Volunteer and Visit Paradise

The New York Times had an article a few days ago about volunteering with the Appalachian Mountain Club in St. John, USVI. You could get a reduced rate in a large tent for $55/night vs. the usual $90. This would require a 4-5 hour daily session of manual labor. That doesn't exactly sound like what I would like to be doing on vacation, unless it provided a good social environment with the group.

Cat sitting

I'm staying 10 minutes away at a friends house, keeping an eye on her two cats, Jesse and James. It's a vacation from my routine, since I am accompanied by these two cats and I have access to the wide world of cable. I can binge on pet friendship and the travel channel. It's fun to see them show places I've traveled like Key West, and new places to see like Nashville, TN.

Martha's Vineyard Hostel

I have traveled to Martha's Vineyard Hostel twice this year, already, and I have been impressed with some of the improvements. The first being a generally, friendlier staff. The biggest changes I noticed were the conversion of the sitting area in the kitchen to dining tables. This unfortunately removed the opportunity to relax while eating, but I guess this change was inevitable. I stayed in different rooms in each visit, and managed to get a small room the first time. It was a very comfortable setup with 8 beds, while the larger room with probably 20+ beds in adjoining rooms was annoying. This is one of my major complaints with this hostel, since I don't think it is necessary to have such large rooms. The hostel also painted the reconfigured eating area a weird yellow color that I didn't care for.
There aren't any other noticeable changes, and the hostel still doesn't have any interesting activities in the evenings.

Downtown DC Hostel

For the July 4th holiday I stayed at the Downtown DC Hostel for 5 nights in a 6 bed room. The hostel is conveniently located within walking distance of Union Station, but more importantly the Capital City Brewery. This brew pub is attached to the Smithsonian Postal Museum and across the street from Union Station, a busy Metro and Amtrak terminal. The Postal Museum is one of the worst Smithsonian museums, and not worth wasting time visiting. My iphone also dropped on the floor going through their metal detector, which also pissed me off. It isn't much further from Union Station to the Capital building and the mall, so you are better off heading down there, and only stopping here for a drink or to catch a train. The hostel has functioning AC units in the common room and bedrooms, but are adjustable by guests to hot, cold, or in-between. The staff is very friendly, and I enjoyed my experience at this hostel. It is fortunately small enough to avoid the large crowds of children traveling, and other annoying travelers. I would probably pick this hostel over HI for the atmosphere and the convenient beers.

Hawaii Hostel

I stayed for a few days at the Kona Pineapple Park Hostel on the west side of the big island. The hostel is located ten miles south of Kona above beautiful Kealakekua Bay in Captain Cook. A nice hike down to the bay and you can snorkel with tropical fishes just feet from the beach. The hike back is a bit of a trek, but worth a little adventure. The hostel isn't anything to write home about, but they were helpful and you can catch a free bus outside the hostel down to Kona.

New Boston Hostel

Hostelling International just announced plans to build a new 400 bed hostel at 25 Stuart Street. The 60,000 square foot structure will be just a few blocks from Boston Common. If all goes well, the hostel will be opening in 2012.

Camping on the Beach

I was aware of the camping at Cinnamon Bay in the USVI, but doing a search came across camping at Jost Van Dyke. I visited this party location on my last trip, and it seemed cool.

Ivans Campground
http://www.ivanscampground.com/index.html

DC for the 4th!

I spent the July 4th weekend in Washington DC. My weekend got off to a slow start with the airport backed up by a fog that had lasted for the last 3 days. Once my plane landed the public transportation to the city was no longer running. I had to shell out an extra $30 to get to the city, but I was ready to hit the town. I went to Clyde's in Chinatown and got a crab cake minutes before they closed the kitchen. I also ordered a #9 beer, which I just then realized tasted like apricots. The pints certainly seemed bigger in DC, I was ready for a good time. I slept in late, and did some work the next day on an iPhone App. I had some tasty Indian food from the restaurant across the street from the hostel, and the hostel had a fridge full of red-white-blue cupcakes that I feasted on. I went out to the Brickskellar for drinks after loading up on sushi at the only happy hour sushi place I have ever been to. I had a $5 spicy tuna roll and $5 spicy salmon roll. They were pretty awesome. I had a few belgian triples at the Brickskellar along with a russian beer at The Russian House. I drank too much and that night the air conditioning didn't work at the DC HI hostel in my room. It was miserable.
After I recovered I had a tasty burger at the "5 Guys" burger joint, and went to down to the national mall. I stopped at the portrait gallery, and saw the famous Obama picture with "Hope". It is a very compelling picture even though I am not a fan of Obama and his policies.
I then walked through the art gallery and found a spot on the capital lawn for the evening concert and fireworks.
The next day I went to see the Smithsonian Folklife festival on the national mall which features cultural exhibits from African-Americans (Chicago?), Wales, and Northern Mexico. I thought the rappers and Mexican artists were cool.
I walked all over the mall, went in many of the museums, and went to the washington, lincoln, jefferson, mason memorials. I didn't realize George Mason had such a strong influence on our nation. It seemed worth looking into. I went over to Georgetown for dinner, but was really too tired to do much.
I fly back to Boston on the 10:30 am flight, and headed back to work.

Argentinian Malbec

This 2003 Argentinian Malbec I brought back from my trip to Buenos Aires. It is a mix of 50% Malbec and 50% Cabernet Savignon. You can find more info about this wine here.

The CNBC website suggests that Argentinian Malbec's can be a great value, and that the 2002 and 2003 years are the best.

Hostel Seattle

Hostel Seattle

Grappa

I have always wanted to try grappa after reading Hemingway novels. He commonly drinks it in Spain, but it is also a popular drink in South America. There they drink it mixed with honey. Interestingly, there is no mention of this on the webtender website. So, if you want a taste of Buenos Aires, order a Grappa con miele. Grappa is a form of Brandy, and wikipedia suggests trying it with espresso.

Skype iPhone App

I just downloaded the Skype iPhone App from the App Store. I was able to log-in to my account, but was unable to make a call. The app requires a Wifi connection, and is disabled when the phone is connected to 3G. This app will be great when I travel and have Wifi access. Unfortunately, this came a week too late for my last trip to South America.

Mega-bus recap

I made it back to New York Penn Station to catch the Mega-bus for the final leg of my South America trip. Initially, I wasn't sure where to find the bus, since they don't pick up passengers at the same place they drop off. I wandered around Penn Station and had seen the Bolt buses on my trip to New York. I walked down to the drop off point, and still couldn't find where they picked up. Walking back, I saw a Mega-bus drive by and finally found a bunch of people waiting by a Mega-bus outside Madison Square gardens. The place was a circus, and not just because a bunch of people were getting out of the Wringling Brothers show inside the gardens. There were lines for a number of buses going up and down the East coast, and I bought a gyro while waiting for mine. After a 20 minute wait, I was on my way to Boston.

While waiting I overheard a conversation between two girls who preferred the Greyhound service from the Port Authority. While Greyhound charges $20 o/w, you can wait inside, and it is a much less hectic environment. I think for a few extra bucks I can agree.

Cheap international phone calls

The NY Times has an interstesting article about how to get cheap calls overseas using Fring or Skype.

Hostel Review: Portal de Sur

This hostel goes in my pantheon of rejected hostels. I will never stay
here again. I was woken at 7 am to a bass line of blaring music from
the hostel's neighbor. I'd rather not do that again. This place has a
lot going for it, but I need my sleep.
Chris

Sent from my iPhone

New drinking laws in Utah

Having traveled to Utah several times for the Sundance Film Festival, I was glad to read recently that Utah has eliminated their archaic liquor law that requires drinkers to be members of a club. This ridiculous law required purchasing for a few dollars a "membership" in order to buy a drink. Utah has other liquor laws, similar to other states, that regulate the strength of drinks that can be purchased at a bar versus with a meal. I don't believe these laws have changed. The article mentions a law requiring restaurants to mix drinks out of the view of children. Apparently, common sense still escapes this state. The reason suggested for the change was the lost tourism dollars caused by people shunning this backwards state.

HI-Boston is upgrading

The Boston Globe has an article about them moving to a new location. They are abandoning their 208 bed location by Berkeley, which leaves a lot to be desired, for a new location with 375 beds. Hopefully, this one will be rebuilt as a hostel, unlike the old building which feels like bathrooms were shoe-horned into closets.
They also mentioned not renting the building from BU that they set up a summer hostel in Boston. I have never stayed there, but I was surprised to read the average bed is $30. I paid $40 the last time I was there.

Visa on order

I made it to the Brazillian consulate in Boston at 9 am, in time to be #10 in line for a tourist visa. The visa costs $130, by money order, and signs posted in the consulate say it is only that high because the US charges the same for Brazil. All of the other countries listed were MUCH lower, usually below $50. I had my itinerary to go with the tour guide into Brazil, but not my itinerary to fly to Argentina. Apparently, this wasn't acceptable, and I had to go across the building to print these. (another $5 gone) After waiting for about 2.5 hours total, I think in the future I will do this by mail. I still have to go pick up my passport and visa up on monday. Brazil better be awesome for all of this running around.

Brazilian Consulate

I am hoping to visit Brazil on my trip next week, but I still need a visa to cross into the country. The consulate offers 20 visas a day at their offices, but I was a few people past that limit when they gave out the numbers. I plan to arrive much earlier tomorrow in an attempt to be further up in line. The place felt like a stuffy meat market, and there were a bunch of other people waiting, apparently not for visas.

Spring Break is Back!

The New York Times is reporting that resorts are wooing students to drum up more business. In a good economy, the spring break crowd has been increasingly considered more trouble than they are worth. Panama Beach City, FL, is going to be hosting MTV once again in a week of drunken reality shows and inane hilarity.

Students can get some good deals by sharing rooms through STA Travel, a popular student travel network. For non-spring breakers, I recently saw a deal from Jetblue offering what I believe was $69 flights from Boston to Cancun (courtesy of Travel Zoo). That was very tempting in this sub-20 degree weather.