In the ±2 years since I was last here, BC law changed in favor of beer. A score of new micro, nano, and pico breweries have opened in Vancouver unleashing a wave of creativity in the market. Brassneck is one of the best.It’s on 5th and Main, and the staff is surprisingly warm and friendly,…
What the Hell Are We Doing Here?
“There came a time, he realized, when the strangeness of everything made it increasingly difficult to realize the strangeness of anything,”–James Hilton, Lost Horizon We are in Vancouver. Why? We are experimenting with what it’s like to have a home base. We are taking a reverse vacation. Five years of living out of suitcases, with…
Geoguess This
Inspired by Geoguessr, the Drink Vicariously team thought it would be fun to start our own game. It’s harder than Geoguessr, because you can’t move around the Google Earth image for clues. You are relying on whatever you can see in our photos.We’ll start with an easy one. Can you guess which country this is?…
Best in the Business
Would you believe I’ve never once flown in anything but coach in hundreds of flights?CNN put together a great list of tantalizing ways to make flying less painful. I might have to do this one day. There are lots of different names for the front of the plane; my favorite is Virgin’s “Upper Class.”
Could I do it on a couch?
Some people’s eyes light up when they talk about couch surfing. It’s easy to see why. The idea of meeting new people and having a readymade host is great in theory, and it helps cut costs on accommodations. This woman’s book makes it look fascinating. I wish we were the type of people who were into a more intensely social…
Crimea River: Caring About Ukraine
When I found out my ancestors were from Ukraine, I was shocked. Maybe a little embarrassed. We had always been told we were Polish. That was bad enough!Remember Dumb Polack jokes? It took like 100 Poles to change a lightbulb. How many Ukrainians did it take? Sebastopol Later I learned the truth was even more…
On Travel Writing
“We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot When I travel, I want as few prejudices as possible. And by prejudices I mean, “The people are friendly.” A kitten dies every time a…
Wanted: More Bad Experiences
This week, I submitted a 1200-word article to the CBC/Canadian Council for the Arts Creative Nonfiction Prize. In other words, “Stuff Based on a True Story.” Writing “Shoulder Chicken” inspired me and I got ready to write more travel narratives. I didn’t get as far as I thought. I thought of the taxi driver in Wuhan who refused…
The Dan Dan Project
This month, we are house sitting in Gibsons, BC, Canada, on what is known as the Sunshine Coast. Because it’s January, the sun is not shining much on the Sunshine Coast and we are staying indoors enough to induce Cabin Fever. One good thing about Cabin Fever: it forces you to undertake projects that have been…
Memorable Foods, Memorable Meals: 2013
We spent about half of 2013 in the South Pacific, a good deal of the rest of it in the North Atlantic, and then a few months of autumn in coastal Italy. Such an itinerary bodes well for the seafood lover. 2013 was characterized by non-stop access to freshly plucked fruits de mer and still-twitching…
They Live Deeply, These Vagabonds: 2013 in Review
2013 was an epic year of traveling that kicked off in Antarctica, and included five different continents. Technically speaking with stopovers and all, we visited all 7 continents in the span of one year.I took about 17,000 photos in 2013. This is our first sunrise of the year in Antarctica, at 2AM on Jan 1….
Why Venice is Like Beer
Murano’s artisan glass has become cheapened by the scourge of tatty tourism, but like Venice itself, Murano glass is a gem worth exploring in greater depth by the diligent courtesan. All visitors admire at least some Murano glass, in some of its forms. So too does the beer lover swoon over proper glassware. Glass is beer’s favorite…
Love and Barley 