Mexico City 2023 – Day 1 and 2

Posted on December 16, 2023 by jmatie22

Flew out of SFO Friday at 2pm, and landed in CDM at 7:30pm. Immigration into Mexico was pretty easy. You just scan your passport, and you are in (no person or stamp).

Our AirBnB was in Roma Sur (south), which is conveniently located Av. Insurgentes (a street which seems fairly safe to walk during the day time, and has lots of shops and eateries).

Our first place we checked out is in the nightlife area of Roma, called Zona Rosa (apparently where the rich and gaybourhood is). We went to the 3rd best bar in the world, Handshake Speakeasy. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/12/16/handshake-speakeasy/

After, we walked around a bit. Got some tacos (at the Taconte place pictured below). They were just alright (so not blogging about it). Also checked out a “sort of club”. It was $4 per person to enter. Sound system and drinks were not good (and would not recommend).

I’d be down to explore the area again, but definitely need to really see reviews of places first before committing.

Before ending the first night we did try to find alcohol to take back to the AirBnb. FYI, seems like buying alcohol you can’t do past 2am in Mexico City. You can buy it at convenience stores like Circle K or 7 eleven. Also it is available by Uber eats. (You can buy it past 2am at circle k if you pay by cash).

The next day (our 2nd day), started by walking from our AirBnb to brunch on Av. Insurgentes street. As mentioned above, lots of shops and eateries, and also found an ATM to withdraw cash (at the BBVA bank).

For brunch, we went Marques. Details can be found here

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/12/16/maque/

After brunch we went to a nearby Park, Parques Mexico. Lots of things going on in it. It’s a place where people sell dogs, a dog park, people throwing frisbees, people salsa dancing, and some water fountains.

After, we walked towards the Condesa area, where I got some Starbucks, and also people clothes shopped. We also stopped by this Korean restaurant, Jowong, for drinks:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/12/16/jowong/

After we walked to our dinner place called Contramar. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/12/17/contramar/

After, we got drinks at a place called Limantour:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/12/18/limantour/

To end the night, we went to this club (they technically classify it as a bar) called Departamento. It has three floors, with the top being a rooftop club, and the middle floor looking like a warehouse. They played playa tech house music in the top floor, and more progressive in the middle floor. Would totally come back to this “club” (fyi, security does check thoroughly, and some people’s socks were checked).

Croatia – Tisno Day 7 (Defected Day 3)

Posted on August 9, 2021 by jmatie22

Started the day grabbing brunch at the on-site restaurant in the Garden Resort. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/08/wabi-sabi/

After brunch, chilled at the beach near the beach stage for like 15 minutes (got a Pina colada to go with this, but would not recommend getting it again. It had Pineapple juice in it, but no hint of coconut). We then checked out the Tisno bridge, and grabbed a late lunch at a place called Hotel Brovonik. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/08/hotel-borovnik/

After, went to our first boat party. On the boat, really enjoyed Rimarkable and Offaiah. The boat party lasted 3 hours.

After the bot, took a power nap, then ate chicken curry from the on-site food venue.

For sets, saw Purple disco machine and Bob Sinclair. By far the two best sets (and really wished we were ____).

Croatia – Hvar/Tisno Day 5 (Defected Day 1)

Posted on August 6, 2021 by jmatie22

Last day in Hvar. We checked out of our apartment at 10am, and got brunch at the same place we got brunch on the first day:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/04/bb-club/

We then caught a ferry back to Split at 1:00pm to catch our ride to Tisno. We hired our Uber driver (that picked us up from the Airport), which cost 850 kuna (compared to 1200 kuna on Uber or Bolt).

We got the festival entrance, and at first got tested for COVID (it was a 10 minute test). Fortunately all of us were good.

We got to security, and they made us throw our opened alcohol out.

The tent was relatively good, but initially was missing a fan (we had to ask for one). The general store was also useful for toilet paper, water, and wine (they had not hard liquor unfortunately).

The festival itself has 3 stages. There is the classic stage (beach stage), olive grove, and defected stage. The first and last were good since they played more deeper music (like tech house).

The food itself was good (got gyoza and fries). However the wait for gyozas was wayyyy to long (like 20 minutes). But didn’t get food poisoning, so that’s good.

The DJs I remembered seeing (that were good) are mainly in the defected stage are Monki, and Armand van Helden.

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

Posted on November 16, 2019 by jmatie22

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/

Alberta – 2nd Day

Posted on July 3, 2018 by jmatie22

The intention of the day was to start at lake Louise and hike sentinel pass. But since I had barely any sleep, I decided to have a chill day.

We started off by going into town (Banfff) and getting brunch at Tooloulous. Here are the details:

Tooloulous

After brunch we went and checked out the Banff upper hot springs (it was only $8 Canadian and government owned). The thing about hot springs is that it is just mineral water with no chlorine.

The view was good, but you definitely get what you pay for.

After, we got dinner at an Indian place called Masala. I actually forgot to take food pics (hence no blog link). The butter chicken was good though (and the texture was very tofu like, which I was fine with).

After dinner, we did a pub crawl to three bars.

The first one was an Irish pub called St James pub. It was a standard Irish pub, but very large. I got a cosmo (which was deemed very non hetero lol).

The second place we went to was called Rose and Crown. This place was fun! There was a 4 player game that you basically try and shoot moose (I think the multiplayer aspect made it fun, although it was $8 a game). I won the first game (see the score below). Drinks at this pace though we’re not cheap for a bar (I ordered two keno drips, each $12.50 Canadian). The other good thing about this place is you can select music (the EDM choices were only the popular songs).

The last bar/pub we went to was the Wild Bill’s Legendary Saloon. Drinks were super cheap ($4 a shot). There was also a live band that played covers for some popular folk songs. They did also have their own songs (one which was called “Tits”, which everyone seemed to like, but I was pretty meh to it).

After the bars we tried to hit up a club called the Dancing Sasquatch. No one wanted to pay cover to we went to the McDonalds right beside it (I ordered a poutine, which was good after 5 drinks in).

After McDonalds, a couple of us checked out a club called HooDoo (same owner as the previous club, but this one was free). The music at the club was top 40 EDM / Pop, and the transitions were actually pretty good.