Hora, in blog format

Horatiu Halmaghi's delicious slice of the web pie
 

Camping!

This past weekend a few friends of mine and I packed Travis' large Suburban and Jay's Dodge and drove up to Blue Lake, high above the Fraser Canyon. Just a couple hours away from Vancouver, the private campsite has all the amenities you'd expect - running water, toilets, showers and firewood (for a price) - as well as clean air, a nice lake and a few great hikes. We had a good time sitting around the fire, discussing hockey and making hockey pool trades, hiking, swimming, eating, drinking beer and playing drinking games. Can't wait for next year!

The photos are: Jay, Travis, Brandon and Hora and Andy, Hiss, Brandon, View toward the mountains on the other side of the Fraser River, Travis and Will playing football, Hiss and Andy.

                 
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Camping.zip (1545 KB)


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Toronto

Last week we travelled to Toronto, just shortly after returning from NYC. We had thought Toronto would be much closer than NY, but we were wrong - the bus getting there was still eight long hours. Since we were only there for a weekend, we didn't get to see too much; we rode the elevator to the top of the CN tower, checked out the waterfront and Yonge St., wandered through the Hockey Hall of Fame and explored different parts of the city.

The city was a bit disappointing for me. I was expecting it to be a bit like New York City, but it wasn't. It was much more like Vancouver, except I felt that its downtown area was smaller and less impressive (minus the CN tower). Still a cool city, but not a place I would consider living. After having seen Montreal, NYC and Toronto it's pretty safe to say that Vancouver is the most beautiful and has the best geographical location.

The pictures are: Yonge Street, Yonge Street detail, view from the CN, Toronto skyline, Shawn, Toronto trams.

           
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Toronto.zip (1162 KB)


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New York City

It's hard to grow up in today's world without glorifying this great city in your mind even before your first sight of it; over the last century, New York City has been depicted in countless movies, has provided us with movie stars, musicians, artists and has been the heart of North America's corporate world. I've dreamed of getting a chance to walk under Manhattan's seemingly-infinite skyscrapers, and you'd think that all the hype would damper my experience.

That was not the case - the city lived up to every bit of the hype, and more. It is a metropolis like no other that I have ever seen, and words can barely begin to describe it. Which is why I won't - instead I'll just mention a few things we did in the city and show you some pictures, then encourage you to visit the city for yourself.

We stayed at the Gershwin Hotel in Midtown, just a handful of city blocks from the Empire State Building. Will and I walked around almost constantly for four days while Shawn worked and joined us in the evenings. We saw Central Park, the Met, the Statue of Liberty, the UN, Ground Zero. We had drinks on rooftop lounges and inside dingy dive-bars, ate delicious food on the street and in hip cafes, made some new friends and met with some old ones. We had a great time, and we all look forward to the next time we can afford a trip to NYC.

The pictures are: The UN, the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, Shawn and Will, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park with Skyline, view of the Empire State Building, SimCity from atop the ESB.

             
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New_York_City.zip (1443 KB)


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Long Island

The Yankee game we attended stretched late into the evening, forcing us to enjoy a delicious (read: expensive) meal in Manhattan after which we had some time to hang out with Tighe's family in Babylon, Long Island. They all adamantly suggested we postpone the City for at least one more day and check out Fire Island since we were so close. We were hesitant about the beach idea since neither Will nor I are beach bums, but we decided we might as well.

We didn't regret it - spending the day there was fun. The beaches were unlike any I've ever seen before, their white sands encircling the rest of the grassy island. The island also boasts a great deal of deer (we did see one) and a 152-year-old lighthouse smack in the middle of it. The view from the top of the lighthouse is great - you can see the entire island, the Atlantic, the Great South Bay and, of course, a small portion of Long Island too. We also checked out one of the island's small towns, Kismet, and while we didn't spend that much time there we did agree that it would make a nice vacation spot.

In the evening we bussed back to Babylon, had dinner, and tried out some 'Italian Ices'. Think ice cream without the cream... You have to try it for yourself.

The pictures are: Will in front of the lighthouse, the Atlantic, Fire Island from above, beach, beach path, Will and the lighthouse.

Stay tuned - next post, New York City!

           
Click here to download:
Long_Island.zip (1142 KB)


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Yankee Stadium

After G-burgh’s party, Shawn, Will and I rode in Tighe’s car down to his hometown of Babylon, on Long Island. We got in late, but woke up bright and early to catch the 11 train to Penn Station, from where we took another long subway ride to the South Bronx. Yep, that’s where the Bronx Bombers play. The new Yankee Stadium is amazing; it’s huge, packed to the top with people, and they sell all kinds of delicious goods. Not to mention you get to watch the NY Yankees play, one of the most storied franchises in all of sports.

The game we attended was against the Kansas City Royals, a game the Yankees dominated for most of the time. However, the lasting memory of the game is the two-and-a-half hour rain delay we had to sit through, as a storm rolled over the City. We had the best seats possible though: before the rain, while the sun was still out, we were so high up that we were covered in the shade by the small roof. After the clouds started spewing some intense rain, we were, again, covered by the small roof and didn’t have to get up and hide from the downpour.

I also want to mention that A-Rod was sitting at 599 career home runs that game, but unfortunately the most action A-Rod got was a baseball to the face...

The pictures are: Yankee Stadium, Yankee Stadium jumbotron, Yankees warming up, Yankees dugout, Will and Tighe, South Bronx apartments behind the stadium, rain clouds rolling in, rain delay, and the tarp laid out after the rain delay.

                 
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Yankee_Stadium.zip (1854 KB)


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View from the Empire State Building

Snapped these this morning, now I'm on the bus heading back to Montreal. Montreal is great, but I'm really going to miss the Big Apple.

   
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view-from-the-empire-state-building-mFoJozlWQEsXTqrQZFaX.zip (1294 KB)


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Snapshots from NYC

Giant hot dog at Yankee Stadium, NHL logo at the NHL store, Times Square, WTC ground zero, Chinatown street, Will with an Assyrian statue at the Met, bins at the Lego store, pianist playing rag-time music in a food court.

               
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snapshots-from-nyc-dcInazy5Fi4t2lMMo4lp.zip (3317 KB)


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Gregburgh's Grad Party

Friday Will and I trained down from Montreal to meet up with a Prague roommate and friend of mine, Greg. He recently just graduated, and the timing worked perfectly that we could make it to his grad party in Newburgh while we visited NY state. The party was great! The afternoon was full of delicious BBQed meat, meeting new people and catching up with old friends (Tighe, another Prague friend came up from Long Island with Shawn), under a ridiculously hot sun. The evening got a bit cooler and was marked by numerous Beer Pong games, which seemed to be dominated by Tighe and anyone else he partnered up with. Later on we got some thunderstorms, and as the floorspace in Greg's house got filled up we decided to drive over to Babylon and stay with Tighe for a couple days. More on that later!

               
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Gregburghs_Grad_Party.zip (1125 KB)


Filed under  //   beer   new york  
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Beer!

Last week I blogged about signing up for Montreal's public bike service, and my very first trip was to a store specializing in Quebec's microbreweries. I bought six beers then, seen in the first two pictures. They are:

  • Éphémère Apple (Unibroue) - Beer on lees with an apple aroma - 5.5%
  • Blanche (Les Trois Mousquetaires) - Unfiltered wheat beer - 5%
  • Trois Pistoles (Unibroue) - Ale on lees, extra strong - 9%
  • Aphrodisiaque (Dieu du Ciel!) - Cocoa and vanilla stout, strong - 6.5%
  • Équinoxe du Printemps (Dieu du Ciel!) - Maple scotch ale, extra strong beer brewed with maple syrup - 9.1%
  • Péché Mortel (Dieu du Ciel!) - Coffee imperial stout, extra strong - 9.5%
Now before you ask, no, I haven't tried any of them yet. Blasphemy, I know, but I have a (pretty) good reason: I didn't want to start drinking them until I built a lightbox so I can take sick pictures of the bottles, to make it more of an experience when I drink them and blog about them. But, I have tried other delicious beers while I've been here. My favourite is La Fin du Monde, a Belgian style Tripel (shown in the third picture), and another great one is Blanche de Chambly, a wheat beer. I'll dedicate a separate post to those two as well, they're worth it!

     
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Beer.zip (321 KB)


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Inception

via vimeo.com

I saw this movie last night and it absolutely blew my mind. The story is so unbelievably awesome, that only Christopher Nolan could come up with something like that. I'm not sure if I like it more than Memento since it's not overly difficult to figure out what's going on, but it's definitely much more spectacular and it keeps you captivated the entire time. If you have nothing planned for tonight, call your friends and go see this movie!


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