To follow up on this my partner and I took the train from Lisbon to Porto a few years back. We drank 2 bottles of wine on the 3.5 hour journey. We definitely did get some looks both times the cork was pulled with the distinctive loud noise.
That being said we were sitting right next to the food/bar car so whatever.
Lol what would have happened if you tested positive? Isolate in some hotel for 2 weeks?
Funny part is you wouldn’t be allowed back while we have 50 million Typhoid Mary’s running around refusing to get vaccinated.
I’m honestly not sure what would have happened. I think it’s good that Biden put that policy into place back in January though. I commented to my partner that this is probably the safest possible flight.
Headed to Boston / Portland for the next 4 days. Can’t wait to drink hazy IPAs and eat seafood.
If you still play poker The Brook cardroom and sportsbook is right off I-95 on the drive between Boston and Portland.
These might be out of date (especially covid related) or touristy but places I enjoyed eating in my two short visits to Portland:
Nong’s Khao Man Gai - Probably the most famous cheap place. Hainanese Chicken, I’ve never been to Singapore to compare, but it was far better than the other US version I’ve had.
Eem - almost parodically hipsterish but it was fairly tasty thai-inspired food
Apizza Scholls - Good pizza.
Ox - Good Argentinian ~steakhouse.
Gumba - A pasta hole-in-the-wall which is again just absurdly hipster cliché but tasty and pretty cheap
Also not a big donuts guy but Blue Star Donuts was tasty. My wife’s uncle who lives in Portland treated it as some local treasure.
We stayed in an air bnb around Alberta Street and it was a fun area to stroll around. Cool city overall.
I’ll be with some people they definitely don’t want to watch me play poker; otherwise I would!
Wrong Portland imo, but mega +1 to Apizza Scholls. That’s the best pizza I’ve had in a long time.
lies
whoops, did not notice that reply to thing on mobile. 
carry on folks and eat good pizza!
If all of you like baseball the AA Portland Sea Dogs are playing at home this week.
My grown daughter is flying up to visit this weekend and we’re planning on going to one of the games.
Another fun Portland, ME activity for groups is the schooner cruises. They have a few choices, or used to as of a few years ago, of departure time and cruise length. A bit further up the coast are departures for puffin and seal watches, as well as Monhegan Island, which makes a good day trip.
I may have to go to London for work in the next month or so. How are things going over there?
Plovdiv has had the best of everything I’ve experienced in Bulgaria so far (minus the beach obviously). Doubt it’ll ever be the next Prague but it has to be one of the most underrated tourist destinations in Europe.
At least for now. It was the European Capital of Culture in 2019 and the number of tourists is probably held back by the pandemic. Sure it’ll boom once it’s over.
Bad. In a month likely very bad. It’s a vision of what some of the US will probably look like in a few months once delta gets a hold.
Good news though is there’s no legal requirement to distance or wear a mask, and as of Monday gone you can party like there’s no tomorrow.
LOL
yeah it seems likely that even though this will be for an “important” project that there’s a really high chance it will be postponed and I’ll end up doing 90% of it remotely and 10% of it sometime next year when I’m in town for a different project.
Booked tickets to Athens, Greece in October for ~16 days over the weekend. Are there any experiences that people really enjoyed around Athens? Presuming things are open in some way but prepared to be let down by many of the tourist attractions. I expect we’ll jump over to an island or two as well since Athens is only so big and I’ll want to get some last bits of sun before retreating back to the PNW winter. So also open on recommendations for islands.
This will also be weird because I have a dog now and leaving him for >2 weeks will be strange. Any tips with regard to finding a solid boarding option? We are seriously considering flying in GFs parents to stay in our apartment and watch him since it is actually cheaper than boarding him and gives people an opportunity to explore the Seattle area for a few weeks.
I’m wearing a shirt from Flavour in Oakland that says “stop Asian hate”
First random person that talks to me in Boston while I’m walking down the street….
“Why should I stop hating Asians when I’m conservative?”
The dude went out of his way to say the quite part out loud. I wasn’t interested in getting into a confrontation at 10 am so I just gave him a “whatever you say, dude”.
Other than that, Boston is pretty. Traffic sucks. Spend some time at Harpoon waiting on friends to arrive.
Not a dog owner (we have cats), but leaving a dog for 2 weeks seems like a very normal thing to do, and I know lots of people with dogs who travel internationally. If the “in-laws” are willing to do it, that seems like a great option - as you said, cheaper than boarding, and even more peace of mind that he is being watched and more in his normal routine.
I’m jealous of all the trips happening - we canceled a 2 week trip to S. Africa a month ago because one of our cats was getting fairly sick, we didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t feel comfortable leaving. He’s better now, but gets daily oral meds and every other day IV, so now planning these long international trips is a total PITA solely due to pet care. I cam across Rover.com, which might be a good place to start for your situation, at the very least to see what options/pricing look like.