Snowboarding may have been a big attraction for returning to the mountain town of Zakopane in Poland for Terence, but for both of us, the exuberant live folk music, highlander culture, and hearty food were also major draws. Every night and any night of the week in Zakopane, you can stroll down the main cobblestone street and ...
We’ve spent a lot of time during our two weeks in Istanbul simply ambling around the backstreets of Beyoğlu, exploring our neighbourhood. We get a kick out of taking in the atmosphere and seeing how people live their lives, and if we stumble across a venue playing music we like, that’s a bonus. And there ...
We've heard a lot of live music during our two week stay in Rio de Janeiro – at bars, clubs, by the beach, and in the streets of this hip-swinging Brazilian city. It’s hard not to hear music in a city where nearly every cultural activity has a soundtrack! And that soundtrack typically comprises Brazilian ...
One of the delights of going out and drinking in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is hitting the botecos or botequims – traditional, unpretentious neighbourhood bars. After a couple of weeks in the city we developed some favourites, the botecos and botequims we think are Rio's best neighbourhood bars. Lacking any kind of pretentions, these local bars range ...
In our years of being semi-professional barflies and checking out bars around the world, purely in the name of research of course, we’ve developed a repertoire of favourite cocktails that we always order to test out the skills of a barman. One of them is a Latin American classic so during our recent stay in ...
Drinking a freshly-squeezed juice from one of Rio de Janeiro's juice bars, known locally as sucos bars is as much of a daily ritual for Cariocas as sipping coconut water beside the beach. There seems to be a juice bar on every block in Ipanema, their glass counters crammed with stunning displays of fruit and their ...
The band had mercifully stopped massacring a 1970s Steely Dan number and were taking a break. This wasn’t technically the 'jazz' that was advertised at this San Miguel de Allende bar, but then not much in San Miguel met expectations, apart from the prettiness of the town itself. Fortunately, as we'd soon discover, there is more ...
When we first met James M White, the owner of The Broken Spoke in Austin, we knew we had to interview the guy. James is just as much of a legend as his legendary honky tonk dance hall. Not only is The Broken Spoke the oldest and most famous honky tonk joint still in operation, ...
Think of this as a bonus track to our last post in which we interviewed Austin musicians Dan Dyer and Suzanna Choffel. At the end of that interview Dan invited us to his gig at the Gallery, upstairs at the Continental Club, where he has a fun Monday night residency. Keen to see Dan do his thing, ...
I’m not going to name names, so don’t ask. But a Tokyo-based guide recommended to us emailed me to say he was away on a tour while we were in town. He apologised for not being there to meet us and kindly gave us his number in case we needed help. His one piece of ...
It’s no secret that the Japanese love the kawaii or cute character Hello Kitty, but also wildly successful has been a more tangible rendering of cats – cat cafes. While pet ownership is up in Japan apparently – pet shops are everywhere and small breeds of dogs are hugely popular here – many apartment blocks in ...
It's not every day that world’s greatest bartender teaches you to make a signature cocktail at Bar Hemingway at The Ritz. As we’re on a quest to travel more sustainably this year and to try local produce wherever we can, we’ve been drinking an awful lot of wine. We’ve tried everything: British wine in London, Sherry ...