Monday, October 30, 2006

Revenge is a Dish Best Served tomorrow!!


The UEFA Champions League group stages continue with Matchday 4 on October 31st/November 1st. The match I'm most looking forward to is the rematch of the game October 18th. Yep Chelsea vs Barcelona, this time the game will be played in Barcelona at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. Back 2 weeks ago Chelsea won the game 1-0 on a great goal by Didier Drogba, who has 4 goals in the Champions League, to go with his 5 League tallies to have an amazing 9 overall goals. This week the venue shifts and with some 70,000 or so Barca fans the home team should have an advantage. Its a very important game for Barca as they are tied with Bremen for 2nd place in their group with 4pts. Barca cannot afford anything less than a victory, as Bremen is playing winless and hapless Levski Sofia who has scored 1 goal, allowed 10 goals and is starting their backup 18 year old goaltender.

On Halloween in the daytime, why soccer?? Well the NBA season is about to start up on Tuesday, but early season games don't do much for me and my team the NY Knicks are plain and simply an embarrassment. While it would be hard to be as horrible as last season with the highest payroll at $126million (next highest team was Dallas Mavericks with 97million, but THEY MADE THE FINALS). While the youth movement is slow in coming to the Knicks, I guess there is always hope... NOT.. I expect Isiah to be fueding with someone by January, and this will probably be his only season coaching the team, as he will quit or be fired. Jeff Van Gundy is sitting somewhere glad he quit when he did or else the last 4 years would have aged him 40, and Jeff had not been aging well since being attached to Alonzo Mourning leg in that fight vs Miami years ago.

So back to the sport that seems to draw the most interest for me right now at this time, yet soccer, football if your not in the USA. While I root for Arsenal, and think Thierry Henry is simply a magician with the ball when it comes to big time matchups i'll watch most of them. Chelsea is an undefeated 3-0 in group stage play, only allowing 1 goal. They are also at the top of the premiership in England and all around having a great season. This will be a great game to watch, if you can find it. Its being shown on ESPN Deportes which I don't get on my DirecTV so I guess its off to a soccer bar to try and catch this clash. I expect Barca to win 2-1, but if you read any of my team USA world cup predictions I was WAY WAY WAY off the money. So sports gambling is not a career i'm looking to go into anytime soon.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Help out my Favorite NYC Band!!


Hey everyone.. Live music is one of my passions along with Travel, Sports and Beer.. When you can combine 3 of those together, we are talking about a PARTY!! Anyway YouTube is having a contest for the most popular underground music video. This band that I've been seeing live for a little bit over 2 years Valeze has an entry. First off Valeze are great on stage, incredible stage presence, all live instruments and talented folks. Second they are freaking cool people, love to drink and party during the afterparty. So right there you have a winner. Doesn't hurt the lead singer is cute and very stylish, so all around they are winners..

Check out their latest music video below, or goto YouTube and watch their video for the song "Go, GO Go" and vote for Cingular YouTube underground Contest
You want to see this video cause it features a bathroom make out orgy with girls kissing girls!! Yeah, now that is a party..

Also you can join their Myspace page at Valeze My Space Page Some upcoming concert dates include
Tonight October 26th in Boston at "The Middle East"

October 31st in NYC at Crash Mansion

November 21st NYC at the Knitting Factory

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Country by Country Hungary - Stop the Budapest Riots!!


After the recent events in Hungary over the last few days I decided to write my country review of Hungary now, instead of going in chronological order. I took a bus from Krakow, Poland to Budapest, Hungary. It was an easy 6hr bus ride, straight through the heart of Slovakia and the low tatras mountains. The bus was the only direct way from Poland to Hungary, as the rail network in Slovakia is not quite yet up to standards of Eurail. Bus are for sure the better way to get around Slovakia, but more on that country during a later post.

I have really wanted to visit Budapest over the past few years. I had heard only good things about the city and country from 2 bartenders who worked in the NYC area over the past years. That combined with the fact the city was located on the famous Danube river drew me to it. I was not disappointed by any means, and my 3 days there hopefully will not be the only time I ever spend in the country. I must say although there has been little coverage of the riots that have taken place over the last month in Budapest, its safe to going in the summertime was the right time to go, as things look a bit dicey right now, with mistrust of the government by the people. I did not see or feel any sort of despair/anger/frustration when I was there, but obviously it has been building for a while and the notion of a corrupt govt doesn't help by any means.

For those who haven't heard about just what has gone down in the last few days, I'll do my best to give a quick recap of events. Monday October 23rd, 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of the anti-Soviet uprising. People were either celebrating in the streets, or protesting the recent leak of a tape of the recently elected Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. In his campaign the PM basically lied about the state of the economy, said he would cut taxes where after he was elected he raised them and announced spending cuts. Gosh looks like he learned his political education from some of our US leaders.. Hey Poppa Bush remember that "No New Taxes" Pledge???? Well the government choose this event to squash the protestors outside the Parliament building, by bringing out the rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas to send the rioters home. Naturally there was some resistance and mini riots in the street. The govt would then claim "Everything is Under control, nothing to see, move along.. keep it moving.." Anyway that is the current situation in Budapest, when I was there in July 2006 it was lovely and while I was mostly sightseeing by day, and drinking by night, I didn't see any signs of the impending trouble.
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Budapest is actually 2 cities that are united by bridges across the Danube. There is the flat Pest side, which is larger and has most of the important Parliament buildings, church's, and museums. Then there is the hilly Buda side that is less populated, has a few clubs, the Citadel Castle and a few museums. Its a city of 1.7 million people, by far the largest in Hungary and one of the top 10 in all of the European Union. The currency is the Forint, with a rate of about 200 Ft for each US Dollar. The city is easy to navigate by tram/bus/subway and even walking. In fact my first day sightseeing there I walked all around for about 7hrs, only to get back to the hostel and be topped by an Aussie staying there who walked for 11hrs. He woke up earlier than me I guess. Here is one of the better church's that I managed to find.
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I totally enjoyed the sights of Budapest, more so than Prague. It was surely less crowded than Prague, and I was able to just walk without a map or purpose and run into some great sights. I climbed up in the Buda Hills to the top of the Citadel, and the view was simply amazing. Each level you reach and stop for a breather you look and say wow what a great view, it only gets better the higher and higher up you go until you reach the top and the whole city is in view. There is a nightclub up at the Citadel and I was thinking of going, but after walking/hiking/climbing up during the daytime there was no way I was going to do so at nighttime a second time. Yet there is plenty of other nightlife to find in Budapest.


I stayed at a decent Hostel The Aborignal that was located well right off Jozsef Korut avenue which is a main drag that you can catch the 4 or 6 tram. The hostel was average with only 1 bathroom with a shower, but had 2 computers with free internet. The people staying there were not really party people, and no one seemed to stay for more than 1 night, so I mostly hung out at night alone. Budapest has a great transportation system with both underground subways, and above ground trams. The fares are about 185 Ft per ride and I was warned to always pay as they seem to like to pick out black foreigners to check tickets and potentially fine... luckily I bought all my tickets and didn't have any problems. The trams don't run all night, but I got around that by partying till 4am and caught the first tram back home! After being in Krakow and their cool underground smoke filled bars, going to outdoor spots on the Danube was a total blessing in Budapest. On the Buda side of the river, there are 2 cool spots, Zold Pardon and Club Rio right across the street from each other. Zold Pardon is open in the daytime and has a great 2 for 1 happy hour beers for 400 Ft total($2 USD), at night they have 2-3 different music styles playing and its all outdoors. Club Rio is a bit more of a swanky place, and while the beers were more expensive about 750Ft each, and they didn't have any local Hungarian beer on tap, the crowd was better dressed, younger and seemed to be on the prowl for good nightlife.
I must say if any country in Eastern Europe where English was a problem it would be Hungary. While I was told that all the younger people speak english, I ran into a few that didn't speak it too well.

The worst experience regarding language was when I went to the Thermal Baths in the City Park. I bought my admission ticket for I think 2000 Ft($10) and literally walked around the building twice trying to find where to enter. It turned out I should have entered where I bought the ticket, but I only saw a line of women, and thought the baths were separated men on one side, women on the other.. After a 1hr long wild goose chase of running around trying to find where to enter I was ready to give up and totally frustrated but eventually found the way in. The Thermal baths are amazing, inside you have sauna rooms, hot hot hot pools, and then you get outside and they have 2 pool, one COLD, and one Medium to Warm. Even in the dead of winter the natural thermal springs heat the hot pool to over 100 Degrees. A very cool place and better yet they served beer!!!

The city has over 10 thermal/hot baths, and one could basically relax at them all day long and then party all night long, Budapest is a great city.. Plus if you like the cultural side of things, ya know churches, museums, architecture and shit like that, plenty to be seen.. Most importantly LESS PEOPLE THAN PRAGUE. I would highly recommend a trip to Budapest, and if you have extra time try to explore some of the smaller cities in the rest of Hungary, I didn't make it to any, but in my future travel plans I hope to. Towns like Eger, the Lake Balaton area, and Pecs all sounded like cool places from people I talked to during my travels, hopefully i'll make it there eventually.

A picture of the Parliament building, before the protests/riots.


Another view from my walk up to the Citadel

Friday, October 20, 2006

Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona battle of Spain, and other sports to watch this weekend



One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is to watch sports. This month of October has been a great month for me, with the beginning of the NHL season, NFL getting into full swing, the MLB Playoffs and world series. Even some great NASCAR races, but the grand-daddy sporting event of the weekend will be in Soccer. Yep, rivals Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are going to play for the first of 2 times this season. This game will be played at the 80,000 seat Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. This is for sure the hottest ticket in Spain this weekend. This could possibly be one of the most famous rivalries in all of sports. Yep all of sports here, we are talking about a rivalry between cities. If you have ever been to Spain and met someone from Madrid, they say their city is the best, and the same for people from Barcelona. Barcelona is the capitol of Catalonia, a region that would like to separate from Spain and be their own country. This rivarly has gone on as long as both teams have been around(over 100 years), its about a lot more than who wins or loses the game, its national identity at sake here. The game will be watched everywhere in the World as the roster on both teams includes players from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Iceland, Italy, England. I will be watching it live on Sunday Oct 22nd, 3pm here in the USA on Gol TV, channel 614 on DirecTV.

Should be an interesting game, will this be when Ronaldinho who hasn't been spectacular this season at all finally break out. Who can forgot his last performance in Madrid in 2005, when he scored 2 goals and was CHEERED!! by the away fans. Other questions include what role does David Beckham have with Real Madrid?? Is this the end of his career? No longer on the English national team, and not even starting for real Madrid, will we see Beckham in the MLS next season? The season is still early, only 6 games having been played. Barcelona has not lost yet, and Madrid would love to be their first defeat of the season and it might give Madrid the spark they need to move up in the standings from 5th place. I know GOL TV is not on every cable system, but if you get it, this should be a fun game to watch.

Also on TV this weekend and worth watching The World Series Game 1 & Game 2. on FOX at 8pm Saturday and Sunday nights. While the matchup of St. Louis vs Detroit is not going to win any ratings battle for most watched World Series, in fact it might be least watched, what a story it would be in Detroit Tigers could win the World Series after losing 119 games only 3 years ago..

NASCAR, Subway 500 from Martinsville, Virgina. Sunday Oct 22nd, 12:30pm NBC. What watching NASCAR on a Sunday? Well this weeks slate of NFL games doesnt have any compelling matchups until the Monday night game Giants vs Cowboys. This NASCAR race is on a tiny track, .5 mile oval, so there will be PLENTY of bumping, passing, spin-outs and even a few accidents. But don't worry with average speeds of only 90mph, these guys will hit the wall, go into the pits, fix the car and get back out there.

College Football... While I honestly don't get into the college game, it rules the airwaves on Saturday. Plus if Ohio State ranked 1, and Michigan ranked 2, both can run their remaining schedules and finish undefeated it will be an EPIC battle on November 18th at Ohio State when the 2 teams would meet in the last game of the season for both the Big 10 Title, National Championship shot and total midwest bragging rights. Ohio State vs Michigan is one of the biggest and best rivalries in college sports.

The NFL is usually king of the TV airwaves on a fall weekend, but even NBC does not want to go up against the World Series so no "Football Night in America" this week. Whatever is on, there is a good chance I'll be on my couch with remote in hand watching some sports this weekend! Enjoy

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Anyone seen this man lately?


Talkin about the vampire hunter, Blade himself Wesley Snipes. It seems that Wesley has not paid his taxes for a while and the government would like to take some photographs of him. It seems that from 1999 to 2004 Mr. Snipes didnt file or pay his taxes. He also applied for a nice little $11 million refund for years paid previous to 1999. Know I don't know what sorta crack Wesley was smoking, but he could have been reading some urban rumors about not having to pay US Taxes on any income earned in the USA. There is a sucker born every 7 seconds these days, and people make a living preaching about how you dont REALLY have to file your taxes. To top off the whole shock of not paying/filing taxes but the indictment says that Wesley gave bogus checks worth $14 million to the IRS for his estimated tax liabilities in recent years. Ouch, lets just say this man is in trouble and probably will go down
Maybe Wesley got confused about the difference between Federal and State. Seems that Wesley has not exactly had the best financial advisors in the past few years, in 2003 he had his Windermere, Florida(home of half the PGA tour, and other MLB, NBA players) home sold at forclosure auction. His agents at recently filed a 1.5 million dollar lawsuit against him for unpaid agent fees for recent movies.

To make the story even better, it appears Wesley is on the run. He hasnt made a movie since 2004's Blade Trinity, and tried to enter South Africa using a fake/forged passport in 2005 and was kicked out.. While there isnt a reward that I know of yet, if anyone happens to see Wesley I would call the IRS. I have actually met Wesley on two ocassions at Prince concerts, while he was a nice guy, most of all I can remember about him is just how short he is. Possibly pushing 5"7, but he is a big dude, so don't try to take him yourself, plus he knows all those martial arts moves from his films. I have actually liked Wesley in alot of his movies, but shockingly as many movies as he has made from his big debut in Major League in 1989, he has never starred in a movie that grossed $100 million bucks. Never has been in what is considered a blockbuster film.

I have enjoyed his films, but for himsake I hope he learned a bit about evading the law from his role as Nino Brown in New Jack City, and is living on an island in the south pacific sippin on coconuts, cause his midget self will become someone's bitch at the state pen.
It will be a real life version of his first big acting gig in Michael Jackson's Bad video where the first words Mikey says are "Your butt is mine!!" If you have 10 minutes of your life to waste, check out the long version of the Bad video Mikey and Wesley acting in Bad Video. Filmed at the 8th avenue 14th street A,C,E,L NYC subway station. gotta love those old school turnstyles, even Michael Jackson can evade the fare easily!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

6.5 million reasons to love the NY Rangers


Just as T.O has 25 million reasons to live, I wish I had 6.5 million reasons to buy this Diamond studded bra for Karolina Kurkova, the uber-hottie model from the Czech Republic. She'll be wearing this creation at the upcoming Victoria's Secret fashion show. The $6.5 million Hearts on Fire Diamond Fantasy Bra, weighs 800 carats I have never bought a diamond in my life so I have no idea how many that is, but i'm guessing alot, more than i'll probably ever buy in my lifetime.. Oh why are we talking so much about Karolina, well she is a big NY Rangers fan.

Tonight with so many choices on TV, either Grey's Anatomy, the Mets winning game 1 of the NLCS, what did I watch.. yep the NY Rangers vs Pittsburgh Penguins. Stills trange watching the game and not having John Davidson in the announcing booth, having basically grown up over the last 20 years listening to Sam & J.D it will take me a while to get adjusted to former Islanders(of all damn people) Joe Micheletti doing the games. Who knows former Islanders dont have a good track record on broadway, remember the Fire Trottier chants?

The Rangers lost in a heartbreaking fashion, with damn uber-sophmore Sidney Crosby scoring with 3 seconds left in the game. Good thing its game 4 of the season and not game 84. I was hoping to see the Pengiuns so called super rookie Evgeni Malkin play, but he is hurt. Instead I'm treated to the first ever goals from freakin 18 year old, he cant shave Jordan Staal and Kris Letang. While the Pens I think still haev no goaltending, they do have great young talent. Watch out for this Staal kid, they are going to be a 4 player dynasty in a few years once the youngest kid, now 15 gets drafted. oldest brother Eric last year showed in winning the Stanley Cup in Carolina he is the real deal.. The rangers have hopefully a decent defenseman in Marc Staal currently in the minors.

I do like the makeup of this Rangers team. I usually dont like signing 37 year old players like Brendan Shanahan but he is probably one of the better "power forwards" in the game. We are still taking too many penalties, and Jagr cant be back at full strength yet. I love the fact we have an established 2nd line now with Shannny, Petr Prucha, and Matt Cullen. This is something we couldnt do last year. Lundqvist is not looking at full form yet, but god help us if Kevin Weekes gets more playing time. Yeah I should be supporting the few brotha's playing hockey, but nope cant get into Weekes. At least i'll support the other brotha Nigel Dawes as long as he can stay in the NHL. But overall the Czech connection is still there with 6 Czechs and 1 Slovak.

Back to Karolina, she and my favorite Ranger Petr Prucha are from the same town in the Czech Republic. Not sure if they are an item, but they were seen dining at Jordan's in Grand Central right before Rangers training camp, you go Prucha!! Alright you made it this far you deserve a reward, a little ass shot from the Vicky Secret's fashion show..
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Cory Lidle is NOT a Terrorist... RIP

Life in NYC is always crazy, but today things seemed to get a bit crazier. First the reports come in about a small plane hitting a building on Manhattan's upper east side. 524 East 72nd is a 50 story building.



Today is a grey and rainy day in the city, not the best day to be flying a small plane. First the fears were of terrorism, but eyewitness reports on the ground confirmed it as a small, single engine plane. Ok so now the fears of another Terrorist attack were eased, then word leaked out that owner and pilot of the plane was pitcher Cory Lidle. Whoa.. Right now word is 2 people are dead, Lidle, and his flight instructor. This toll sadly might rise, as after the plane hit a building it started a fire and fire in any high-rise building in the city is a worry. Stories are coming out that Lidle loved to fly, and wanted to fly as much as possible. Sadly Lidle had to leave the Yanks in middle August and put on the Bereavement list as he attended the funeral of his grandmother. From the preliminary reports, the plane was headed up the east river, strange for someone who lives in California, could he have wanted to circle Yankee Stadium one last time before heading home???



What to say at this point. First off Lidle was an average ML League pitcher, but heck the Yankees pitched BELOW average in their recent playoff loss. At 34 years old, he had been in the league for 9 Years playing for 7 Different teams(NY Mets, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland A's, Toronto BlueJays, Cincinnati Reds, Philadephia Phillies, and last stop NY Yankees). To say he was a journeyman was fair, but he had a career record of 82-72, and ERA of 4.57. Not great stats, but in these days of pitching starved teams, enough to earn 3.3million this past season, and a career total of around 17million bucks. Not bad for being "average".

Lidle came to the Yanks as a salary dump/throw-in during the Bobby Abreu trade this past summer. He did manage to pitch a clutch game August 21st for the Yanks during the "Boston Massacre" going 6 innings and not giving up any runs, surrendering 3 hits and striking out 5. Another good performance was his September 1st outing against the Twins again going 6 innings and not giving up any runs.. Was he in the Yanks future plans for 2007, highly doubtful, but he was good insurance to have as a backup starter and his price would have probably been below 5 million bucks.

The ebay effect on Death is a strange one, as someone had listed signed Cory Lidle baseballs a week ago and were set to end in 6hrs before the news broke. There had been no bids on the items. As it write this in the last hour the items have gone from $10 to over $200. Now with someone as marginal of a star like Lidle, I'm sure this affect will be limited to Autographed Items, or game-used equipment. This frenzy seems to happen anytime a person dies, remember the Kirby Puckett effect on both autographed and non-signed items. I have no idea what the final price of the Item will be, but check out one of the balls for yourself Cory Lidle Ebay Autographed Baseball. Also in a sick ebay note, people have now recently listed 4 signed baseballs that will end in a 1 week. If people knew the way to make money on ebay, they would know to list as a 1 day auction, and let the frenzy take over. Even right now a simple Phillies Postcard with Lidle, not even signed is selling for over 50 bucks.. Amazing what death can do to a person's "worth". Yet right now there are 32 items for sale of Cory Lidle, expect this number to double or triple in the next few HOURS. Its a frenzy out there once someone dies..

Athletes die in plane crashes all the time, probably less than the statistical probability considering how much they fly. From golfer Payne Stewart in 1999, NASCAR's Davey Alison in 1993, to entire teams like the US boxing team in 1980. The Yankees have a strange history of players dying in plane crashes, the last active roster baseball player to die in a crash was Thurmon Munson in 1979. Well lets just prey for his family and those of people in the building or the ground who might have been injured or killed. Here are a few images of Lidle.. Rest in Peace...



Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Country by Country: Poland - A Tale of Two Cities


I went to Poland on 2 occasions, and each was totally different as the cities are like night and day. I flew on WizzAir from Lithuania to Warsaw on June 9th, the first day of the World Cup. I only stayed in Warsaw for one night before flying on to Germany for the first USA match. Warsaw was basically a pit-stop of sorts, a lot of discount airlines fly in and out of there, but the schedules didn't allow me to change planes the same day so I ventured into town for a night. It was an early morning 6am flight, so I was in Warsaw by 8am and at the hostel. I stayed at Nathan's Villa Hostel in Warsaw, Nathan's villa is about as close to a franchise in the Hostel world as could be, with other locations in Krakow, and 2 in Romania. It was a very nice place, but due to my early arrival and how full it was I could not check in till past noon, so despite wanting to sleep I had to wander around town for a while. This was my first experience with not being able to get straight into a room at a hostel, and was a good learning experience for the future. If you are going to arrive before Noon, don't be tired, hungover, hungry etc as there is a chance it will take a while till you can check in.

To kill time I walked around Warsaw, I must say Polish people are a very religious people and Warsaw has plenty of churches to go and pray. Seems like people would just walk by a Church and go, have a quick prayer and then continue on their day. The city is fairly walkable with some main avenues that you can follow and its almost a grid system, so its easy to walk around and find you way. I must say not much of the architecture impressed me, but this could be since the city was heavily damanged in WWII and had to be rebuilt, not much from the past was left. They did seem to have a lot of statues/monuments all around town, seemingly every few blocks.

This was the first day of a new schedule for me, that revolved around the World Cup, basically for the next month my days would consists of being in front of a TV to watch games, and then going out somewhere at night. I met a cool dude from Namibia and we went out to a bar to watch the Poland vs Ecuador game. Found this place called Tortilla Factory that was run by an american dude from Chicago, nice place with TVs and naturally it was packed with Polish fans all dressed in Red. Poland lost the game and would soon be bounced from the World Cup in the group stages, the mood of Warsaw seemed to change that night. Myself and my friend from Namibia befriended an american and his polish girlfriend, they told us a few places to go and hang out, thankfully we caught a cab with them to the first spot, so we were charged the normal/non-tourist rip off rate. None of the bars would let us in, not sure if it was a racist thing against me, which I felt at the time that it was, or just whatever, but if they didn't want my tourist dollars fine I'd take them somewhere else. For my friend Otwin from Namibia who was a white dude this sucked, his main mission was to get laid. There is close to a 45% rate of infection of HIV among the women on Namibia, so while in Poland on a short break he wanted to get some action. I think he struck out the this night, and since I left the next day, no idea if he was able to accomplish his mission. The cab ride back to close to where our Hostel was, the driver charged us the tourist rate and it was about 3x as much as the first cab ride. It was still cheap compared to a cab in NYC, but still not a good feeling knowing your getting ripped off but couldn't do anything about it.. The combination of not getting into any places, being ripped off, etc left a bad taste of Warsaw in my mouth. Thankfully Krakow restored faith in Poland for me.

The currency in Poland is the Zloty. The exchange rate is about 3 Zl for 1$, and this was the first of what would be a string of very cheap countries. The beers are good and strong, the main brands being Tyskie and Zywiec. Both good golden lager beers. But if you wanna get hammered in Poland, drink the Vodka, its no joke folks, strong and cheap..

I went to Krakow at almost the end of the World Cup arriving on July 3rd, I took an easyjet flight from Germany that was cheap and quick, well worth the cost. Arrival in Krakow was difficult at first, as the main bus/train station is under construction so since the bus stopped at the back of it, I didn't know we were at it and missed it, took me a while to get back to it on the return bus, but the main old town square was easy to find. I stayed at Mama's Hostel which is like 50 meter from the old town square where all the action is. There are plenty of bars right near the town square, along with places to eat, so as a tourist you don't really need to venture too far from there for fun. Krakow is a city of students, with some 120,000 students of a population of 780,000. In the summer a lot of this population is gone but I'm told during the school year, the party rages on at all times of the day or night.

There are plenty of cool places to go in the daytime in Krakow. They have a castle that is right on the river with some lovely views, along with one of the oldest Jewish quarters in Poland. Daytrips to Auschwitz concentration camps are a popular thing people do. I didn't go as I am sure I didn't have the emotional strength to deal with such a place that just feels of death. The other popular thing to do are goto the Wieliczka Salt mines, this was more up my alley, but my time in Krakow was limited. I wanted to stay longer as the city was great, but the bus to Budapest only runs on Wednesday and Saturday and I had to get there by Thursday as my friend from NYC, Kissy was traveling europe and I wanted to hang out with her there. I'll have to get back to Krakow to see all the things I missed.

This has to be one of the nicest old town squares in all of eastern europe, both in the scope of the size of it, being very large, and the fact that while there are tourist destinations right near the town square, a few blocks off it, the prices drop a bunch, and tourists seem to disappear. Plus you see crazy things like these guys on a moving "boat" playing jazz music in the middle of the day.


Also the main museums of the city are right near or in the old town square. One to visit is Czartoryskich Museum which features Leonardo Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine painting. Another must visit is a short walk from the old town to the Royal Castle. This is located right on the river, with lovely views of all sides of Krakow along with a museums that houses various paintings, jewels and all those things you normally find in museums! The view is quite lovely and the day I was exploring was a just picture perfect day



Right on the river on a good day, people spread out on the grass and work on their tans, with Krakow not being located close to an ocean, all these students with nothing to do in the summer daytimes get some sun, a few were swimming in the river, but I opted to sit on a boat/restaurant and just enjoy my Beer.



Ahh the nightlife, while I was there in the summer, probably the worst time as most of the hard partying students were back at their family houses, There was a cool group of Irish girls at the hostel, throw in a canadian guy, canadian girl, danish dudes, and me, and you have the makings of a good night out. As the case in most cities with an old town, all the action is right around it, so staying at a hostel close by makes for easy stumbling home. You just kinda walk where the crowds are headed, we tried a few places, but found the most fun at Prozak located on Dominikanski 6, initially a bit of a challenge to find as its located downstairs. In fact most clubs/bars in the old town are located in basements/downstairs, while this makes for cool interiors blending into the 13th century architecture, due to the fact everyone in Europe seems to chain smoke, these places can fill up with cig smoke really easily, and for a soft New Yorker like myself who hates cig smoke it can be tough.. Still the beer was only 8 Zlot (less than $3), and oh so tasty. At the end, the girls naturally gravitated to the local polish guys, but I must say they have a tough, no nonsense look. There were a few cute polish girls, but I've heard Krakow boasts some of the best looking women in Poland, but that must be during the school year as not many sights were on display. These are crazy irish girls here.

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The next day after washing some clothes and nursing off a slight hangover, it was time to move on to Budapest, I wanted to stay longer, but the schedules weren't in my favor, so I'll just have to get back to Krakow some other time, preferably during the university year but not in the dead of winter when its COOOOLD!! Its definitely more backpacker friendly than Warsaw.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Get Yourself some Frequent Flyer Miles FREE!!

One of the slight "obsessions" in my life is earning frequent flier miles. They have come in handy in the past as I have saved money going to Jamaica for my sisters wedding back in 1999, and even got bumped from that flight so I got a $700 voucher for future travel. I also went on my recent europe trip using FF miles to book my ticket. While I am not in the same level as obesssion now in 2006 as I was in the past. For example on a trip to MPLS in 2001 I switched hotels twice and rental cars twice in just a 3 day trip in order to take advantage of bonus programs. I will no longer do that as sadly your miles these days aren't worth as much as the past. Its much much harder to book flights using miles for the most popular destinations, such as anywhere outside of the USA. You have to book way way in advance, and be very flexible in your dates. So now the order of business for me is to use up most of my miles, before they become totally worthless or the airlines start dropping out of business one by one. I had predicted a slow death for either Northwest, Delta, or United all airlines that were in bankrupcy, but looks like they were able to screw their employees out of pensions and cut salaries and manage to stay alive..

Anyway there are always a few offers out there for totally free miles, and these are the best. I'm no longer going to sign up for various brokerage accounts, credit cards, staying at only certain hotel chains, using certain rental cars, etc.. But if I can point and click my way to free miles I'm all for it..


So here we go
250 Free Delta Miles, just simply click to this link 250 Sky Miles and tell them what you like to do while flying.. sorry joining the mile high club is not a choice

Use this 1000 Miles for Creating a Profile to create a login profile for OnePass dining. You will need a credit/debit card and email address. You dont have to dine at all, but If you do want to earn a decent amount of miles without much extra effort the dining programs of the airline are good.

They have been watered down in recent years as to how many miles you earn, but if you eat out alot, there are hundreds of resturants and bars that are in the program. You dont have to do anything special other than pay for your bill with the credit/debit card you have on file and the miles post to your account. No need to ask or confuse the staff. At the highest level you can earn 10 miles per dollar spent. In the past they have offered nice bonus programs, these seemingly have died down, but I have been able to earn a little over 22,000 miles on American over the last 3-4 years just usually by drinking beer or eating wings, as I'm not a big dining out person.

The Delta program, I have no idea of an expiration date, they may pull it from their site at anytime. The Continental Program is from October 2nd, to Dec 31st, 2006. Miles can take 6-8 weeks to post, so do it now.