Tag Archives: McDonalds

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 5 and Day 6

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Start of day 5 we started off visiting a jewelry store close by the hotel to find a replacement necklace. Then went to Grand Cafe Lido for dinner. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/10/21/lido/

After, tried the casino next door, Holland Casino, for a quick game of blackjack. Europe has two different rules from North America. First is that you can only double your bet on 9, 10 or 11. Second you are allowed to play or “invest” on someone else’s hand.

After the casino, started and ended the night early at Gashouder, where we saw Camelphat, Stephan Bodsen (great visual) and Maceo Plex. Will say watching from the bleachers at Gashouder was a great idea for the visuals.

We did may one put stop at McDonalds before ending the night.

Next day, checked out of Park Centraal hotel and flew out of AMS.

Scotland 2024 – Day 3

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Started off the day eating a free breakfast at our hotel (Aberlour hotel), which seems like a traditional Scottish breakfast (including black pudding, which is basically blood sausage paddy).

After, we headed 20 minutes to Glenlivet estate / Distillery. A few things I learned:

-it has a really long drive way up a hill so that the taxman (from the olden days) wouldn’t find their whisky they were trying to sell

-it’s 200 years since they got their license to sell whisky

-it’s fruity flavors are mainly from the copper stills (not the well water)

-in the stills it is 4 hours in the washbacks and 5 hours in the copper ones (where it then is at the 62% alcohol level they want it at)

-they use both american casks and European casks. European casks are supposed to be sweeter notes while the american smoother notes

-the 12 and 16 single malt years are double casks, where they are from two different barrels (american and the. European). The 14 is only from american (but could still be double cask

-single malt refers to the fact the whisky comes from one distillery

-single cask means the bottles whisky it has only been from one barrel. Double cask means the bottle has whisky from two different barrels. A Finish means it was transferred from cask to another (say from and American one to a European one)

-Glenlivet was Seagram before

After Glenlivet, we headed west towards Inverness to Clansman Hotel to catch our boat ride around Loch Ness (by jacobite boats). The boat ride was 2 hours in total and included a stop to Urquhart castle (the highlands largest castle). Some details about it:

-built in the 500s, and was around until the 1500s

-eventually people broke through it (or stormed it) and also pillages things from it like it’s rooftops and art

In terms of the Loch Ness monster, apparently some doctor in the early 1900s took a picture of Nessi, but they discover in the 1990s it was a fake picture (he used a combination of picture taking trickery). However people do claim still that they have seen it for real.

After we headed to a trail close by called the South Loch Ness trail. Only hiked 2 km of it because it was too muddy from the rain early (Scotland weather has a bit of on and off showers). The hike did have a good view of the highlands.

After, we headed to Inverness to walk around along the Ness Walk. Inverness on Sundays have most of their shops closed, but most of their eateries are open (and the really good ones are full). It took us our 3rd choice restaurant selection (but they seated us an hour later than we wanted). We did stop McDonalds and Tesco (a grocery store). Details can be found here for the restaurant we ate at, Encore Une Fois:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/07/encore-une-fois/

We then headed back to our hotel in Aberlour.

Scotland 2024 – Day 1

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We took a flight from Ibiza to Scotland at 11am, and landed in Glasgow at 3pm. My friend and I ended up renting an Avis car, and driving for him took some time to get used to.

We ended up staying near the heart of Glasgow at The Radisson Blue near central station (note we parked at a nearby garage, but next time would pay for parking at the hotel parking).

Near the area was a Pizza Hut, Tim Hortons, KFC and McDonalds. Next time I do want to try the Tim Hortons.

We basically spent the day at the West End of Glasgow near the University of Glasgow. We ate at this place (where there was a good presence of University students) which had haggis (the national Scottish dish):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/07/ubiquitous-chip/

After we did walk around the area for a bit, and even ended up getting ice cream.

We did go back to the room around 9pm to get ready for a night out of drinks and a club called Sub Club that is a 5 minute walk from our hotel (where Ame played the next day). However, got a bit of food poisoning that made the night a chill night. Next time will definitely try and hit up that club.

New York City (Lower East Side) + Buffalo 2023

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The week before the annual Thanksgiving break that Apple gives us, I decided to work remotely in New York with a friend. I’ve mentioned before that the New York office Penn 11 is pretty sick. It’s located across Penn Station, you basically have a full sized office (first come first serve phone rooms), and there are a lot of eateries around it.

I flew out of SF around 8:25am Monday, and landed at 4:20 in EWR. Since I had meetings, I used my United Club pass to take meetings (stayed there for 2.5 hours). The EWR lounge in terminal C is one of the best United lounges, and it allows people arriving to go in them (you don’t have to book a refundable ticket).

From the airport, Ubered to our AirBnb in Hell’s Kitchen. It only took 35 minutes as there was zero traffic for some reason.

The AirBnb was not what we were expecting though (the heat was not working… so they had to buy us space heaters, and the main area was super small). The next day we ended up switching to a hotel the lower East side (which I’ll get to later).

That same night my friend and I went to a a bar called Valerie (near Rockefeller center). I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it because the food was just ok, and the bartender didn’t know what Asian glow was. We then pivoted to a speakeasy in the flat iron called Patent Pending. Details can be found here (I highly recommend this place):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/patent-pending/

The next day (Tuesday), worked until 10:30am to 6pm. Grabbed lunch at a Mediterranean placed called Naya. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/naya-penn-station/

After work, we met up with Jon’s friend Nick for drinks. We went to one bar near the Apple office called District Tap House. I liked the vibe there (very after work professionals type thing), and they had a full bar (could go from whisky to Aperol Spritz). We then decided to bar hop to the cafeteria area under Penn Station. Grabbed a bunch of whisky drinks there. Will say, that cafeteria in general is great and I highly recommend for just quick eating as well.

Afterwards we ended up checking into our hotel at the Lower East Side called Hotel on Rivington (we were able to get a full refund for our AirBnb, minus one night plus cleaning fees). Hotel itself is very nicely located.

Staying at the lower east side for a week sort of has given me a view of what it’s like to live in New York. Going to and from the Apple office I just need to take the F line (hotel was 5 stops away from Penn Station). Admittedly I did Uber a bunch (as I can work / use my laptop in it… however the estimates to get to work were usually off since closer to Penn station traffic becomes unpredictable). Also lots of eateries and bars close by the hotel.

Should also note that I went to the coffee place, Froth, every morning since it was so close to the hotel:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/froth/

The next day (Wednesday), worked until 6:30pm. Ate at a ramen place in the Penn Station cafe with our friend Yash. After work, we walked over from work to the Nederlander Theater to see a play called Shucked (fyi, we brought our bags, and they let us bring it in. Search was super lite). I will say the play was great. Very funny about all things related to corn. (Drinks were a bit pricey though. $40 for a double whisky on the rocks).

After the play, we ended up going back to the lower east side to a so called “speak easy” (it’s just a late night Chinese restaurant with a full bar). Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/froth/

Next day (Thursday) we started the day by going to Katz’s, where I got a pastrami sandwich and matzaball soup. Soup is fire.

After work, met up with another friend for dinner in the meat packing district called Buddakan. Really like this area and want to explore it more (Tao nightclub is close by). Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/buddakan/

Afterwards, we checked out a really great rooftop near our hotel called Mr. Purple. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/mr-purple/

We ended the night by meeting some people in Williamsburg. Not sure what the name of the bar was, but it was a very whisky type night.

The next day (Friday) was great day, and what we did is kind of why working remote and staying the lower east side made sense. We basically started the day by going to the great bagel places called Russ and Daughters. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/russ-daughters/

Worked only a 4 hour day. At around 1pm, we did a 15 minutes walk to SoHo for some shopping. I specifically was looking for a jacket to keep me warm for the upcoming Bills game and Boston. Visited ArcTeryx and Moncler. Would’ve for a jacket at Moncler, but they didn’t have my size (and at $1700 it should fit perfectly!). So ended up getting one at ArcTeryx.

After shopping, we started the night at 7pm by bar hopping around West Village. The places I remember us hitting up are (in this order): MacDougal Street Ale House, Off the wagon, Down the Hatch (had a sick beer pong set up) No and Duplex. After duplex, things are a bit blurry. We did end off the night at a friends Eric’s place (only for like 10 minutes). Also, most people in the group, uh, became very lit.

Also, I did meet up with two other friends, Sam and Celine. We went to Off the Wagon and grabbed Chinese food around that area with the rest of the group.

The next day (Saturday) we started off by having brunch near our hotel called Sons of Essex. Full review can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/sons-of-essex/

We then had some drinks at our hotel (we had a free bottle of champagne to finish). Then walked around SoHo for some shopping. Bought some gloves at North Face. Also stopped by this Rice Pudding place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/rice-to-riches/

We then went back to Moncler since some people in the group really wanted to check it out.

After shopping, we met up with my friend Vince, and got some Prince St Pizza:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/prince-st-pizza/

After eating, we wanted to go to a speakeasy called Attaboy, but basically had to wait a bit so we went to another place nearby for an hour called Two Doors Down (would recommend Hong back, just the music is slightly louder than expected). For Attaboy, you can read the recipe here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/19/attaboy/

We ended the night at McDonalds, bringing it back to the hotel.

The next day (Sunday) we got up at 5:30am to go to Buffalo for the Bills game. We got a hotel in downtown, the Hyatt Regency (apparently the Jets stay there during their away games). We then chilled a Jon’s friend’s place, Pete for some drinks.

Afterwards headed to the stadium for tailgating. When we got off our Uber, we were greeted to a party bus with some awesome shots. We then spent time at a bar called Prohibition 2020 (it is actually right in the middle of the tailgating action). Drank a bunch of beer, some pizza, and also did a Red Bull vodka. After, we got some beers at a gas station across the street to party at Pete’s friend’s fire truck for like 20 minutes.

Went to the game shortly after. We won! I learned some things about football. (1) there is a 4 in 10 (sometimes could be more if there is a penalty), which mainly describes how many yards (the ten in this case) needed to reset the downs. And (2) there are 5 avenues for points in a game (field goal (3), touch down (6), touch down plus kick off (6 + 1), touch down plus replay (6 + 2), and one other one). For the stadium itself, will say it is almost impossible to find hard liquor. I did end up finding one near section 140 at a very not obvious cart.

We ended the night at a bar to get Buffalo Wings called Bada Bing. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/11/21/bada-bing-sports-bar-and-grill/

And that concluded the New York experience for this trip. Honestly, really had a good time. (next day headed out to Toronto by getting a rental car through Avis).

Europe 2023 Day 6 – Lisbon

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Before talking about what happened during this day, wanted to talk about the various neighborhoods in Lisbon. The one I’m staying at is called Marquess of Pombal Square. It’s a very modern neighborhood that has a lot of 5 star hotels. I like it because it is not crowded, and very clean. Only downside is that it is farther away from Baixa (which is more south and where the nightlife is), but fortunately the 15 minute Uber ride is only 4 euros. More about neighborhoods can be found here:

https://www.lisbon.net/neighborhoods

Started off the day going to Belem. I would say Belem is very beautiful, and clean. First stop was Pasteis de Belem. You can either get seated, or order items to go. I ordered to go. Got the original pastel de nato and a cafe latte. It’s very soft, and flaky, which I liked.

After, stopped by McDonalds to see if they had anything special on the menu. Seems like they did not, so got a cheeseburger.

After, made my way to St Jerome Monastery. I went to the church part (since the museum part had a huge line up). I lit a candle, then went to the sacristy where they had paintings describing the life of St Jerome. One of the ones that was interesting is where the devil gave him “bad” books, but then he was ultimately forgiven.

After, went across the street to and walked through a really beautiful garden called Jardim da Praca do Imperio, or Discovery Garden.

After, went to Torre de Belem. The line to go up the tower was 2 hours long, so ended up only taking pictures of it.

From the tower, went closer to what I call the fake Golden Gate Bridge. It’s actually called Ponte 25 de Abril. Went closer to take some photos of it.

Afterwards, headed out of Belem and went to H&M to get a suite jacket. Got invited last minute to a wedding. The suit jacket was only 60 euros.

From H&M, went to TimeOut Market in Baixa. It’s a place where you can get local Portuguese food, and they have an Aperol spritz stand! More details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/07/29/timeout-market-lisboa/

Then headed over to Alfama to check out Castelo de Sao Jorge. Will say that the view of the city from it was worth the visit (you had a view of Alfama plus the fake Golden Gate Bridge).

After, went and had dinner near the hotel at a restaurant called Selllva. More details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/07/29/selllva/

After dinner, went back to pink street to grab a drink and shot at one of the emptier bars nearby.

Then I headed to a club called Ministerium club (it’s at a part of the city you would have never guessed there to be a nightclub. It’s a restaurant by day, but something completely different at night). It has a very after hours vibe to it. There were two room. It was only 10 euros to get into. I went at 1:30am. It started to get busy at 2:30am. Ended up staying until 4am.

So I think the move for nightlife in Lisbon is to go to be at Pink Street at 11:30 and pregame at Pensoa Amor (being there at 11:30 is key to avoid the line), then head to Ministerium around 1:15am.

On the Uber ride back, the driver gave some of these suggestions for clubs:

-K in beach (more younger crowd)

-Mome nightclub (should have techno)

-Lust in Reuo (forgot the details on this one)

Japan 2022 Day 3 – Kyoto

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We checked out of our hotel in Osaka (Hotel Intergate) around 11am and headed to Osaka station to catch our 12:30pm JR-west train to Kyoto station (picked up an onigiri for the train ride!).

After getting to Kyoto station, we dropped our bags in our hotel, Henn Na Hotel (they were pretty strict with only allowing check in after 3pm).

After dropping our bags, we tried this McDonald’s out at JR Kyoto station:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/25/mcdonalds-jr-kyoto-station/

From there, we took the JR-west train to the Fushimi-Inari-Takisha shrine (which I’ve been to before). On our way back to the hotel, we also stopped by the Tofukoan Temple (I spelt it this way last time I was here, but it’s actually Tofukuji Temple). Although this time around we could find the Zen Garden.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to rest for 2 hours so that we could get ready for a night at the Gion District.

We took the JR-west and subway to Gion (see the end of this post about the train systems here).

We started at the area where you may see Gesiha’s. We went to the following speak easy, and then the following restaurant for dinner (we were trying to find a spot for Kobe beef, but they all basically stop serving at 9pm. Good to know for next time!):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/25/bees-knees/

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/25/abusan/

Afterwards, we tried to clubs, both in the Gion district (they are supposed to be the best ones in Kyoto). One was World Kyoto (would not recommend. They kept playing Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars with bad transitions). The other one was called Kitsune Kyoto. I would go back here since they played 2012 top 40 edm (ie Zedd, Hardwell, etc). One thing to note about the entrance fees of the clubs is that they give you a drink ticket, which is basically the price of what a normal drink would be).

We then taxied back to the hotel.

A couple notes about the transportation system in Kyoto (ie getting around):

Taxis: calling them through Uber is hit or miss (ie wait times are sometimes long, or they cancel). You can usually try and flag one down faster than getting one through Uber.

For Kyoto, there are three types of trains in the station: Shinkansen, JR-west, and subway (aka the local metro). To get around Kyoto (ie to Gion or the Fushimi-Inari-Takisha shrine), you would use a mix of the latter two types of train (Google maps is your friend to find out which ones to use). And for the latter two, Suica is fine for payment (love Apple for iterating it with the iPhone).

For the Shinkansen, that is supposed to be for really long journeys (and it is fast). Typically you need to buy two types of tickets (one is the basic ticket, and the other is the limited stops ticket). When purchasing the ticket, you will have the option to add the limited stops ticket as well (I guess some people may not need it since they have a monthly pass limited stops ticket) You can buy the tickets at either the stations using terminals, or buy online (however if you buy online you still need to pick up the ticket at a terminal using the credit card you purchased it with. Also. each Shinkansen train has a name, ie Nazomi, and a specific number. Use that name and number to find which platform you should go to at the station by looking at the monitors. You can also find the platform via Google Maps by searching for the train routes (and specifying the date/ time your train leaves (although platforms are subject to change).

Europe 2022 – Madrid Day 1

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Arrived in Madrid from JFK at 9am (took 6.5 hours). What’s great at arriving at 9am is that it’s 12am in SF, so could either check into an Airbnb or get a day hotel and sleep for 3 hours to help adjust.

The airport is 20 minutes from Madrid city center (Sol – Gran Via), which most consider the city center).

So checked in around 10:30am. Airbnb was renovated, so seemed pretty modern.

Probably didn’t start making moves until 6pm though. First did a grocery pit stop at a local mart called Dia (seems like a chain). Got some jaman (aka ham), power ade, and most importantly water.

After, we explored the Sol / Gran Via area out. Stopped by a Tim Horton’s (connected to a Popeyes lol) to grab a latte with French vanilla syrup.

After walked into. Huawei store (first one I’ve been to), which is the flagship store in Spain. Gotta way, they’re smart watches look really nice, but the OS on their phone is super under performance (scrolling perf is bad. OS looks a lot like a meld between iOS and Android).

After, we went to a rooftop bar called Gymage. Can find the details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/26/gymage-terrace/

We stayed at the rooftop bar until sunset, after which we were ready to get some food. We still stayed in the Sol area, where there was a bunch of shops like Zara, an Apple Store, and street performers (also, the main access point to the city, Puerto de Sol, which has a horse status and building we walked by).

We ended up going to this really good (and cheap) tapas place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/26/matador/

After, we walked around to see if we could find a club that played house music. We found a lot of clubs, but none that played EDM (there were a lot of Latin type music clubs). There were lots of people of all ages trying to promote various random places. After asking around, finally found one called “Fucking Monday”, which was conveniently 2 blocks from our Airbnb.

Some interesting things about the club is that there were definitely 14 year olds there (now the show Elite from Netflix makes sense). But music was good. The main room was top 40 EDM (which they called commercial music). The smaller “boiler room” was called (EDM, which was mainly big room house (think fisher / Oliver Heldens).

Ended off the night going to McDonalds (we wanted the Taco Bel to be open, but it wasn’t open at 5am unfortunately). One thing this McDonald’s had was wedges with bacon and cheese (first McDonalds to have that.

Alberta – 2nd Day

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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.

First Day in Hong Kong!

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So the first thing I did when I got off the plane was to get an Octopus card (basically the suica equivalent in HK, which proved to be super useful in Japan). Then I took the airport express train to Hong Kong station, which only took 24 minutes!

From Hong Kong Station I made my way to my hotel in LKF. On hind site, I should’ve continued taking the train to Central station, since walking on the street proved to be a challenge. Many of the sidewalks had fences so you couldnt j walk easily. So with my not so light luggage I had to take not so straightforward paths. In some cases, there were overpasses that needed to be taken (didn’t realize that for a bit). And finally, when I got to the street near my hotel (Wellington street), it was on a hill! When I went on the hill, I overshot the turn I was suppose to take! Eventually I got to my hotel.

After getting to the hotel I met up with Jas around 2:00pm. We headed straight to the Intercontinental Hotel for high Tea (along the way we strolled through the avenue of stars). 

  
   
 
While walking, she explained that for construction, the scaffolding they used are built from bamboos:

  
After high tea, we checked out some sites a long the way back to Central (including the Tsui … clock tower). 

   
 
When we went back to central, we ferried over, which gave some nice views of the bay.

  
When we got back to central, we ordered an Uber, which took us up to Victoria Peak. Here are some pics:

  

While we were up at the peak, I got to ty this amazing McDonalds salmon burger:

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When we came back from Victoria Peak, we got dinner at a restaurant called Tsui Wah restaurant. Apparently it’s a place people go when they are super drunk and ending the night.

   
 
After dinner, we joined a pub crawl that went to 4 bars in LKF, and one nightclub. Two of the bars were called boomshack and the other one was called Geronimo. On the pub crawl I met one guy from Boston that was telling me that when he was in Macau, he hung around some prostitues that told him how the trade was like. They said there is one guy that coorindates where each of them go, and they have connections with various clubs in Asia (and they fly the prostitues around Asia). Also, apparently they need to make a minimum of $3000 USD a month.

Another guy I met at the pub crawl was named Alexander (Mason). He worked as a manager at Nobu, and helped open up the Nobu in Miami. He said he was a “host” originally at a nightclub, which is one level up from a promoter. I added him in FB and he said to contact him if I wanted to try and get into a club in Vegas (Encore Beach, Wet Republic).

I also met a person who works for Muni.

We ended the night at a club called Magnum. I thought the drinks were over priced. It was like $10 us for a bottle of water! I was definitely like WTF. 

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