stevied's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member stevied on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/stevied en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:01:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Melbourne to Los Angeles — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215613800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215613800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215613800/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:01:29 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Anyways arrive at Melbourne tired and sweaty at 6:30am, change pants and grab a hot chocolate from Hudsons Coffee - not bad.

My check in counter isn't open yet, guess it's going to be an hour or so. A few shops to wander round, just want to sleep. Should sleep when I'm dead, who said that, The Who?

No wireless at all, darker ages than Perth.....

Checked in about an hour later, the lass behind the counter even got my ticket sorted through to Las Vegas from LAX - ran to the business class lounge. stuffed my face and had a shower - man that really is worth the extra price. Free internet too yay - got funny looks from some of the business man when I checked out that midget porn.....

Shower was a godsend, but I'm still bloody knackered and left all my sleeping tablets in my checked luggage....
]]> Perth to Melbourne — Perth, Western Australia, Australia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215574500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215574500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215574500/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:58:39 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Well got dropped off by Juice t the airport (thanks mate). Confusion and chaos at the check in desk. Asked a spotty faced Qantas teenager where I queued for Melbourne, got told desks 14&15 - cheers mate! Turns out it was the International desks... Guess Qantas needs to teach their staff geography.....

Anyway finally check in and go through the humiliating ritual of the security gate, pants dangling round my knees as I waddle through the metal detector like some Guantanamo Bay detainee, ah the joys of air travel in the 21st century!

Glad to find that there is free wireless at the airport, oops spoke too soon, looks like u have to pay for it too. Shame I was looking forward to embarrassing the sweet octogenarian sitting to my left when checking my favourite midget porn website..

Anyway, looks like my plane hasn't arrived yet. Damn, should have got business class for this local leg too....

An hour later we finally take off, decent flight, reasonable food, huge gorilla sitting next to / on top of me. Really should have got that business class flight - a much better class of gorilla.
]]> Off to Perth — Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215259200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215259200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1215259200/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:38:05 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia

Tough old morning this is going to be, leaving Mojo behind for seven weeks. He's in good hands & I know that he'll be looked after - just hope thathe doesn't pine for me as much as I will for him....
]]> Red Hook Morning & The Metropolitan Museum of Art — New York City, New York, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216648800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216648800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216648800/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:23:47 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New York City, New York, United States

Stuffing my face in the morning in Red Hook and watching the sun set over Manhattan from the rooftop bar at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

SUANY CARCAMO, stout and smiling, works under a smudged white tent midway down the Bay Street side of the Red Hook ball fields; you'll know you're at the right place if there's a hulking aluminum pot of beans warming on the griddle next to Ms. Carcamo, who will be smacking little balls of wheat flour dough into thick tortillas and tossing them on the griddle to cook.
Skip to next paragraph Multimedia The Red Hook Ball FieldsVideo The Red Hook Ball Fields Readers' Opinions Forum: Dining Out
Ms. Carcamo left Honduras for Brooklyn more than 20 years ago and has been turning out these baleadas, which might be most expediently described as Honduran tacos, at the Red Hook ball fields for more than a decade. Away from the sun and soccer, on weekdays and through the winter, she runs Honduras Maya, her restaurant on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
She is one of 13 or so vendors who line two streets that border a soccer field in the Red Hook Recreation Area and dish out Mexican, Central American, South American and Caribbean specialties every Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine, roughly from May through October.
At the ball fields, they work under tarps and tents and cook over charcoal, Sterno and propane. Few have posted prices or menus; some fly the flag of the country they hail from.
The ball fields are just south of Red Hook's huge tract of public housing and west of the bend in the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway where it juts into the sky over the mouth of the Gowanus Canal. The crowd here, at the southeast corner of Clinton and Bay Streets, is primarily Latino, Caribbean and local. But the quality of food - there is no better street-food scene in all of New York - draws eaters from all over the borough and the city. Though you can easily make a meal out of a visit to any single stall, sampling a swath of what's available is half the fun of going. (The soccer games are pretty impressive, too.)
Start off at the easternmost stall on Bay Street, where Victor and Carmen Rojas preside over a stand that serves a selection of Ecuadorian and Chilean dishes. She is from Ecuador, he is from Chile, but they fly the Ecuadorian flag over their stall because, Mr. Rojas said, the ball fields attract many more Ecuadorian visitors than Chileans.
Ceviche, the stall's star offering, is served cold in lidded plastic containers that are fished out of ice chests in the back of the minivan parked behind the stand. There are three versions available: all-fish, all-shrimp and the "mixto," a jumble of shrimp, octopus, squid and whitefish. Opt for the mixto.
All the ceviches brim with fresh lime juice, sweet and sour, and are seasoned aggressively with chopped cilantro, sliced green onions and strands of red onion. A spoonful of the stand's pulpy hot sauce is enough to add fire to the whole pint serving. You can augment the already ample portion with a bag of fried plantain chips for $1 or a few spoonfuls of roasted corn kernels for free.
Note that the Rojases, like most of the vendors, have a folding table set out where their customers can eat. Flitting from vendor to vendor and table to table can lead to interesting conversations with other eaters (especially if you speak Spanish) and provides the opportunity to scope out what other customers are ordering; taking over part of one of the picnic tables scattered around the shaded perimeter of the park allows a group to dispatch members to go on single-dish missions.
West of the ceviche down Bay Street are Ms. Carcamo and her baleadas.
In their most basic form, the baleadas feature those just-made wheat tortillas folded around a smear of beans and a sprinkling of grated cheese. They're good that way. But they're best with both of the veggie-heavy salsas and a crowning pinch of pickled onions and jalapeños that Ms. Carcamo has to offer. Wash down your baleadas with a cup of the stand's horchata, a rice-based drink spiked with a goodly amount of cinnamon and dark unrefined sugar.
A few stalls farther west is an operation under a blue tarp with a menu boasting of pupusas and more, tethered to an Econoline van with tinted windows. Visiting it takes a few minutes more than most other booths because the pupusas, prepared Salvadoran-style, are made to order: a filling of your choosing - the cheese-and-jalapeño option is particularly good - is enveloped in a ball of masa, flattened into a fat disc and griddled until it is mottled and crisp on both sides and meltingly hot inside. Think of it as a cooking lesson and a chance to digest all in one. Try the hot sauce and the vinegared cabbage slaw you'll be offered as an accompaniment
If you decide to try one of the stand's worthwhile corn-husk tamales, like the one stuffed with tender chicken and scattershot throughout with chickpeas, push for crema - which is like runny sour cream - with it, too.
Skip to next paragraph Multimedia The Red Hook Ball FieldsVideo The Red Hook Ball Fields Readers' Opinions Forum: Dining Out
Just beyond the pupusas, on either side of the corner of Bay and Clinton, are two vendors (the Martinez family, from Mexico City, in the green tent; the Hernandez clan, from Puebla, under the blue tarp) serving Mexican food. Both offer tacos and quesadillas, but huaraches are what everyone orders.
The huarache is a large oval corn tortilla, just millimeters thicker than a standard tortilla, on account of the impossibly thin smear of beans contained between the thinly stretched masa. Once the huarache is cooked you can have it topped with meat of your choice - pork and chorizo are both good options - and then a battery of condiments: salsa verde, salsa rojo, chopped avocado, grated cheese, pickled jalapeños and more. Served open-face, a huarache is a meal in itself.
For dessert, the Vaquero family, right at the corner, sells a selection of chopped fruit, including watermelon and mango, or shell-your-own quenepas, odd little litchi-like fruits from Puerto Rico.
And these dishes, each a compelling reason to visit the ball fields on its own and each a commendable specimen of its kind, are nothing more than a cursory sampling of what's on offer. There are charcoal-cooked elotes that are worth the train ride alone. There are chicken-stuffed taquitos fried to golden perfection down the block by women who look like they've fried enough taquitos in their lives to know taquito perfection in their bones.
It's cheap. It's a good time. It's the kind of experience that reminds you why you live in New York. And until cold weather arrives, it's there for the eating, for everyone.
The Red Hook Ball Fields
The corner of Clinton Street and Bay Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn; no phone.
BEST DISHES Huarache or quesadilla with pork or chorizo; Honduran tacos with beans and cheese or with grilled steak; ceviche mixto; pupusas with beans and cheese; chicken tamales.
PRICE RANGE Small dishes are typically $1.50 to $3; few, if any, dishes exceed $9.
CREDIT CARDS Cash only.
HOURS Vendors sell food at the ball fields on Saturdays and Sundays from May through October. Prime hours are noon to 5 p.m.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS All at street level.
]]> Culture, Culture, Culture — New York City, New York, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216908000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216908000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216908000/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:10:49 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New York City, New York, United States

A day for museum hopping.

Off to the Guggenheim & Museum of Moden Art.

Very la di da!
]]> Shopping Day!!! — New York City, New York, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216821660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216821660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216821660/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:08:01 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New York City, New York, United States

A full day for shopping.

Might start out at Barney Greengrasses for brekkie, then off to Canal Street for a knock off handbag for my sister and any other shops I can fit in.
]]> The Lathropes!!!! — New York City, New York, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216767600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216767600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216767600/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:03:15 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New York City, New York, United States

It's a small world, get to catch up with my oldest family friends in NYC!!!
]]> New York Yankees — New York City, New York, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216681200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216681200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216681200/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:01:15 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New York City, New York, United States

First night in NYC and straight off to the the ballpark - a night game for the New York Yankees!!!!

Only hope my plane doesn't get delayed - I'm cutting it fine....
]]> Park Hotel Tokyo — Tokyo, Japan http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1219327200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1219327200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1219327200/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:40:06 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
Tokyo, Japan

Modern Hotel
]]> New Orleans! — New Orleans, Louisiana, United States http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216144800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216144800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevied/1/1216144800/tpod.html Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:58:58 -0400 Round the world in 47 days!
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Wooo! Really looking forward to this stop!

Welcome to the Inn on Bourbon!
This New Orleans French Quarter Hotel offers it all... an elegant ambiance with the excitement of world famous Bourbon Street just outside our door.
Those who know the ins and outs of New Orleans will tell you that no hotel is more perfectly situated. With its location at the crossroads of Bourbon and Toulouse streets, you're right in the midst of everything the historic French Quarter has to offer: unique history, distinctive architecture, world renowned restaurants and celebrated jazz clubs. And after our recent renovations, we are more inviting than ever before!


We invite you to come discover the charm and elegance that distinguishes the Inn on Bourbon from all other hotels. Our French Quarter Hotel offers guests a unique mixture of its history as the Old French Opera House and modern luxuries unlike any other.
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