Travelling Lore

After exploring Split we took a catamaran to Korčula (Kohr-choo-lah), one of Croatia's island towns.  Like many other Croatian coastal towns, Korčula was founded by the Greeks; it then became part of the Roman Empire and then was a key outpost of the Venetian Republic.  One of the biggest historical attractions is that Korčulans take pride in the claim that Marco Polo was born there. Before we explored Korčula, though, we instead checked out Lumbarda after checking into our private apartment at Panorama Apartments .  Our room had an absolutely wonderful view (scroll down for those shots) which rivaled our view of the Grand Canal from our room in Venice, Italy.  Not only that, but our host at Panorama Apartments was incredibly friendly, more than willing to give advice, and dropped us off in Lumbarda on his way to work.  Talk about great hospitality! Our main goal in Lumbarda was to try some of the local wines of the region.  We quickly dis...

Continuing on with my Adriatic Adventure vacation earlier this summer, we traveled from Plitvice Lakes National Park to Split, Croatia.  We returned our rental car at the airport and from there took a bus into Old Town Split. Through Booking.com, our preferred hotel booking site of choice, we stayed at Private Apartments in Diocletian's Palace .  This was the view from our room--perfect for people-watching.  We only spent one full day and two nights in Split.  Split, like many of the other towns/cities we visited prior, also has a more or less turbulent history in terms of dictatorship turnover.  The Roman Emperor Diocletian, who wasn't exactly the greatest guy around, ruled in the fourth century and had a palace built for his anticipated retirement.  The ruins of the palace are integrated into the city of Split, so it's free to view since you're essentially walking in and around the palace.  Additionally, you can explore the cellars for a...

Last Thursday after work I popped over to the Reston Town Center (RTC) with a couple of friends to check out New Belgium Brewing Company 's Clips Tour.  The aim of the game for their Clips Tour is to raise money for a local nonprofit through beer sales all while showing free short films under the stars while everyone enjoys their drinks.  All of the proceeds from the beer sales in RTC, in this case, went to Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling.   New Belgium is usually known for their Fat Tire Amber Ale.  However, their Clips Tour had a wider selection of their brews, including some of their sours and Lips of Faith series.  I was pretty ecstatic to see that they brew sours as those are my favorite at the moment in the world of beer.  La Folie was my favorite out of their sours.  I also really enjoyed their Cocoa Mole , which is a spiced (cinnamon and chilies) chocolate porter.  Film Noir, an imperial milk stout which was brewed specially...

While in Maine for our annual Labor Day Weekend vacation we decided to tour  Allagash Brewing Company  in Portland.  My fiance (yes, we're engaged now!!!) and I met an Allagash distributor down in southern Virginia a few months ago who recommended we check out the home base to try some of their beers that aren't widely distributed. For those who haven't heard of Allagash, it was founded in 1995 by Rob Tod as a one-man operation.  He focused completely on brewing Belgian-style beers since at the time British and German styles were the most prevalent.  His first release was Allagash White, which is now their flagship beer that you can find in stores and bars throughout the country. I was very impressed by the amount of detailed information we learned on our tour of the production and brewing areas.  Our tour guide was great and very knowledgeable of the company and she was able to answer questions without missing a beat.  She guided us from ...