Stéphane Lee » Travel

PXE Fail at London Heathrow

Stéphane Lee — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:44:09 +0000

PXE Fail at London Heathrow.

Cabot Trail

Stéphane Lee — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:35:30 +0000

The Cabot Trail on the Cape Breton Island is probably one of the Seven Wonders of Canada. Great time spent there!

Places to go in 2008

Stéphane Lee — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:08:57 +0000

Back in January 2007, I listed some places I’d like to visit but I did not visit any in 2007. Instead, I went to San Francisco and the Silicon Valley and my second trip was to the United Kingdom and Hungary. This year, my objective is to fly in a small airplane to some places in North America. If I have a more experienced partner-pilot with me, we could fly to California, Florida or even Alaska. I think I can scrape two weeks of vacations to take by end April from work and will probably use my air miles if I fly commercial. After that, it will be 2008 vacation days. Next summer, I’ll see if a semi-planned road trip through Western Europe still holds. I’ll evaluate the option when time comes.

Battle of Plattsburgh

Stéphane Lee — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:58:29 +0000

Two weeks ago, we crossed the border by car and went to Plattsburgh, NY. During that week-end, they were commemorating and re-enacting the Battle of Plattsburgh in which the US held off Britain’s attack from Canada in 1814. Plattsburgh was OK and has only 20k people. Quite a small town but very typical like elsewhere. You have the usual Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and other retail chains. The border crossing is not something you want to do every day. The border agent asking you what is your nationality while he’s holding your passport in his hands. On the return, they focus more on charging the tax on the products you’re bringing back. Anyway, it was nice going there but I’ll not be returning so soon. With the Cdn dollar reaching parity with US$, it is tempting to cross the border for your shopping. But the border crossing hassle does not make it worth.

Frankfurt Airport, the worst

Stéphane Lee — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:15:28 +0000

So far, I think that Frankfurt Airport is the worst that I’ve ever been. The ventilation pipes are visible. The smoking area is only a kiosk with ash trays. The smoke is not extracted properly and you can smell it all around. The security is a bit too physical for my taste. They do not have the walk through (door-frame) metal detector. They use a portable metal detector and palpate you a bit too much. They could have put more walk-through metal detectors. Some signs do not work. It seems to be undergoing some renovations.

Paille-en-queue in Frankfurt Airport

Munich airport is much better (no palpation, no smoking areas) and has even a sex shop in the terminal. No kidding!.

Manchester

Stéphane Lee — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:12:42 +0000

I got a chance to go to Manchester for a few days. I’m not a big fan of Premiership football. It is quite a big city. The amount of police car patrols are above average in the Curry Mile. The Old Trafford stadium seems to be falsely small when entering it. It can hold 80,000 spectators in fact.

Typical Shopping Moment

Stéphane Lee — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:50:29 +0000

Do you see the subtlety of this?

Leaving Budapest

Stéphane Lee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:17:17 +0000

I went to Budapest without any preconceived ideas and with an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised. I did not expect such a relatively high standard of living. The cost of living is on par with European averages. It is not dirt cheap but it is not London or Paris either. This is Central Europe, not Eastern Europe. It is important to make such difference (especially with the locals). Eastern Europe means greater Russian influence in my opinion. Almost 20 years have passed and there are few traces of Communism that remain (except for the monuments). You could be in any Western European country and would not see the difference. I was warmly welcomed in a friend of a friend’s family. I like the food there and ate paprika every day (even in the morning). The Danube river crosses the city and divides Buda and Pest. It is quite peaceful living in the hilly Buda. The action is in Pest however: businesses, government, night life… The famous Turkish baths in Budapest are wonderful and relaxing for yourself and your eyes. All your dead skin will be shed. The Margaret island is a nice place to hang out and the bars are nice. The open-air dance floors are refreshing (smoke-wise).

I’ll be back. Definitely.

London from above

Stéphane Lee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:04:39 +0000

It is amazing to see so much details and be able to identify so many buildings on this picture. It was taken from my airplane (an Airbus A300) during landing. So, what can you identify on this picture?