CrossingWorld

Sweden

2009-09-14T22:14:00.001-04:00

Sweden, hmmmm. What thoughts conjoured up anticipating a visit to Sweden? A proud yet understated people, true believers in a cradle-to-grave socialist model. Exporters of high-quality (Volvo, Saab, ABBA) or highly-efficient goods (H&M, IKEA). A country that must be green/beautiful and well-run.

Did we see and experience this? I guess so, but Stockholm is more like the Oslo we saw last year (than some nirvana)- very middle-class, lack of majestic buildings or architecture, expensive. It's clean but not stunning and this explains why it's not a tourist draw like Italy or Greece.

The place is built for the residents- the country doesn't need tourists to succeed. They have palaces and old squares but they would lose out in any popularity contest to ones in Rome or Prague or Madrid. The hotels and public spaces it looked like they tried hard to be clean and mildly upscale but stopped at an early point because it either got too expensive or further gaudiness would not be worth any perception of prestige or trophiness.

That all said, clean is good to us and what we saw was upper middle-class clean with a mininmum of run-down seediness. Their harbor is pretty without any stunning buildings but still a clear plus over Copenhagen's unspecial bay. Their grungy, grindy working class neighborhood has just a bit more dust than Copenhagen's Christianshavn and no pretty canals. If I were to choose where to live among the two, I'd choose Copenhagen. CPH made the favorite city list (on living appeal not tourist appeal), but Stockholm won't quite.

The shock of Norway and Copenhagen prices last year on worse x-rates made it a lot easier to deal with Stockholm, plus a nearly free hotel and independent decisions to eat light. We kept spending down without sacrificing enjoyment, happily. It's just that we were in Stockholm city only 43.5 hrs, a few less than Berlin or Amsterdam and those extra couple made a difference with shops/museums closing so early and opening late in Scandinavia. We still love Scandinavia but it's for visiting, not living.

Little Venice

2009-08-02T14:39:00.004-04:00

Should we have been embarrassed we didn't now about an area of London called Little Venice? At first we were but after seeing it, it can recede back to the netherworld.

We tried to replicate a paid walking tour of the area done on walks.com. We didn't do it all and probably we shortchanged ourselves by missing some key areas. However, we weren't impressed.

The south of Maida Vale looks nice enough- the canal is highly overrated to use a nice term. Little Venice itself is just a triangular shaped urban pool (i.e. polluted) with a couple of boats masquerading as cafes. Walk along an old canal with countless cigar boats and plants that look like weeds and the attraction is the neighborhood architecture more than the canal itself.

We were majorly mistreated at Cafe Laville, a little place overlooking the canal at Edgeware Road. We were told there were no hot drinks while they were in the middle of serving hot drinks to another table. We thought they were nonplussed we weren;t ordering food; either way, we stormed out. Dirtbags.

We exited at the canal at Lisson Grove and walked through that shabby neighborhood on the (long) way to Marylebone. We missed Saint John's Wood and probably a big chunk of the supposedly trendy Marylebone, ending up at Oxford Street and thinking we could have had a better day.

New Yorkers get double miles!!!

2009-08-01T18:56:00.002-04:00

Double miles is a yawn to most normal people, but to a mileage follower (if short of addict) on an attainable goal, it's a nice little gold mine.

American Airlines giving double miles to anyone who flies American anywhere IF they live in New York, Connecticut or New Jersey on any flight 7/29 - 12/31/09. Use code NYDBL. Conveniently, they are a default (if not automatic default) for these two NYLONs as they commute between New York and London.

If you want the double miles and don't live in NY CT NJ, just change your address on your profile and pray.

Dublin

2009-05-26T19:31:00.001-04:00

Running through Dublin resulted in some interesting conclusions, driven perhaps by our biases. It feels like a charming city to live in but not to visit. It was hardly a tourist destination, even to Americans beyond 10 years ago – then the Irish Celtic Tiger boom and the advent of cheap no-frills flights combined to make the place more cosmopolitan.

If from Dublin, I would think the city very quaint with a number of beautiful parks close to city center we saw plenty of suits on a Monday enjoying their lunch in. More than enough main streets whether automotive or pedestrian are quite clean and well-maintained with elements of grittier neighborhoods nearby if that suits your boat.

It is a major plus that the city is completely walkable, but what there is to see as you walk could leave one wanting. Georgian architecture strikes me as easily mistaken for low-income housing- said to reflect a certain modesty in outward appearance for upper-class Dubliners, I will have to take their word for it as we skipped any houses serving themselves up for a tourist fee. Their museums had standard visual and decorative art but surprisingly less emphasis on history than I would have thought. We couldn’t enter Parliament as civilians, had to get some embassy permission for a tour. The art scene was lacking.

However, there is nothing to hate about the traditional Irish bars (and Irish music) with the proverbial dark scene and gold lettering around every single corner with cheap Guinness. The wine bar and restaurant scene excels also with modern bistros scoring particularly well- again a point for living but insufficient just for visiting.

The city indeed has infrastructure bottlenecks- lots of buses belching noise and clogging whatever streets are not closed off to be pedestrian; a start-and-stop route to the airport that would have been a lot worse with traffic; an overcrowded old airport with its own security bottlenecks- that new Terminal 2 in the distance cannot be finished quickly enough.

The week in Ireland is understandably the best way to do now – Dublin isn’t enough for a trip by itself unless you plan on drinking it away with some friends; you have to see the countryside with it.

Mileage Craze Extravaganza

2009-03-24T00:24:00.002-04:00

In case anyone doubts the airlines are doing really really badly, behold all the airline stumbling over themselves in the last few days offering double and triple miles toward qualification and crazy mileage promotions:

Just today, Delta offered triple elite miles for first/business/full-fare coach (delta.com/elite) thru June 15 and Continental over the weekend offered double elite miles for all flights March 20 - June 15, even if you booked before the bonus was announced (https://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/onepass/promotions/registrationDetails.aspx?promoCode=TB8M05&SID=E05B19D090C541759F8486CB7E2553A2). THe latter is going to help crescent quite a bit, living in Continental's most profitable hub.

United beat them to the punch on Thursday, united.com/eqmoffer

These deals generally matched one I think started by American on Wednesday who is going overboard by also offering a crazy 50,000 miles for first or business class to Britain (London or Manchester), the most I have ever seen for flying just roundtrip.
http://www.aa.com/aa/AAdvantage/viewAirlineSpecials.do?anchorEvent=false

Feels like the good old days....

The Travel Map

2009-03-08T23:42:00.004-04:00

OK, this is an exercise in egotism, but why do a travel map complete with celebratory pins over where you've been if no one can see it?

http://www.tripadvisor.com/MemberProfile?uid=87E90BCAFFC0F85E8CA58D5665AEA573&c=pt&public=1

Malaga

2009-02-17T11:03:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Delta, there is a direct flight now New York-Kennedy to Malaga, on the Costa del Sol, Spain's Mediterranean coast. I'll admit my lack of knowledge of this city being the Spanish coast's gateway and the new Delta flight spurred my interest. Plus last year's icefest same weekend in Berlin.

No thanks to Delta we paid maybe 100 more bucks than we had to as fares collapsed in the buckling economy between booking and flight time.

No thanks to Delta for not renovating their horrid Terminals 2/3 at Kennedy and sending us on a Groundhog Day-like circle looking for a way in after the obvious entrance was closed for the night. Not a great flt over- unusually cold, no map, packed full flight. Families and older folk, no yuppies like us- what does that mean?

But all worth it as we strolled over to the airport train in 65-degree dry Mediterranean heat at noon on Valentine's Day in Malaga.

They say 1/3 of traveller to the region never see the working-class Malaga when they come, bypassing it for the builtup resort towns. We did the opposite on our 48 hour plan, never venturing more than 2 km from our old city 4-star hotel.

Pedestrianized old cities of Europe never get old as they are lined with shops, cafes, churches, and tapas bars (in Spain)- beckoning one to enjoy the long weekend and in this case demanding it during Carnaval.

Malaga Carnaval would never compare to Rio or Barcelona but for our first time, it works- the spontaneous singing guy groups in the squares and the random music players are unforgettable and would seem lamely and sadly out of place in the US.

Not much in the way of conversations- an old full-white-bearded Irishman lying to us about being on vacation (while dressed in a suit during Carnaval), racist Spanish kids yelling Chine at us and sticking their thumbs up at us, and an adorable boy dressed up as a tiger as if it was Halloween (well it was- it's Carnaval)

Malaga has a nice castle/fortress well worth the 20-min walk up and a surprisingly impressive cathedral, a great showpiece beyond the expectations for a mid-sized city. Tapas and Spanish wine (both the reds and the sweet whites) were revelations. No touristy BS and no rudeness- big pluses.

Pleasant trip back thanks to a 70 pct full flight- beautiful views of the Mediterranean, Seville, and especially Lisbon from up above.

How $100 becomes $160

2009-01-01T22:57:00.003-05:00

Look, I consider myself as savvy as anyone in finding cheap airfares and not being surprised by hidden stuff or what gets charged for after the airlines brushed with another bout of dissolution when oil was $140, but adding 60% really calls for an illustration:

$100 Stated fare Spirit Air - New York to Fort Lauderdale

$+11 Taxes, ok fine we all know those are coming on the next page...
.
.
.
.
.
$+9 Not using a $9 Club Sale Fare - hey I thought you just join and accept their emails and you get the discount - I didn't think you had to pay for the Club!
.
.
.
.
.
$+30 Oh, it's higher if you don't buy a round-trip
.
.
.
.
$+10 Oh, you want a seat on the flight too - well you have to pay to reserve that.

= $160

Plus it's something called Spirit with all the potential adventures of any unknown airline. This ought to be fun

Belize is making a big big mistake...

2008-10-25T09:05:00.003-04:00

The trusty Flyertalk website produced the cheap cheap fares of $229 for New York - Belize on American Airlines one recent night, so Crescent in his excitement put a reservation on hold himself and Crossing for MLK Day 2009.

Then in looking for visa requirements, we come on to an addt'l requirement that the Director of Immigration approve any citizens of five countries, of which China is one, along with Bangladesh, Colombia, and Bolivia. Why is this?

That little China - Taiwan problem of course. You see, among the small dinky list of 23 countries that recognize Taiwan and thus not China is Belize. To get into Belize, my Crossing requires that Director approval, $2,100 visa fee, and a $4,000 refundable repatriation fee (to fund them getting rid of her if they discover she is a spy).

So much for saving $100 on the airfare....

Our first exposure!

2008-10-13T03:11:00.005-04:00

What are three 1968 pennies worth? Probably three cents, or even less once maintenance costs are taken care of.

What maintenance costs? Keeping them and occasionally looking at them under some unrealistic thesis they could be worth something in 30 years. Well, a 1940 penny I found on a tennis court this weekend is worth 25-50 cents, and the 1968 pennies don't even have the old wheat design.

So in looking for their value, I stumbled on the site 1968pennies.com and agree with them they aren't worth much, with almost 5 million of them minted. But 11,917 of them, their current collection is worth MUCH, though not too much- about $160 at the current copper price of $2.15 per pound, not even the domain name costs over the nine years this site has been up, so it isn't some get rich very slowly scheme.

As a tribute to the site, these three 1968 pennies donated to them with a stamp are all it costs to get the first link to Crossing World established in cyber space. Cheaper than going to Google, I imagine....

How nice if $20 millions dropped on my head...

2008-08-27T01:28:00.003-04:00

In recent months, I have day-dreamed been hit by $20 millions from the sky... This thought comes out more often when I am tired, depressed or mistreated at work. What is funny is that I don't dream about what to do with it. It is really the security of having it that attracted me. Then I have to admit, although part of me still trying to deny, that money is among the top reasons that now I work hard.

Our business pays quite well esp. the pay is directly tied to the number, which is the ultimate driver of working hard and taking on lots of stress. I haven't gotten to that point but am afraid that sooner or later I will face it - can I leave this business and go make only half or one third of what I made before and still be Okay? Not-being-Okay thought really scares me. I hate to be tied on something and cannot let it go.

The Last Emperor Revisited

2008-08-02T23:56:00.003-04:00

I sat down in front of TV after a long day of house work and happened to notice that this channel was showing the Last Emperor, the American version from 1987 starring John Lone and Joan Chen. I saw the Chinese version of the Last Emperor,which came out couple of years earlier I remembered, but only part of the American version in the past. So I took the opportunity and watched the whole thing. Indeed the movie was well done.

I am not sure if it is the American version focusing on some part of history that I am not so familiar with, or it is the changes in my ways of looking at things over the last 15 years. I never felt so strongly about how badly Pu Yi was mistreated after 1949. Why is it so hard to respect him and possibly use his talents / skills / knowledge? In many cultures' history, abdicated emperors were treated quite well although they no longer ruled the country. why did we have to put this guy down entirely and step on him and his dignity so much? ...

CHEE KA GO

2008-07-16T20:47:00.002-04:00

So the stout bassist goes through his first song and I am feeling really cool as the crowd grows around the outdoor set-up at Nyhaven, the cool canal area at Copenhagen Harbor.

I am convinced he is American for no particular reason and waiting for him to address the crowd after the song saying something like how honored he is to be here at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

After he talks in Danish for a while, I am impressed but still think he is American, just bilingual.

After enjoying another song, he says he is going to play SWEET CHICAGO, except pronounced just like anyone with a Germanic mother tongue would- CHEE KA GO.

At that point, I begin to respect how many good Danish jazz players there are.

LOT Polish

2008-07-16T20:42:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, yes, the benefit of low expecations. I was looking forward to flying LOT Polish (Copenhagen-Warsaw-NY) return for the novelty but upper mgmt wasn't, not after sumptuous service on Singapore Air from NY to Frankfurt on the outbound. (For the list of kooky airlines flying to weird destinations, write us here)

Surprise, surprise- an above avg experience! Half-full flight to Warsaw on a clean, good legroom regional jet. They are our first to offer a second drink (tea or coffee) right away with the meal. Alcohol was free, and the food pretty good, though repetitive.

Shockingly, we'd have to put LOT above SAS, where nothing, not even water, was free. They're both under pressure from low-cost carriers (SAS from Norwegian Air Shuttle and Sterling; LOT from Wizz and there they are again- Norwegian Air Shuttle in Warsaw)- maybe LOT is owned by the state still and doesn't care. Nonetheless, it joins Iberia as an airline without a reputation we rate above the crowd.

A gleaming new Terminal 2 at Warsaw's Chopin airport as good as any in Europe- looked underused but this is a growing economy- it will fill in due time. It was quite a contrast to the Soviet-era Terminal 1 we arrived in- ugly red vinyl chairs, atrocious dotted white tile floors.

The European airports we transited were all great- Frankfurt is a little worn being older and heavily used, but Oslo, Copenhagen (!!!), Warsaw's new terminal 2 were all expanses of light and high ceilings, easy directions/departure screens, no lines, beautiful wood or tile floors, hard-to-imagine getting crowded. Even Bergen's and Tromso's small airports in Norway put your typical American small city airport to shame.

Copenhagen

2008-07-16T20:39:00.000-04:00

Why don't people talk more about this wonderful city? Maybe it's because it's summer but this is a walking person's dream- pedestrian streets, squares, happy people, English-speaking, harbors, canals, cafes, restaurants, museums absolutely everywhere, clean clean clean, and shopping for those who love Scandinavian prices. It's not a vista city- upper management was less enthusiastic snapping photos than in other places, but you have such a sense of content here, you feel like you have to wake up from the dream (and Copenhageners probably do in their dark, wet, windy winter).

On Fri Jul 11 alone the program had 110 performances around the city for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. We managed to see 4 in 2 days, all free (this city rules!)- surprisingly all performers spoke Danish- there must be a lot of Danish jazz musicians. We heard everything from vocal to young guys playing modern to five 60-somethings puffing oboes and trumpets to traditionals- crowds from 50 to 500. It was great- we'll have to see the Williamsburg Festival in Sep in NY.

So supposedly Danes are the happiest people in the world- is it the social capitalism inherent in Scandinavia or that this is a fairly homogenous, educated, content small country. The travel book said the attitude to working longer hrs here is "Why? You just get taxed more.". Maybe they're happy because everyone at the top is scuppered and no one is rich to make the rest feel bad. It's hard to find luxury shopping in Copenhagen- we saw more H&Ms and Zaras than all luxury stores combined. Could it work in the US? Will Obama try? He better not- I am holding my wallet.

Tromso

2008-07-16T20:38:00.001-04:00

Was it worth spending 200 bucks going up, 200 bucks going back, a 20% premium to southern Norway (a 30% premium to the US) in prices, and 25 dollar unused intl drivers license to see mountains up close and twilight all day? In your 30s with youth slipping away and future responsibilities pending, I suppose anything is worth it.

Tromso is at 69 degrees north latitude with two months all day sunshine late May to late July. Being cloudy outside, one pretty much couldn't tell what time it was- it looked like it was 6-7p whether it was 7p, 1a, or 10a. It looked like a small midwestern US city- 70s era buildings and signs, not much else around the region, and lots of delinquents running around.

Lower mgmt spent 25 bucks and an hour in NY getting a cheap intl drivers booklet from AAA only to realize there aren't any automatic transmissions in northern Norway- so out with driving the beautiful island of Kvaloya in the middle of the night.

We busted the bed/breakfasts internet network by trying to connect the line to upper mgmt's corporate laptop. How? We don't know but we slithered away a bit embarrassed. We tried to mingle with the locals but found the preponderance of 20-somethings wearing black and with nothing to do a bit undesirable. Besides they stared at us a lot- we must have been the only Chinese people within 1000 miles.

So we strolled around, paid a lot of money to see their typical tourist attractions (what kind of church charges for entrance? Maybe one named the Arctic Cathedral with a whopping one wall of stained glass that a 3rd grader could have designed)- 20 bucks to see a polar museum essentially 5 seals and a film about Svalbard (which Tromso is STILL 500 miles away from).

So we saw our vistas, took photos that had midnight time stamps, ate expensive food and got the hell out of there, armed with a story for our future kin.

Norwegian Food or not Norwegian Food?

2008-07-07T19:18:00.000-04:00

To eat Norwegian food or not in Norway?
By Guest Blogger (Lower Management)

It's not such a tough choice in Oslo because there are no Norwegian restaurants. The honeymooners spent 2 nights in Oslo- night 1 was a Burger King fest because nothing else was open near midnight and the better half refused to eat at one of the 50 kebab places open until 5am. Night 2 was a fruitless search through central Oslo (on a Friday night!) for a bonafide Norwegian place, ending up with boring and expensive French food. We saw everything- Chinese, kebabs, French, Italian, Irish, steaks, a lot of bars, but no Norwegian food. Unbeliveable. All the places in the book were 5-star or outside of downtown.

With all that, why was I surprised to find there are no Norwegian restaurants in New York? The last one apparently succumbed to a Chinese place ~10 years ago, bizarrely sharing a menu for a few years after Chinese management acceeded to begging from Norwegians to keep some items.

Early Summer in Paris, and those quite corners

2008-06-28T01:44:00.000-04:00

Tony and I went to a friend's wedding in Paris at the beginning of Jun. We have been to Paris and known it decently well, but this is the first time we were there in early summer. We saw and experienced a different Paris, the one that is more open, pleasant and vibrant.

The friend chose Chateau De Esclimont as the wedding location, which is a perfect place to fulfill her princess getting married in a grand castle dream.

Jiang Hu

2008-06-28T01:40:00.000-04:00

What do I really mean by crossingworld? Travel is only a small part of it. World consists of places, things, and most importantly, people. In Chinese this would be Jiang Hu. Where there are people, there is Jiang Hu - the true Chinese philosophy.

Canals or Amsterdam?

2008-04-05T10:25:00.000-04:00

We were in Amsterdam during the Easter long weekend and got to see the city in snow.

Berlin - where East meets West

2008-04-05T10:04:00.002-04:00

The fact that I grew up in a communist country and was educated in the most powerful capitalism country may have been in my way of enjoying Berlin as a city and appreciating its integrity. During my recent trip to Berlin, I spent so much time tracing the cold war and observing/comparing east and west Berlin. Yes, they are indeed still very different, and cold war has left deep marks in the city and the society, although the Wall was gone 18 years ago.

West Berlin is partially successful trying to be a smaller London - clean, well planned, and lots of people traffic. East side is rather messy, not fully developed and sometimes depressing. Walls after walls of graffiti, very disturbing.

I always like to visit the department store or concentrated shopping district when I visit a city. It is truly a great way to know the people through their spending choices. The largest store in Continental Europe KaDeWa, the legendary Kaufhaus des Westens in Charlottenburg, made me feel home. Ku'Damm, Kurfurstendamm, is like any normal, vibrant and concentrated shopping street in New York or London.

The rebuilding of Berlin brought many excellent architectures to the city. Potsdamer Platz is a good example.

Madrid - the new and modern Paris

2008-04-05T10:04:00.001-04:00

We were in Madrid this past Jan - one of the best cities we have been to.

New York, New York

2007-12-08T18:20:00.001-05:00

I live in New York, a place that never fails to give me a sense of world but can be a cozy home when I want it to be. One of the best times to enjoy New York is holiday afternoons and early evenings between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Stores after stores, trees, lights, music and smiles... The holiday atmosphere blends so well into the city and makes it softer than usual - the busy and cold New York gets homey and warm.... Walking on the Upper East Side seeing families out there having fun and doing their shopping is such a joy. I feel so peaceful to just watch them and secretly share their happiness. This is the moment you feel being is so simple but so good.

Rome - layers of history

2007-12-01T19:09:00.000-05:00

We took the opportunity of the Thanksgiving long weekend break and visited Rome, a place we have been looking forward to for a long time.