Spendthrift Shoestring

Toronto: Queen Street West and East

Behold, some photos snapped today in Toronto.

Queen Street West convenience store flower selection.

Queen Street West atmospherics.

Queen Street East signage.

Possibly the best neon signage anywhere, Queen Street East.

Dumplings in Toronto

But not just any old bowl of dumplings, no: Mother's Dumplings. The restaurant describes itself as "North-East China cuisine from Shenyang to Toronto." Check out the menu. File this one under Reasons Why I Can't Wait to Visit Toronto.

The 2008 Media Graveyard, Plus One (Alive & Healthy) Discovery

This has been a year of spectacular financial collapses, and the world of magazine and newspaper publishing has not been spared any pain. The New York Sun, with its very good arts coverage, fell at the end of September. I especially miss the contributions of the Sun's London correspondent Zoe Strimpel, which made London feel immediate and nearby.

Then there's Organize Magazine, which closed up shop over the summer. Until recently, I knew nothing about the "organizing" craze, which turns on the mass desire to reduce clutter. I found a copy of the May/June issue of Organize just a few weeks ago on a Target store magazine rack and, needing something to distract me, snapped it up. It quickly became clear how much I needed it. The article on refrigerator reorganization in particular was pretty irresistible. Articles on storage, home and office electronics recycling, and a family reunion planning primer may all, granted, send the obsessive-compulsive-leaning into rages of perfectionism, yet they simultaneously provide much-needed encouragement for the organization-challenged. Oh how I wish Organize were still around. I'd love to pen a list of trip organizing tips for them.

Through a mess of links I came across while researching Organize, I discovered Re-Nest, a great blog within the Apartment Therapy family focused on green living. Its object refurbishment and reuse suggestions are particularly strong.

Madrid: Kari Hoerchler's Photo Essay for EuroCheapo

My friend Kari Hoerchler is in Madrid this week, snapping photos for EuroCheapo. Check her pics out and return to EC later the week to see other images she turns up.

My unsolicited advice to Kari was to visit Extremadura Restaurant at Calle Libertad 13 in Chueca for a long, leisurely, orujo-capped lunch. This unsolicited advice applies to any and all. 

Spendthrift Shoestring's One-Year Anniversary

Today marks a year since I've been tapping the keyboard for Spendthrift Shoestring.

Above all else, this blog has been a place for me to expound on the destinations, media, industry developments, and cultural quirks that interest me. Spendthrift Shoestring has also served as a sounding board for my generalized frustrations with the aspirational model of travel—itself well beyond the budgets of most actual or prospective travelers—that predominates across much of the American travel media. I know that I'm on to something with the posts tackling this theme. They get, by far, the most reader responses. 

Best of all, of course, Spendthrift Shoestring has brought some extremely cool and well-traveled people into my world.

Thanks for reading.

US Airways Buzz: Routes to Berlin & Nice

My source at US Airways tells me that Philadelphia-Nice and Philadelphia-Berlin nonstop routes are being developed, and that a Phoenix-Frankfurt nonstop is also under discussion.

All the standard reservations concerning idle chatter apply.

New York: Autumn in Sakura Park

I've lived nearby for five years, but it's only recently that I've come to appreciate Sakura Park, a small park that appears to float above Claremont Avenue and 122nd Street and sits across the street from Grant's Tomb in Morningside Heights. The fall foliage has been particularly splendid in Sakura Park this week.

Sakura Park, yesterday.

Budget Hotels: Ever More Popular

The age of the budget hotel is upon us. Today's Global Traveller special report in the FT includes a column by Alan Parker, chief executive of the Whitbread Group. Premier Inn, the UK's largest hotel chain, is owned by Whitbread.

Parker observes general growth in "budget" brands and services, which includes:

...the phenomenal growth seen by the budget hotel sector in recent years. The number of rooms has more than doubled, from 40,000 to 90,000, in the UK since 2000 alone. Indeed, the sector now accounts for two-thirds of the annual growth within the UK hospitality industry. What's more, occupancy and revenues are growing fastest at the budget end of the market.

Yet there remains huge potential for additional growth.

The branded budget market is still relatively under-represented in the UK, with a 13 per cent share compared to 23 per cent in France and 25 per cent in the US, both more established markets. There is clearly room for more.

And this room for growth has many components. Tough economic times are driving business travelers to stay at budget-friendly hotels. The mass cultural turn toward travel bargains—which continues to fuel the market for low-cost air travel—remains strong. The future is rosy for budget hotels.

Weekend: Iceland, More Cartagena, Cheap Caribbean, London Embassies, Alesha Dixon

Sarah Lyall's piece on Iceland in the New York Times yesterday documents the fall-out from Iceland's spectacular financial crash. It quotes an Icelandic woman named Hronn Helgadottir who points out that she can no longer afford to travel. She describes a recent trip to Amsterdam, purchased before the krona's collapse, during which she and her husband kept a very tight budget. From the article:

They ate as cheaply as they could and bought nothing. “It was strange to stand in a store and look at a bag or a pair of shoes and see that they cost 100,000 kronur, when last year they cost only 40,000,” she said.

What's remarkable about this description is how it matches my own experience as a visitor to Ms. Helgadottir's Iceland. On both of my visits (in 2001 and again in 2004) the general cost index was terrifying. I ate enormous hotel breakfasts in order to stave off hunger until the afternoon and kept to an extremely parsimonious budget. Hot dogs and supermarket items saved me. I harbor no Schadenfreude in sharing this—it's ironic, in other words, but not funny.

Elsewhere in the Times: a feature on dining in Cartagena by Danielle Pergament—there's that increased attention to Colombia again!—and a round-up of Caribbean hotels and venues by Austin Considine. The latter is weak on affordable hotels, though two shine through: Sea Cliff Cottages in Dominica (from $90 in high season) and Virgin Islands Campground on Water Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands (from $75 in high season).

The FT online carried an interesting piece by Rob Blackburn on Friday on the ambassadors at small embassies in London. It profiles the missions of Andorra, Eritrea, Fiji, Malawi, and Montenegro. The most surprising revelation within is that Andorrans apparently need visas to study and work in the UK.

Lastly, I'm happy to see that a song by Alesha Dixon, one of my favorite gossip column fixtures from this past summer in London, has entered the UK top ten. "The Boy Does Nothing" is at Number Eight this week. Bubblegum fun.

Weekend over and out.

New York: Kasadela's Sublime Sashimi

Last night Matt and I went out with Amy and Jinsu for a fantastic meal at Kasadela, a Lower East Side Japanese sake restaurant with a menu of tapas-like small dishes.

Everything was very good, though the highlight of the meal was the extraordinary mackerel sashimi daily special ($14). It was easily the freshest sashimi I've had in recent memory.

My New York readers might want to stop by tonight to see if it's still on the menu.

Yes, it was that good.