Author Archives: jmatie22

Austin Day 1 and 2 (plus part of 3 and 4)

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On day 1, I arrived in Austin around 10pm. From the airport, we quickly dropped our stuff at our AirBnB (staying at the west side of Austin), and made our way to a local bar called Kung fu Saloon (a mix of game arcade and dive bar).

For the start of day 2, we ended up at the Costco to get supplies and breakfast food (note that at Austin, like in Vancouver, they only sell hard liquor at an independent store, but beer and wine can be found I. Costco. The independent liquor store was right beside Costco).

After Costco and eating an awesome breakfast, we walked to SOCO, and went through some local shops (for example, trying in some cowboy boots).

After SOCO, we walked all the way up to the Capitol building, and explored around for a bit (we tried to make it to the top floor, but looks like you can’t actually go to the top without being in the tour guide. We got to the 4th floor.

After, we got food at Black’s Barbecue. You can read the review here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/11/16/the-original-black-barbecue/

After, we made our way south to a bar called Spider House, where they served hot liquor drinks. I got a got chocolate with vodka called the Hot Chodka.

From there, we ventured south. We ended up going through The University of Texas, passed by a frat party of KKT, then walked through the Capitol building and avoided a group of people casting spells, then made our way to the East part of Austin where DBL saw some dead. Key being out in a trunk. We then ended of this paragraph’s adventure by going to the Voodo Donut place (you can read the review here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/11/16/voodo-donuts/).

We stayed in the east side of Austin for the rest of the night. First bar stop was the Buffalo Billiard bar. The place had the large sections, each with various games like billiards, connect 4, and arcade games. I was impressed. We ended of the night seeing Fleetmac wood at the Parish, which was an interesting EDM experience.

At the end of the night, we came back, and I ended up making my first candy for the next day.

The next day, we had brunch at Walton’s Fancy and Staple: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/11/25/waltons-fancy-and-staple/

Burning Man 2019

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This is a brief summary of what happened this year at BM.

Sunday Morning – we left Reno at 8pm (ditched the caravan idea), and then arrived at the line up around 11:30. We probably crossed the gates at 12:45am. We then set up minimal shade structure, plus the tents and yurts that night. Slept at 6:30am.

Sunday – woke up at around 1pm (fans in the tents helped. Also, having the door side of the tents facing where the sun comes up also helps for heat since there is more distance between the inner and outer parts of the tent). We spent the day setting up the shade structure, kitchen and club. At night, we went out, and did something interesting. 13 out of 20 people in the camp got naked, and bikes around the playa. We stared out art, and the most memorable was going through the Folly naked (and most creepy thing in the filly is a room with paintings, and behind the painting are holes with even smaller artwork).

Monday – during the day we went around, getting various food like ice cream and hot dogs, and went to De. me that for mojitos. At night, Sam and Jon DJd at our camp for a bit (and a guy from the camp over also DJd). Then we went out exploring some of the sound stages, like slut garden.

Tuesday – started the day by watching Sam and Jon DJ at Bubble Lounge. Then explored some art for a bit with Stephan, David S, Ivan and some other people. At night, we did A and explored some art. One of the most eerily memorable ones was a haunted house, where the baby said “put me back, out me back” when you grabbed it. Another (odd) one was a gas station. We also checked out some sound stages like Root Cathedral) Sonic Soul Tribe, 747, and Kazba (interestingly enough this was the only night I checked out Kazbah this year).

Wednesday – started off the day by trying to find Allen Grant at his camp (but no luck), so Ben and I explored. We went to the temple, then headed to center camp for info about where to find WiFi, and got some iced drinks. We stopped by the Wifi place, but unfortunately no internet available :(. At night, this was White Wednesday, where nexus flipping happened. We first saw a bit of Sam and Jon play on an art car, then followed this lineup (flipped at Nora):

  • Slander (at Camp question mark that Ben G absolutely hated)
  • Gorgon City (Playground)
  • Umek (Playground)
  • Nora (she was great, and played at Root Cathedral).

We met up with most of the camp at Nora, then parted with Ivan, DBL, Fiona, Janie, Mayank, Jon, and Ben L for Tycho sunrise at the trash fence (then we lost DBL when we relocated the bikes). Man was it intense in so many levels. Then ended off the day by checking out the 747.

Thursday – rolled out with Alex, Ivan, Caleb, And Mia for the first part of the day. We checked out Draft Punk, and got our playa IDs at Camp Emergence. At night, didn’t do too much music things. We did check out Rufus though. I liked it. Others did not. But basically went around exploring art. Found a camp near 3 and esplanade that runs a circus during the day. Checked out the 747 again. Also, some of us went up this art car that could raise a scaffold. We ended off the night back at camp swing the sunrise (some people went up on the truck).

Friday – spent a good amount of time with Alex, Fiona, and Mia during the day. We went to the Foam Party, where this year the theme was evolution, so to Skip the line, you had to work in a group as an Ameba, and find a sugar and protein from another camp. After, we went to spanky’s wine bar, and got spanked with a hydrolic machine, and also had a massage with a buffer. At night, we first watched the Folly burn (thought this was a bit more epic than the man burn. Also, most of the camp was naked in the Folly!). Then, we checked out (for the second time) the Japanese district. The only place really open was this French wine bar and hookah lounge. Fortunately NJ new French (since the waiter wouldn’t break character). Sam and Ben recognize the guy (Jeremy) who set up the structure. Afterwards, we went across the street, where we all tried real Absinthe (with the sugar thing and all) which was pretty cool.

Saturday – woke up at 12pm. Had our last camp meeting, which was basically about tear down. We then did A at 3pm, which essentially made us a but useless, but like this:

Soon enough it was time for the man burn. This year, since we didn’t stay with the art car during the burn, we were much closer. The man burnt really quickly this year (they added I think more explosions). Also, the man fell over faster. After the burn, we ended up at Slut Garden. Then half the camp went back to camp, while DBL, David S, Wacy, Janie, and Mayank went off to see other music like Carl Cox, and Adam Beyer, at Playground (where we ended up doifff M). Then we went to Root Cathedral to see Pierce Fulton, and ended off at Mayan Warrior. I got back to camp at 6:30am, and woke up at 9:30am to pack. We left the camp site at 12pm, and exited the gates by 2pm.

Other Notes: Got 2 playa names this year. One was Trancienzo, and the other one was ___ Pokémon Trainer.

Todo: figure out the night we went to the Japense place with DBL, NJ, Ben and Nicholay. Also, post schedule for Wednesday night.

San Diego, Day 3

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Started off the day by heading to Old Town. Old Town is basically a bunch of shops, plus museums scattered around a square.

We started off by heading to this street market (where one person was selling screen shining cloths, and shined my watch for free (it actually did look impressive).

After, we got some caffeine from Cafe Vergnano: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/07/cafe-vergnano/

Then we continued to wander around, and headed to the main square, where we looked around at shops, and explored museums.

Around the main square we also did some testing a of hot sauce, and also olive oil. For the big sauce, I tried the mildest one, which was the sweet and spicy. For the olive oil, I tried the garlic one, and also the honey vinegar. Both were great (not that I know anything about either).

After, we headed to this bar in Old Town for drinks: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/07/barra-barra-saloon/

After, we headed to Ocean beach in hopes of finding a fire pit we could do a bon fire. Unfortunately our stay was short lived (like 30 minutes) since we could not find a fire pit.

(Adding here the fact we headed to Ocean Beach from Old Town via a Lyft Scooter. Gotta day it was unilateral to Skip in the sense of the acceleration and “breaking” system. So overall I did like the Lyft scooters).

So we then headed to Fiesta Island, and unfortunately also could not find a fire pit there. Then we headed to Mission Bay Park, where we did find a fire pit! After securing a spot, I headed back to the AirBnB to grab some supplies, and also sleep for an hour.

After an hour, I did head back to Mission Bay Park, and we had a great time with the bon fire (plus smores, pizza, alcohol) for a couple of hours.

After the bon fire, we made a pit stop to the AirBnB, and then headed over Spin where we checked out a Mayan Warrior event. Gotta day, the event and club was pretty sick.

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San Diego, Day 2

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Started off the day by riding a scooter from our AirBnB to mission beach. Was the first time I actually tried a scooter. Having the view go by and the wind passing you was great. The scooter I tried was Lime.

After chilling at mission beach for a bit, we ended up going sailing around North San Diego Bay. Our captain was pretty chill, and it was actually cool to just have four people (a lot more personal). From the boat you can see the view of downtown. Tour was $90, but included unlimited wine and snacks.

After sailing, we headed back to mission beach for some tacos at La Playa (highly rated on yelp): http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/06/la-playa/

From La Playa, we used scooters to get to a place called Cannonball (has a great ocean view. Need to go back there!). This time around I used Skip. I actually liked Skip better than Lime. The acceleration was better, and the breaking system (aka deceleration system) was so better. Plus Lime’s handles are too high for me. Here is info about Cannonball: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/06/cannonball/

After, we headed back to our AirBnB to drink some pickle backs, then headed out to meet some friends at A place called Tequila Factory: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/06/tequila-factory/

After Tequila Factory, we headed over to the Gaslamp dust city for some salsa at Sevilla (recommended by our host at Tequila Factory), plus someone in our group wanted to Salsa.

At Sevilla, the music was “salsa-able”, but also you didn’t necessarily have to salsa (you could just dance regularly).

After Sevilla, I quickly stopped by Omnia to check it out. It is definitely it as grand as the Vegas one, but still nicer than most SF clubs. The DJs that were playing were called Coast Club.

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San Diego, Day 1

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We arrived at SAN around 4pm. After exiting the airport, it was really clear we weren’t in SF. The amount of palm trees and the vibes definitely made it different.

From the airport we drove to our AirBnB, which was in Mission beach. We passed by several naval bases, and also mission beach itself (which had many people on the beach and people on jet skis).

After unpacking at the AirBnB, we headed to Pacific Beach. We got into the water, and had a good amount of fun with the waves.

After 2 hours in the beach, we explored around the area. One place we wanted to check out is water bar, but the line was really long. Maybe next time.

We wandered to to a place on Garnet Ave called Bub’s Dive Bar. More details here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/05/bubs-dive-bar/

After, we went back to Pacific beach to watch the Fireworks. Not gonna lie, wasn’t super impressive.

Then, we shopped for some supplies and groceries at Ralphs (we definitely weren’t sober shopping in there).

After, we went to a Pho place and got some delicious food: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/07/05/pb-pho-and-grill/

Then, we headed back and watched some Californication before heading to bed.

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Joshua Tree, Day 2 and 3

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The second, and main day of the trip we left the house at 11:30 (and before leaving, had A).

We headed to a trail called Cap Stone. The great part about the trail is that it is 0.3 miles only, which is great for not being entirely sober, but also there are many Joshua trees with many rock formations around as well, but it is relatively flat.

After, we headed to Skill Rock. This trail is definitely more involved than Cap Stone, but still do-able (I believe this one is 1.8 miles). We didn’t finish the trail, it got probably half way through. Still a great hike nonetheless 🙂

We then spent the rest of the day in the house. At night, we used the hot tub, and watched several episodes of Drunk History, as well as read an interesting picture book from Taschen about LA from the 1920’s onward.

On the last day, we left the AirBnB around 11:30am, and made our way back to SF. The one interesting thing along the way was a police stand off that was happening in the highway (basically there were two police cruisers stopping this one car, and one police had their gun out and longed towards this girl with her hands in the air).

After, since we had a full breakfast, we only stopped by Panda Express along the I5 for an early dinner.

Overall, great trip, with lots to reflect on 🙂

Joshua Tree, Day 1

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We flew out from SFO to LAX at 8am, and arrived 9:30am. After, we went to Airport Van Rental to pick up the Dodge Caravan (it was the cheapest place to rent this car with unlimited miles, and returning to a different city). (also, note that you should take the Thrifty shuttle to get to AVR, and use Google Maps for the exact location).

After picking up the car, we grabbed lunch at a pho place near by:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/05/06/pho-hue-oi/

From there, we drove 2 hours to get to our AirBNB near Joshua Tree. But before we reached The AirBNB, we stopped by Vons to grab some supplies (and note to self, they have the good hard liquor at the front of the store!).

We got to the AirBnB at 6:30pm. Since we wanted to squeeze in a hike, we quickly unloaded and headed out.

We went to a trail called Fortynine Palm Oasis, which was only a 3 mile hike. However, because of taking a lot of photos, we didn’t compete the hike since we wanted to get back before it was too dark (sunset was at 7:30pm).

When we came back, it was a night of dinner and drinks.

Amsterdam, third day

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Last day in Amsterdam, and we woke up pretty late (3pm). Good thing we booked late checkout in advance!

First thing we did was get some food at the first gourmet burger restaurant in the Netherlands:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/25/burgermeester/

After, we booked a last minute canal boat ride. The boat ride itself was good, but it was hard to see things from the seats we had (if we got on earlier it would have been ok). We also ended up getting off the boat 20 minutes earlier since a passenger was feeling sea sick (and the dock the boat stopped at was right outside our hotel!). Not gonna lie, our hotel was super conveniently located for everything we did on this trip.

After the boat ride, the last thing we ended up doing was going to the Ice Bar. In concept it is cool, but it is a tourist trap, and they basically are putting you in a giant freezer. But, since most places don’t have something like this, we figured we would try it out.

Amsterdam, second day

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We started this day off by eating at this awesome ribs place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/24/ribs-factory/

Afterwards, we wandered around the Nieuwmart area, and passed by the Red Light District. We eventually made our way to a truffle place.

After the truffle pit stop, we headed to the Moco Museum. Most of the work featured there was from Bansky and Icy & Sot. I really enjoyed this museum. Makes you stop and think about the current world.

After, we made our way to the Heineken Experience. It was similar to the last trip, except this time they added Olympic 2018 things.

After the Heineken experience, we ate dinner at this Italian restaurant:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/25/lo-stivale-doro/

Then, we prepped ourselves for a night out at Club Claire, where they played proper deep house music! We were supposed to go check out a club called escape, but the place we were at was too good to leave. The DJ’s that were playing were James Dexter (https://soundcloud.com/bondage-music/bmr-212-mixed-by-james-dexter) and ANOTR (https://soundcloud.com/user-918656730/no-art-radio-e1-dimmish)

Amsterdam, first day

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Before leaving Barcelona, we got into the Airport early to check out a lounge, and yes, it was indeed worth it.

We went to the Sala VIP Pau Casal lounge, and they had a lot of variety of food and drinks (both alcoholic and not alcoholic. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pics. Also, one interesting thing is that is said it was only for Terminal 1 domestic flights, but we got in. I guess Amsterdam being part of the EU counts as a domestic flight.

We got into Amsterdam around 6pm, and then ubered it to our Hotel in the Rembrandt district (we stayed at the Eden Hotel, where I got a pretty good deal from Hotel Tonight).

After eating for a bit, we walked about 10 minutes to this Thai place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/23/na-siam/

Afterwards, we spent some time looking for alcohol. Liquor is not as easy to get as say Barcelona. Supermarket/convenience stores usually only sell wine and beer. We did find a store in the Rembrandt district that did sell hard liquor (which closes at 10pm).

After getting liquor and resting a bit, we headed to the de Marktkantine to see the Magician DJ.

We also were able to procure some favors. Basically the way you do it is you ask people on the dance floor for a contact number. Now the tricky part is once you get the number, how do you text from a phone. They way you do it you dial + to “escape” the countries regular dialing system, then add 31 for Netherlands country code, then drop the first 0 of the number that is given to you (haha, not hard eh?).