You may have heard of a geysir before, but what you are about to see is the original Geysir.  Of course, that is not what you will see erupt.  These eruptions are from Geysir’s neighbor, Strokkur, and, in the geothermically active valley of Haukadalur, there is so much steam and scalding hot water, you won’t know what to do with yourself.

Side note -- Also featured is Litle Geysir.  Will this boiling pit of furry one day reclaim the big Geysir’s thrown and overthrow Strokkur as the king of Haukadalur Valley?!?! Only time will tell.  Until then, Strokkur explodes every few minutes.

Cantina Laredo in Covent Garden

Warning: This is not a typical Mexican Food Tour post.  After reading over my notes from our dinner and remembering our experience fondly, I did a little research and fact checking via good ole Google.  (I learned my lesson after the San Miguel fiasco!) While browsing, I stumbled across several reviews that I would say did not reflect my experience at all.  Was it timing, an off night, or were the bad reviews a direct result of not enough Tex-Mex experience by the writer?  Because of these new found theories and questions, I have separated this post into two parts.  The first part is my unbiased review before I discovered differing opinions-  simply how we felt about the food, service and experience.  The second part disects what made our reviews so different than the others, and, by figuring that out, if we can better understand how different cultures process food.

Continue Reading

We had heard  how amazing Cinque Terre was for years before we were able to make it to this cluster of villages on the West Coast of Italy.  To give you an idea of what to expect, in case you haven’t heard, the word most often used to describe Cinque Terre is beautiful, closely followed by relaxing and easy.  The average day here consists of laying in the sun, drinking wine, and eating seafood; which is to say this is a beautiful, relaxing place.  However, Cinque Terre literally means five villages, and each of the five has its own atmosphere and amenities. So, any trip to Cinque Terre would be incomplete if a visitor didn’t take enough time off from drinking wine by the Medeterranian to see each one.

Now, like I mentioned, everyone we spoke to loved their time in Cinque Terre, but no one seemed to be able to describe how to actually do the hike through all five villages.  In fact, all the advice we could get was that there is indeed a trail that lead between all five villages, and no matter where you stay, you can do the hike.  We booked a room in Riomaggiore, so here we are going to outline our tips and trials so anyone else wanting to hike through all five villages can be prepared.

Continue Reading