Looks like you had a great time in Italy....Put Poland on your bucket list if you have not already. I spent my Fall Break in Warsaw and made a trip to see a major landmark near Krakow. Stayed in a hotel that is in a middle class/up & coming neighborhood with super close access to a metro station and the Tram...so I got to see real daily life while being able to hop on excellent and immaculate public transportation to go catch museums and the like....you would NEVER EVER know to look at the country TODAY that it was once part of the former Soviet Union. Last year while teaching in Armenia, a beautiful country with amazing wine, the lingering ways and attitudes of the failed Soviet Union could be seen and felt everywhere.
Question for you....can you help one of your early paid readers, please? I am going to do Spain for my winter break.
Would you start in Madrid or Barcelona? The places I would like to cover are those two cities as well as Sevilla and Valencia. From my current locale, I will have to fly to Istanbul and get a connecting flight to either Madrid or Barcelona. From what you have written, it sounds like the train system is amazing.
Since my intent is "cultural" I am coming during low season.....yet as Christmas will occur, do places start closing down on around say...the 22nd and reopen on the 26th? Should I be somewhere that I can take long walks and have a good book on those days?
The train system is amazing. Sounds like an amazing plan. I would fly to the airport where you can get the best deal and start there. Valencia might even be an option! I have never been to Sevilla, but my wife has and she loved it.
I have not been here for a December yet, but if it's anything like August I would guess you will run into some closures. I assume "everything" is closed on Christmas Day. But, other than that, where I live at least there's always a lot of stuff open!
In Valencia, Turia Park(main huge park) and Parque Central (new, smaller in Russafa) are both great. And any number of benches throughout the city!
I would love to go to Poland. So many places to see!
So, I know you didn't write this just for me, but let me share my morning with you:
I work for an airline and am now trying to figure out how the WH's ham-fisted approach to cutting air traffic will work and whether it will affect me, both as an employee and as a member of the traveling public. If this comes to pass, the second-order effects will be huge. We're not just talking about getting home for T-day; there are also massive supply chain issues.
I spent a while (too long, actually) chattering about this on an app... that I pay for (Patreon). It's an Avgeek forum, and this is what passes for "shared experience" today. I took a break to eat, and the avocado I was going to have with my breakfast was bad. lol.
And just for funsies, it's Open Enrollment season, so sometime today I need to figure out what my family's least-worst healthcare option is.
I just read about the airline situation after reading your comment. Unreal.
Mamdani is so impressive. Which makes me hate being pessimistic. He embodies everything "the left" should have been doing and saying these last few decades as the Republicans and MAGA stole and polluted the narrative. Now we're in a place were they want and even sew chaos. They want there to be problems in cities so they can blame them on "the radical left." Same with what you're dealing with - whether it's air traffic or health insurance. It's a tragedy.
So Mamdani is great, but he will get swallowed up in this polarization I just can't possibly see rectifying itself. And it comes down to culture.
That said - your plan you outlined in your comment the other day. That's good shit. And it's what life is all about.
Just before I read this, I was listening to a podcast from Monocle, the media brand. In Sunday's show they talked about how young people are going out way less than prior generations and then spending more "screen time".
The main driver was seen to be the inordinately high cost ot eating / going out. The hosts were talking about prices in London, more or less in terms of it just being punitively expensive and rents being sky high too.
Now I would struggle with strategy. But, as I write, I think about neighbourhoods and some combo of cutting business rates (city taxes), forcing landlords to rent out stores with compulsory purchases if needed. I don't think the public sector needs to be an operator of any business or of housing, beyond emergency needs like battered women, endangered families, but what it can do is create neighbourhoods and reduce the cost of being there.
Looks like you had a great time in Italy....Put Poland on your bucket list if you have not already. I spent my Fall Break in Warsaw and made a trip to see a major landmark near Krakow. Stayed in a hotel that is in a middle class/up & coming neighborhood with super close access to a metro station and the Tram...so I got to see real daily life while being able to hop on excellent and immaculate public transportation to go catch museums and the like....you would NEVER EVER know to look at the country TODAY that it was once part of the former Soviet Union. Last year while teaching in Armenia, a beautiful country with amazing wine, the lingering ways and attitudes of the failed Soviet Union could be seen and felt everywhere.
Question for you....can you help one of your early paid readers, please? I am going to do Spain for my winter break.
Would you start in Madrid or Barcelona? The places I would like to cover are those two cities as well as Sevilla and Valencia. From my current locale, I will have to fly to Istanbul and get a connecting flight to either Madrid or Barcelona. From what you have written, it sounds like the train system is amazing.
Since my intent is "cultural" I am coming during low season.....yet as Christmas will occur, do places start closing down on around say...the 22nd and reopen on the 26th? Should I be somewhere that I can take long walks and have a good book on those days?
TIA Rocco! Hope your weekend is going well, Leigh
The train system is amazing. Sounds like an amazing plan. I would fly to the airport where you can get the best deal and start there. Valencia might even be an option! I have never been to Sevilla, but my wife has and she loved it.
I have not been here for a December yet, but if it's anything like August I would guess you will run into some closures. I assume "everything" is closed on Christmas Day. But, other than that, where I live at least there's always a lot of stuff open!
In Valencia, Turia Park(main huge park) and Parque Central (new, smaller in Russafa) are both great. And any number of benches throughout the city!
I would love to go to Poland. So many places to see!
So, I know you didn't write this just for me, but let me share my morning with you:
I work for an airline and am now trying to figure out how the WH's ham-fisted approach to cutting air traffic will work and whether it will affect me, both as an employee and as a member of the traveling public. If this comes to pass, the second-order effects will be huge. We're not just talking about getting home for T-day; there are also massive supply chain issues.
I spent a while (too long, actually) chattering about this on an app... that I pay for (Patreon). It's an Avgeek forum, and this is what passes for "shared experience" today. I took a break to eat, and the avocado I was going to have with my breakfast was bad. lol.
And just for funsies, it's Open Enrollment season, so sometime today I need to figure out what my family's least-worst healthcare option is.
I just read about the airline situation after reading your comment. Unreal.
Mamdani is so impressive. Which makes me hate being pessimistic. He embodies everything "the left" should have been doing and saying these last few decades as the Republicans and MAGA stole and polluted the narrative. Now we're in a place were they want and even sew chaos. They want there to be problems in cities so they can blame them on "the radical left." Same with what you're dealing with - whether it's air traffic or health insurance. It's a tragedy.
So Mamdani is great, but he will get swallowed up in this polarization I just can't possibly see rectifying itself. And it comes down to culture.
That said - your plan you outlined in your comment the other day. That's good shit. And it's what life is all about.
Just before I read this, I was listening to a podcast from Monocle, the media brand. In Sunday's show they talked about how young people are going out way less than prior generations and then spending more "screen time".
The main driver was seen to be the inordinately high cost ot eating / going out. The hosts were talking about prices in London, more or less in terms of it just being punitively expensive and rents being sky high too.
This week's episode is well worth a listen: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ofGY842eh6Olt5KNC9iXW?si=700f603e28c04fe3
Now I would struggle with strategy. But, as I write, I think about neighbourhoods and some combo of cutting business rates (city taxes), forcing landlords to rent out stores with compulsory purchases if needed. I don't think the public sector needs to be an operator of any business or of housing, beyond emergency needs like battered women, endangered families, but what it can do is create neighbourhoods and reduce the cost of being there.