Tag Archives: Harry Potter

Scotland 2024 – Day 4

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Started the day by having breakfast at our hotel (same as yesterday, but got no black pudding and got the scrambled eggs).

After, drove for the first time in the UK (on the left side of the road)! Had trouble following the gps because I had to look on my right side for the map (hence missed our turn and had to drive through some outskirts roads.. haha thought it would be a simple drive but it was more challenging), but we eventually got to our destination, which was GlenAllechie distillery.

At the distillery, didn’t go too much for the tour, but to go sit at the bar and do a flight to see which of their single malt Speyside whiskies I liked best. I tried a 10, 12, 16, and 18 year. The 10 was cask strength, while the others were not. The 10 and 12 are made from 5 different barrels (including sherry). The 15 and 18 were made from only 2 barrels (a subset of the 10 and 12). Mentioning this since the bar tender said I should try it in the 10, 12, 15, 18 order because of the above.

From the tasting, I originally said I liked the 18 because it is smoothest, while the 12 was my next one (just the right amount of sweetness and could drink it without adding water). 15 would be my next one then 10.

However doing a blind taste test, here are my results (did terrible lol):

10, 12, 15, 18 (real order)

15, 10, 18, 12

All I can conclude from the above is that because I mistaken 12 for 18 (and I like the 12), 18 is the best one.

One last drink I did try is their single cask 17 year, since you can only get it at their distillery, and it’s cask strength. Ended up getting it at the gift shop before we left.

Also, their branding is changing to a more pascal type colors (so the labels are now different. The bar tended compared it to the GlenMorangie marketing). Found this out to see which ones I could get at K&L, which is already all of them.

Before leaving we did ask if Dunnottar or Doune castle was better. He mentioned the former was more epic (although Doune is where Winterfell castle is).

Driving to Dunnottar, of course the view was epic of the highlands, but the cliffside view of the castle was even better.

Not too many notes about Dunnottar except that I liked it better than Uqhuart castle. Also they did hold prisoners there that were non Protestants in the 1600s because of King Charles II. Also, they did have a pretty cool scavenger hunt game you could do while exploring which I thought made it more fun.

After, made our way to Edinburgh (which we drove by two major cities, Dundee and Perth… but nothing really to write about). One thing about the end of the drive is when we tried to find a gas station before returning the car, it did not exist (so we took an extra 40 minutes in total trying to find another one. Apparently there are not a lot of gas stations in Edinburgh).

The hotel we checked into is called Le Monde. It’s in the new part of town, and fairly close to the old town. And the hotel has themes. Our theme was Dublin.

We started our Edinburgh adventure by going for dinner at Ka Pao. It’s in a giant mall called St. James Quarter. Definitely wouldn’t mind shopping around there. And here is the review for Ka Pao:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/09/ka-pao/

We then walked around old town, and finding several sites that inspired Harry Potter sites. The first one is Victoria street, which Diagon Alley was based from. Second was Tom Riddle’s grave at Greyfriars Kirkyard (it was a bit hard to find since the google pin was a bit in accurate). 3rd site was considered “the birthplace of Harry Potter” called The Elephant Room.

After we walked a bit on the Royal Mile, just checking the sites out. Then went to one pub, and these two places (The Alchemist, and Never Really Happened):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/09/the-alchemist-edinburgh-george-st/

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/09/nrh-never-really-here/

Lastly we decided to go to an arcade bar called N064, and played a few thing… guitar hero, Mario kart, basketball, and Time Crisis shooting game).

Note: in Scotland, alcohol sales stop at 10pm, for pubs at 12am, and for clubs and bars at 2am (which is partly why we decided to go to N064, because it is considered a bar).

Japan 2022 Day 1 and 2 – Osaka

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Flew into Japan from New York (EWR) into NRT, which was a 14 hours flight. Wasn’t bad since I was sitting in an exit row with economy plus on United (and also watching episodes of Below Deck Sailing Yacht). One interesting thing is our flight path was through Canada over the North Pole.

After reaching NRT, immigration was fast since I completed the immigration and quarantine info on the Japanese government website beforehand (just showed several QR codes). Will say the amount of English known by people in the airport is very limited. Then from immigration exited the secure area and went to security to go to the domestic part of the same terminal (they allowed me to bring my full water bottle in, I just had to separate it from everything else. One other note is that I flew ANA, which is definitely better than the alternative Peach (a peach employee wanted me to weigh my carry on back, and it could only be 7kg, which mine was 11.7 kg… fortunately we both realized I was not flying ANA).

When I got to Osaka airport (ITM), I basically followed the directions to the taxis (as Uber uses local taxis). I ended up not using Uber though and asked one of the taxis drivers to take me to the hotel (they accessed AMEX as payment).

The hotel I was staying at in Osaka is called Hotel Intergate (in the Umeda area of Osaka). Will say this area is pretty different from the Dotombori area (more city like, and I think less tourists).

After settling in, headed to Kitashinchi area (in Umeda), and there were a lot of restaurants, clubs, and drinking spots in the (narrow) streets. We checked out a speak easy called The Auriental. More information can be found here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/23/the-auriental/

Then ate a a really good ramen place called Tsurutontan. More info here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/23/tsurutontan-kitashinchi/

That concluded the first day in Osaka.

The second day in Osaka was mostly about Universal Studios Japan. We ordered an Uber (but really a taxi) to go there, which was only a 25 minute ride away.

For Universal studios, we got a basic ticket plus an express ticket for certain rides (totally recommend doing this as it saves time in the lines. For the rides unfortunately it comes in a set and you cannot choose individual ones). Should get this ticket like 3 weeks in advance if the trip.

When we got there, we put some stuff in the lockers before the entrance (since it was raining), and also got ponchos.

From the entrance, we headed straight to Super Nintendo World. I thought it was really well designed and done, especially bowsers castle (it reminded me of the N64 Mario cart Bowser castle). The ride itself inside (Mario Kart: Koopa’s adventure), was a great way to combine VR (yea, you had a headset), and a physical ride. You basically were able to shoot shells to other karts and enemies to get points, all through the CR headset and physical steering wheel).

After, we ate these Mario “shells ” that has ketchup, cheese, and spaghetti filling. So good.

We then went to Yoshi’s adventure (not gonna lie, it was a short wait for a reason… it wasn’t super great).

The above two rides are really the mai. Attractions in Super Nintendo World (btw, I also got a bracelet that allows you to hit these bricks for coins. Don’t think it was worth it. However, apparently you are suppose to be able to play a game where you find 3 keys through Nintendo world, and then you enter a secret level. I didn’t know that until we were about to leave the park).

Afterwards, we headed to the Harry Potter section of the Theme Park. There were two rides (only did the 4D adventure one, Forbidden Journey). The ride and Harry Potter section itself was very similar to LA. Only noticeable major difference is that all the characters usually are speaking Japanese, not english.

One thing I will say is that it was hard to get hard throughout the park was hard liquor. Beer was easy. Also, sitting down in any indoor cafeteria usually required you to get a set meal, which was a bit annoying. We ate at an indoor cafeteria place called Louis Pizza. They served a kaku highball and pizza. I thought they were both great.

The other ride I did was the Spider-Man 4D ax tire ride. It was also similar to LA. The ride I didn’t do from the express pass (since didn’t want to go on roller coasters) was the backdrop, and Hollywood dream.

Other places in the park we walked around were the Jurassic area, Waterwold, Minions, New York City, and San Francisco.

When we exited the park (took 6.5 hours in total), we went through the City Wall just outside the entrance. Slightly similar to LA, but definitely more Asian places (and not really and bars). There was a Gap store though.

After universal Studios we cabbed back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap.

Then head to Dotonbori via subway. There, we ate at a yakitori place. Details here (note there are two of almost the same onesZ you want to go to the one that does not say nakaza (even though below has it in the name).

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/24/torikizoku-dotombori-nakaza/

We then explored around. The area. Will say it was a bit more dead than when I first was here several years ago. The club Giraffe I went to before seemed also dead. We walked a bit north from the main bridge of Dotonbori, and there were more clubs. Some may have been popping, but we ended up going back and calling it a night (there was an expats place called Queens that we walked by and I would have been interested to go to).