SiteBits (page 19)

My sister and I arrived at Hotel Mar de Frente (Los Caños De Meca, Costa de la Luz, Andalucía) almost by accident (or, to put it bluntly, by virtue of not being able to back our stick-shift rental coche out of a driveway). All in all, I must say it was a happy accident.

Having left the stubborn car in the care of a friendly parking lot attendant, we inquired about available rooms at the hotel and briefly surveyed the beach below. The results of both inquiries appeared to be satisfactory.... We checked in...

Read the rest of: "Hotel Mar de Frente (Los Caños de Meca)"»

Up until this month the only thing that visibly connected me with the high art of photography was all those amateurish pictures that I kept posting on this site.

It all changed after I saw "Hotel Mediodía" - a solo exhibition of the Spanish photographer Javier Campano that's on display at Reina Sofia until the 4th of October.

Read the rest of: "Hotel Mediodía"»

This is a wonderful sunset view of Los Austrias - my favorite neighborhood in Madrid. Of course, my camera gets weird in such light, but you get the point. It is beautiful.

If you look closer, youll notice a plexiglass wall separating the sidewalk from the banisters. It is there for a good reason. Many people, perhaps thoroughly impressed by such views, have chosen to plunge to their deaths from this very point of the bridge - and by the way, there's a street below (Calle Segovia). Imagine how annoying it used to be for the drivers when some suicidal freak would just make a mess right in front of their car.

Butrint is an ancient Roman city not far from Saranda, overlooking a river valley. To my untrained eye, it appeared quite well-preserved.

Read the rest of: "Ilyrians and Romans and Greeks, oh my! "»

Knowing that I am now based in Montreal you, of course, expect me to send in aesthetically pleasing images of Notre-Dame Basilica, the statue of Admiral Nelson or, should worse come to worse, the Palais des Congrès. And I am just going to be different and difficult, once again...

Read the rest of: "Postcard From Montreal: La Cité"»

As we all know, the key to having a great time while traveling is preparing yourself with just the right amount of information and leaving everything else to good luck and inspiration.

If you stumbled upon this site while doing reasearch for your upcoming trip to NYC, you are already in luck. Beacause not only can you find some useful information here, but you can learn how not to look or behave like a tourist (even if you are). By looking and behaving local, you can have much more fun in the city and avoid most unpleasantries.

Read the rest of: "How to Not Be A Tourist in NYC"»

I wish I could show you more of the PPG skycraper - one of Pittsburgh's landmarks, but unfortunately, an over-zealous security guard chased me away - apparently, photographing internationally known landmarks is becoming somewhat illegal in the USA

He said I could still photograph friends in front of the building, as long as not too much of the building was in the picture. I believe, the technical term here is "retarded".

Read the rest of: "Postcard from Pittsburgh: PPG"»

I usually shun all things theatrical, but knowing the reputation of the "Madagascar Institute" as skilled masters of urban chaos, I couldn't afford to miss last Saturday's "Broadway Style" show.

Read the rest of: "Madagascar, Broadway Style"»

The video store, though a relatively new arrival in the land of shops and other places you inevitably go to exercise your wallet, has already been ingrained - fully accepted - into our daily lives, our routines. "I did some gardening for a while," is more likely to raise a questioning eyebrow than the admission that lacking anything else to do, you went over to the video store to rent a movie.

Read the rest of: "Video Store Angst"»

For years I thought that fish 'n chips were fish and chips, never questioning the egg and beer batter or the white fish meat of the fish 'n chips I was fed by my parents from the local fried fish shop in Kelso, Washington. Cap'n Yoby's was the only fish 'n chips place I had ever gone to. In fact, as a child, I thought that it was the only one my parents had ever gone to, as well. Never was I led to believe that each meal I ate from that place was anything different from any other fish 'n chips place. Especially, as it never occurred to me that there were other fish 'n chips places. That is, it never occurred to me to question fish 'n chips until one autumn morning, over a bag of left-over fish from the night before..

Read the rest of: "Fish'n'Chips"»