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What to do at Disney World at night

Most visitors to Walt Disney World are up at the crack of dawn to be one of the first through the gates at the resort’s amusement parks. Somehow, though, certain magical Disney moments are made even more enchanting as the sun sets and gives way to twilight. On your next trip, skip the early morning alarm for at least one day, sleep in, and maybe drink an extra cup of coffee so that you can rally into the wee hours (well, for Disney anyway) because there are some Disney experiences that are best enjoyed at night.

1. Fly up, up, and away in a (tethered) hot-air balloon.

Photo: VIAVAL/Shutterstock

If you’ve ever wondered if you can actually go up in the big, blue hot-air balloon at Disney Springs, the answer is “yes.” The Aerophile, the world’s largest tethered hot-air balloon, is open anytime you visit Disney Springs, but the nighttime views are beyond compare. When you top out at 400 feet, you’ll catch a glimpse of both Magic Kingdom and Epcot (and the surrounding hotels) and, if you time it right, you may get your own private fireworks viewing. The balloon holds up to 29 people (plus a pilot), and tickets, which are $20 for adults and $15 for children, are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

2. Get down with Chip ‘n’ Dale at a campfire sing-along.

Photo: Walt Disney World/Facebook

Even if you aren’t staying at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, it’ll be worth your time to mosey on over for a rollicking evening of marshmallow roasting, campfire songs, and a Disney movie under the stars with Chip ‘n’ Dale. Held nightly, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Campfire Sing-A-Long is one of the few character meet-and-greet opportunities that don’t require a park ticket or dining reservations. For a totally free evening, you can bring your own marshmallows, or you can purchase a s’mores kit from the nearby Chuckwagon Snack Bar. Both the campfire and the outdoor movie are subject to cancellation if bad weather strikes, so check in with Guest Services if dark skies are on the horizon.

3. Boogie at a dueling piano bar.

Photo: Disney

Disney World may not be known for its nightclub scene, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few spots where you can have a little over-21 fun. Jellyrolls, located at Disney’s Boardwalk, is a lively dueling piano bar where audience participation is highly encouraged. It has a full bar menu, but your best bet is a bright and colorful cocktail (Purple Rain, anyone?) in one of its refillable tumblers. Seating is limited, so you’ll have to get there early if you want to be guaranteed a good seat near the stage. There’s also plenty of standing room to be found. Jellyrolls is open daily from 7:00 PM to 2:00 AM, which is also the same time Disney’s resort hotel buses stop running. If you’re planning on staying until closing, research your transportation options ahead of time. Both Uber and Lyft are available throughout Disney World.

4. Embark on an evening safari.

Photo: Disney

Disney’s Starlight Safari gives guests a unique nighttime opportunity to observe the animals who roam the savanna area surrounding Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. With the help of a rugged safari vehicle, night vision goggles, and a knowledgeable guide, you’ll get a glimpse of zebra, giraffes, antelopes, and more than 20 exotic animal species and their habitats. Advanced reservations are recommended for the Starlight Safari, which is held twice nightly at a cost of $74.17 per person.

5. Charter a private fireworks cruise — on a yacht.

Photo: Walt Disney World/Facebook

Even if you aren’t living the yacht life at home, a Disney World vacation seems like the perfect reason to splurge. While there are certainly more economical options, there is nothing more indulgent than chartering Disney’s Grand 1 Yacht for an intimate nighttime cruise, complete with an unmatched view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks, an onboard meal, and your own private butler (for an additional fee). This swanky yacht does seat up to 18 people, so the $399 per hour base price really isn’t so bad if you share the cost with friends. You’ll want to call Disney well in advance to book this exclusive experience and the aforementioned extras.

6. Indulge your foodie tendencies with a progressive dinner.

Photo: Walt Disney World/Facebook

Disney World makes it easy to create your own food (or drink) crawls — an evening spent traveling from hotel to hotel via Disney transportation while sampling various meal and beverage options along the way. For a truly top-of-the-line dining experience, however, you’ll want to embark on what is undoubtedly the most delicious Monorail ride ever taken, the Highway in the Sky Dinearound. This progressive dinner shuttles you from course to course around Disney’s Deluxe (i.e. fanciest) resorts — Disney’s Contemporary, Polynesian Village, and Grand Floridian. Your evening will end with a nightcap of desserts, cordials, and coffee with a view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks. The cost of this popular culinary adventure is $170 per person and it books up quickly, so advance reservations are strongly recommended.

7. Shut down the Magic Kingdom in style.

Photo: YANLEI LI/Shutterstock

Short lines and unobstructed views are hard to come by at Disney World, but Disney After Hours events get you just that and more. Held on select nights throughout the year, tickets start at $129 per person for these limited-ticket specials. Disney allows far fewer guests in for these events than it does during regular business hours, so you can hit all your favorite rides as many times as you’d like. There’s also free unlimited — yes, unlimited — ice cream, popcorn, and select non-alcoholic beverages available at food courts throughout the park. You’ll enter Magic Kingdom in the early evening (times vary by date) and stay until midnight or 1:00 AM (again, dependent on date).


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The post When the sun sets over Disney World, the real fun begins appeared first on Matador Network.

How cruising may look in 2030

Imagine coming back from a hard day of working with baby sea turtles on a tropical island, stepping aboard a cruise ship where the A/C in your room is already set to cool you off, there’s a big fruity drink waiting for you on the nightstand, and a perfectly heated shower is already running. The sound system is playing a soft steel drum band, and the lights automatically set to complement the sunset. You shower, then head to dinner where your dream meal is waiting without you having to order. Then you go to a show where you pick how the plot proceeds.

This level of service and ultra-customization is but one part of the not-so-distant future of cruising, where data collection and artificial intelligence will make the onboard experience specialized to everyone. MSC Cruises recently released an extensive report called “The Future of the Guest Experience,” which examined current and future technologies to see what cruising might look like in 2030. We read the whole thing, then chatted for a while with MSC, to see just how you might be traversing the ocean a decade from now.

A room that adjusts to your mood

Photo: MSC Cruises

Whether you opted to cruise solo or not, you’ll likely have a roommate in cruise cabins of the future. But this roommate is an AI robot who customizes the cabin to your exact specifications. Using Data ID wallets, which collect data on you to manage your preferences, the room will adjust to the exact temperatures, lighting preferences, and even musical soundtracks you prefer.

But it won’t just be a matter of recording previous settings. BioSay, a technology that measures your pulse and heart rate and analyzes your facial expressions via smartphone, may be used to adjust room atmosphere based on how you’re feeling at any given moment. Just finished a workout? It’ll turn the AC down, the light up, and some relaxing music on for your cooldown.

The walls of the room will change too based on your mood, utilizing Clear Channel’s Emotional Art Gallery, which can change a room’s artwork based on your mood. The same can logically be applied to music, so if you and your partner are planning to head back to the room for some late-night, one-on-one entertainment, the room could detect that and have some Barry White on the stereo before you get back.

Digital assistants already exist on some cruise ships, with MSC’s ZOE expanding over the next decade to lead in-room meditations, plan shore excursions, or simply ask how you’re feeling and appropriately adjust the cabin. It’ll be like having a virtual concierge who’s just a voice command away and doesn’t even require a daily gratuity.

Food automatically tailored to you

Photo: MSC Cruises

Between newfound food allergies and the rise in vegetarian and plant-based diets, the idea that a standard cruise ship menu could serve all guests is a bit outdated. The aforementioned data ID wallets could contain all of your eating preferences so they’re pre-programmed any time you order. McDonald’s is already implementing this technology at its drive-thrus, and the transition to ships is simple.

For example, if you believe mayonnaise is the devil’s condiment, any time you order food on board, the kitchen will automatically be told to hold anything with mayo. Ditto for any other food you want omitted, or if you’re gluten-free, carb-free, vegetarian, or decided you were allergic to apples the morning before the cruise.

Restaurants won’t have a single menu, either, but rather a customized menu for each guest, based on previous orders and food preferences.

Eating anywhere in the world and across time

Photo: Otherworld VR/Facebook

Virtual and augmented reality will also become a major part of the onboard dining experience. As dining-as-entertainment grows in popularity, you’ll see LED walls in dining spaces used to transport guests to other places while they eat. Through the magic of virtual reality, you can eat fondue on a Swiss mountaintop or enjoy roasted pork on a beach in Hawaii while on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. You could even recreate Game of Thrones-style medieval feasts with the right partnerships, just minus the carnage.

If you want a glimpse of what this might look like, head to the

What to see in South Dakota

Mount Rushmore is a top US road trip destination, and for good reason. The four iconic heads impossibly carved into the granite cliffs of the Black Hills in western South Dakota are an amazing sight. If you arrive early to beat the crowds and walk the President’s Trail to get up close to those carvings, you’ll be impressed.

But some folks, once people they’ve seen those heads, ask themselves, “Wait, that’s it? I drove 12 hours for this?”

Photo: Mendenhall Olga/Shutterstock

That happens when road-trippers make Mount Rushmore the only stop on their South Dakota itinerary — overlooking all that lies within two hours of the monument. South Dakota epitomizes the frontier of America. Grassy plains stretching far beyond the horizon, herds of grunting and stampeding buffalo, and dramatically shifting landscapes from east to west create a playground for outdoor junkies.

Beyond the outdoor possibilities, small towns dotted throughout the Black Hills provide yet more reasons to pull over on the way to Rushmore. Breweries, museums, and one unnecessarily large drug store are just a few must-sees in a state that has more than you might think. Mount Rushmore may be the reason you drive all the way to South Dakota, but it’s just one of the many things to see there. Here are the destinations you should add.

1. Badlands National Park

Photo: fukez84/Shutterstock

If you’re heading west on I-90, before you get to Mount Rushmore, the badlands rise up out of nowhere. After hours of driving through flat expanses of land, the bizarre, rugged rock formations for which the park is best known — layers of sedimentary rock eroded by wind and water for millions of years into off formations — appear like a mirage.

The closer you get, the weirder the terrain looks, and it becomes clear why both the Lakota and early French-Canadian fur trappers referred to the area as bad lands to traverse. The shorthand name of “bad lands” stuck.

While the park consists of three units, the vast majority of visitors explore the North Unit, where a better infrastructure of paved roads, hiking trails, and campgrounds makes that unit easier to access. The entire park, though, is full of wildlife. Bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and thousands of prairie dogs are just a few animals you don’t have to work too hard to spot, as they’re everywhere.

You can spot massive herds of bison along the Sage Creek Road to the west. That area of the park also is more remote, if you’re seeking some solitude. You’ll most likely only be sharing the plains with the bison. Rattlesnakes are also found throughout the park in the warmer months. In fact, scorching summers and brutally cold winters mean each season is a radically different experience for visitors.

Once the sun goes down, the stargazing opportunities are fantastic. Due to the landscape, visitors get uninterrupted views of the night sky, and on clear nights the milky way brilliantly shines above. Those not in the mood for physical exertion will find that the park is also rich with history. You can park your car at the head of the Fossil Exhibit Trail and read about the beasts that once roamed the badlands. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center has information about the Native American and US military history that played out in the area as well.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: 105 miles, or about 1 hour and 45 minutes

2. Wall Drug

Photo: Pierre Jean Durieu/Shutterstock

There are some destinations that road-trippers make a stop for solely on the basis of their quirkiness and peculiarity. Wall Drug provides some of that flair as well as a bit more. The hundreds of billboards that advertise the place might seem a bit excessive, but if you stop in, you’ll realize that excessiveness is just par for the course at the legendary store.

Founded in 1931, Wall Drug has long been an oasis for travelers. What started as a regular hole-in-the-wall drug store has now turned into an entire block-long wooden behemoth.

A typical visit includes shopping for books and cowboy boots, eating at a restaurant known for its buffalo burgers and homemade doughnuts, and just marveling at how many bizarre knick knacks, crafts, and more are stuffed into one building. You won’t be able to see everything in the store no matter how much time you spend there. Wall Drug is just north of Badlands National Park, so heed the billboards and actually stop in.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: 76.5 miles, or about 1 hour and 17 minutes

3. Wind Cave National Park

Photo: Mahmoud Ghazal/Shutterstock

Beyond Mount Rushmore, the terrain in the western part of the state changes quickly. The vast plains that sweep over the badlands disappear, the roads begin to twist and turn, and the granite cliffs of the Black Hills start to look more like the neighboring state of Wyoming than the rest of the state you’ve left behind.

The Black Hills area has the state’s only other national park: Wind Cave. One of the oldest national parks in the country, Wind Cave was declared a national park in 1903. Park rangers lead tours of the cave which gave the park its name and is one of the longest and most complex cave systems in the world.

The Lakota, Cheyenne, and a number of other Native American tribes refer to the cave as sacred ground, and some allude to the underground labyrinth as a space of “breathing earth.” Park entrance is free, but tours cost a small, but worthwhile, fee. Aboveground, hikes through pine forests lead to overlooks that have uninterrupted views of seemingly never-ending green hills.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: 40 miles, or about 50 minutes.

4. Custer State Park

Photo: Jess Kraft/Shutterstock

Custer State Park shares a border with Wind Cave, and both parks draw far fewer visitors than Badlands and Mount Rushmore, giving hikers intimate encounters with bison, elk, bighorn sheep, and even mountain goats. It’s conveniently located a stone’s throw from Mount Rushmore, and you’ll pass by Custer on your way to Wind Cave.

The 71,000-acre park was South Dakota’s first state park, and offers plenty of options for hiking, swimming, and fishing. You’ll find horse trails as well, and options for guided horse rides. In September, Custer hosts an annual Buffalo Roundup and arts festival. Custer is a scenic and worthy escape from the crowds of Rushmore.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: 29.5 miles, or 40 minutes.

5. Small towns in the Black Hills

Photo: Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock

When it’s time to get off your feet, the Black Hills has a few towns where you can do just that. The town of Hot Springs, where Wind Cave is located, is naturally endowed with mineral springs where tired travelers can soak. Hot Springs also has a mammoth site and museum with the world’s largest collection of Columbian mammoths. It’s an active dig site, but visitors can still tour the museum. You can also visit the Pioneer Museum, an 1890s sandstone schoolhouse converted into a gallery packed with relics from the Old West.

The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary has hundreds of free-roaming mustangs that stampede across the plains as they have done for thousands of years. These horses are rescues that were mistreated or unwanted and were taken into the sanctuary where they now roam free. Tours are offered, and the sanctuary is open year-round.

Hill City and Keystone are over-commercialized but entertaining enough to warrant a stop. Old-fashioned saloons and trading posts provide a campy look at what the area might have looked like in the late 19th century. While Hot Springs is a better getaway for adults with its natural spring spas, these two towns are a good option for families with young children.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: To Hot Springs it’s 51 miles, or about 1 hour; Hill City is 12.5 miles away, or 20 minutes; and Keystone is 4 miles away, or 10 minutes

6. Rapid City

Photo: Hank Shiffman/Shutterstock

While the small towns in the Black Hills have their charm, you can hit everything on the itinerary in a relatively short amount of time. Rapid City, on the other hand, is bigger and serves as the main hub for travelers looking to stay the night on their Rushmore trip.

Firehouse Brewing Co. is another spot that you will probably have seen advertised throughout South Dakota. The old firehouse-turned-brewery (complete with a fire pole) is an incredibly unique drinking experience and, if you’re there in the summer, its cold brews are a welcome respite from the stifling heat. Plenty of other wineries, breweries, and distilleries call Rapid City their home, as well. Rapid City is large enough to have an actual nightlife scene, and the town’s coffee shops and art galleries make it a rewarding stop for a night or two.

Driving distance from Mount Rushmore: 23.5 miles, or 33 minutes


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The post After Mount Rushmore, there’s a lot more to see in South Dakota appeared first on Matador Network.

Why ride a hop-on, hop-off bus

There are many ways for a traveler to get quickly acclimated to a new city. An extended walk is always a good start, as is a food tour or pub crawl. What you shouldn’t do is get on a segway unless you want to zip right by what makes a place great and be laughed at by everyone you pass. But the best way might surprise you, as it did me before I took the time to consider it as a valid option.

I’m talking about the notorious hop-on, hop-off bus. Yes, really.

It’s easy to name the downsides of the hop-on, hop-off bus. We’ve got Google Maps and other GPS navigation systems readily accessible on our phones and at our fingertips. Also, we can find and grab a printed copy of a city map from the place where we’re staying, a nearby tourism office, or pretty much any other building catering to visitors — and we can do so on our own time.

Then there’s the issue of cost. Riding a hop-on, hop-off bus requires not only putting some of our money toward buying a ticket, but it also requires us to commit some of our precious and limited time. Time that will be spent sitting on a double-decker bus that runs on someone else’s schedule.

They’re touristy, kind of nerdy, and the bane of local drivers the world over. But, if you’re lucky to get a good seat on the top, and the weather’s right, well, that’s another story.

When I was getting my feet wet as a world traveler, this tourist attraction was not something I would have considered doing right off the bat. When I first went to London with my cousin, he suggested taking a hop-on, hop-off bus. The rest is history.

An easy way to learn the city

Photo: Sorbis/Shutterstock

Hop-on, hop-off buses can give you a good 101 on the city’s overall layout. Usually, in major cities, guided hop-on, hop-off bus tours take the most frequently used routes and streets and pass through or stop at key locations. Often having two or more different routes, these buses’ loops typically encircle city centers, going around the main areas and into various neighborhoods within or just outside of the downtown or city center. You’ll get a basic understanding of how the city flows while taking these routes.

For short weekend trips when you don’t have much time to spend simply exploring, these routes can be the ideal way to experience more of the city than you could on foot in a short period of time. They can also be useful for plotting an itinerary around the city.

Being so un-cool is just so useful sometimes

Photo: John And Penny/Shutterstock

While learning your way around, you should also absorb the included history lesson you get on board a hop-on, hop-off bus through the audio tour guide. These audio tours are played — not spoken — while the bus is in motion. Yes, it’s recorded, and you’ll have to perk up your ears or don goofy headsets, but for the most part, the recordings are at least well done, and the best are both informative and hilariously cheeky. The recordings point out buildings and landmarks known globally and locally, plus throw in neat tidbits about a city’s history, people, cuisine, and culture. Each recording is in sync with the route, so you can turn your head and get your camera ready for a quick picture on cue. It’s also offered in multiple languages — generally English, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese, among other choices depending on location.

Speaking of regions, a hop-on, hop-off bus route could go up, down, and all around the city. On a trip to Dublin, a hop-on, hop-off bus took me not only past Dublin hotspots like Trinity College and the touristy Guinness Storehouse but also to Dublin landmarks that I wasn’t aware of like Kilmainham Gaol, a prison turned museum that once held the Irish independence leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising.

Should you be inclined to visit any of these, all you need to do is employ the “hop off” portion of the mantra.

You can always bail

Photo: Kite_rin/Shutterstock

You can get always just get off. Hop-on, hop-off buses often have scheduled stops on the routes around certain sections of the city where you can do some additional sightseeing. You just have to make sure you know the schedule for the next pickup times and what time the buses stop running. Also, some bus tour companies offer combo tickets where you can get a bus ride that also ties into a river cruise or some other offering and then ride a hop-on, hop-off bus separately.


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The post In defense of the hop-on, hop-off bus appeared first on Matador Network.

Everything to know about Kenya gruel

When it comes to raising glasses, a majority of cultures lean toward an alcoholic drink. In France (and most of the Western world), it’s Champagne. In Chile, it’s terremoto. Closer home in Ethiopia, they drink a type of honey wine called tej to celebrate. In Kenya, however, the beverage table at parties looks quite different.

Traditionally, only elder men had access to alcoholic beverages, and even then, they usually never drank more than two horns — an amount equivalent to the size of a Champagne flute. Subsequently, non-alcoholic drinks are much more widespread and popular, even on special occasions. Although modern-day celebrations are awash with soft drinks, there are still a few Kenyan tribes that hold on to their traditions.

In communities from the Eastern and Central regions that neighbor Mountain Kenya, their drink of choice is gruel, a smooth fermented porridge of medium viscosity. Also known as ucuru, gruel has a sour taste and is ideally enjoyed cold with or without a sweetener additive, such as honey. The name might not sound appealing to many, but this drink was once at the center of celebratory occasions in Kenya. Here’s what you need to know about gruel.

How gruel is made

Traditional gruel recipes call for a mixture of maize, millet, or sorghum. Today, you will still find communities that incorporate all three ingredients. But the most common type of gruel is made from maize.

The preparation starts with soaking the grains in water. The wet grains are then ground using a metate, similar to a mortar and pestle. The difference is that mortar implement is the shape of a concave tabletop rather than a bowl.

Photo: Rozlyn Waridi/Shutterstock

The process is easy enough but requires plenty of energy. First, the grain must be finely mashed on the surface of the metate. The mashed grains are then placed in a separate container. Once that process is finished, the porridge can be prepared over a fire.

Today, charcoal burners are a common substitute for traditional three-stone fireplaces. The mashed grains are placed in a pot of boiling water and left to cook for at least 10 minutes. The cooked porridge is then transferred to a gourd and left to ferment for a week. Once fermentation is complete, the gruel is served directly from the gourd, like a calabash, or bottle gourd. However, in many modern homes, gruel is enjoyed from regular dinnerware.

A celebratory and practical drink

Gruel is served during festive and somber events alike, including births, weddings and during the harvest season. Farmers packed lunches that usually included gruel, which is available all year-round. The cold drink quenched the thirst of laborers working outdoors in the sun for hours at a time, and travelers often carried a gourd of gruel to help them stay hydrated on long journeys.

During the harvest, families would enjoy a hot meal waiting and a calabash of cold gruel after a long day of work. If the harvest yielded healthy and abundant crops, some villages held thanksgiving celebrations, serving gruel to the party guests.

Naming ceremonies for newborn babies would attract guests from adjacent villages and relatives from far and wide. As peopled danced and songs filled the air, gruel would be served while elder men would enjoy a horn or two of local brew to bless the child. Gruel found its way to marriage ceremonies too, when the bride’s relatives were expected to prepare gruel to welcome the groom to their family. Women from both families would make the gruel for the wedding, and when it came time for the bride to walk to her husband’s village, she brought gruel along as nourishment for the journey.

Though these traditional ceremonies and practices are dwindling in popularity, gruel was once a pillar of tribal life in Kenya. Rarely mass-produced, gruel is a homemade drink that represents ties between local communities and families. A sip of fermented porridge straight from the gourd is a reminder of happy times — bountiful harvest and new babies — and will hopefully remain a cherished tradition in Kenya for generations to come.


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On Forlini’s in New York City

A family of beleaguered tourists has been walking behind me for several blocks. They look tired and cold, shoulders hunched and hands shoved in pockets. By the time I turn right on Baxter Street, they’re right behind me. As I reached for the wooden door at Forlini’s, an Italian restaurant in the midst of Chinatown’s bakeries, I heard a voice behind me.

“Do you know if the food is good here?” one of the men in the group asks.

I turn around, one hand on the door handle, caught off guard by the question, and slip my headphones off my ears. Clearly they’ve been looking for somewhere to eat most of the night.

“I don’t know. I usually come here just to drink,” I say. The tourists drift off, and for a moment I want to call them back, tell them to settle into one of the plush red booths under a painting of a farmer for a veal chop or fried calamari. But I also want to keep this place to myself.

First off, credit where credit is due: Two friends from graduate school who have been regulars at Forlini’s far longer than I have introduced me to the bar. First I started dropping by to meet friends for after-work drinks, then my monthly writing group started meeting there. When we found out earlier this month that the bar and restaurant would soon be sold and potentially closed, we were devastated.

Forlini’s cast a spell on me right away. It smells like an old pot of pasta left out on the stove next to a vodka soda garnished with dried out lime, the lights are low, and, incongruously, there is a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. The paintings on the walls are faux-antiques depicting pastoral scenes. When I was there in early January, there were still Christmas lights and tinsel draped on the walls.

Photo: Elisabeth Sherman

When we go up the bar, the bartender presents magnums of nondescript wine — in the white category there are three choices: sauv blanc, chardonnay, and pinot grigio — and you drink it without complaint. There’s no wine list. The bartender — who keeps his bottle opener tucked into the band of his pleated slacks like a pocket knife — once laughed at me when I asked for rosé.

It’s not just an unfussy and simple way to run your bar. It’s also a reminder of the purpose of Forlini’s; it’s mission statement if you will: This is not a place to show off your fancy wine knowledge or your designer outfit. You go there to gather with friends in a judgment-free zone, plain and simple. My friends and I sit at the same booth eating cheese fries doused in salty gravy, and our laughter, and sometimes our tears, fills up the room.

I moved to New York City in 2009 when I was 19 years old. It’s not my place to lament a bygone version of the city that is now overrun by Whole Foods and Soul Cycle. Yes, sometimes hanging out at Forlini’s does feel like I’m violating someone else’s space — the people who understand New York better than I do and who have loved it longer — so there is an unspoken etiquette at the bar. Tip well, don’t demand too much of the busy bartender, be polite to the locals, and don’t take up too much space. Maybe Forlini’s — which has been open since 1943 — is a relic of New York City before it became so expensive and image-obsessed that it pushed out the long-time residents in favor of transplants with comfortable, corporate jobs. But that’s not why I love this bar.

Photo: Elisabeth Sherman

Forlini’s makes me feel welcome and comfortable. It’s home to characters who make this city feel like a dynamic, vibrant, living thing that’s complex and full of contradictions. The world flags hanging from the wall recognize that there is space for everyone here — millennials in beanies and puffer jackets and the veteran of WWII who still wears his silver personalized USMC ring. I never got his name, but when I met him, he told me stories about drinking in Manhattan as a marine, staying out all night, and then sneaking onto the battleship on which he served, still a little drunk.

A night at Forlini’s guarantees encountering people that are so much more intriguing and mysterious than anyone in a movie about the city: The husky-voiced women wearing sparkly tops and strapping heels waiting in line with me for the bathroom, vacuously complaining about the smell of fish in Chinatown. Later, they lit sparklers in the adjoining dining room. There was the beefy guy sporting a buzzcut and windbreaker who overheard my friend talking about the medication she takes to focus and dropped a napkin on our table with a handwritten note explaining that he needed help buying drugs. We later decided he was an undercover cop. Or the guy sitting at the bar watching a video of strippers in what looked like a Las Vegas nightclub. If you pay attention, you might witness a thousand tiny stories unfolding all at once at Forlini’s on any given night.

These people remind me that I am a guest in this space. A welcome guest, but a guest nonetheless, allowed to politely observe. This is not a space that belongs to me, that I need to conquer or claim as my own. It belongs to our city — eccentric, chaotic, and diverse. There is so much mythology surrounding a supposedly authentic New York, but the people that populate this fast-disappearing Atlantis-like city are still here. They aren’t stereotypes or tropes or creatures to gawk at with amazement, like some endangered species at the zoo. They are real people, and they drink at Forlini’s. If Forlini’s does close, the fact that I got to play some small part in all the new stories unfolding in its booths, to be privy to just a fraction of the secrets and the faces that pass through this bar, feels like a privilege.

Looking back, I wonder if I was perhaps lying to those tourists. I don’t just go to Forlini’s to drink. I go there to commune with New York City, to spill my guts, tell all my secrets, and walk out the doors absolved.


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The post Forlini’s is the no-frills bar that reminds me why I love New York City appeared first on Matador Network.

United States downgrades Aus warning

A travel warning had been in effect for tourists traveling from the US to Australia, due to the fires raging across the country and the consequent poor air quality, but that warning has just been downgraded. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reportedly convinced President Donald Trump to adjust the travel warning, which had previously advised US citizens to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to Australia and “consider postponing their trip,” according to Forbes.

The warning sparked controversy in Australia for putting the country on the same warning level as Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and other areas with various safety concerns. France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Antarctica, Spain, and the UK, among many others, are currently at Level 2.

According to a report on Sky News, “The (heightened) travel warning for American tourists was revised following the prime minister’s intervention […] Scott Morrison reportedly made the plea to ‘people very close’ to the US president and the request was discussed at ‘senior levels’ within the White House.”

The now-Level 1 warning advises tourists to “exercise normal precautions in Australia.” The warning does, however, caution potential tourists about the air quality, noting that it is exceptionally poor in areas affected by the bushfires, and may cause health risks for travelers. The Level 2 advisory still stands for the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales’ Central Tablelands, and Victoria.

On Tuesday, Melbourne had the unfortunate distinction of recording the worst air quality in the world. However, the good news is that air quality is slowly improving as storms this week are helping clear the smoke.


More like this: How you can help the people and animals affected by the fires in Australia

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Stuffed koalas in New York City

There are very few bright spots in the Australian bushfire tragedy, but if there’s a silver lining it’s in how the world has shown support for the Australian people and wildlife in the wake of the natural disaster. The money for fire relief pouring in from around the world has certainly been invaluable, but people are showing support in other ways too, like these stuffed koala bears popping up all around New York City.

Photo: Koalas of NYC/Facebook

It’s no secret that the bushfires have proved devastating for Australia’s wildlife, killing over a billion animals so far, including one-third of New South Wales’ entire koala population. As feeding areas and habitats are wiped out, ecologists are concerned for the future of the country’s ecosystem.

Photo: Koalas of NYC/Facebook

To express support for Australia’s wildlife, Koalas of NYC launched a campaign this week by planting stuffed koalas all around the city. Koalas can be found hugging lamp posts and trees, sitting on firetrucks and benches, or just hanging out in a variety of other unexpected locations. Each koala has a QR code that directs people to a GoFundMe page, where the organization is collecting money for bushfire relief. All proceeds will go toward Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service, an Australian wildlife rescue and rehabilitation charity.

Photo: Koalas of NYC/Facebook

And you don’t have to find a stuffed koala to donate. Just visit the GoFundMe page and give what you can. The goal is $15,000, and so far the organization has already raised over $12,000.


More like this: How you can help the people and animals affected by the fires in Australia

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New York Erie Canal revitalization

A new initiative spearheaded by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will revitalize the Erie Canal, with the addition of parks, residential areas, and commercial buildings.

The Reimagine the Canals Task Force plan, including conceptual designs for the project, was unveiled this week. It involves the installation of a pedestrian bridge, whitewater sports course, a hospitality destination at Guy Park Manor, residential areas, and other outdoor recreation and commercial spaces along the 19th-century, man-made waterway that spans 350 miles, crossing the state of New York from Albany to Buffalo.

Photo: New York State Canals

According to Cuomo, “When the Erie Canal was created in the 19th-century it set the state and the nation on a path to prosperity, and this year we will repurpose the canal to fit our state’s 21st-century needs. This bold and visionary plan to transform this historic waterway will build on the success of the Empire State Trail, grow tourism across Upstate New York, improve resilience of today’s canal communities and ensure the economic sustainability of the waterway into the future.”

Conceptual designs for parts of the canal are promising much-needed changes that are sure to attract tourism. The planned Cayuga Lake whitewater course and the transformation of Guy Park Manor are beautiful examples of the changes to come.

Photo: New York State Canals

Photo: New York State Canals

The project also intends to highlight “iconic infrastructure” along the waterway. Movable dams in the Mohawk Valley, for example, can expect some eye-catching aesthetic transformation, like water-powered light installations.

Photo: New York State Canals

The potential designs of the Canastota “pocket neighborhood,” i.e. one of the residential areas planned along the canal, also look very auspicious for the local community.

Photo: New York State Canals

Construction is expected to begin this year, with the ultimate aim of connecting every town and city along the waterway. It will also be designed to link up with the 750-mile Empire State Trail, another project proposed by Cuomo, that would connect Manhattan to Lake Champlain, and Buffalo to Albany.


More like this: Rochester has reinvented itself as the Northeast’s best beer town

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National Plan Your Vacation Day

You might think that one of the biggest problems in the American workforce is the lack of paid time off (PTO), but it’s actually employees not using their allotted PTO. Whether due to worry of falling behind on work or other workplace anxieties, people across the US are losing vacation days, many of which won’t roll over into the next year. To rectify this problem, the US Travel Association (USTA) is launching a National Plan Your Vacation Day on January 28 to encourage people to set aside a day for vacation planning, and giving them helpful resources to do it.

According to the USTA, 55 percent of American workers didn’t use all their PTO last year, amounting to 768 million unused vacation days. The agency found that thoughtful and deliberate planning is integral to actually bringing your vacation to fruition.

Roger Dow, president and CEO of the USTA, said in a press release, “The beginning of the year is the time to pull out the calendar and start planning for the entire year. Before you know it, life happens, and you may find yourself in November with weeks left to use and simply not enough time left in the year to schedule them. National Plan for Vacation Day is the perfect reminder for Americans to plan to use those well-earned days off to explore this great nation. From the beaches of Puerto Rico to the Montana mountain tops, America truly has something for every travel style and budget.”

The USTA is asking Americans to commit to planning their vacations on January 28, 2020, and has even launched the vacation planning tool to help. The tool allows users to enter the number of days off they earn, link their work calendar, and then share it with family and friends.

Unfortunately, since January 28 isn’t an actual holiday, Plan Your Vacation Day might have to start after 5:00 PM.


More like this: The 25 places you need to travel in 2020

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