Spendthrift Shoestring

Flash: Ryanair's Continental Moves

On Tuesday, Ryanair announced that they'll be flying between Stansted and Zweibrücken as of October; yesterday they announced four new routes out of Bremen and five out of Marseille, including two domestic routes (Marseille-Brest and Marseille-Lille). The further development of domestic routes within France parallels the announcement in mid-March of the airline's first domestic routes in Germany and France.

These routes seem to be opening up a new strategy for the airline. It will be interesting to see if they'll be followed up by more domestic routes in France, Germany, and elsewhere.

London: Falkland House, V&A, De Hems

Yesterday it rained, though lightly. I walked huge distances, first from Clerkenwell to Soho. I bought coffee at Monmouth Coffee Company and returned to Nordic Bakery for some open-faced sandwiches and a cinnamon bun. Then I made my way over to Falkland House, the islands' government and information center in London. Such a friendly place! I left with a few kilos of materials and a newly enthusiastic desire to find a way to visit.

Then I took the Tube to the V&A and wandered around before meeting Ann. We walked through the rain all the way to the Dutch pub De Hems, which is on the edge of Chinatown. There we drank beer and nibbled on a kaasplank and caught up.

It feels as though I should have started this post with a "Dear Diary."

In any case, I'm off to Bethnal Green now, and will shoot up to Hampstead Heath afterwards. Updates to follow.

One Night in Sarajevo

At the moment, I'm waiting in the Zagreb airport for my delayed WizzAir flight back to London. I should be tired. Marisa and I took the overnight train from Sarajevo to Zagreb last night. But I'm not tired, not at all; this wakefulness may have something to do with my newly acquired kava sa slagom habit. Sarajevo was absolutely amazing. The last time I visited I was 12 and it was wintertime. I visited with my mom and it was incredibly cold. The entire city was so dramatically different from anything I'd ever experienced that it fully took me aback. This time, with a bit more cultural and historical perspective, I found myself again amazed by Sarajevo's layeredness.

We arrived on Monday by bus from Belgrade. (To see what I was up to in Belgrade, check out my New York Post posts. Scroll down a bit.) The bus whizzed through the old city, with its amazing range of buildings, its minarets, and its church towers, leaving the city behind entirely. Surprised, we were reassured by a fellow passenger that the bus station was in the new part of town. It suddenly became clear to both of us that our bus, a Serbian line, was headed to a Serbian part of Sarajevo, something confirmed for us later. We grabbed a taxi into the old city and found a room at Hotel Gaj, a very welcoming hotel across the Miljacka river from most of the city's sights.

The city is just so magnificent, varied, and gorgeous, and locals are strikingly friendly. Trying to find a particular restaurant, we asked a woman in her sixties how to find it. She promptly bundled us into a taxi and took us to an excellent hillside restaurant, where she sat and drank wine with us and then left us to our dinner, returning as we were tucking into dessert. She's lived in Trier for 40 years and is about to return to her second Heimat after a vacation in Bosnia. We shared a fun and relaxed Ausländer-to-Ausländer palaver.

Anyway, more later after I return to London. In the meantime, here are some images from Sarajevo.

Paint-lashed wall.

Remnants of a caffeine break at the fruit and vegetable market.

Bottle of local sparkling water.

Beautiful stone wall.

Belgrade for Eurovision!

I'm taking a break from London posts—a tough decision, especially after my amazing discoveries on Tuesday afternoon—because I'm in Belgrade, writing about Eurovision for the New York Post. Check it out.

I'll return to observations on London and escapades there and elsewhere next week.

London: Cafes and Bakeries

Monday wasn't an incredibly ambitious day. After taking care of some work-related things at home I met Gwyn and we took the bus to Soho. We had lunch and coffee at Milk Bar (3 Bateman Street; no site yet), the newish off-shoot of Flat White (see yesterday's post). He treated me, which was completely unnecessary but nice, and he provided something of a Soho primer. Later we walked to Monmouth Coffee Company on Monmouth Street. It was far too crowded, though, so we went elsewhere for our afternoon coffee.

After saying goodbye to Gwyn, I ventured over to Nordic Bakery, where I bought steaming hot Finnish cinnamon buns (at £2 apiece) and took them to go. They were still hot when I arrived back at our apartment in Clerkenwell a good 45 minutes later. Had I been hungrier, I would have gone for some of the beautiful open-faced sandwiches on offer. Obviously, the space is starkly gorgeous. I'm happy to have found my first Nordic outpost in London.

Dinner was at St. John Restaurant, which was thrilling. I won't write about it now, as it's just down the road and I know I'll return for some deeper impressions.

London: First Weekend

After all sorts of delays, we touched down at Heathrow Saturday midday. "Two months is a long time," said the unsmiling immigration agent in a monotone. "Could I see your return ticket please?"

Two months!

Saturday was spent napping and then walking to Borough Market, where we had a surprisingly mediocre meal. Yesterday was altogether more exciting. We walked first down to the Barbican and wandered through its Brutalist plazas. Not for everyone, clearly, but I find the entire complex very compelling. From there we made our way to Spitalfields Market, where we had brunch at Giraffe. (I recognized Canteen next door from its copious media coverage but its turnover seemed much slower and we were very hungry. Next time, though.) Giraffe's full brunch plate hit the spot remarkably well. After eating we strolled over to Brick Lane, which was absolutely packed and buzzing. I'll need to return on a weekday.

Then we took the Tube to Tottenham Court Road, where we bought mobile phones from cheerful Orange staff enthusing over Jay-Z ("Is that my track? It is! Now that is a choooon!")  From there, it was on to Flat White, an Aussie/Kiwi hang-out, for top-notch flat whites. The total came to £5.40 and I handed the woman working the register a £20 bill. She asked me if had 40 cents to make the transaction easier. Not pence. Cents. Ahh, those irresistible Antipodeans.

From Soho we then walked a ridiculous distance, down to Green Park, through the Wellington Arch, alongside Hyde Park, and then through Kensington Gardens to Bayswater. At the end of our hike was Hereford Road, a sleek newish restaurant I recently read about in Condé Nast Traveler. Apparently, lots of of other Americans read the same listing; of the six tables in the downstairs area, four were occupied completely or partially by Americans. My meal was very good: smoked sprats and pickled cucumbers, pork belly with lentils and spring greens, and an unreasonably tasty apple and raspberry crumble for dessert. Matt's meal was also good, though not quite as fantastic as mine. At £27 per person after tip, the meal was by no means a shoestring event, though it also wasn't outrageously expensive.

A little warning is in order. I fear that London will be exploiting my spendthrift side over my shoestring core. I hope my low-budget warrior readers will keep reading over the next many weeks.

Some Good Signage

We take off tomorrow. Lots to do. No words. Instead, pictures.

Vienna. July 2007.

Thessaloniki. July 2007.

Singapore. June 2007.

Ljubljana. July 2007.

London, Soon

Preparing for a longish period away from home, as I pointed out on Monday, really does take an enormous amount of time and energy. I've been truly walloped by everything that's had to get done.

A few days after I arrive in London I'll depart for Belgrade, where I'll be attending this year's Eurovision Song Festival. Starting Wednesday, May 21, I'll be blogging about Eurovision for the New York Post's travel blog. Be sure to click over to read my reports.

More soon, I swear.

Treats from Argentina, Mostly

Preparing to be away from home for 15 weeks, it turns out, requires the completion of many tasks. Thus, the reduced posting pace of late.

Over the past week I've had the happy fortune to snack on an entire box of Havanna alfajores, brought back from Buenos Aires by my sister. I've had alfajores in the past, but honestly they just didn't thrill me. These Havanna confections, however, are a different story altogether. They were exquisitely delicious, and I loved their presentation, in a bright beautiful yellow box of individually-wrapped alfajores. I'll leave it to others to parse the magic of the alfajor. I'll just say that the approximations found in Manhattan pastry cases aren't even in the same ballpark as these babies.

Also from Argentina via Marisa: current issues of Pronto and Paparazzi. I admire the full narratives on the cover of Pronto, a magazine that does not believe in the gentle tease. Paparazzi trumpets "¡El Embarazo Del Año!" on their cover, claiming that the pregnancy of the year belongs to Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi, the girlfriend of Gael Garcia Bernal. In actuality, it appears that the two haven't even acknowledged being in a relationship. Also, her pregnancy doesn't officially exist. Great cover, though. 

What else? I'm glad that I bought my June London-Isle of Man air ticket from Flybe rather than Euromanx, as the latter has gone belly-up.

April 2008 LCC Performance Digest

With the continuing stream of bad aviation industry news, you could be forgiven for imagining that Europe's low-cost carriers are all in crisis. In fact, this is not quite the case. To wit: April's performance stats for Ryanair, Air Berlin, and SkyEurope.

Ryanair's load factor fell 4 percent in April against last April 2007's numbers, from 83 percent to 79 percent, while their passenger numbers rose 15 percent, up to 4.72 million passengers. In offering an explanation for the former stat, Ryanair's press release notes that Easter occurred in March this year, thereby explaining last April's high load factor and, by extension, this April's 4 percent load factor decline. One understands why the airline failed to mention the positive effects of an Easter bump in their March 2008 statistical round-up.

Air Berlin had universally sunny numbers in April, with a 4.5 percent load factor increase (from 74.3 to 78.8 percent) and a 6.5 percent jump in passengers, to 2.24 million. Air Berlin's stats include passengers served on some other airlines, all part of the Air Berlin Group: Belair, LTU, and Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter.

On its surface, SkyEurope's April performance appears to be the worst of the three. The airline's load factor fell from 82.1 percent to 70.7 percent, while the the number of passengers flown declined 4.7 percent, to 280,000. Note that SkyEurope's press release title erroneously trumpets last April's passenger numbers. Odd. These numbers don't look good. I'm hoping that the changes made by the airline over the last many months will improve their future stats.