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;…
Scouting Honest Reviews Online
A quarter hour spent reading this post will inform you of my far-from-perfect approach to IDing legit reviews online. WHY IT MATTERS The press has finally paid some attention to bogus reviews; witness this article, describing the market for such prostituted praise on Fiverr. Such articles can persuade innocents that Something Is Being Done, that…
Tale of Three Prepaid Local SIM Cards
I fed data to my smartphone in Europe and Africa last month through prepaid local SIM cards bought at three airports: Turkcell in Istanbul, Vodafone in Budapest, Inwi in Marrakech1. I mostly camped happily with what I bought, and am encouraged to share my SIM swappin’ experiences by the blank stares beheld when yakking about…
The God of Mission Street
San Francisco’s brightest and most vital blocks may be on Mission Street. I include nearly every blood-throbbing centimeter between 25th and 22nd, then some of the homely and magnificent acres north and south. These blocks are only occasionally and accidentally pretty, and not a safe bet for some tourists. Attractive or not: San Francisco is…
Home Coffee Roasting: A New Hobby
No, the contraption shown below is not a toaster oven. You can even watch the inventor shudder online when told that his pride and joy resembles one. It’s a Behmor home coffee roaster, and is photographed atop my kitchen table ’cause it belongs to me. I have stunk up the garage with fumes from about…
Transit vs Car: a Few Conclusions
“You were mostly a stay-put teacher, Tim, and now (you lucky, worthless bum, Tim) you’ve chased trams and metros in cities around the world. How has this affected your transit views?” De-lighted you ask! * * * * * In Zurich, Copenhagen, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Stockholm and Amsterdam I traveled on transit networks that struck me…
Tips for New or Rusty Travelers
Rewritten: January, 2020 (Note, 1/14/2020: I have absolutely no connection with any of the companies named in this post, will receive diddley-squat if you click on the links to their sites. This ain’t that kind of blog.) I didn’t travel much in my teaching years. I flew home to visit family on holidays, spent two…
Athens, Rome, Barcelona
(♦) Greeks may sometimes bellow, fight and hurl things at one another in bitter protests, but not while hunting for a seat on the morning tram, or telling tourists how to get to the Acropolis, or sipping espressos in Kolonaki cafés. The country’s grave debt woes haven’t yet altered conventions of daily living, at least…
Dubai: First Impressions
(♦) Any Dubaian met by a run-of-the-mill tourist is likely to speak passable English. I started conversations in my native tongue, never felt presumptuous for doing so. If you aren’t run-of-the-mill and like to do odd things, you might wander far enough afield to meet locals who can’t savor great American artistes like Moe and…