Scotland 2024 – Day 4

Posted on July 8, 2024 by jmatie22

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).

Croatia – Dubrovnik Day 14

Posted on August 16, 2021 by jmatie22

This was a pretty action packed day.

First started by going to the Dubrovnik Shopping Minceta (mall). Rob needed to grab a Fanny pack for Italy. The mall reminded me of Dragon Centre in China Town Toronto. We then went to the restaurant in the mall called Minceta (haha, go figure). Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/15/minceta/

After, we headed to Old Town, and did the most popular tourist attraction, which is walking the walls of Old Town (I did it through the Dubrovnik card). It took about an hour (with taking some pics). We might’ve lent abut more time taking pics if it wasn’t so hot!

After, I did a Game of Thrones walking tour. Some notes from the tour:

-Kings Landing was in Malta for the first season, until some issues arose with some heritage thing being broken from the set

-Disney will be filing a scene in the upcoming Star Wars movie at Dubrovnik (likely only a 3 minute scene).

-When using Old Town, AirBnb and shops get compensated for any business they lose by the film company

-Lots of “teleporting” of scenes

-The red keep gets “placed” in many scenes

-The shame walk is comprised of several parts of the old town

-Lots of scenes shot at Lovrjenac (castle building slightly outside Old Town)

END OF THE POST HAS MORE PICTURE DETAILS

After the tour, visited St Blaise’s church and one other church (did not catch the name).

Then rode a cable car to the top of the mountain for sunset. Thought the sunset and view was worth it.

Then went back to the hotel to get ready for some clubbing.

Went to Club Lazareti, which played pretty good techno music. Wish I stayed the whole night (but went back to Revelin since the night before was great… but unfortunately not true for this night). Still, met some Germans at Revelin, where we tried to check out the beach for any after party. Unfortunately there was none. Still a fun night overall. (Note, there was an after party at Club Lazareti, but they added the Euro COVID certificate requirement for after 12am. Sigh).

———

Black water bay: some episode in the early season (it’s summer time because of the red lights)

Black water bay: (not sure when but a boy gets thrown into the sea):

Black water bay: (some episode in the beginning seasons)

Black water bay (at some point)

Black water bay (from the last episode, and also sometime from the beginning seasons)

Tower scene from the last episode

Lovrjenac: scene from King Joeffrey’s wedding

Old Town Dubrovnik as King’s Landing

Lovrjenac: (not in the show, just him resting)

Lovrjenac: this scene was part of the hall way that Sansa used to escape King’s Landing

Lovrjenac: used as the red keep several times (this scene is when little finger threatens Cersei with knowledge, but she says power is power and threatens his head).

Lovrjenac: some scene

Lovrjenac: used when Sansa was hiding??? And the red keep (see above about little finger saying knowledge is power)

Pile Gate: this is where the famous riot scene is (where people are hungry and someone throws something at Joeffrey)

Shame scene 1:

Shame scene 2:

Croatia / Bosnia – Vodice / Dubrovnik Day 13

Posted on August 15, 2021 by jmatie22

We left our hotel in Vodice around 10:30am and headed to Dubrovnik Airport (to drop off our rental car)

Really the only areas of interest along the way during the drive was the gas station stopped (to get some supplies, refuel, and throw things away), and crossing Bosnia. (Also the trip did affirm that Croatia’s highway system is pretty modern, but with a lot of tolls (the inner city roads however are a different story, since they are all small and tight).

Crossing Bosnia was really easy (we gave them our passport, and they didn’t even look at all 3 or scan them). It was a 9 minute drive to Bosnia, so super short. Going back to Croatia, they did check and scan all our passports.

After the border, it was about an hour till the airport. At the airport, when returning of our rental car to XL rental cars, we did have a bit of bad luck (guess because was Friday the 13th). There was two slight scratches on the hood of the car, which cost $400 USD (we really don’t know how they got there). Hopefully Chase Sapphire reserve will be able to cover it.

We then took an Uber to our AirBnb (what had crossed our minds is to take a ferry from a close city called Cavtat to Dubvrovnik, but decided against it since the port is far from the AirBnb).

We got to our Airbnb in 20 minutes, and then got some food at a place our host recommended called Belvedere. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/15/belvedere/

After dinner, got to the AirBnb, and I actually booked a separate hotel (for logistical reasons). Booked Arch B&B (super close to the AirBnb), but they then moved my reservation to Studenski Dom (a really awesome new dorm). It was great, from the newness, to no mosquitos, to the free breakfast. The only thing I did have to do is ask them to allow me to have the AC be able to set at a lower temperature (lowest was initially locked to 28 degrees Celsius!).

I did ask the receptionist at the AirBnb what club he recommends to go to. He said Revelin. I looked it up, and I was convinced (they do bring in famous DJs like Tiesto, and the website said it was in a castle).

Revelin is in the old town (which makes sense since it’s on/in a castle). The Uber ride was 12 minutes. The DJ did not disappoint (some refreshing progressive house and deep house). Great way to end the night.

San Diego, Day 3

Posted on July 7, 2019 by jmatie22

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.

placeholder://placeholder://