Spain is interested in Donald Trump. Understandably. I ignored many European squabbles while hailing F cars on the other side of the planet, but paid attention when Britain voted itself out of the European Union. Iberian psychology may be similar. Spaniards have their own canoes to row, little time to fret about Citizens United, Merrick…
All posts by Tim Adams
Alecciono a España sobre Trump
España está interesada en Donald Trump. Entiendo por qué. Ignoraba muchos conflictos de Europa mientras viajaba en tranvías al otro lado del mundo, pero presté atención cuando Reino Unido votó por el Brexit. La psicología de la Península Iberica podría ser similar. Los españoles tienen sus propios problemas, poco tiempo para preocuparse por Citizens United,…
Madrid: Second Impressions
Now that I’ve been here a month: FANTASTIC PEDESTRIAN LIFE The clip below shows some of the pedestrian streets branching off from Puerta del Sol. I’ve been too busy boning up on my irregular verbs to study recent Madrid history, but gather that callers-of-shots here are determined to put people and transit before cars in…
Gear for Long-Haul Travel
A little over a year ago, I described myself as a ‘carry on at all costs’ flier. No longer! I arrived in Madrid in early July with a one way ticket and no return plans, had to prep and pack for a far more distant horizon than in journeys past. Pre-trip research suggested I buy…
Tracy, California: First Impressions
(Or first impressions this century: I once feared Tracy and the whole San Joaquin Valley as a hitchhiker’s no man’s land in my ride-thumbing college years, have yet to forget an eleven hour wait for a ride in North Fresno.) Tracy is a city of about 87,000 in the agricultural flatlands east of San Francisco.…
Marrakech: First Impressions
Marrakech is two places: the walled, labyrinthine, thousand-year old Medina, and the relatively modern city that sprawls around it. The airport, train station and plush hotels are in the outer city. The Medina has all the tourist color: mules tugging carts through open air souqs; alleys twisting between pink adobe riads; passersby in hijabs, djellaba,…
One More Linux User
Still mortified by those gnaw marks on the keyboard from a rage-making experiment with Linux last decade? Consider giving the OS another try; Linux has matured. I switched last summer, endured far less grief than expected, now rarely boot into Windows. Warning: this post is geeky. If you don’t know or care what a “Linux”…
Budapest: First Impressions
“Bad trip idea, Tim,” I thought, and grimaced as my dilapidated Soviet-style metro creaked into yet another gruesome station on the M3 line. This was my first trip to Budapest, and my ride-in-from-the-airport impressions boded badly. Clunky bus to the subway, unpromising countryside, metro stations like the one above. Resigned to a lousy visit, I…
Unenthusiastic About Marijuana
He was about eighteen, pudgy, stoned; I wondered if he’d keel over in the BART car. But he managed to lurch upright when his Balboa Park stop came up, and that’s when I spotted the logo on his tote bag. Cannabis Cup. The big marijuana fest at the San Francisco Cow Palace. That explained it.…
Istanbul: First Impressions
(♦) Istanbul ranks with Athens and Rome as a ‘must see’ for history buffs. King Byzas, Constantinople, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottomans: ancient humans were busy here. I hadn’t understood this, frequently pictured myself with a dunce cap while conducting pre-trip research. ‘Course, I’m the same guy who hadn’t known that cricket is popular;…