Let’s not get carried away here.
Rincon, Puerto Rico
Winter in upstate NY kind of sucks, so my girlfriend and I decided to get away for a bit of it. As I type this, snow is predicted this weekend, so …
This was probably my 8th or 9th time visiting Puerto Rico. It is easy to visit from the U.S., essentially like another state. English isn’t spoken everywhere, but pretty much everywhere you’ll go as a tourist (I also speak some Spanish though). No currency exchange, no difference in your smartphone use, easy to rent a car, food is great, beaches are great, lots of stuff to explore.
On the other hand, I have friends who visited and did not enjoy their time. The infrastructure there is very poor, and people, events and systems often move at their own pace.
My girlfriend is also vegan, which can be a challenge.
Day 0 … We booked an early morning flight from Ithaca, NY, through Laguardia to SJU. At 10 pm the night before, the airline texted to say our flight was delayed. That meant missing the second flight, and so the whole trip was rebooked for two weeks later.
That was a weird blow. I’d never had a trip just fall apart like that, where there just weren’t other ways to make it happen until later. It was, frankly, a shock considering I’d been so ready to get on the plane.
Anyway, we did re-book. Lost a couple of hotel nights – nonrefundable so close to arrival. And, two weeks later …
I was really psyched about this trip. On top of getting the hell away from the snow and heading to one of my favorite places, my girlfriend had never been here before so it was a chance to play quasi-tour guide. I’ve thought about moving to P.R., but wherever it is would like to experience living in a beach town at some point. Onward …
Over the years, I spend less and less time in San Juan. I’ve had many great days and nights there, but as I get a bit older I’m less interested in the nightlife or fancy food. Old San Juan is a small, walkable, nice area to stay in for a day or two. It is basically a must-see if you visit P.R., though it is also often crowded with tourists and in particular cruise ship folks.
So, your mileage will likely vary wildly in OSJ, depending on what’s going on when you’re there. Like I said, I tend to spend one night there now. But there are still some great bars, including the classic dive El Batey …
A big attraction is just walking the streets of the old city. It is maybe a 1-mile by 1-mile area.
We stayed one night in OSJ in Hotel Casablanca. The place has been around forever and is very cool, though kind of cramped and busy. Served our needs and had this cute bar on the 2nd floor (which was not crowded when I was there).
We struggled to find good vegan food in OSJ. A couple of places we’d scouted before were closed. This wasn’t a huge surprise to me, but as always you have to be prepared in P.R. that things may not turn out as you expect. Anyway, the next day we rented a car and drove across the island to Rincon.
We did not need this, but it struck me as pretty funny. I do not think I could translate a road sign on the fly in the middle of any kind of stressful driving situation.
However, we really didn’t get into any stressful driving situations. The most stressful thing was the preponderance of cops, and me wondering if my digital insurance card would be sufficient if we got pulled over. Anyway, we never had an issue.
We’d booked 3 nights
Splurged a bit for a balcony, and it was worth it. We stayed at a place called Villa Cofresi, which ran about $200/night. Honestly, I thought the place was great–hotel bar was good, it was right on a beach and easy to drive or walk into town.
There were two reasons for coming to Rincon (aside from the beaches, snorkeling and sun). First, it has a lot of plant based eating options. Maybe because of wealthy mainlanders or surfers or whatever, but there were several restaurants doing only vegan. For my gf, that was huge – we’re always having to find places that can accommodate her, which gets old.
Lots of food trucks in the area (and all over P.R.)…
Mofongo is a classic Puerto Rican dish and it is typically very heavy and meat-centered. This place called Passaflora had a vegan version that was really awesome. And they knew how to use their fryer.
Not all the food was great. This was a sad bean taco …
Then again, across the road from this beach …
You can find these fish tacos at a little shack…
And down the road there’s this old nuclear power plant…
The power plant is basically on this beach (which is called “Domes”)
Back at the hotel …
We snorkeled a couple of days and in general it was excellent. There is a lot to see off Steps beach (all these beaches are 5-10 minutes away from one another)
This spot had great coffee, and then one more set of fish tacos in Rincon …
I’m a sucker for ridiculous drinks…
From Rincon, we drove about 90 minutes south to Lajas. Puerto Rico has 3 biolumenscent bays, where the water will glow when agitated. The “brightest” is off Vieques, the most touristy is nearer to San Juan, and the third is in La Parguera.
Mostly, folks go out on boats. Kayaking out is popular. Swimming is sort of discouraged now–chemicals in sunscreen not good for the bays is one thing I’ve heard. A shark attack years ago, is another. I swam at Vieques on one of my first trips, so when I head that a tour was offering swimming in Pargueras it was definitely something I hoped my gf could experience.
Our hotel …
No images from the bio bay. We lucked out and caught a no-moon night. Night swimming freaked some folks out and not everyone got in the water.
One last good meal: jackfruit bbq and a solid bean burger, though I do not think those buns are likely true vegan. Ah well, all good…
And that was kind of it. The TSA line in SJU was ridiculous and someone dressed as an airport employee offered to let me tip him to skip the line. Er…no thanks. Killed the last hour in a wonderbad airport bar and that was that.
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Being a tourist in Slovakia on Easter is like being a Jew during Christmas. All I have is fast food and movie theaters.
Even the casinos don’t have cash games running.
Anybody have thoughts on Lucerne, Switzerland? Thinking about staying there and doing a day trip to Lauterbrunnen area instead of staying in Lauterbrunnen.
I took a day trip to Lucerne from Zurich 5 years ago. A couple of the places I wanted to see were closed but it is a pretty scenic place. Nice place to walk around.
I can’t compare it to Lauterbrunnen since I’ve never been there before though.
Slovak cuisine is more different from Czech cuisine than I expected. The traits of it are the same: thick, heavy foods with not much in the way of vegetables. Based on the menus I’ve seen, Slovak cuisine seems to borrow quite a bit from Polish and Ukrainian cuisine. There are some dishes that overlap with what you’d see at a Czech restaurant but it’s far less than I expected.
Props to Slovakia for differentiating itself from its former partner.
Venice is objectively gorgeous. Not sure I’ll ever need to come back, but a pretty ridiculous place everyone should see if they can.
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I remember when I first got there, I was like “WTF? These canals literally are everywhere”
Did you have any bryndzové halušky?
I visited Vienna for a week and did a day trip to Bratislava. Bratislava was pretty terrible. Not as bad as that scene in Eurotrip, but not really worth visiting. About all I remember was that dish, which is heavy as fuck, then they give you that kefir-like drink to try and wash it down.
Eurotrip was a great movie.
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Yup. Posted it in the restaurant thread.
I went to Bratislava on a day trip from Vienna in 2015. Didn’t find it particularly interesting though some of the old town was under construction at the time. However, it felt unfair to say that I’d been to Slovakia when it was just the capital city. Some of my students are Slovak and said that I need to go elsewhere because Bratislava doesn’t represent them.
So, here I am in Kosice. Was planning to use it as a base for day trips but of course it’s Easter and most things are closed. So, I guess I’ll be in Kosice or the outskirts of it until I leave Monday morning.
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Seems that some neighbors above me are Roma. I can hear them dancing to Romanian folk music.
Gotta be honest. It sounds pretty good. I normally can’t tolerate traditional folk music. Bores the hell out of me but this stuff isn’t so bad. Sounds like something you’d hear in Borat (some of which was shot in Romania and Cohen even spoke Romanian to the people there).
Do Slovaks and Czechs not have access to good, affordable produce?
Cuisine is normally a function of the country’s history, its natural resources, and its wealth. Like Anthony Bourdain said, “The history of the world is on your plate.”
Food east of the Berlin Wall tends to be heavy in meat + carbs and in some instances dairy. They were closed off from countries that could create quality fruit and fresh vegetables during the Cold War. In terms of vegetables, the ones you get are normally pickled. For example, sauerkraut is a fairly popular among vegetables in not just not Czech and Slovak cuisine, but Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian cuisine as well. Pickles are also very much a thing obviously.
The quality of produce even today is bad. Avocados I buy in Prague, no matter where I get them, come to me as hard as rocks. I have to leave them out for several days to soften them up to be able to use them in my veggie burritos. When I made the same burritos in America, you could squeeze the avocado straight out of the skin the day you buy them.
The good news is that the Vietnamese workers that came to the Czech Republic when it was formerly part of Czechoslovakia stayed around when it split and now you can’t walk anymore than 5-10 minutes without running into a Vietnamese restaurant. It’s a refreshing change of pace for those sick of Czech food. Of course, most of that stuff is pretty shitty. It’s for the Czechs.
If you want good Vietnamese food in the Czech Republic, you gotta go to Sapa. Tourists don’t go there. It’s ugly, crowded, and contains minimal historical significance while Old Town contains all those beautiful historical buildings and museums. But what Old Town doesn’t have is good Vietnamese food. Sapa is definitely off the beaten path for the average tourist but if you want good Vietnamese food, that’s where you go. Going back to Bourdain, he actually went to Sapa as part of his No Reservations episode on Prague. Unfortunately, the guy who scheduled to be on his show bailed at the last second and he has some pho elsewhere in Sapa on a whim.
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Lucerne should be a nice place to base yourself. More of a city to come back to, after hiking and exploring the mountains.
Pro-tip for when you’re taking a day trip: buy a ticket straight through to a very small town (Murren, Wengen, Gimmelwald are all fantasic choices), then backtrack at your liesure (perhaps stopping in the town of Lauterbrunnen itself). Those towns are generally up on the sides of the valley, incredibly scenic, and barely accessible by car (there’s actually a train that runs on the top of the cliffs somehow).
Wandering around in countryside like this never gets old:
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Where are the avocados from? Are they Mexican or Asian? My understanding is that the Asian ones are different, but I’m not sure they are different in the way that you described.
No idea. They looked exactly like the ones in America.
Probably Mexican then. The Asian ones tend to be slightly larger, I think.
I’ve only had an Asian one once. It’s fine, but slightly different. I prefer the Mexican ones, since that is what I’m used to. The Asian one tasted a bit sweeter to me, which might be better for some things, but I only eat avocados in guacamole form, so Mexican ones are definitely better for that.
Yup the Asian ones are more watery too, definitely not as good for guacamole
No idea what happened in my sleep, but I woke up with knee pain. It’s enough to keep me away from a short hike I had planned to do. And it will also signal the end of my trip since it’s Easter and everything else is closed. I’m leaving early tomorrow morning.
Think this is one of those instances where I might have been better off staying at a hostel. That way, it’d be easier to socialize with people and I’d be able to get more out of my time. Couldn’t find any meetups or gatherings to join which is normally my MO when travelling. And it’s not like people here are warm and friendly towards strangers. I went out of my comfort zone and tried. It did not work.
I still feel that there are probably things that I’m missing that would make this country great to visit but I’m not gonna make a third trip on my own to find out what they are. Sorry Slovakia