Back in Arizona

The sun has finally cooled off in this sprawling city of blacktop and strip malls, blondes and barrios. But the people are still mad from overexposure to UV rays. Cars roar through the streets and vacant, 100-yard stares roll around in wide-eyed sockets.

It’s been about two months now since Jackie and I moved back to Phoenix. When we first got here, the sun was a scorching 110 degrees during the height of the day. Now it’s an enjoyable mid-day 80-90 degrees with cool desert nights, perfect for sleeping.

We returned to this desert oasis in late August by way of a cross-country road trip in a Penske truck. Shortly after arriving at Jackie’s parent’s house in Scottsdale, she secured a job working as an adjunct instructor in the Maricopa Community College system. I landed a trainee position with a PR studio (David and Sam PR) in the downtown area and also volunteer at the local NPR station while I continue looking for full-time work.

Unfortunately Phoenix (a city more than twice the size of Boston)  is suffering from a considerable blight of professional jobs. But for a career journalist, that’s a pretty common story these days. On a positive note, Jackie and I are thankfully avoiding the brutal New England winter this year.

The one other downside about this city is that it has some of the worst and most aggressive drivers I’ve ever seen – and that’s saying a lot as a former Massachusetts driver. Every stoplight is the start of a race, eight-lane highways are a free-for-all, and more than half of the drivers on the roads apparently don’t see the point of using a turn signal. Sometimes I feel like I’m on the verge of turning into Clive Owen’s character in Shoot ‘Em Up. That can probably be blamed on the sun too.

Ireland 2009: Part Two

We spent two nights in Cork couchsurfing with Jana, then headed out to Beach Cove. We stopped at Blarney Castle along the way.

Ireland 2009

I'm finally starting to put together some videos from our Europe trip. The first is from our drive from Dublin down to Cork. Driving a stick shift on the left-hand side of the road and shifting with your left hand is trickier than it might seem.

A bailout for newspapers?

Thehill.com is reporting President Obama is open to the idea of a newspaper industry "bailout." I wonder how people would react to this given their reaction to the bailout of car manufacturers?

Check out the article here:

Obama open to newspaper bailout

Another related article:

Ready, Aim, Charge!: The online pay puzzle

Cheers to 250 years of the 'Black Stuff'

The Independent newspaper is celebrating the 250^th anniversary of Guinness today. That’s a good enough reason for me to grab a four-pack of stout and toast absolutely anything to pour a cold slosh of the liquid gold down my gullet (like the old cartoon characters behind x-ray screens). Cheers to Guinness, and two-and-a-half centuries of great beer!

And although it’s only 2:30 p.m. (Arizona time), I haven’t overlooked the fact that Guinness makes you strong, so a pint will undoubtedly provide me with the energy needed to get through the rest of the afternoon satisfactorily completing all those Sunday chores I haven’t gotten to yet.

(Jackie and I visited the Guinness brewery in Dublin during our stay. Definitely worth it -- you get a free pint, and they have a display of the classic advertisements.)

The hard life of an Albanian

I learned from my cousin recently that Greeks have been known to measure the amount of manual labor needed to complete a job in units of Albanians required. Being 50 percent Albanian, I find this to be an honor, rather than an insult. And I’m positive it’s a testament to the heartiness of Albanians everywhere.

What Greeks apparently know, which most do not, is that one Albanian can perform the work of ten average laborers. This is how my Dad (100 percent Albanian) and I were able to build a 200 square-foot, blue stone patio in less than a week.

We started the project shortly after Jackie and I returned from our Europe trip. It took some pushing and prodding on my part (typical) the get the project off the ground, but once we started digging up the sod and preparing the dirt, we had those stones laid and set into a layer of sand in a few days flat.

For a man whose chosen profession requires him to be behind a desk most of the day, I find physical labor to be a most satisfactory activity. Lugging around 10-30 pound stones, digging holes, and shoveling dirt appeals to my inner-Albanian.

A Nutshell

Sadly, our Europe trip has been over for a little more than a month now and I’ve only written about half of the journey. I won’t feel quite right until I do my best to encapsulate the rest of the trip without turning into a pillar of salt. So I’ll give a brief rundown of the other places Jackie and I visited during our overseas excursion.

Belgium

We left London on June 22 on a Eurostar train to Brussels. The train doesn’t stop in Bruges (even though it goes almost directly by the small city), but you get a free transfer to anywhere in Belgium if you buy the Eurostar ticket. So from Brussels we caught the earliest train to Bruges. We stayed at the Lybeer Traveler's Hostel near old town square during our visit. In my opinion it was one of the best hostels we stayed at on the entire trip. We spent four nights there, and both of us wish we could have spent more time wandering the cobblestone streets and canals and soaking in the fairy tale atmosphere and trying to spot different scenes from “In Bruges.” The beer was great, but the food, very expensive. We survived mainly on the beer. My new favorite is Tongerlo (that's me with a half-pint).

Netherlands

A four to five-hour bus ride took us from Bruges to Amsterdam on June 27. We spent four nights at two separate hostels in the city often known for its coffee shops and red lights. But more than any other unique aspect of Amsterdam, I found the volume of bike traffic on the streets the most astounding. Walking around that city is both enthralling and maddening. At any moment a bike, tram, car or fellow pedestrian could knock you down. We took an obligatory tour through the Van Gogh Museum, which was very much worth the Euro. Probably one of the best museums we visited on the trip. We also hung out in Vondelpark, and toured through the red light district at night. The best part about the red light district was watching the young men crowd around and gawk at the women without ever gaining the courage to talk with one.

Germany

Berlin was our next stop. We took a comfortable train ride to Berlin from Amsterdam – much nicer than the bus. But we didn’t get into Berlin until nightfall, and by the time we were walking to our hostel, covered in sweat and tired from the day’s journey, just about every restaurant was closed. Fortunately for us, we found a great little bar just around the corner from where we were staying and got ourselves some hotdogs and beer. Turns out, the pub is one of Berlin’s oldest – if not the oldest “draft house” – in the city. Several old German folks were hanging out listening to Michael Jackson tunes. He had just died. We took a great, guided tour through Berlin and saw many of the WWII historic sites.

Czech Republic

Prague was most certainly one of the greatest places we visited on our trip, partly due to the better exchange rate (the CR hasn’t switched to the Euro yet), and partly because of the atmosphere of the city. We stayed at the Atlas Hostel near the old red light district and had a room on the top floor, which was nice, but quite a workout. On the ground floor there was a great little Greek restaurant called Zorbas. We ate dinner there both nights of our stay. There’s an abundance of cool stuff to see and do in Prague, but if I had it to do again I might skip the Franz Kafka museum. Not because I don’t like Franz Kafka – I love Kafka – but because we were strapped for time and it seemed that whoever designed the museum threw the whole thing together haphazardly, without care for the pieces in the exhibit. A downer. But if you ever make it to the “City of 1,000 spires” drop by Absinthe Time and say hello to Brad Huff. He’s a great American guitarist now living in Prague and recording his music. He plays there most nights of the week from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., or at least he did while we were there.

Austria

Vienna – The highlight of our two-night stay in Vienna was most certainly Gerhard. We met the older gentleman at a small café in the downtown area on our first day in the former capital of the Roman Empire. I struck up a conversation with him about something like the weather and he offered to give us an unofficial tour through the city. He showed us the Winter Palace, the old seals still in place over doorways that used to signify certain family names, and several museums. After walking us around Vienna for a good hour, he shook our hands and was on his way. I found out he used to be an international trader, which he said was part of the reason why he spoke such perfect English.

Italy

The best train ride we had during our entire trip was from Vienna to Venice. We left Austria on an early morning train July 8, and had a six-person coach to ourselves the entire eight-hour ride. We arrived in Venice in the mid-afternoon, with the sun shining into the turquoise water. Venice is one of those few places that fulfill every expectation. We stayed on the island of Lido in a small villa called the Pension Stella during our visit. Of all the places we went Amsterdam was by far the easiest place to get lost, but Venice was the best. Wandering the tiny alleyways and exploring the bridges and canals was worth way more than a hundred Euro gondola ride. Initially we were thinking of skipping Venice – I’m so glad we didn’t. After Venice we headed to Florence where we indulged in wine and shopping. We saw David, a great sunset at the Piazzale Michelangelo, the Galleria Uffizi and the Scuola Del Cuoio

(leather making school).
We spent three nights in Florence before heading east to a small string of towns called Cinque Terre, on the Italian Riviera. We stayed in Riomaggiore, the first of the five (cinque) towns for four nights. Riomaggiore, like the other towns encompassing Cinque Terre, is built on a steep hillside overlooking the Mediterranean. Everywhere you walk is either up narrow, winding stairs or down – there’s no respite for the weary. Connecting the five towns is a nature trail. The first day we walked to the third town in the string, and found a “beach” – it was more like a field of small rocks – where we swam in the Mediterranean for the first time. The next day we took a train to the fifth town called Monterosso, and hiked back to Vernazza. We hopped a train to Riomaggiore too tired to go any further.

France

We made it to Nice, France on July 15 after a hellish six-hour train ride from Riomaggiore. Once in France we decided to rent a car rather than navigate the train system any longer. It turned out to be a better deal than purchasing the rather expensive train tickets, and it had the added benefit of giving us the chance to explore more of the countryside.
We only spent one night in Nice, wanting to get away from the madding crowds of tourists, and headed north over the French Alps. We stayed for a night near Jausiers in a small mountain town akin to a stateside ski resort village. From there we drove up and over a section of the Alps – I can’t remember the name of the mountain. Eventually we made it to Lyon and then we drove back across the country to Bergerac, located in the Bordeaux region.Bergerac is a small, scrappy little city surrounded by vineyards and sunflower farms. We drank a lot of great wine and visited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist retreat, Plum Village. From there we drove north to Rennes, where we spent two nights before heading to Paris. We spent the last week of our trip in The City of Lights.
Paris is probably the most beautiful city I’ve had the privilege of visiting. We stayed at a great hotel, Le Meridien for the entire week, courtesy of the in-laws. Some of the sights we saw included Monet’s garden outside of the city, The Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Moulin Rouge, the Catacombs, the Rodin Museum and many others. I also drove around Le Arc de Triomphe twice, without getting into an accident!

We returned to Boston – back home and back the real world – on July 29, and were picked up at the airport by my Sis.
“Going home has inspired only ambivalence in me. I’m not sad about the end of our trip or happy to be returning,” I wrote in my journal on the flight home. “Rather I feel like we’re on a new leg of our journey – really, our life.”

Quadrupeds = puppies

From Belfast, Jackie and I traveled by ferry to Scotland and then took a train to Edinburgh. When we arrived and stepped out of the station, our first reaction was amazement.

One of the most immediate things we noticed once above ground is (Sir Walter) Scott Monument -- a huge spire sitting along the river that bisects the city. Beyond the monument, on the other bank of the river, Edinburgh Castle dominates a hilltop. Surrounding us as we looked around was the life of a fully modern city with the façade of an ancient kingdom.

We stayed at the Globetrotter’s Inn on the Fourth of Firth for the first night and then “couchsurfed” with a young woman named Charlotte for two nights in the neighborhood of Leith where Trainspotting was filmed. We saw the Banana Flats and pictures of Irvine Welsh raised high on lampposts.

One of the most interesting run-ins with an Edinburgh resident we had was when a man approached us on the sidewalk outside Charlotte’s apartment. We

were sipping on some scotch we purchased after a tour through the Scotch Whiskey Experience when the man, struggling under the weight of a large box in his arms, came over to us trailed by a obviously recently pregnant Pitt Bull.

He proceeded to strike up a conversation with his rough accent and slyly opened the box saying something about peddling quadrupeds. After the man wandered away, Jackie and I realized he had a litter of puppies inside the box.

We were both glad we didn’t live in Edinburgh because we most certainly would have adopted one of the puppies without a second thought.

Other things we did in Edinburgh included taking a tour through Edinburgh Castle and hiking up Arthur’s Seat, which provides a great view of the entire city.

From Edinburgh, we traveled by train to London where we spent two nights at a cramped hostel. We had initially planned to spend more time in London, but after two nights at the hostel and some typical sightseeing, we decided to head to Belgium where we fully intended on enjoying some great beer – and indeed we did.