of meat on the grill is wafting through the halls, luring guests to its source.
Inside, we fill a makeshift dining room set of folding chairs and tables, where bowls of salad and bottles of wine and beer compete for space with our plates, loaded with thick cuts of sirloin and plump sausages (grilled vegetables are an option for herbivores). Glasses clink amid salutations of “que aprovecha,” or enjoy, and the silence of determined eaters quickly falls over the room.
The scene plays out weekly at the hostel, near Buenos Aires’ market and antiques district of San Telmo. The buffet cost about $10 U.S. for all the meat, salad and wine I could manage — a steal when you throw in the hostel’s convivial atmosphere and hospitable staff. Anyway, my friend and I were paying only about $30 a night for a private double, and beds in a dorm run about $10 a night.
In a time of declining currencies and global financial crisis, hostels are no longer strictly the domain of weary backpackers and college students. With the money saved, even a middle-class American with a crumbling stock portfolio can enjoy a city like Buenos Aires — known as the Paris of Latin America — in a manner befitting a profligate jet-setter.
From museums and theaters to international cuisine and bumpin’ nightclubs, Buenos Aires has all the offerings of a major European city without the grim exchange rate. Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis brought droves of bargain-hunting tourists to what was once regarded as Latin America’s most expensive city.
Prices have crept up since then, but it’s still a great value. Amid the current global economic turmoil, the Argentine peso recently dropped to its lowest level in nearly six years.
Of course, the catch is snagging affordable airfare, but even that can be done through travel agencies or patient Web searches for package deals, provided your dates are flexible. The market for weekly apartment rentals is also ripe for those seeking the experience of a home away from home.
Not that you’ll be spending much time in your room. Just wandering the streets and plazas of this sprawling city, where remnants of the city’s colonial European history intersect with 21st-century chic, provides enough stimulus for the most jaded city dweller.
After a deep sleep induced by red meat and red wine, we were ready for the long walk across the city to la Recoleta, a neighborhood where cobbled streets separate towering nightclubs and upscale boutiques from early 20th-century churches, homes and the Recoleta cemetery, resting place of the city’s elite.
With more than 6,400 mausoleums wedged together, including that of former first lady Eva Duarte de Peron, the cemetery provides a glimpse into the opulence of the upper class without costing a penny — unless you want to buy a map of the grounds for less than $2.
From there, neatly manicured parks and green areas dotted with exercise classes and reading groups separate you from just a few of the city’s top-notch museums, including the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which asks for a suggested donation to gain entry.
Or maybe you just like to sit and watch the world go by. Like many Latin American cities, Buenos Aires’ prime real estate for people-watching belongs to plazas and cafes. A prime example is Plaza de Mayo, in the city’s Centro district, which is flanked by the president’s office, a Gothic cathedral and high-rise office buildings. It offers a panorama of the city’s architectural evolution and an endless parade of portenos, as city dwellers call themselves.
Eventually, all the walking and ogling calls for a caffeine boost. Luckily, you’re never far from one of the city’s numerous cafes, where three U.S. dollars often can buy you a strong cortado (espresso) or café con leche and three medialunas, known stateside as croissants.
But if you’re like me, walking makes you hungry. For those of us who require a more substantial daytime meal, many Buenos Aires restaurants offer prix-fixe meals, though one of the components is usually a drink instead of a dessert or starter. Meal choices include sample sizes of meat, pasta or the signature milanesa sandwich, a breaded and fried slice of meat — usually for no more than 25 or 30 pesos, less than $10 U.S.
Vegetarians are not entirely neglected in the city of steak. Wandering the city’s upscale Palermo district, also the home of many retail bargain shops, you’ll find Arte Sana, a beacon of healthy eating that serves up vegetarian plates and blended juices. Like many natural food joints in the States, a bowl of lentil soup or stir-fry is going to run you more than a McDonald’s value meal, but the cleansing aspect is well worth it after all the coffee and meat.
Then the night calls, with enough options to leave your head spinning. But first, you need tango-ready legs. Not a problem. Myriad salons occupy Buenos Aires’ narrow, congested side streets, offering full leg waxes and more starting at $5 U.S., depending on the cleanliness of the establishment. I opted for the 30 peso range, about $9 U.S. Sure enough, the pain factor was the same as it is in the United States, but for a fifth of the price, I was able to grin and bear it.
Now I was ready for a whirl at a tango salon, considered by many a staple of a visit to Buenos Aires. Those seeking an interactive experience can take free or cheap lessons in one of the city’s many salons and stick around for dinner while professionals take over the floor.
Others content to simply watch can opt for a show at any number of venues — the legendary Café Tortoni being one of the more expensive venues at about 70 pesos, or $20 U.S., for a 90-minute show, plus a one-drink minimum. Plenty more salons offer cheaper dinner and theater packages with performances of comparable bravura, minus only the historic and somewhat touristy feel of Tortoni.
I tried tango once and quickly realized I was better off sticking to the city’s lively bar and nightclub scene, which stands up to its counterparts in New York or London in terms of attitude, sweat and plata, or money. Younger portenos like the ones you’ll meet at the hostel can steer you toward the best option, depending on the night. We ended up at Museum in San Telmo, a converted mansion consisting of four levels overlooking a massive dance floor, for the after-work party, which, apparently, doesn’t start until after 12.
On another evening, feeling the need for a brooding, mellow scene, we opted for live music. Twenty pesos, about $6 U.S., got us a table at Club Atletico Fernandez Fierro, home base of the bar’s namesake 12-piece act.
Led by a singer whose campy costume changes reflect the group’s schizophrenic brand of updated tango, FF employs accordions, violins and a stand-up bass to deliver a moody set that, in the eyes of this foreigner, evokes the porteno ethos: one foot in a romanticized past, the other awaiting its spotlight on the world stage.
Source: cnn.com
Delta, Northwest deal gets DOJ approval
October 30, 2008
Delta, Northwest merger approved
The Justice Department on Wednesday approved a much-anticipated merger between Delta and Northwest, clearing the way for creation of the world’s largest airline.
After a six-month investigation, government lawyers concluded the merger would likely drive down costs for consumers without curbing competition.
The proposed merger “is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition,” the Justice Department said in a statement issued by its Antitrust Division.
The merger should create cost savings by combining airport operations, information technology and other efficiencies, ultimately driving down prices for fliers, the regulators said.
The decision caps a six-month Justice Department investigation, which was closed without Justice Department objection to the deal.
The combined airline would be called Delta and keep its Atlanta headquarters and its chief executive, Richard Anderson.
Northwest (NWA, Fortune 500) would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta during the integration process.
Another hurdle remains ahead, however: a federal lawsuit seeking to block the deal. Trial is set for Nov. 5 in San Francisco.
The lawsuit was filed in June by 28 airline passengers who believe a merger would violate antitrust law and substantially decrease competition.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL, Fortune 500) and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. have insisted there will still be plenty of competition in the airline industry after they combine, and they have noted the two carriers have relatively few overlapping routes.
On that point, the Justice Department agreed.
“The two airlines currently compete with a number of other legacy and low-cost airlines in the provision of scheduled air passenger service on the vast majority of nonstop and connecting routes where they compete with each other,” the department said in the statement.
Delta hopes to obtain a single Federal Aviation Administration operating certificate in 15 to 18 months.
Shareholders approved the merger late last month.
The two airlines had 85,071 combined full-time employees as of June 30, the last time they reported the figures to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Earlier this year, each carrier announced plans on their own for job cuts. Delta said it would shed 4,000 jobs, while Northwest said it wanted to cut 2,500 jobs.
The new airline would be the biggest in the world in terms of traffic and biggest in the United States in terms of annual revenue, which was a combined $31.7 billion at the end of last year.
Source: cnn.com
Picturesque Wales a welcoming getaway
October 29, 2008
Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131 in the beautiful Wye Valley.
Here, amid and around the ruins of the medieval Tintern Abbey, the solace and serenity recalled so poetically by William Wordsworth is almost palpable to 21st-century visitors.
Wordsworth wrote the poem after revisiting the abbey in 1798, at a time when it was fashionable for romanticists to seek inspiration in such picturesque places as this Wye Valley in Wales.
J.M.W. Turner, a 19th-century watercolorist and landscape painter, also found it an ideal spot for his work.
It was the first stop on our 10-day journey by car through the little (and to many Americans, little-known) nation of Wales. Our trip would take us from the abbey to a town filled with bookstores to the places where Dylan Thomas lived, wrote and yes, drank.
Wales (Cymru in Welsh) is just 8,000 square miles, about the size of New Jersey, with a population of 3 million — humans, that is. It is also home to an estimated 11 million sheep.
It is part of Great Britain and shares a border with England to its east. Yet, we found it quite different than the rest of the United Kingdom, with a unique culture and language, still spoken by about one-fifth of its people. Welsh is used on all the bilingual road signs, ubiquitous evidence (to visitors, anyway) that the names of places are too long, have too many consonants and are virtually unpronounceable.
In driving (on the left, of course) from England, through South Wales to its northwest coast, we found it a marvelous place to visit — maybe Britain’s best-kept secret.
Weather permitting, that is. Soggy is generally the most accurate description of Welsh weather, with rain a possibility at any time, winter or summer.
We had flown from the New York area nonstop to Bristol, England, just the other side of the boundary with Wales. But you can also fly into London, which is a little over two hours away by car. Other airport choices are Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool in England; few flights go directly into Cardiff, the capital of Wales.
After a short visit to Bath, just 15 miles or so from Bristol, for a glimpse of the settings made famous in Jane Austen’s novels and a taste of the Roman baths, we drove across the sleek span, a one-way-toll bridge, over the River Severn to Tintern on the River Wye.
From Tintern, we traveled north to Hay-on-Wye, the town with the appropriate sobriquet, Town of Books. Hay features more than 30 secondhand bookstores, including Castle Hay Books, which sells some of its wares on the honesty system (just leave the 30 or 50 pence) as well as Murder and Mayhem, Bookends, Boz Books, Cinema Bookshop, and Outcast, tucked away behind a side street of a side street.
We had arranged a one-night stay in a bed-and-breakfast (Gwely a Brecwast in Welsh) irresistibly named Rest for the Tired, and next door to a bookstore, of course.
The bed-and-breakfast was our home of choice on this trip, made simple by the help from the numerous information centers throughout Wales (just follow the dotted i signs), which aided with directions, local restaurants and sights and, for a small charge of $3.50, arrange your accommodation reservation anywhere in the United Kingdom. Ours cost $104-$121 a night (for two), with the typically hefty breakfast of cereal, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato and coffee or tea and toast.
There seem to be few, if any, straight roads through the hills and mountains, so we meandered south from Hay-on-Wye, through the mid-Wales Brecon Beacons National Park, a magnificent magnet for hikers and bikers, to South Wales, the more populated of the Welsh areas.
The valley here was at one time the heart of Wales’ coal mining communities, as described in Richard Llewellyn’s book (and the movie), “How Green Was My Valley.” But it’s all gone now, replaced by farming, forestry and tourism, and an occasional sign for a local mining museum.
(Many of the miners, incidentally, migrated to the United States, settling in similar coal mining areas such as eastern Pennsylvania, where there are telling place names like Bryn Mawr, Nanty Glo and Balacynwyd.)
This part of South Wales (and a little west) is Dylan Thomas country. Schools here are named for the favorite-son poet who was born in Swansea. There is a Dylan Thomas Center in a museum in Swansea, and in area bookstores, his writings are outnumbered only by the books about his life.
According to local lore, Thomas did much of his drinking at pubs in Mumbles, just to the south of Swansea. Many of the Mumbles stories detail where he drank, much like tales of where George Washington slept in the United States. Certainly, the Mermaid on Mumbles Road was a favorite of Dylan Thomas’. That old hotel burned down some time ago; it is now a fine restaurant.
Mumbles (Mwmbles in Welsh) is a splendid spot (in good weather) on Swansea Bay, enticing strolls along the promenade, stopping for ice cream or a light lunch outdoors at Verdi’s or dining at Castellemare with its magnificent view.
Not far from there is the village of Pontrhydyfen, birthplace of another favorite son of Wales, actor Richard Burton. (Burton, incidentally, played the role of First Voice in Dylan Thomas’ “play for voices,” “Under Milk Wood.”)
Of course we had to visit Laugharne, a little north and west of Mumbles, where Dylan Thomas lived with his family from 1949 until his death in New York in 1953. It is Laugharne that served as the model for the fictional Welsh seaside town of Llareggub in “Under Milk Wood.” The home, called the Boathouse, sits high on a hill overlooking the Taf (pronounced Tav) River. It is now a heritage center, a museum of his life and works. The small garage that was converted to his writing shed, where he penned “Under Milk Wood,” among other works, has been preserved.
We then found our way to Aberystwyth on the west coast, stopping in Solva, near St. David’s, site of St. David’s Cathedral and the adjoining ruins of the Bishop’s Palace.
Aberystwyth is the home of a branch of the University of Wales and of the National Library. We parked the car and hopped on to a train for a three-hour trip north. Trains are a great way to see Wales, if you can be flexible enough to adjust to railroad schedules. There are myriad choices, of routes and train types.
Ours followed the rocky coast, with its stretches of sandy beach where campers set up, past seaside village and farms with gamboling sheep and grazing cattle. We were on our way to Portmeirion, changing at Machynlleth, with stops at Penheig, Tywyn, Llwyngwril, Fairbourne, Barmouth, Talsarnau, Penrhydeudraeth and, finally, Minffordd. From there, it’s a mile walk to Portmeirion, an unusual village built, between 1925 and 1973, on a peninsula on the coast and surrounded by 70 acres of woodland gardens. (It’s also unusual in that visitors have to pay a toll to see it.)
We were back in Aberystwyth for dinner and the next day drove back the 135 miles or so to Bristol Airport in three-and-a-half hours. (The roundabouts had us, at times, going around in circles.)
Homeward bound, we recalled the farewell refrain from the Welsh we had met.
“Did you enjoy your stay here? Come back and see us again. And tell your friends too.”
And we did.
If You Go…
Wales: http://www.travelwales.org or 800-959-2537.
Tintern Abbey: Located in the Wye valley, South Wales; http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=6&PlaceID=132 daily (closed Dec. 24-26 and Jan. 1). Winter hours (November-March): Monday-Saturday 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Adults, $6.50.
Town of Books: Hay-on-Wye, http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/. Home to some 30 bookshops. Lodging options include the Rest for the Tired bed-and-breakfast, http://www.restforthetired.co.uk/.
Dylan Thomas: Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, http://www.dylan-thomas-books.com/shop/. Mumbles on Swansea Bay, http://www.visitswanseabay.com/. The Dylan Thomas Boathouse at Laugharne includes house and museum, http://www.dylanthomasboathouse.com/.
Portmeirion: Village in Gwynedd on the coast surrounded by woodland gardens, http://www.portmeirion-village.com/.
Source: cnn.com