Austin city review

Around two years back I moved to austin. This city is the self proclaimed music capitol of the world but what I love about out more than anything else is the fantastic laid back stay up tech scene, which really is inspiring.

The second thing I love about austin.is the food with over three thousands food carts there is plenty of choice. These trailers have reasonable prices, there are plenty of food types to choose from and they are located all over the city, so you never have to travel far.

I really love living in austin the city is fantastic, the food is amazing and most of all it has a small city feel with big city amenities.

Munich Review - The City of Beer.

Munich, or Munchen to the locals, is by far one of the greatest cities I have ever visited. Despite being a large city it feels safe and calm, the people tend to be friendly and there is a huge diversity apparent in a surprisingly compact city centre.

But firstly lets cover the well known generalities of Munich, the beer. The beer prices in Munich are government controlled, and have been ever since a famine it suffered centuries ago, in which the populace as a whole survived by drinking beer and ingesting little else. This proud heritage has created the chilled out and drinking orientated culture that myself (A regularly inebriated Yorkshireman) gladly embraced.

Munich was one of the central cities involved in World War 2, it was the birthplace of the movement Hitler instigated and where his private army was first formed. It is not surprising that this was one of the areas where white dominance first raised it’s head, as it is to the far south east of Germany and contains a prominent black and Muslim populace who began to migrate to the city as it grew in size and culture.

And Munich is a very cultural city, it contains plenty to see, a vast number of religious and monumental structures and plenty of wide, aesthetically pleasing streets and fountains, created when the city was re-mapped after the heavy bombing it received in the World War. It is for this very same reason that I bring to your attention a great landmark which was created during this time.

The English Gardens, so called because of the plants and trees planted around the estate, are the largest inner city gardens in the world. The Gardens themselves contain four beer gardens, a nudist section which isn’t marked out as such but decided by the first person to strip off and ay down, a lake, which unfortunately is populated by geese who have no qualms in shitting on every square inch of exposed grass (to the delight of sandal wearers such as myself)

I have to admit though despite the geese and the much larger proportion of aging fat naked men laying about the place (The hot naked women unfortunately much sparser on the ground) I do love the English Gardens. You can take a good long walk around the outskirts, popping in towards the centre if refreshment is ever needed. The scenery really is beautiful and there are even some artificially created rapids where surfers will congregate and attempt to remain upright on good days.

While the temperature was unfortunately not really high enough at the time, the English Gardens in Munich do offer incredibly clean streams which many residents swim in during hotter days.

The second thing that rea4lly needs pointing out in Munich is the beer halls and gardens scattered around the city. The Hofbräuhaus is the main beer hall in Munich. It was commandeered by Hitler at the beginning of the Nazi movement as one of his platforms for speeches and is one of the central tourist attractions in Munich.

The Hofbräuhaus serves fantastic food, great beer and keeps it’s prices surprisingly low. A good sized meal from the Hofbräuhaus can infact be cheaper than smaller meals bought in the surrounding restaurants. While you are eating you will be entertained by a traditional Bavarian band, complete with lederhosen.

There are several more beer gardens and beer halls scattered around Munich, I would also however recommend searching out some basement bars around the city, there are plenty around and they contain a great food selection, cheaper beer and a real Bavarian atmosphere. It’s important to note here however that in the few I visited several did not have fluent English speakers, so you may want to brush up on your German a little before visiting these places for food. (Beer can sufficiently requested by holding you hand out in a half clasped position and indicating tipping movements towards your mouth while holding up the number of beers required in your other hand.)

Munich itself is a rather well laid out city, it can be a little overwhelming to first time visitors however, so I would suggest that any people who are visiting Munich for the first time take one of the numerous walking tours which traverse the city, its most important buildings and the English gardens. These are generally advertised as free, however they do ‘suggest’ a tip should be donated at the end of each tour as they are not paid for their services.

For those of you travelling via hostels I would readily recommend the Wombat Hostel, its not cheap, at up to 25 euros per person during peak times near hotel prices. But the atmosphere, the chill out zone and the bar (oh the bar) make this hostel a great choice, check out the happy hour with pitchers for 5 euro, each containing 3 litres of beer!

If you stay here visit the pizza shop just on the corner (Take right out of the hostel and look on the left as you reach the end of the street). This place gives huge portions at cheap price, with friendly service, sometimes too friendly, the counter girl definitely went in for a fumble at one point, she was pretty hot but my head was much too fuzzy to think about anything other than hot coffee and stodgy food at this point.

All in all I would easily recommend Munich as one of the top travelling destinations in the UK. It’s lively, friendly atmosphere, cheap drinks and fantastic foods. The architecture is stunning and the streets are wide, there are plenty of signs to keep you on track and people will generally be able to understand English if you are lost!

My only advice is that if you are going there to party limit your stay, me and my flat mate where at the wombat hostel for 5 nights, at the end of which he was coughing up blood and I was having balance problems, be prepared for huge amounts of alcohol!

There is a begging problem and pickpockets are known to be about, so keep your wits about you. The streets are crowded so it is all to easy for someone to walk up behind you and pull out your wallet!

The City of York Review, My Home City

I start with the City of York for the sole reason that I live here. It is by far the best place I have ever lived in and I make no qualms with the fact that I love this city. Therefore I ask you now to forgive the complete obtrusive biasedness of the following city review.

I have lived in York for night on four years now, I live in a 500 year old house on a street famous for the number of pubs it contains. The pubs themselves range from they relaxed Old man pubs, through the dirt cheap pissup student/chav pubs all the way into pretentious expensive as hell suave bars. But I will not get ahead of myself just yet.

York is one of England’s oldest cities, once the capital of the north before England became united this city holds a significant amount of historical remains and still standing buildings, hell you can even go visit some genuine Roman Baths (Conveniently placed beneath a pub named the very same). York is not only just well known for it’s history however, as the base of Rowntree’s confectionary and England’s Railway system. It is of course also famous for both its huge number of pubs bars and restaurants as well as its complete lack of decent nightclubs, this does not matter a huge amount however as after early start drinking in the pubs then bars by the time you get to the nightclubs you really couldn’t give two shits.

I really do like the York drinking atmosphere however, most places tend to be relaxed, there is a wide variety of beers, including several choices of local brew.

Entertainment wise we have a theatre and an Opera house, both showing a wide variety of events, I have been to several well staged performances in both and would definitely suggest you check these places out.

Live music is unfortunately a bit lacking in our fair city. We have two small rock clubs, namely Fibbers and the Duchess, for anything else however you need to keep your ear to the ground for live music held in several pubs.

The best part about a night out in York however is how incredibly safe it feels. The city seems like a small town, and you can generally walk around anywhere without feeling like you will run into trouble.

For a tourist York is pretty much perfect, a wide range of night activities followed by a bloody huge amount of tourist attractions during the day. On a day or evening you will see several people touting tours around the city, these are pretty worthwhile, whether you take the daytime tour showing you where you might like to visit, or the night time ghost tours telling you where the paranormal flock.

If you don’t fancy shelling out for a tour you can easily wander the streets of York for hours. The shambles is always a good destination, a long row of ancient houses, dating back as much as 600 years and more. Around this area are numerous side streets and alleys down which you can find a myriad of strange exotic and confectionary shops for your eyes ears and more importantly taste buds to absorb!

York is pretty good for your middle class to upper class traveller, with some top notch restaurants at reasonable prices with a fair few good bed and breakfasts mixed in with some very swanky hotels.

For those on a budget however accommodation in York is hard to find since two of the city centre hostels closed down (One is being refurbished and should be re-opened in the near future however)

There is a YHA hostel a 15 minute walk from the city centre, however it is extortionately priced at near £25 for a bed in an 8 person dorm, you might as well bunk down at the Premier Travel Inn at those prices.

The restaurants in York mentioned earlier really are fantastic however, with prices to suit every traveller and taste, some of my favourites include,

Indian – Akbars, reasonably priced and very good food, just as a point of note in this place the naan bread is huge, get one between two-three people of a family naan for four to five!

Chinese – For the budget traveller Jumbo’s or the Willow do reasonably priced all you can eat buffets to fill your boots with. For anyone looking for a decent Chinese though take a look over at Red Chilli, a wide selection of Chinese food including some of the more, err exotic meals for those who want something a little more adventurous than chicken chow mien with prawn crackers.

Japanese – the Buzz Bar, a reasonably priced sushi restaurant which also does a god selection of other Japanese foods. I have been here on several occasions and find this a great place to go before a night out, the portions satisfy you but don’t leave you feeling too bloated for a good few beers afterwards!

Tapas and Such – La Tasca, a great place for tapas, though this isn’t my favourite food La Tasca has a great selection of fantastic food, along with salsa dancing later on!

Sandwiches, Baked Potatoes and Paninis – RJ’s, check this place out! A huge amount of filling all made in house, on top of great jacket potatoes, amazing paninis and great soup, all at cheap prices! On a lunchtime you can usually spot me in this place! This place is pretty hard to spot but if you walk up Micklegate past Ziggies night club and the artful dodger bar on the left around 200 yards further on you will see an alley way on the right hand side of the road. On the corner of this there is a café with no sign above it, but usually a pretty hefty queue (Which fortunately goes down pretty quickly)

Vegetarian Food – If you are looking for vegetarian or vegan food in York take a look down Micklegate where you will find a cosy bookshop, inside this bookshop at the back is a fairly large café which purely serves vegan and vegetarian foods. This place has a pretty large selection to choose from and they will cook to order if you are selective on meals. This place is also pretty busy on a lunchtime so be prepared to queue for a while on occasions!

Sunday Roast – If you are looking to experience the good old Yorkshire Sunday roast I can readily recommend the Royal Oak, about 3 minutes down Goodram gate (Off Parliament Street). This pub does fantastic home cooked food and is well worth a visit!

All in all however I would readily recommend a visit to York, hell I would recommend people to live in York!