Phil's Worldwide travel in 2023/2024

So I've finished up a pretty awesome week with Fluenz. To summarize, solid teachings, slides, meals, and activities sprinkled throughout the week. Included was a reservation at Pujol (top restaurant in Mexico located in Polanco where we were staying and was in walking distance). As some of you may know, I'm a little obsessed with food, especially when I'm travelling, was Pujol the top restaurant I've eaten at... no, but was still a very cool experience. The place was packed and it can take weeks to months to get reservations. A few highlights, two kinds of Mole featured below, I've seen this picture a lot on websites and suspect this is one of their signature dishes and likely to be around for a while. This was accompanied with some tortillas.  I didn't really feel much could be gained with posting every item, but most were quite delicious! It was accompanied by 3 wines that were from Baja California and all were REALLY good (I don't say this about a lot of ...

 So I've finished day 2 of the Fluenz program (it's a week but essentially 5 days). The day is structured with breakfast (great menu from avocado toast, pancakes, and  huevos rancheros to name a few). Individual classes, lunch, then afternoon classes at 2 pm (where I am in a group with another student). I have found the morning classes to be quite pertinent to what I new to work and (which was decided in the initial interview several weeks ago). I seem to a different teacher which is pretty good! We go through prepared slides and discuss certain examples when necessary. After each class, the teachers meet with the head teacher to review how students are doing, as if they are building a profile so the next teacher can continue the next class with ease. This structure is something I've never encountered, in just about every other school, often times the teacher "teaches" over an hour with the student, at times just conversation and other times with some material, bu...

I arrived in Mexico City Sept 18th. I started off at Casa Pepe which is a boutique hostel and virtually identical to Selina that is a 2 blocks away. Made some friends, had some fun night outs but then went to an Airbnb (owned by Sonders) in Roma (Av. Insurgentes Sur 464). Solid apt for 80 Canadian a night, very clean, great roof top with gym and the area is fantastic.  Roma, Condesa and Polanco seem to be well established nice areas in Mexico City. However, locals tell me there is clear gentrification and therefore it becomes increasingly harder for local Mexicans to afford places in these great areas, and therefore largely gets filled up with tourists (as things are cheaper than back home) I went to a Salsa class via airbnb experiences, although I largely could have just showed up, this was a great night, it was Cuban style. The night started with a women on stage (with a massive butt), calling out things and everyone followed along - line dancing style. Then learners went upstair...

After San Diego I took a flight to Sacramento to visit my pal from high school Dan and his wife Basia. It's a cute city, lots of scooters and bikes that can be rented to get around. Below was this impressive ice cream place called Salt and Straw, as my readers know, I take ice cream VERY seriously. some flavours being pumpkin spiced tiramisu, coffee and love nuts, pear and blue cheese. The following day, we went to a man made wake boarding parking https://wakeislandwaterpark.com/ Where a long rope drags around a large body of water. We both managed to get up after several falls but didn't feel confident to do any tricks on this time. If anyone near Sacramento this is a must try!   At night Basia and Dan hosted his brother and wife Michelle and myself for Michell's birthday The following day we went to Napa for wine tasting, this is Jerry who run's one of the vineyards, apparently he had tenure at Stanford and left to start a Vineyard. The one was good but all of these t...

So after a great wedding in La Jolla, I decided to spend a few days (5 to be exact) in San Diego. I found a place in the Gaslamp district, 552 Fifth Ave, owned by Sonders. It was tiny and a 107 Canadian per night but in the middle of EVERYTHING and would probably stay there again. I started off with what I know, what I trust... a food tour. I went through one I found through Tripadvisor (called Gaslamp Quarter Downtown San Diego Food Tour) which I rarely used because the reviews seems so inflated. The tour was ok, host was enthusiastic, stops were largely good. As you can see, everyone was 65+ except me :P We started off at Spill the Beans Coffee and Bagels- we had one french toast style bagel and cream cheese, and another that was balsamic vinegar and some herb - both pretty solid!!! Below is thee Yuma building, which was one of the first brick building in downtown San Diego. And was also closed in 1912 when they were trying to clean up the streets (it was a whore house :P Below was a...

I had spent my last few days in Costa Rica in San Jose. There are some great restaurants but the downtown seems to be quite dirty: some highlights from restaurants are below! Below is Emboca, one of my fav meals this whole trip. I did a tasting menu for 54 US and had like 9 items? Even included a beautiful complementary cocktail. I was so full after 5 courses I had to tell them to pause things for 45 min. Second restaurant called Sikwa which was great as well. Below was this spicy/tangy chicken sandwiched between dehydrated pineapple, so good... Festivities in La Jolla have been amazing. I was with my best bud from med school (Chris) and his wife Lucy. I was the best man so got to partake in so many gatherings. The Wednesday we had a great meal in La Jolla treated by Lucy's Step dad. Next night was hosted at the airbnb house (great tacos), Friday was reception # 1, Saturday was wedding day that also included a great meal.  We all got up early and would go surfing, play tennis, gym,...