Luanda, Angola

 Angola, Attractions, hotels, New Years 2013-2014, Restaurants  5 Responses »
Jan 292014
 

Taxi only took about 30 minutes from the airport, and arrived at my hotel, the Epic Sana Luanda, around 10:30am. The hotel had plenty of rooms available, but wanted to charge a half day to check in early. They told me to come back at noon and “maybe” I could check in then with no charge. I stored my bags with the valet, and asked to see a manager about an exception. They ran around for about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to handle someone who challenged their “no” and eventually, one of the front desk guys told the other guy to just let me check in…victory…and he also apologized and offered a room on the top floor. Score!

Originally, I was torn about booking this hotel. Hotels in Luanda are insanely expensive, but after my less-than-happy evening in Cabinda I figured for one night I could afford to splurge. At $495 a night, the Epic Sana was definitely a splurge!  Got up to the room, which was nice and comfortable and had great views of Luanda looking out onto the waterfront and corniche, where I’d walk later:

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Jordan had gone to check into his hotel, so once I settled in I went across the street to a small market to get some drinks and water, and then set out in search of lunch.  I couldn’t really find anything enticing in the immediate area, so settled for the hotel’s third floor rooftop/pool restaurant.  The menu came….and the Luanda sticker shock set in again.  If I was considering champagne, I had another guess coming!  The prices were stratospheric! Continue reading »

Overnight visit to Istanbul

 Attractions, hotels, Restaurants, Tajikistan Moscow Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey  No Responses »
Dec 122013
 

I’ll be up front here: I’m not going to do Istanbul justice. I’m not going to even pretend to. I landed at 9a, having been up since 1a Istanbul time, and I was pretty tired. My main goal was to rest up in between stops, maybe see a few things, and have some good Turkish food. I did alright all things considered!

Finally out of the hotel around 11:30 after I got checked in and re-caffeinated, and it was off to the old town. The hotel suggested I walk about 10-15 minutes to the nearest tram stop, and then take the tram all the way. Awesome call, because it allowed for seeing some of the city along the way.

Got to the old town, wandered a bit, and soon was coming up to the Blue Mosque.  Outside, is an obelisk:

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The outside of the Blue Mosque:

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Touring around Lima

 Attractions, Peru, Peru 2013, Restaurants  No Responses »
Mar 072013
 

We had two full days to visit Lima, and decided to roughly split them up and use day one to explore the older part of the city and the historical centre, and use day two to visit a museum as well as walk around the newer and happening Miraflores district.  We started out late morning (after a midnight arrival the night before we were in no rush to get going!) by grabbing a cab to the Centro Historico and the Convento de San Francisco church.

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Cultural Walking Tour of Sofia, Bulgaria

 bulgaria, hotels, Indian Ocean and South Asia 2012, Restaurants  No Responses »
Jun 082012
 

After landing about 1pm, first chore was to get cash from the ABM and head to the hotel. Based on advice from Wikitravel, I decided to get a taxi from the soothingly named “OK Taxi” – and true to name, they were ok! The lady at the counter walked me out to a taxi, who didn’t speak English but we did just fine in French, and he was very curious why I’d chosen to visit his city – even more curious when he found it was for just one day!  Wikitravel had told me to expect 10-12 leva for the taxi, and it came to 9,20…wow, a city with an honest taxi system, I was liking this place already.

This is a good place to mention…I was seriously impressed with Sofia, which given how tired and jet lagged I was says quite a bit.  Although it was a brief trip, I was perhaps more impressed than with any other place I’ve visited in eastern europe.  I can’t wait to go back for a longer trip, and explore more of the country.  Everyone was friendly and helpful, and between English, French, and Russian I never once had any trouble communicating…and not just getting what I “needed” but asking enough questions to get what I was really looking for.  Huge thumbs up!

That said, in deference to points collecting and status whoring, I decided to stay at the super-cheap and affordable Sheraton Sofia.  Was upgraded to a fantastic junior suite which was amazing for the one short night.  Friendly, helpful staff that answered all the questions I had, went out of their way to help me find things, and all-around were awesome.  Highly recommend this place based on my brief experience!

By this time it was around 3pm, and I headed out for a few hour walk in advance of the 6:30pm tour I was planning to take.  Walked a total of around 8km around the city, just taking in sights.  Stopped for a couple espressos (I confess, one of them was at Starbucks for all-too-predictable and needed caffeination) and then just camped out for a little bit at a small cafe near the start of the tour for a couple local beers and people-watching.

For a tour, and to see as much as possible in a short time, I’d decided to go on a walking tour with Free Sofia Tour – which was also ranked the number one thing to do on Tripadvisor!  Let me just say, it was definitely an excellent choice!  They say the tour is about two hours, but our guide was fantastic, and at the urging of our group of approximately 10 he went for nearly 3 hours.  That combined with my earlier walk definitely had my feet sore, but it was well worth it!  If you get a chance to take this tour I highly recommend it, and our guide Kiril was fantastic!

So, on to the tour!  Hopefully I get the names of all the sights right…it was lots to see in three hours!

First stop was the Sveta Nedelya Church.

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