Globe Corner Blogs

Brooklyn EIPA - photo by Llalan

New Yorkers. They love their city, they love their Yankees, and by God, they love their beer. They have German beer bars, Belgian beer bars, American craft beer bars – whatever your thirsty little heart desires.

I wanted to get in on the love fest. Realizing that drinking at all of New York’s beer halls would take weeks and be hazardous to our health, my friend and I tackled a few in Williamsburg over a weekend.

First on the official tour: Spuyten Duyvil. (Don’t ask how it’s pronounced – I forget.) The tag line to the bar’s name is “rare and obscure,” and that it is. While I sipped an Oktoberfest on cask, my friend delicately held a tiny tulip of mead. For as powerful as the honey-heavy drink was, it sure didn’t come in a manly glass. He stuck out a pinky and muscled through.

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This is Ireland by M. Sasek

After many online searches looking for the best price to get to Croatia, I discovered that Aer Lingus was a relative bargain compared to other flights. I decided that I would stay in Dublin, however, for a 32-hour layover. I had never been to Ireland before and I wanted to see as much as I could possibly see in my jet-lagged state.

Because I had such a short amount of time, I started to research as much as possible. There was no shortage of information available, but a lot of the information recommended places that “were off the beaten path,” or places to be with the “locals” and the “new, more cosmopolitan” Dublin. As I was reading one article that suggested visiting a great wine bar and eating at a wonderful Mediterranean-inspired restaurant I realized that I didn’t want to be “off of the beaten path.”

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Downtown Lich--photo by Cecilia

Two years after our last visit to Germany for Christmas, we are back again. We got to the Frankfurt airport at 5:30 am, our family waiting for us already, and we drove home to Lich in the state of Hessen. Lich is a small and nice medieval city about 45 minutes from Frankfurt that was founded as a small community around 790 A.D. A castle was erected in the 12th century and the town gained the right to be called a city in the year 1300. You still can see the history on a short stroll through downtown in its beautiful half-timbered houses and the castle. If all this is not enough to make one to visit Lich, knowing that this city is home of Licher Bier, one of the best known beers in Hessen, will do it.

This time, we are there in spring and we notice already on our way from the airport that everything looks so green and seems fresh and colorful. The colors come from the flowers and vegetables we see in the fields. And among them, I can see what makes me think of spring in Germany as “Spargelzeit,” literally “asparagus time.”

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Memorial to Fisherman--photo by Llalan

The first stop on “Cape Ann Curiosities” in Lonely Planet’s New England Trips is Gloucester. Curious is not the first word I would use to describe the town, but maybe they couldn’t resist the alliteration. I probably would have gone with charming or simply lovely. My parents would have gone with, “It’s time to move here.” The main street, lined with budding trees and locally-owned businesses, winds down to the ocean and the iconic fisherman statue and memorial. Facing the ocean were old houses with widow’s walks around their roofs. Given the number of fisherman lost at sea who are honored at the memorial, Gloucester has known its fair number of widows.

The next “curiosity” we visited was an artists’ colony in East Gloucester. We walked down one street populated only by artists who were more than happy to show and explain their works to us. Even the

Cape Ann Brewing Company--photo by Llalan

shops themselves were artsy, each one decorated to match the personality of the artist living there. And there was something for everyone: paintings for my mother, jewelry for me, miniature replicas of ships for the boyfriend, and real ships bobbing at the docks outside for my dad. My parents’ desire to move there increased manyfold. Our visit to the Cape Ann Brewing Company further convinced Dad and me that it was time to order a U-Haul.

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Fodor's Chicago 2009

Proper congratulations and looks of awe are in order: I flew from Boston to Chicago and from Chicago to Boston with no delays, no cancellations, and no angry TSA officials–in February. Quite a feat in my book, given Boston’s recent proclivity to sudden snow storms and O’Hare’s almost constant state of behind-ness.

I was in the Windy City (which is rather windy, no matter where the nickname actually came from) for a writer’s conference. Despite seeing such amazing writers as Marilynne Robinson and Alexandar Hemon read, it’s needless to say that most exciting part of this conference, like any, happened outside the actual conference hotel. And consistent with my usual style of travel, it happened inside restaurants and bars.

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The Beer Book --edited by Tim Hampson

The Beer Book pronounces right off the bat that it “is not a book for beer snobs.” And they are absolutely right. Editor-in-Chief Tim Hampson takes pains to make this “drinking companion” not only a book accessible to casual beer drinkers who want to expand their knowledge of the styles, but also appealing to the more knowledgeable drinker who wants to see what else is out there to try (to mark off on their “life list,” if you will).

Easily recognizable by its cask conditioned cover, it is not at first glance what one expects from a book by Dorling Kindersley (DK), publisher of travel guides known for glossy covers with spectacular photos. The inside, however, has the obvious look of a DK guide to anything. Nearly 1,700 beers are lovingly pictured in The Beer Book’s encyclopedic examination of brews from all over the world. It is drool-inducing.

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The Oasis at Lake Travis--photo by Llalan

The verdict on Texas: HOT. With lots of nice folks, though! You can’t let that whole “Don’t Mess With Texas” bit fool you. I happened to meet several born ‘n’ bred Texans who not only procured veggie burgers AND sausage for me (reportedly after several confusing trips to the grocery), but even tried it with me!

More importantly they made sure the air conditioning was on extra-high at all times and didn’t roll their eyes when I yelled, “Oh, hothothot!” each and every time we walked outside.

If I have my stereotypes right, though, big trucks and oil derricks in the backyard belong to Houston; Austin is a whole other matter. As the capital of Texas and the home of the US’s largest university, Austin is therefore also the hipster capital of the state.

Even that lone blue spot in the sea of red can’t help but be Texas, though. And by that, I mean big: one-way streets with four lanes (unheard of in New England!), a school with its own zip code…even the statue of Cesar Chavez is twice life size. And now, I’m not a very big person myself — and I never did get myself a good pair of cowboy boots — but I squinted my eyes to the sun, spat in the dust, and tackled Austin and the Hill Country like a drunk guy on a mechanical bull.

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