Ever stumbled upon the perfect café, sequestered deep in the quietest corner of a buzzing city, and just had to share the secret? Ever wanted to be part of that secret? Travelistas Lynn Lau and Abby Bender combine their journalism and travel experiences to bring readers Notes From A Café: Travel stories from the deep end, a refreshing cure to the usual stodgy travel resources. Notes From A Café revolves around the love of travel, with articles covering countries from Belgium to Norway to Malaysia, along with tips and resources to fellow travelers interested in the non-touristy side of exploring the world.
Celebrating the joie de vivre of traipsing the globe, Lynn and Abby feature their stories and secrets under headings such as "Voyage Vignettes" (focusing on the thick and thin of personal travel accounts), "Foreign Foibles" (cultural gaffes and taboos), "Travel Tips" (a grab-bag of information and suggestions for travelers), and "Roaming Reviews" (frank guides on true must-see's and definite stay-away-from's).
A random selection of our articles:
With a major road trip coming up, I know I’m going to need plenty of liquids to keep me going. Something hot and toasty in the morning would especially do the trick. But considering my schedule — a four-day drive all the way across the country — it’s neither feasible for my time nor my wallet to have to stop at multiple coffee shops along the way. Not to mention I don’t even drink coffee, so it can be hit-or-miss finding a coffee shop that provides good tea!
Regular beverage cups only hold so much liquid, and I’ve found they don’t retain their heat that long either. I decided to invest in a thermos bottle, and what better one than the original Thermos? I got myself the Thermos Nissan stainless steel vacuum insulated bottle, and was delighted (and am still enamored) to find out that the raves and reviews are indeed true. Your favorite hot beverage, poured in during the morning, remains boiling hot even through the evening. Or, conversely, your ice-cold drinks remain crisp all along your hot summer journeys. Wonderful!
One might argue that a beverage cup allows you to sip while you’re behind the wheel, but really, when you’re on a road trip, you don’t want to break your budget on little things such as this. Having an effective, easy-to-clean bottle means I just have to fill it up once; I don’t have to spend money on overpriced drinks every few hours, especially when they go lukewarm quick as a snap. Plus, its being stainless steel means it’s environmentally friendly and safe to reuse without risk of leaching!
I would much rather take breaks on the road, unwinding with a hot cuppa before a lovely view, than duck into a rest-stop coffee shop all the time. And, well, who wouldn’t?
Tip: For regular water containers, chose reusable bottles that have “PE” marked in the bottom, such as The Planet Bottle. “PE” stands for “polythylene,” which is the safe non-leaching kind of plastic (certainly safer than Nalgene’s polycarbonate). Another way you can tell if it’s a PE bottle is if it’s slightly soft when you squeeze it. It should give in a little; polycarbonate bottles are rock hard.
Happy hydration!
So you’ve got your toiletries all packed and ready to be checked in, but what do you do when you need moisturizer on the plane itself?
TSA guidelines require that all carry-on gels and liquids fit in a quart-sized zip-top baggie. I confess, I used to fill this baggie to the brim, resulting in one airport security agent fondling it quite closely. What can I say? One needs hand-sanitizer, lip balm, eye-drops, and skin moisturizer, among other things, if one doesn’t want to end up dehydrated from that recycled air on planes. And let’s faced it, though they may be travel-sized, those containers still contain bulk.
But I’ve found a way to slim down that plastic baggie! For my upcoming international flight, I gathered the sample packs of skin-care products I had accummulated in the past. People, you know what I mean. These are sample packs you find at cosmetic counters, at your local community pharmacy, even at places like Whole Foods on occasion. You invariably grab one or two, and either use it immediately or toss it into a drawer.
Well, if you’ve saved a bunch of these, now is your time to use ‘em. Simply dropped them into the baggie. They use up far less volume than a travel-sized container, meaning you can use the extra space for other liquid/gel products you’d like to bring. And the samples can be easily discarded once they’ve done their job. Each sample usually contains two or three uses’ worth, so even tossing three into your baggie will be more than enough for your in-flight needs.
An opportunity to travel light yet sensibly? I’ll take it!
I stepped off the train into a Christmas card. Or as my fellow passengers on the train to Siegen would say, “eine Weihnachtskarte,” or that’s what they would have said, were they not glaring into the feather-light snowflakes tumbling out of the dusk and frosting the quay.
Before I had boarded the train for my Christmas vacation (Weihnachtsferien) in Germany, Tobi had informed me that while there would be snow in Siegenland, it always fell steadily, never too quickly, and always in an amount that was manageable. How very German, I thought, for in my mind, Germans and Germany were the epitome of the engineering philosophy, marvels in regimentation, beer, and leiderhosen.
And, also, Christmas. After all, most of the beloved aspects of an American Christmas – Christmas trees, Saint Nick, and the Christmas Pickle (well, beloved in my family, at least) – originated in Germany. When Tobi had recommended that I spend my Christmas abroad with his family, I agreed immediately. Seeing as my bloodline is almost half German, I thought it only fitting.
From Paris to Köln on the TGV, and then from Köln to Siegen, I imagined the welcome that would await me once I arrived in the land of my ancestors: Tobi waving merrily as the train pulled in to a station frosted in a picture-perfect dusting of snow while a brass band played Stille Nacht in the background.
The snow was definitely there to greet me, but not Tobi. I clutched my duffel bag and tried to look coolly Parisian while all around me rose, not the sound of Franz Gruber’s famous melody, but the buzz of the rich, buttercream-thick, absolutely incomprehensible German language. Fortunately, Tobi appeared almost immediately, his father in tow.
“It has snowed about a foot,” Tobi said, bundling me into the VW. “All the highways were blocked. It is a crisis.”
» Read the rest of Weihnachten nach Siegen ...
I slid up the ramp of the I-35 toll road, pausing briefly to catch the ticket the cheerful, blue-shirted man held out the window of the toll booth. My stomach gurgled, complaining about the Mickey D’s double cheeseburger I’d ingested half an hour prior. The underthigh of my right leg was cramping, and a dull ache knotted at the base of my neck unless I rolled my shoulders every three minutes or so, making me look like someone out of a Richard Simmons workout. Or a reject from a Ricky Martin music video.
Ah, road-tripping. That maddening, perilous, oh-so-traditional pastime of Labor Day weekend. Like a dutiful sister-slash-sister-in-law, I was headed to the heart of Kansas to visit my brother and his wife for the holiday.
The first CD I ever bought was Shawn Colvin’s A Few Small Repairs, which I listened faithfully to until I accidentally left it on the TGV to Paris. Track eight was a song called “Wichita Skyline,” and while I had not yet then been to the Great Plains, I was captivated by the wistfulness of the lyrics coupled with her throaty-yet-little-girlish voice.
And then I moved to the Great Plains, and took a road trip to Colorado, and as the flat, flat land unrolled on every side, I crunched myself into the back seat, horrified, expecting tumbleweeds to blow across the road at any second. Yes, what I had been forewarned about was true—driving across Kansas was about as exciting as watching toast being made.
» Read the rest of Wichita Skyline ...
| The Green Papaya 600 E Pine St Seattle WA 98122 (206) 323-1923 |
Seattle may be known for its rainy climate, but when my old high school pal and I chose that destination for our weekend reunion, we lucked out—it was gratuitious sunshine, the one time that April wasn’t scattered in showers. A good thing, too, considering the numerous times we got lost and ended up heading in the wrong direction, but sometimes a little wandering and backtracking leads to unexpected delights.
Lunch at Green Papaya Photo by Seow Yin |
Such was the case with The Green Papaya.
Seow Yin and I had opted to start going through our “must see” checklist the minute we landed, so after chucking our bags at our bed & breakfast, we were off. It wasn’t until a bus-ride, a dozen camera-clicks, and a long bout of walking later that we realized it was close to 3pm. More than past time for lunch, and boy, were we hungry!
We ducked into The Green Papaya, the first place we spotted that vaguely appeared to be open. We couldn’t really tell if the Vietnamese restaurant was still serving, to tell the truth. Its empty tables and dark interior—shaded from the bright sun by tinted windows and elegant screen dividers—seemed to indicate that it was break-time, that little space in which the staff could take a breather between the rush of lunch and dinner. I half-expected to be told that they were closed, or to face a server who’d keep glancing at her watch to see how long we’d stay.
Instead, we got terrific service, and amazing food. I had the vegetarian spring rice noodles with eggrolls, while Seow Yin ordered the ginger tofu. The generous servings arrived on bright blue plates, each morsel in its rightful place. While presentation doesn’t make poor food any better, it certainly adds to an already excellent meal. I’ve always had a penchant for rice noodles, but not everybody can pull off a crunchy, flavorful eggroll, and The Green Papaya certainly did.
Our energy restored by the filling meal and our bodies refreshed by the chilled fruit juices, we were soon off on our way. It was the merest of chances that we happened to stumble upon The Green Papaya, let alone deciding to go ahead and try it, but I’m certainly glad we did. If you’re looking for tasty Asian cuisine, this Vietnamese restaurant should definitely make your own “must see” checklist.