Don't Cry For Me: Argentina

Well, I’m back. Sort of. I’m back on the road, but I’m somewhere else – this time, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since I’m taking classes here, there is a lot less time for touristy stuff, though I’m planning on getting a lot of that in as well. Therefore, there likely will be fewer entries and fewer photos.

Now that I’ve set you up so as to not expect any photos, I’ll go ahead and give you some. Just as long as you’re not expecting any. On my first day in Argentina, the biggest soccer match of the year in South America was taking place in Buenos Aires – Boca Juniors at River Plate. I got here too late, so I missed it, though I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of soccer in my future.

If you think that missing the superclasico would depress me, it did a little bit and I went to a cemetery, but it wasn’t the depression that sent me to the depressing plot of land. It was Evita. Eva Peron is buried in el Cementerio de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires, one of the world’s great necropolises. It is a mostly above-ground cemetery with hundreds of mausoleums dating from the mid-19^th century to the present. I don’t know much about Argentine history, but many of the elite are buried in the Recoleta Cemetery, or so I am told. The only name I recognized was Eva Peron, and her family mausoleum had a crowd around it throughout the entirety of my visit.

After class on Monday, I started roaming around town and found myself in la Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza is the heart, though not the center, of the city. Its most well-known landmark is La Casa Rosada, which translates into the Pink House. La Casa Rosada is the executive office of the government and la Presidente (yes, LA Presidente – Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner), roughly equivalent to a slightly-less colorful building in Washington, D.C. Just in case you were wondering, the house was pink long before Argentina elected a female president.

The other famous landmark in a city that’s not really known all that much for landmarks is the obelisk that sits in the middle of Avenida 9 de Julio. The obelisk, coincidentally known as "the Obelisk," appears to be similar in size to the Washington Monument and is impressive in its own right. What I find more impressive is what is reputedly (I’ve seen conflicting data) the widest street in the world, Avenida 9 de Julio, which is (again conflicting data) 127 m (416 ft) and 18 lanes wide. Just crossing the street is a little bit of a hike. Despite all of the traffic, however, drivers appear to obey traffic laws and the trip across, though it takes a few traffic light cycles, doesn’t appear to be unsafe at all.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back with probably less touristy stuff from time-to-time.

Ciao.

Stanley House: A Review

The Stanley House Hotel in London was the sketchiest looking hotel that I stayed in the entire time that I was in Europe. (Sorry, I forgot to take any pictures at this hotel.) Despite the looks, however, it turned out to be very comfortable and quiet, two things I look for in a hotel. It also had the amenities I like (wifi and breakfast) and only cost around $90/night. After getting a sinking feeling following my first glance, I was pleasantly surprised.

The location of the hotel could be better. It is about a seven-minute south from Victoria Station, close to the Thames. It’s not a horrible location, just not particularly active, though there were some restaurants and pubs that allowed me to get food and drink from a relatively close distance, so I can’t complain too much.

The room was among the largest I stayed in, smaller than only Berlin and Vienna. It also had a full-sized bed that was actually very comfortable. The bathroom was fairly small, but after what I experienced in Amsterdam and Bratislava, it’s nothing that I would complain about.

The wifi was free and was pretty good quality, allowing me to watch streaming video. The breakfast, a traditional English breakfast with “bacon,” sausage, eggs, tomato and baked beans, was very good and very quick. They only served it until 9:00 am, which seemed to me to be uncommonly early, but given my schedule on this particular trip to London, that worked out fine.

I had read some bad reviews of the staff prior to coming here, but I found that the staff was very friendly and very helpful. They helped with some initial problems when I arrived and I noticed them advising others of other places to stay in the area even before they had filled all of their vacancies.

I don’t really have a lot to add to what I wrote above. Like I said, it’s not much to look at from the outside, or even the inside before you get to your room, but I was completely happy with my room and would stay here again.

London Revisited

It turns out that ending the trip with two days, one full day, in London was a little anti-climactic. While I had far from seen and done everything in London that I wanted to see and do, I didn’t quite have the energy or enthusiasm to try to cram a lot into my final visit.

One reason that I didn’t do more than I did in these last two days is that the one thing that I did do took a lot longer than expected. When I left the United States a month or so ago, it was the middle of the U.S. Open. With tennis still on my mind, I decided to go to Wimbledon to see it’s museum and take a guided tour of the grounds.

The guided tour was really interesting. The grounds were a lot smaller than I expected from what I’ve seen on television. Also, I never realized how close together all of the outside courts were to each other. Parts of it looked like you might find at a public court, except with perfectly manicured grass and an overwhelming sense of history.

We also went to see Court One and Centre Court. Obviously, being the most famous tennis court in the entire world, Centre Court was quite an experience, though it seemed a little strange because there were no lines, nets or, except for about forty of us on the tour, people. One unexpected highlight was they tested the retractable roof while we were there, so we got to see that close. Not exciting, just interesting.

Most of the other things that I did in these final two days in London is just walk around, take my last set of pictures, eat, and buy a last group of souvenirs. I took some pictures of Buckingham Palace from the front, since I was in the neighborhood and since I noticed that on my last trip to London, all of my photos were from the back. That’s it, really. Nothing too exciting at the end.

As I write this, I’m on a plane back to the United States. I’ll be there around ten days before heading off to Argentina for eight weeks. I’m thinking of posting some “Top Five” lists from my European trip, just for fun, and then I’ll probably start posting again once I get to Buenos Aires.

Cheers.

Die Port Van Cleve: A Review

In Amsterdam, I stayed at Die Port Van Cleve. I’ll go ahead and start with a summary. Something about this place just always seemed to feel wrong, although the location was near perfect.

Finding the place is relatively easy, provided you don’t get there at one of the non-main stations after dark. Unfortunately, as I’ve written about in a prior post, I got there in a non-main station after dark. The hotel is at the first stop on several traps from Amsterdam Centraal. Unfortunately, from Amsterdam Zuid, where my train stopped, it’s the next-to-last stop on line five. Unfortunately, after six, there’s no way to get tickets at Amsterdam Zuid. The people there told me I could get a ticket on the train, but that didn’t happen either. I ended up risking a fine and just hopping a train without a ticket. That’s not the hotel’s fault, though.

Check-in at the hotel was easy enough, but after taking nearly 30 minutes to get to the hotel, the receptionist gave me a key that didn’t open my door. My this time, the backpack felt like it weighed about five times its already 80 pounds and I wasn’t happy. The receptionist was very apologetic and got somebody to take my backpack to my room on the second trip, but it didn’t put me in a good mood.

The hotel room was small, as was the bed, but these are things I had gotten used to in the discount hotels that I’ve stayed in while in Europe. It seemed fairly clean, but a little sketchy as well. I had made the mistake of reading some reviews of the hotel right before I got there and there were a couple of mouse complaints. While I never saw a mouse or any hints that mice were present, I wasn’t able to get the thought out of my head.

I’m not even sure what to say about the “shower.” It had a tub, but not a regular tub. It was a tub that allows somebody to sit in it. In fact, it nearly forces you to sit in it because there was very little room to stand if you wanted to take a shower. I wanted to take a shower. It wasn’t easy, but I managed. This really didn’t help its score, though, when I reviewed it on Orbitz.

There was free wireless internet that worked very well. I learned in Vienna not to take that for granted anymore. Breakfast, however, was not included in the price of the hotel, but there were numerous coffee shops (no, not those coffeeshops), so I was able to get my morning fix (no, not that type of fix).

The hotel itself is just across the street from Koninkijk Palace and Nieuwe Kirk, probably the most famous buildings in Dam Square. And you should never underappreciate the little chuckle that goes on in the back of your head when you’re walking around and passing places called Dam Hotel, Dam Souvenirs and Dam Coffeeshop. My infantile sense of humor just liked that.

The hotel wasn’t cheap, at least not by the standards that I’d gotten used to in Europe, about $140/night. I’ve received much more around Europe for much less. I understand that there are other hotels in the neighborhood that are in the same price range and if I had to go back, I probably would try one of them out. This one wasn’t bad, but like I said, there was just something not feel right about it.

Amsterdam - The Blue Entry

I’ve already gone into all of the landmarks in Amsterdam that I visited, but what does everybody know about Amsterdam? The Red Light District and soft drugs. Yes, they are there.

The Red Light District was just strange. Lots of sex clubs and women in windows attempting to entice you to come in. I hate to speak of women only in terms of appearance, but when you are talking about women selling themselves from windows, it’s kind of hard not to do so, so I apologize in advance.

I’m not a complete stranger to the world of strip clubs. There was a wide range of women in the windows in the Red Light District, but I’d have to say that the collection of women was not dissimilar to what you might find in a second-class strip club. Some were attractive, but most looked a little worse for wear, so to speak. The streets were primarily full of tourists, like myself, doing a little bit of gawking, like myself, and just trying to take in what they’ve heard about all of these years. It actually gets pretty old pretty quick, but if that’s you’re thing, and it is certainly some people’s thing, then enjoy.

For all of the coffeehouses in Amsterdam, I didn’t see a single Starbuck’s. That’s okay, though. I made do. I visited a place in the Red Light District called Hill Street Blues, because I heard that the food was pretty good. I had some cupcakes that were pretty good. Unfortunately, being overly cautious, I think I underdosed on the cupcakes, which inhibited my relaxation. I was relaxed for a few hours, but certainly not as relaxed as I would have liked to have been.

I remedied that the next day. Since there are over two-hundred licensed coffeehouses in Amsterdam, I though that I’d try something different, so I went to Abraxas, near Dam Square. I went there around noon on Sunday and had a brownie and, of all things, coffee – which was pretty good. Having learned from my mistake of the previous day, I had plenty to eat on this visit. I think I’ve found the opening line to my novel – “I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant on Dam Street when the brownie kicked in.” (Okay, so most people have had a similar experience. I just love the different ways that you can go following that line.) This was the beginning of several hours of relaxation and, for the most part, the end of my trip. Trip as in visit.

This is my last post from Amsterdam (except for the random hotel review) and I just realized that I never talked about Dam Square, which is the old town square and, like all of the other old town squares I’ve visited, is bordered with shops and very old buildings. It wasn’t all that exciting, but it was across the street from my hotel, so I was there for at least a little while every day. There, of course, will be additional pictures of old buildings from Amsterdam on my Facebook page within the next few days. (If there aren’t already. Not sure exactly when this will get posted.)

That’s it from Amsterdam. Now, on to a few final days in London and the United States!!!

Hotel City B - A Review

Time for another hotel review, don’t you think? We’re up to Berlin, where I stayed in Hotel City B.

The location for Hotel City B gets mixed reviews. On one hand, it was great because it was right across the street from a U-Bahn station and, thus, transportation anywhere else in the city, and Berlin is huge. On the other hand, there really wasn’t much going on in the section of Potsdamerstrasse and the area was a little sketchy. About a ten-minute walk north, however, brought you into the heart of Berlin, not to mention a Dunkin Donuts, so it wasn’t horrible.

Check-in and check-out were painless. My room was on the third floor, so an elevator was very necessary. Fortunately, it also existed at this hotel. The hotel’s motif is sort of hard to explain. Very strange colors in the hallways, on my floor the walls were purple, and the room numbers looked like they were handwritten, but I believe that was purposeful.

My room was huge. It had a double bed and the entire south wall was a window that looked directly into the U-Bahn station across the street. The room had an internet connection. It wasn’t wireless, but that was fine as I used the good connection to spend one night catching up on American television shows that I’ve missed while I’ve been in Europe. The only English-language stations on the television were CNN and MTV.

The breakfast wasn’t free, or cheap, so I didn’t indulge. In any event, with Dunkin Donuts all over the place in Berlin, that was going to be my breakfast in Berlin anyway. Oh, how I do love me some Dunkin Donuts coffee.

The rate was dirt cheap, around $70/night. Another thing I liked about the hotel is that I wasn’t required to leave my key at the front desk, so entry/exit was less work here than at some other places I’ve stayed at in Europe.

All-in-all, though I would have liked some better eating options close to my hotel for late-night runs, I was happy with the room, the staff and especially the price.

Amsterdam - The Surprises

If there’s a rock show at the Concertgebouw,

They’ve got long hair at the Madison Square,

You’ve got rock and roll at the Hollywood Bowl

We’ll be there

When last we stepped in on me in Amsterdam, I was talking about places that were on my list of “must see”s in Amsterdam. Anticipating a lot of relaxation in Amsterdam, I hit al of those places early in my trip. I also hit a few others, though.

If you remember from earlier posts, I have a thing about Olympic Stadiums. I visited the one in Berlin built for the 1936 Olympics and in Munich for the 1972 Olympics. Until I went to the Dutch History Museum, though, I didn’t even realize that Amsterdam had hosted the Summer Olympics (in 1928) and had an Olympic Stadium all it’s own, called the Olympisch Stadion. It took a 30-minute tram ride to get there, but I decided to go.

Olympisch Stadion was about as humdrum a stadium as I’ve ever encountered. Just a big oval of concrete that holds about 60,000 people – expanded from the 23,000 or so it held during the 1928 Olympics. I couldn’t get a good picture from outside because of sponsor crap hanging from everywhere in preparation for next week’s Amsterdam marathon. I went inside to see if they were open for the 5 euro tour. The guy behind the counter said that it was open, but it was all in Dutch and all indoors, so it probably wouldn’t be worth it to me. I told him that all I was interested in was taking a few pictures from inside the stadium. He said that since it was only me, I should feel free to just walk out on the field and take some quick pictures. So I did. That was pretty cool. In Munich and Berlin, I got to walk down the stands to the front row of the stadium, but in Amsterdam, I got to walk around the track and onto the grass of the stadium. I loved that, but like I said, the stadium was just so-so.

I hopped back on the tram to return to my hotel near Dam Square and about halfway back, something caught my eye. It was the Concertgebouw. Now, I don’t know anything about the Concertgebouw except that it was mentioned in “Rock Show” by Paul McCartney and Wings back in the 1970s. But I’ve been to the Hollywood Bowl and I’ve been to Madison Square Garden, so I felt the need to hop off the train and at least take some pictures of the Concertgebouw. One is included here for your viewing pleasure.

Another place I ended up visiting was the Homomonument. I had never heard of it before my trip, but I saw signs pointing to it while I was walking back to my hotel from the Anne Frank house, so I decided that with a name like that, I had to check it out. I’ll tell you what I know, which is practically nothing. It honors gays and lesbians, but I’m not sure which ones. That is to say, I don’t know if it’s honoring anyone in particular or commemorating any specific event. There was a plaque, but it was all in Dutch and I couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, I took some pictures and moved on.

Okay, if you’re waiting for the stuff from Amsterdam that interests everybody in Amsterdam, that’ll be in another post to come shortly.