My Earn-A-Bike from community cycles

Community Cycles is a non-profit organization in Boulder that collects old or abandoned bikes, takes them apart and then puts together and sells fixed up bikes. All this is done with a few permanent employees and a bunch of volunteers. The main incentive for the volunteers is the Earn-A-Bike program. When you volunteer for 10 hours you get to work for another 5 hours building a bike that's yours to keep. The red Schwin below is the bike that I built for Kristen. I started with a very old bike and ended up keeping just the frame. After a new derailleur, wheels, handlebars, brakes, shifters, etc, and more then 5 hours of work the new European style townie is quite comfortable.

Why I love Colorado.

This weekend I finally climbed my first fourteener, Long's Peak. There are only a few weeks in a year when climbing Long's is non-technical and we lucked out with the weather on Saturday. We left the parking lot at 3:20am, made it to the Keyhole by 7am and summited at 8:15am. We were back down to the car by 1pm after a very exhausting day. The adrenaline rush of touching the summit was totally worth it. Click on the photo for more pictures.

Latest Romanian adventures

For the past couple of days I've been loafing in my hometown with mom. Since the weather has been pretty moody I've had an excuse to work on a paper I have to submit before Jul 15th. Yesterday morning I finished the bulk of the work, so me and my mom went for a walk through town. I found some really nice shoes which I didn't buy but suggested to my mom as an excellent Christmas gift. We pretty much walked from one end of the city to another in a couple of hours, shopping in a few stores along the way. We then stopped at the supermarket where I bought lots of chocolate and some cheap tasty beer. Catalin, my mom's business associate came to give us a ride back home. On the way home he got stopped by the cops and had his drivers license taken away for 30 days!! Apparently he didn't yield to a pedestrian waiting to cross the street, although this happened in a bumper to bumper situation in 10 mph traffic on the busiest street in town. I don't know if the cops were expecting some bribes and he didn't want to deliver but I think he's going to contest it so the cops will have to show him some video proof of the offense. While we were waiting for the paperwork, the cops stopped 10-15 cars, including all the ones in front and after us. It deffinitely turned out to be one of the most expensive supermarket runs ever.

Today I will go back to my grandparents, say goodbye to them and my uncle and tomorrow morning I will drive myself back to Piatra. On Sunday I am flying back to Boulder, on a 4 stop flight: Bucharest - Frankfurt - Brussels - Washington - Denver.

Romania sweet home

I am finally back to Romania after a few years of absence. Yesterday I slept at my dad's small apartment in Titu, DB, where he works. Today we drove to Piatra Neamt and now I am writing from my (Vlad's) room.

Here are the most important highlights of the trip in Romania so far:

• Since Romania is now an EU member the airport experience was flawless. The bags showed up quickly, and no bribes were to be given when I exited.
  
• The area around Bucharest, I mean the drive, the houses, the people were all horrible. Lots of stray dogs, dirty people, rude drivers and roads full of gigantic potholes and dirt.
  
• Titu is a total shithole
• The drive from Titu to Romania was quite pleasant, except the first hour or so, what was needed to get out of the Bucharest sphere. It is now a seamless 4 lane road (1 big, 1 small on each side). The speed limit is a little small (30mph town, 55mph outside) but overall the road is very smooth and safe.
• We stopped on the way and got two watermelons and some apricots. We just finished one of the melons and it was delish.
• Piatra Neamt is very nice now. They pulled out any old ugliness and replaced with goodness, beautiness, efficieness, ..etc. They put in a lot of new parking spaces, and if you park where you're not supposed to the cops are actually going to do something about it. They also have the first pro tuned police car. It looks quite ghettofabulous.
  
• The town now has a little gondola the zips between the buildings to go the top of the mountain - quite touristy. They put a lot of new grass and trees and painted a few of the old commie blocks of flats. Tomorrow I am going to take a trip with the gondola and walk around a little bit.
  
• My parents redecorated the apartment where I grew up and lived most of my life. It is a little more spacious and has a more modern look.
  
• I had some really good beer, good food, and , unfortunately, not so amazing bread. They've figured out that they can make more money selling fluffy american style shitty bread. I don't think you can still find the thick crust, heavy, consistend bread anymore.

More stories, and more pictures soon. Stay tuned.

Salut din Brugge

Hello from Brugge,

This is my second day in the city and I've probably seen 50% of it. Very beautiful, very smalery quiet. The pace of life here is so slow compared to what it is in the US, that it almost looks like time is sitting still.

I am writing from the main conference room, the only place with free internet. Brugge is amazingly beautiful. Being away from Europe for such a long time, I forgot how small these old cities are. It probably only takes 20 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other. All the streets are cobblestone, all old buildings and the smell of good food is everywhere. The Belgians are a fortunate combination of French and Dutch: good food + good beer = best chocolate and best beer in the world. When we come to Europe together, we definitely have to stop here again. It’s as romantic as Venice, but much cleaner. No poop smell here, just chocolate aromas.

The hotel room is smallest I’ve ever had. 10-20 inch extra room around the two twin beds that are lumped together. The AC in the room doesn’t work, and it’s very humid here, so I am very annoyed after taking a shower, since you can’t really dry. The hotel is the equivalent of a Motel 6, I guess, but let me tell you, the food was a little better. No sugar lathed breakfast here. Oh, there is no AC in the conference hall either, so in a room of 200 people the atmosphere has already become pressing. The conference center is located in a 1100 year old hospital and you have to pay 0.5 Euro if you want to go to the bathroom. Obviously, I have to be cheap and optimize my bathroom visits.

Last night I went to watch the football final with two dutch guys. I’ve had two beers (Brugge Tripel = 9% alcohol) and I can still feel a little hungover. After the game the streets were resounding of “E- SPA– GN, E-SPA-GNA”. I’ve learnt that there is a very strong link between the dutch and Spanish royal houses, and obviously nobody really likes the germans, so the place was a little out of hand.

Denver - Bruges - Romania and back

For the next couple of weeks I will be traveling back to mother Europe. I am presenting a talk at the ALD 2008 conference in Bruges on Wednesday next week. On Thursday I am flying to Romania for a week and a few days until Sunday, July 13th. Whenever I have internet I'll try to post story and picture updates on here. Stay tuned.

Chevy Boy

Chevy, the latest addition to the family:

Colorado Sand Dunes backpacking trip

Last weekend we went on an overnight backpacking trip in The Sand Dunes National Park in the San Luis Valley by Alamosa. This was one of the best camping experiences so I decided to document it for further use. Here's the breakdown of the weekend trip:

• Leave Boulder at 8am, get there by 12pm. The 285 route is unbelievable with high plains and multiple passes
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• We crossed the Medano Creek and started walking barefoot through the dunes. It is a surreal experience that I highly recommend. Some sides of the dunes are very hot (we believe Sedona burned her paws a little bit) and some side are quite cold. Riding down the very steep side of a dune is a lot of fun.
• We started on our hike around 3pm. We drove up the jeep road to the "Point of no return" Don't forget to let some air out of the tires otherwise you'll get stuck in the sand which is not fun. We had to hike on the jeep road because dogs are not allowed on the trails anymore. All the terrain is very sandy and the hiking speed is about half as normal. Although the air temperature was in the 50's it was quite hot at the sand level. Sedona would walk for 5 minutes and then take a break for huffing and puffing.
• We hiked 3.8 miles up to the Wilderness and then found a good campsite 0.5 miles up into the reserve. The campsites were amazing: bear boxes, metal fire rings, and lots of firewood because everybody carcamps. Fires are allowed in the wilderness.
• We had a fire going for a few hours and turned in at 9:30 pm. The overnight temperature was in the 20's but neither of us was cold. Sedona was shaking to keep warm around 4am, but she snuggled in between our sleeping bags and warmed up quickly.
  
• In the morning we took a short hike without backpacks to the Frenchman's cabin, 1 mile up the road. We found a group of 8 big horn sheep at the second creek crossing.
• We started the hike back at around 1pm. We decided to take the trail on the way down which turned out to be a mistake. I usually like a more challenging route, but hiking in the sand is up and down the dunes is quite exhausting. We made it back to the car in 2.5 hours
• We stopped in Alamosa for a bite because we ran out of food when we left the campsite (I call it super efficient backpacking). We ate at Pizza Den a mom & pop italian place that we surmised was one of the best food places in Alamosa. The town is very hot and dreary, with a typical western flavor.
  

Pig batons

The salamis are in! I was one of the grad students who placed a collective order of salamis at Salumi, the cured meat store Andrew introduced me to in Seattle. The fennel smell in the sopresseta now fills our entire office. Mmmm....

Tartine Bakery - San Fran 3

Tartine Bakery was by far the best food place in San Fran. We went there for Saturday brunch at 10am and the place was truly hopping. The hardest thing was to decide what to get because everything looked so good and smelled even better. I settled for a bread pudding, that included asparagus, egg, sun dried tomato and some tasty pig. Maybe I should mention that everything in the store is local slow food, a la Chez Panisse. Each ingredient is therefore full of flavor because it is entirely grown by nature in a sustainable manner (read no preservatives, no chemicals, no hormones, no antibiotics, just sun, air, water, and soil). There are no words to describe how perfect the texture of the bread was, or how piggy the bacon tasted like. I ended up going back and ordering a breakfast roll, their version of the cinnamon roll with a slight orange flavor. No one in their right mind should miss this place if traveling through SF.

House of Nanking - San Fran 2

Here's my second San Francisco food review after it all fades away in the foggy shadows of daily work.

Our first dinner in San Francisco was at the "House of Nanking", voted by different local papers as the best Chinese restaurant in town. It took us almost an hour to find it (sorry hungry/cranky Kristen) but it was totally worth it to our growling stomachs.

The restaurant is on the lower end of the spectrum, with reasonable prices and a very cramped table situation. The line out the door was a clear indication that we were onto something. I had their number one recommendation, sesame chicken and Kristen did a tofu dish. The sauces were a little greasy for my taste but very flavorful and not in that cheapy sweet and sour way. I was impressed by the greens that came with Kristen's meal, which had plenty of cillantro, chives and some sort of bamboo shoot look-alike. Overall a good cheap meal, probably the most flavorful Chinese I've had so far.

Mojo Cafe - San Fran 1

I am in San Francisco with Kristen for two days of relaxation this weekend. This is a first in a series of posts where I try to document my culinary experiences during my stay here.

We accidentally stumbled upon Mojo Bicycle Cafe, a neighborhood bike shop / cafe joint. We wanted to go to a pizzeria, but since they didn't open until 5pm and we were starving we stopped at the first taste-bud friendly looking place. From the outside, Mojo looked clean and put together.


I got excited about their bike/restaurant combo and started salivating over their bikes more than over the prospects of their food, but I was soon to be convinced otherwise. We sat in the garden, which was the best component of the experience: peaceful, cool, and fragrant. As for the food, I was impressed, mainly because my expectations were blown away. The Mojo Cafe is centered on the local community idea. They had fresh fruit purchased at the local farmer's market and the food ingredients were obtained from sustainable sources. My walnut bread had a hard crust with lots of taste. All the ingredients (including the turkey) were very flavorful, a clear indication that they were not your typical warehouse cooking ingredients. Most of their sandwiches had roasted red pepper, which was homemade and local. The potato chips were also homemade, a very rare occurence these days. Kristen had a pesto, basil leaf, mozarella sandwich and she said it reminded her of the Czech republic. All in all, Mojo Cafe is a place where I would come back. I wish somebody would do something similar in Boulder, instead of the half-ass Half Fast Subs we have on The Hill.

Another excuse not to ski

There were 17 ski deaths in the Colorado resorts this season. If you look at the list they're either middle age tourists that probably had no idea what they were doing on a blue slope or crazy ass locals that thought that death does not apply to them.

Bloxes

I wish I weren't a poor grad student so I could afford some of these.

Barack is good

John Stewart summarizes perfectly Barack's best speech so far. It is weird, yet refreshing to see a politician that stands up there and speaks like a rational human being. This "us vs. them" rethoric in American politics is starting to get really old and unproductive. The problems are very complex and the solutions are not very linear anymore. Take for example Sergio Vieira de Mello (or this), a diplomatic genius famous for his crisis mending skills as a UN envoy.

Book recommendation system

I've always liked Pandora, although I don't have time to listen much anymore. I was wondering if something similar is available for books. Although any book (no matter how good or bad) is worth reading, it would be nice to have a little guidance, something like a well-read personal assistant. That's how I found LibraryThing. I guess this book recommendation system is more like last.fm , in the sense that the recommendations are social not stylistic. Google has now it's very own My Library module. Coupled with their online BookSearch project I can envision that we'll be able to read any book anytime anywhere, just with the click of the mouse.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

This is one of the best documentaries and most heart wrenching stories I've seen in a while. Daniel Johnston reminds me of Bob Dylan in his early days. The sad part of the story is that he develops a severe form of bipolar disorder. This movie not only shows how unbelievably talented this guy is, but how all this talent gets washed down the drain when his manic depressive episodes kick in. Daniel Johnston is still around, although physically and mentally far from the bubbly talented genius he once used to be. He's playing in Denver in April, but his story is so sad that I cannot drag myself through it again.

Ape genius

While I am at it, another great TV show was NOVA's "Ape Genius." Chimpanzees are apparently more of a hunter than we thought. The language and numeral skills some of these trained apes showed were simply amazing.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius/

Sad and outrageous

One of last week's "60 Minutes" segment almost brought me to tears. Something is not right when the wealthiest country in the world cannot take care some of its citizen's basic needs. Is it really worth having highly specialized high tech super expensive medical care a la John Hopkins at the cost of not being able to provide reading glasses and routine checkups for millions of people? I don't think so. Even in my native second world country things are not this bad.