I want to ‘Go with Oh’ to Barcelona

The last few trips I've taken have been a bit... third world. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed all of my trips to Central and South America over the past few years, but frankly I just want to enjoy the luxuries of western culture on my next trip and not end up with a stomach virus or worry about whether or not going to the doctor in a country would be more detrimental than just ignoring a head injury....

So Europe it is. It's decided. I've been itching to go to Spain for a while now, with the particular desire to spend significant time in Barcelona. Barcelona has a little bit of everything that I look for in a vacation destination: it's urban, it has beaches, it has stunning architecture, rich history, and just every cultural activity you could imagine. So here's the top 5 activities on my Barcelona wishlist:

1. An architectural tour of the city, including the Gothic Quarter, the modernista buildings,
 the work of Antony Gaudi, Park Guell, the Casa Batllo and the many World Heritage sites. I would especially like to see Gaudi's still unfinished cathedral, The Sagrada Familia (see above). It looks like nothing else I've ever seen, and over what few weeks I've spent in Europe over my lifetime I must've seen hundreds of Cathedrals and churches.
2. Spend some time on the beach. Barcelona was named the best beach city in the world by National Geographic and apparently third best beaches in general in the world. As someone who grew up in a landlocked state, beaches are always exciting to me - plus I've never been to the Mediterranean!
3. Take a day trip to monastery at Montserrat for spectacular mountain views of Catalonia and for the magnificent rock faces of the mountains themselves, which the monastery is nestled amongst.
4. Eat at the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, (or La Boqueria), a massive, historic public food market. I love trying the local produce in particular, and in a place like Barcelona that is so close to the Mediterranean, the fruit will probably be especially flavorful.
5. Buy something unique from one of the vintage stores or boutiques on the Carrer De La Riera Baixa, Barcelona's hippest street for shopping. Apparently, it's actually quite affordable and you can find practically anything there from as early as the 19th century.

Now, if I'm really lucky, I'll get to go to Barcelona for free by winning a trip from GoWithOh.com! But you too can enter to win fabulous prizes through their Facebook competition, so go check it out!

San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua - Treat yo'self (food and drink)

So besides the hardy but delicious meat dinner we had at our hotel, we had many other phenomenal meals in San Juan Del Sur. In fact, we really didn't have a bad meal during our whole trip. I'm separating the food posts into two, one for higher end stuff (although we're still only talking maybe $15-20 per person, including booze). Unfortunately, San Juan Del Sur does not seem to be the most vegetarian friendly place (at least restaurant-wise), but the fruit and vegetables were certainly some of the most flavorful I've ever had, and as more hippie expats move down there, that may change.

On our first day, the group we had been surfing with headed to the restaurant/bar within the luxury resort Pelican Eyes to have a drink while watching the sunset over the harbor (see above). San Juan Del Sur's harbor faces almost exactly West, and the sunset was always framed in a really beautiful way by the hills on either side of the harbor. We had a Macua (see below), which is apparently the Nicaraguan national drink. Of course it was rum-based (everything is rum-based there) and had lots of delicious tropical fruits (according to wikipedia, it's usually lemon and guava juice but I'm pretty sure this had some grapefruit in it too, possibly orange and mango, as well...)

After the sun set, my boyfriend and I went to Josslyn's, which is right on the beach - not that we could see the beach but we could hear the waves and it was a pleasant ambiance. Now, one thing you should probably understand about me is that I really don't like most seafood, so going to ocean-side towns tends to be a bit rough on me sometimes. However, that wasn't the case this time around. I ordered a fish in garlic sauce and it was exquisite. I normally don't like most fish, but it was moist and flavorful and not uber-fishy. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what kind of fish it was. It tasted sort of like salmon except it wasn't. I believe my boyfriend ordered shrimp and he loved it. We also had drinks: a pina colada and a strawberry daiquiri, both of which hit the spot after a rather long day. I think the whole meal cost us $37 (with tip and tax and everything)

The next night we went to El Barrio Cafe, which is sort of what we had used as an "anchor" to learn our way around because the market is right across the street and it's basically in the center of the town. It was pretty crowded, although there was a Harley convention in town. Both Mike and I got the filet mignon and it was definitely in my top 5 most delicious steaks of all time. It was tender, cooked just right with that slight char on the outside and came in a creamy mushroom sauce that complimented but didn't overpower the meat. Oh, and did I mention it was $10? Yes, $10USD. Amazing.

Our third night we had our meat plates at the hotel and then our fourth night we tried to go to a Mediterranean restaurant called El Calibri because we heard it was the best restaurant in town but unfortunately they're closed Monday nights so we didn't get to try it. If you do go, chances are you'll have to make a reservation because another couple at our hotel tried to go one night but had to make a reservation for the next night because the wait was just too long. Instead, we went to El Timon, and I will say that this was by far our most mediocre meal. Another beach restaurant, we went at sunset and they had live music. You can actually sit right on the beach (though I feel like this is more for drinking and less for eating unless you don't mind sand in your food). But the fish wasn't nearly as good as at Josslyn's or at the hotel. I would say probably not really worth your time when there are so many other good places to choose from.

San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua - Villas De Palermo

We stayed at the Villas De Palermo and while we really enjoyed it, I'm not sure I would recommend it to other people, at least not at the full price. See, we bought a Living Social deal where we got 4 nights stay, daily breakfast, one dinner and 4 activities all included. Looking at the regular prices on their website, I'm not sure it would be worth the money. However, I thought our package was a great value.

The Villas De Palermo is a group of villas. From what I could tell, they were all nearly identical 4-person (2 bedroom) villas, although there website seems to list some other options. For some reason, our living social deal was for 2-poeple even though we were in the 4-person villas, so we had a lot of extra space and on certain nights (if Mike was snoring a lot, for example), we'd even sleep in separate rooms.

Pluses:

• Large, nice villas that can house 4-5 people, so good for group trips
• Beautiful views from the balconies of the villas (see above) and from the dining area/pool
• Staff does their best to be helpful (although many of them don't speak much English so if you don't speak Spanish, there will be a significant language barrier to overcome).
• A shuttle between the villa and town during daytime hours. 
• Food was generally very good.

Minuses:

• Some of the villas are quite a hike up a very steep hill and are pretty far away from the front desk/restaurant/pool. Our villa happened to be one of the closest, which was convenient. I'm sure the villas higher up have even nicer views, but I'm glad we didn't have to hike those hills every day. That distance from the front desk brings me to the next and possibly biggest problem:
• There are no phones in the villas. I had read this in a few reviews too, so I was sort of prepared for that, and I would say this is definitely the biggest flaw. They say they're trying to be environmentally friendly but I honestly think maybe they were just too cheap to put in phone lines. At the very least they should have some kind of internet phone then or provide pre-paid cell phones for the guests. What if someone was sick or if there was an emergency? Or if you just have a question, it's a huge pain to walk all the way down to the front desk if you're in a villa that's not so close.
• It's not right in town (it's about 3km away) and the shuttle isn't particularly dependable - plus it stops running at 6pm and you usually have to take cabs home no matter what time unless you can coordinate with the shuttle for them to pick you up at a certain time in a certain place. We probably spent more money on cabs than just about everything else. I suppose we could've walked some of the time (though not after dark) but even the lowest villas are a fair amount of the way up a pretty steep hill and frankly parts of the road between town and the villas are a little sketchy.
• The windows rattle like CRAZY. I think it was windier while we were there than it is most of the rest of the year. But the windows are sort of loosely sitting in their tracks and the wood on wood banging got really loud at times. I kept trying to stuff rolled up pieces of paper in the gaps but that didn't always work and sometimes the maids (or my boyfriend) would take them out. I'm a light sleeper and this was a huge problem for me - sometimes it was so loud that I think even heavy sleepers would've been disturbed.
• Bugs: wear shoes/flip flops/slippers because there are ants and some of them looked like they had stingers. Also, most of the windows don't have screens so, inevitably, many bugs will get in. Not that's it's unbearable or anything, just be aware and shake out your clothes and stuff before putting them on. We also had a lizard in the villa at one point (in fact, it may still be there because it disappeared but we're not sure where to). 

The villas have free wi-fi, but that never worked all that well for us. We could usually check our email and send emails, but it would be really slow. And I kept trying to upload trip photos to various sites and FORGET IT. No matter what I tried, I could never get that to work.

To book all of our activities, we went through the concierge who (when we were there) was an American ex-pat named Brooke. She took pretty good care of us but the biggest problem was that she seemed like she was never on the property so if I had questions I had to have the front desk call her (felt really bad about that) or I had to try to communicate with her via email which wasn't always so successful, partially because of the internet situation and partially because I think she just wasn't checking it all that frequently. Nonetheless she was REALLY nice and took good care of us, but it was just another thing that was a little more difficult than it would be in a more developed country.

Brooke and the guy who took us surfing, Tim, also run an annual music festival in early February that sounds pretty awesome. We didn't get to go but from what she was telling us, it's grown quite large. It's called Pitaya Fest and there are lots of activities in the days leading up to the festival, as well as about a day and a half of music (some of which takes place at the Villas I believe), comprised mostly of Nicaraguan and Central American bands.

The hotel breakfast is mediocre (though most hotel breakfast is), and most people don't eat breakfast there after the first day (but we did because it was included in our package). However, the other food we had there - lunch one day and dinner one night - was really good. I had the nachos with chicken and the chicken was some of the best chicken I've ever had! And our one included dinner was a plate full of barbecued delicious meats (see abov): beef, sausage, chicken, fish and fried cheese. The food in Nicaragua in general (especially the meat) was REALLY good but I'll focus on that more in another post.

The pool is pleasant - a bit cold sometimes but we were there during the off season, so the wind was really bad. It's a nice pool with a beautiful view and they have live music on Sunday afternoons.

Overall, I really enjoyed my stay at the Villas and at our discounted price, it was a great deal. I just don't think I can recommend it at the full price to anyone. However, if you're looking to do the expat thing and you like to surf, buying a villa or a share in a villa might not be a bad idea for you.

San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua - Overview

This year's "get out of the cold winter" trip was to Nicaragua. We bought a package through Living Social that included 4 nights stay at the Villas De Palermo in San Juan Del Sur (SJDS, for short) and a number of activities. While I really wanted to travel around Nicaragua more (particularly visit Lake Nicaragua and some of the many volcanoes in the area), Mike was worried about safety concerns and I didn't really have much vacation time to work with, so we ended up just staying in SJDS. In this post, I'll do the overview and then I'll do more detailed postings about the various aspects separately.

Safety
Nicaragua is a pretty poor country, so obviously tourists need to be careful. Petty crime is common and violent crime, while getting better, still happens. However, I think much of the warnings you'll read on the internet about it are based on how dangerous it was, not how dangerous it is. We got all freaked out when reading about how dangerous it is but we had no problems and SJDS in particular seemed pretty safe. I think Managua might be a little rough (but my impression was that there isn't much to see there, anyway). Oh, and don't go to the Caribbean side of the country - there's big drug cartel problems there and apparently those regions are actually autonomous regions. Managua, Grenada and SJDS are all on the Pacific coast and they are probably the areas you should stick to.

The 2-2.5 hour drive from Managua to San Juan Del Sur was actually one of my main worries about the trip because everything we read said one of the most popular forms of robbery was to put roadblocks up (such as a big tree branch in the road) and then rob you when you stop to move it and we were in what was obviously a van for tourists. I was more than a little nervous but we encountered no problems. SJDS itself is filled with tourists and American expats and I guess they've been cracking down on crime there, so it seemed perfectly safe to me. Of course, don't be an idiot: don't flaunt your money, don't be out late at night (but there's no reason to be because there is not really any nightlife), keep your belongings close to you, etc. We had also heard that taking taxis was a bad idea (that the taxi driver or some other robbers would take you to the middle of nowhere, rob you and leave you there) but we took several taxis and had no problem. Maybe that's a problem in other areas but labeled taxis in SJDS are generally considered safe. Once the guy did pick up a few other people, which wasn't ideal because the small cab got quite crowded, but whatever.

History & Language
Nicaragua is a small country with a population about the size of Philadelphia but it has a complex and violent history of wars, uprisings, and international politics. I suggest you look into it to learn more about the history but the main reason I mention it is that there is still some political unrest so you need to be careful not to end up in the midst of a protest, which often turn violent. It seemed like these mainly happen in Managua, but a fellow traveler said that they had to take a detour on their way to SJDS because of a strike.

Spanish is the language, but Nicaraguans (or Nicas as they say for short) actually pronounce it a lot differently than I had ever heard before so I had a very hard time because I don't know Spanish that well as it is. For one, they drop a lot of their "s" sounds, particularly at the end of words. There were a few other differences that someone explained to me but I honestly can't remember them now... People who spoke better Spanish than I didn't have as hard a time, but I definitely had issues and so did Mike who has a lot more Spanish experience than I do. Also, I assumed a lot more of the hospitality (hotel and activity) people would know more English than they did. Most of them actually spoke little to no English.

San Juan Del Sur
There is sort of a finite number of things to do in SJDS: surfing is the primary activity (which actually takes place at beaches north or south of SJDS but SJDS seems to be the hub where everyone stays/lives); then there's boating, fishing, turtle or whale-watching (if you're there at the right time), zip lines and horseback riding. Unless you really like surfing, I would honestly recommend you only spend a few days there (3-4 seemed to be about the right amount). There's not much to see in SJDS itself, though it's a cute little town (population 2700). It has a central "downtown" area with lots of shops and restaurants. I will say, the food was amazing. I had one mediocre meal my whole time there (not including breakfast at the hotel which was always mediocre). The town is also beautiful and almost anywhere you go from the center of town by the bay, you're going to be going uphill so you will have beautiful views.

Cost
Nicaragua is pretty cheap, although accommodations don't always seem to match that price. But we would have amazing gourmet meals for two people with booze for about USD$30 and you could get really good meals from smaller food stands or market shops for C$60 (about $3). Taxis weren't as cheap as I thought they would be, but they weren't bad... The taxi between town and where we were staying, the Villas De Palermo, (about 3km) cost us C$60-80 ($3 or $4 - they also usually take USD too) depending on how willing the driver was to negotiate.

Things I Wish I'd Done
If I were going to go back to SJDS, I would stay in town. Most of all, I really wish I had gone to Grenada and spent some time at Lake Nicaragua and the various volcanoes there. There's a cloud forest that sounded cool at the top of dormant Mombacho, but you can also take tours of active volcanoes. The island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua also seems worth a visit. Also worth a visit I've heard is the massive market in Masaya, which is sort of between Managua and Grenada.

Minneapolis, MN - The Convention Grill

The Convention Grill is pretty much my favorite restaurant of all time. A 50s diner/soda fountain thatt's a historic landmark (it's remained virtually the same for decades) and has been in tons of food and travel magazines. Technically, it's just a diner. But it's the best damn diner that ever existed. EVER.

You might think I'm a little biased since I literally grew up down the street from it, and I have fond memories of walking out of my house only to have the delicious smells of grease, meat and onions wafting toward me. But really, I've never met a person who didn't love it. Their milkshakes, which come in a much bigger array of flavors than at most diners, are so thick you usually can't drink them through a straw, at least not at first. They are served in huge metal containers that allow you to get 2-3 full glasses worth. Their burgers are big and juicy. Their grilled cheese - my favorite - is a double-decker sandwich that comes with 3 slices of bread and 3-4 different types of cheese (you can also add with tomatoes and bacon). Their french fries come in huge portions (a "half order" is good for 2-3 people at least) and they're greasy, skin-on style and quite tasty.

So basically, save lots of room in your stomach before you go. Also, be prepared to wait if you go at the dinner rush, particularly on a nice day. It's a popular place, deservedly so.

New York, NY - Fuerza Bruta

If you don't have the budget to do a Broadway show, try Fuerza Bruta. It's not a play or a musical - it's really just a visual spectacular. You stand the whole time (so if that's a problem, this show isn't for you) and throughout the show, ushers move you around to make room for set pieces coming in and out. Almost everything happens over your head and it's a lot of awesome aerial acrobatics with dramatic lighting and music. It will blow your mind. At one point they lower a shallow pool of water over your head (it's plexiglass on the bottom) and women swim/dance through it. At the end, you might get wet - it starts "raining" in the studio and the performers come and dance with you in the rain, but you don't have to stand under the rain if you don't want to. You just might accidentally be under it to begin with, so be prepared to possibly get wet. But it's really a fun time and is just visually such a treat.

I realize that if you're reading this in the future, they show may not still be running. But it has been running for almost four years now, so I suspect it will stick around for a while longer. If you stand in line for rush tickets earlier the same day as you want to see the show, they're only $25. However, if it's a nice day out, you'll have to stand in line for maybe 3 hours or so to be sure you get tickets. They're $79 if you order them the normal way, though they have promotions all the time (you can follow them on Facebook to be alerted of these promotions).

They also have performances of Fuerza Bruta set up in other cities across the world, so check that out too if you're not going to be in New York any time soon but would like to go.

Freestyle Cruises - Know Before You Go

So-called "Freestyle" cruises are really the primary type of cruise that seems to exist anymore. Here's what it means (at least on Norwegian Cruise Lines) and some of the things you should know before you board the ship:

• Cruises are basically impossible to do on the cheap. Even if you get a "deal" for the base price, the extra costs add up quickly. Only go if you can afford to spend at least a few thousand dollars on this trip. 
• It is REALLY easy to lose track of how much you're spending. Your room key also serves as your "credit card" (they connect it to a credit card when you board) and so it's easy to feel like you're not actually spending money since it's your room key you're swiping. You are constantly waited on hand-and-foot, so it's so easy to say "sure, I'll have another drink," and it's not like you can check on how much you've spent so far by looking at your credit card statement online. They do give you receipts though so if you're diligent, you can keep track that way.
• Your time is not structured, you can participate or not participate in activities exactly as you please.  When you go to meals, you go whenever you want and sit where ever you want. That's why they're called "freestyle," as opposed to some cruises where things are more scheduled, you may sit with a certain party at each meal, etc.
• Excursions away from the boat cost extra (prices should be outlined in the list of options) but they make it super simple for you. They literally shuttle you to shore and to your destination and then shuttle you back so you don't have to worry about a thing. You may or may not have some free time to shop or eat near port after your activity. Some of the excursions will take you on a shopping detour. All of this shopping will be tourist trap stuff but some of it is worthwhile (we got a really nice stone mask in Mexico and some cheap rum in the Cayman Islands).
• If you purchase booze on shore at one of your excursions, you don't get it back until the end of the cruise. They hold it for you, supposedly for legal/tax reasons but really I think it's just so that you keep paying for the overpriced booze on the ship.
• While you probably think of cruises as time to relax and do nothing, you can actually jampack your trip. There are tons of activities on the cruise ship, most of which are free. There are stage shows, comedy shows, there are games, there are ice-carving demonstrations, barbecues, clubs, pretty much anything anyone might possibly want to do. Most of them are better than they sound, so if you're skeptical, go give it a try.
• On our cruise, you could eat for free at the primary buffet. However, the restaurants were all amazing - seriously some of the best food I've ever had in my life - and only an additional $10-15/person (not including drinks). AND, to top that all off, something we didn't learn until our last night there is that for that $10-15/person, you can literally eat as much as you want. We assumed it meant one appetizer, one entree and dessert. Nope. You could order 10 appetizers, 4 entrees and 7 desserts and try a few bites of each if you really wanted to. Now, I don't actually recommend this because it's super wasteful (and cruises are overindulgent enough), not to mention the increased potential for overeating (the average cruise attendee gains a pound a day). But it comes in handy to know if you can't decide between two appetizers and just really want to try both.
• Internet was not free, which always makes me mad. And I don't think there was any wi-fi, you could only access the internet from their computer lab. This may be different from ship to ship though. Then again, this may have been a good thing for keeping us truly disconnected.
• There are spas and a gym and they'll try to sell you all sorts of expensive stuff. The gym is free and is very nice but they'll try to sell you stuff while you're there. Needless to say, the spa is very pricey.