The adventure began with an orientation meeting of the participants with our two guides, Maryanne and Nick, at the REI store in Henderson, NV, about 15 minutes away from the Las Vegas strip by car. While we got to know each other, the guides gave us a run-down of the next 3 days, what to expect and go over the logistics.

One word about the weather: Death Valley is usually associated with sauna-like temperatures and one would not necessarily think that booking a cycling trip to go there is necessarily a pleasant way to spend your free time. While this might be true of the summer months, winter usually presents itself with more moderate temperatures with highs in the mid 70s and lows around freezing at night. This time, it turned out to be a little cooler and a little windier than usual, which luckily in the end did not turn out to be much of a problem. A much colder front had already passed through the area a day before we headed out to start our adventure Friday morning.

Day 1: Drive to Scotty’s Castle, ride to Stovepipe Wells

The whole group (11 participants, 2 guides) met in Henderson at 7am on Friday and we hit the road in the REI van, with our bikes on top (I opted for renting a Giant Defy 2 from REI for $150 for the trip) and our luggage in the trailer in the back. We headed Northwest, past Vegas and Mt Charleston towards the Northeast entrance of Death Valley, with stops in Indian Springs and Beatty. After about 3 hours, we made it to, Scotty’s Castle, our (driving) destination for the day. While Maryanne and Nick prepared our bikes and lunch, we took a tour of the castle. It was ok, although I felt that most people were anxious to finally get on their bikes and ride.

Lunch was quick and once everyone got changed into their bike gear and transformed into “Weekend-Lance-Armstrong-Wannabies”, we were ready to go. This first ride took us over 44 miles of Death Valley vastness and coming here for the first time, it certainly was a great opportunity to take in the scenery with the valley spreading out to the left and right of the road until the plain makes way to the mountain ranges. The ride was mainly downhill with an elevation loss of close to 3,500 feet, with just a few minor uphills in between. With the wind also working in our favor, the ride turned out to be a nice cruise to Stovepipe Wells, where we checked into Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel, our quarters for the next 2 nights. After dinner at the local Toll Road Restaurant, everyone was pretty much ready to hit the pillow and get a good night sleep before day 2 of our adventure.

Day 2: Furnace Creek to Badwater Basin

We started the day by meeting over breakfast at 7am and then driving to Furnace Creek about 30 minutes away, which was our starting point for ride #2. Even though it was less mileage than ride #1, it turned out to be a little bit harder, due to doing a loop through Artist’s drive and up to the viewpoint at Artist’s palette. The rest of the way to Badwater Basin, however, was a blast and supported by tailwind, I reached a max speed of 40 mph on one of the straight downhill sections. Arriving at Badwater was beautiful, with clear skies and the massive salt flat spread out in front with the mountain range holding Dante’s View (which we were supposed to go up the following day) in our backs. As soon as everyone had made it to the Basin, we ventured out into the salt flat, took pictures and relaxed from the 30 mile ride, followed by lunch overlooking the Basin.

Using our trusty support van, we then made our way back to Stovepipe Wells, however stopping at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes to play in the sand and have some fun. The wind picked up a bit, so it was not as pleasant as we initially hoped so we could maybe stay until dusk, but we still managed to get a few runs in with the sandboards our guides had brought with them.

Back at the hotel a much needed shower back at our hotel followed by dinner and a drink at the Badwater Saloon concluded day 2 of the trip. Everyone seemed to be a bit sore after 2 days of cycling, however Maryanne and Nick saved the biggest challenge for the last day.

Day 3: Dante’s View

Sunday morning, we got up to an early start, checked out and said goodbye to the Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel and headed back to Furnace Creek for breakfast. The weather forecast wasn’t lying when it had predicted chilling temperatures in the 40s in the morning, however the skies were clear and the sun shining brightly. Not many reasons to complain. We then drove to the junction of Hwy 190 and Furnace Creek Wash Rd, via Zabriskie Point, where Maryanne dropped me and Stefan, a fellow rider, off so we could conquer Dante’s View, a 13 mile stretch with an elevation gain of 3,400 feet. The rest of the group got dropped off at mile 7, so they did not have to do the full length of the way up. Up to their drop off point, the ride was actually pretty mellow with a steady grade of around 4%. After that, however, the incline increased up until mile 12 and for the last 0.7 miles (switchbacks) went up to an intimidating 23%. With a lot of cursing and sweating, I finally reached Dante’s View at 5,475 feet and was greeted with incredible views of Death Valley, Badwater Basin below, snow-covered mountaintops in the East and even Mt Whitney in the distance. Absolutely gorgeous. Certainly the highlight for me on this trip. A speedy descent down the mountain brought us back to where we started and at a close by rest stop area we had lunch before we made our way back to Henderson via Pahrump.

Thoughts on the Trip

When I had initially booked the trip, I was not really sure what to expect apart from the info that one can get from the REI website about the itinerary and the daily mileage. And, of course, the fact that you are going to Death Valley. My experience with REI had always been great each time I walked into one of their stores and the fact that the trip was not exactly cheap, I figured REI will live up to its reputation and deliver. And they did. Very much so.

Maryanne and Nick were fun, energetic, organized, supportive and just great to be around and hang out with. It certainly showed their experience of having done 30+ trips that year alone. The average age of the participants was way above mine, but we all got along pretty well and had fun together while sharing this experience. The rides felt more catered towards leisurely riders as well, however, as one of my fellow participants pointed out, “You can make any ride hard. Just pedal faster.” So from my perspective all 3 rides provided the opportunity for decent workouts, certainly the last one up Dante’s View, and since everyone was allowed to go at their own pace, everyone was able to get out of it whatever he or she wanted to.

To conclude, this trip met and in parts exceeded my expectations, I had a lot of fun and would certainly recommend this trip to others who would like to experience Death Valley not from an air conditioned car but from their bike saddle.

Resources

• Ride 1: Scotty’s Castle to Stovepipe Wells
• Ride 2: Furnace Creek to Badwater Basin
• Ride 3: Dante’s View
• Death Valley Cycling (trip details on REI website)
• Trip photos on Flickr

Ever since picking up road biking a few months ago, I fantasized about doing a multi-day bike tour in the not so distant future. Adventure Cycling and REI (among others) offer a variety of tours with different difficulty levels, lengths and, of course, locations. In order to get in the mood (and training state) for such a trip, I felt it would be good to get a few longer and intense rides under my belt. The combination of great air fares and the fact that I found out that one can actually ride up Haleakalā on Maui, led me into booking a trip to the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands for mid November. And so I found myself on a beach in Pāʻia in the early morning hours of November 15, in full cycling gear and my Specialized rental bike leaned against a tree nearby—it was time to rock n’ roll.

The following is a description of my own experiences while riding up the volcano, however if you are looking for an even more detailed trip report, I encourage you to visit Mike Jacoubowsky’s definitive guide for riding up Haleakalā.

Starting Out

The adventure started with tipping my toe into the water of the Pacific Ocean, a nice symbolic ritual and it underlines that this ride starts at 0 elevation. After a few pedal strokes, I left the small town of Pāʻia, the official start of the ride. For quite a while, the sides of the road are lined by farmland on one side and little housing and small businesses on the other. But with every minute, the area gets less and less populated. Due to the amount of rainfall this part of the island gets, there is green all around.

After riding for about 6.5 miles and climbing roughly 1,500 feet, I reached the town of Makawao, more than double the size of Pāʻia, with quite some shops and lunch places along Baldwin Ave. After the intersection with Makawao Road, Baldwin Avenue becomes Olinda Road which greeted me right away with a steep 13% climb of around 300 feet in length (which is probably the steepest section of the whole climb, so be relieved to get that out of the way at the beginning).

At the 8 mile marker, I made a right turn onto Hanamu Road, avoiding to continue riding on I-390 and eventually reaching a dead end. So not missing that turn is quite imperative. From Hanamu Road I connected to I-377 (or Haleakala Hwy) via the short Kealaloa Ave. For the next 4 miles, I admired the lush of green to both sides of the road and great views of West Maui, while I was climbing and climbing and climbing…. Conquering that stretch, the area showed signs of civilization again when I reached settlements that are part of the Kula region. The sign for Haleakala National Park, which I have been waiting for finally manifested at mile marker 14 and about 3,400 feet of elevation, directing me onto Crater Road and further up the mountain.

Crater Road

The next 7 miles were what seemed like a never-ending string of switchbacks, first meandering around nice residential areas but only after 2 miles presented me with wide open space. During that 7 mile section, you are climbing up about 2,300 feet and reaching 5,700 feet after a total of around 21 miles. I reached that point after roughly 3 hours (to put that in perspective, the fastest rider in the 2011 Cycle to the Sun bike race was already enjoying the views from up top for 11 minutes at that time).

A pretty much straight climb to 6,500 feet over about 3.3 miles brought me to a right bend with lots of forest and vegetation before reaching another milestone: The Haleakala National Park entrance (where I paid my $5 entrance fee) at 6,700 feet and a total of just over 24 miles. 11 miles and 3,300 feet of climbing to go. You have either the option to fill up your water bottles at the entrance (water hose at the back of the building) or at the Haleakala National Park Headquarters Visitor Center (restrooms with water fountains on the left side of the building), which is about 1 mile up the road from the park entrance.

Above the Clouds

From here on out, there were 8 more turns (stretched switchbacks) between me and the final stretch to the top. The vegetation grew more and more sparse with every feet of elevation and the views more and more gorgeous (above the line of clouds at this point) as I climbed further towards the summit. 7.7 miles of gruel climbing up to 9,200 feet, with rest stops about every 500 feet finally brought me to that last stretch where you feel real close to the top (the operative word is “feel”).

At 9,800 feet your mind might trick you into thinking you are already there (with the parking lot of the Haleakala National Park Visitor Center to the left), but no, there is still a significant stretch to go. Actually it is only about 0.7 miles and a bit over 200 feet of climbing, but having been on the bike for 6 hours and 15 minutes, this felt like a real real hard challenge. Eventually, after a total of 6 hours and 24 minutes, I reached the summit at 10,023 feet, 35 miles away from the beach in Pāʻia where I had started this epic ride.

For about an hour I took in the scenery and surfed the waves of emotions of my accomplishment, it was then time for the equally thrilling downhill ride (for which the regular tourist type has to pay for). Luckily it was not terribly cold at the summit (mid 60s), but nevertheless I put on my arm and leg warmers as well as my wind breaker and long finger gloves and cruised down. The downhill took me about 90 minutes.

Thoughts on the ride

The ride was one of the most strenuous things I have ever attempted and is pretty comparable to hiking up Mount Whitney. Especially after 6,000 feet, the elevation starts to get to you and combined with the fact that you started out from 0 and had covered 20 miles of constant climbing already really affects your performance. At the beginning I had teamed up with another fellow rider, John from Vancouver, B.C., whom I had met in the public parking lot in Pāʻia. Having done a couple of triathlons and Ironmans, I was not really a match for his speed, so we split up after about 1 hour of riding to keep going at my own pace, which was definitely important.

The traffic was surprisingly heavy at the beginning of the ride in the Pāʻia and Makawao area, died down a bit and picked up again fueled by tourists driving up the volcano. In general I found it to be fine, unfortunately with the occasional driver coming a little too close, but luckily it worked out without incident.

As Mike points out in his guide, it is pretty important to pick a nice day for the ride. I had kept a close eye on the forecast when heading to Maui and the day right after I got there turned out to be the best one with sunshine and clear skies pretty much all the way. You certainly want to try to avoid a day with rain or fog.

In terms of food and drinks, I brought multiple energy bars and gels with me, as well as Gatorade powder sticks, which make it real easy to turn regular water into an electrolyte-rich sports drink. There are certainly ways to stock up on food along the way (in Pāʻia or Makawao, as well as the Sunrise Country Market on Crater Rd), but the only time I filled up my 2 25oz Camelbak Podium Big Chill bottles was at the Park Headquarters Visitor Center.

Bike Rental

Instead of bringing my own bike, I ended up renting a Specialized Secteur Comp from Island Biker Maui, which came to a total of $200 for the whole week (which would have included a bike rack, that I did not end up needing since Alamo upgraded me to a minivan). It included a pump, a island biker maui branded water bottle, 2 bottle cages, flat repair tools, a spare tube and a Specialized helmet.

I ended up going with them since I ride a Specialized at home and they turned out to be the cheapest option for a weekly rental. When I did my research, I also found these other options which may or may not suit you better (prices are per December 2011):

• Maui Cyclery (99 Hana Hwy, Paia, HI 96779): Scott Speedster S20 ($45/day, $220/week)
• West Maui Cycles (1087 Limahana Pl, #6, Lahaina, HI 96761): Specialized Performance Road Bike (1 day: $60, 3-6 days: $50/day, $220/week), Auto Bicycle Carrier (1 day: $5, 3-6 days: $3/Day, $15/week)
• Maui Road Bike Rentals by Boss Frog’s (locations in Kihei and Lahaina): Fuji Aero 3.0 SST ($50/day, $200/week), bike rack ($15/week)

Resources

• Ride data on Garmin Connect
• Ride photos on Flickr
• Mike Jacoubowsky’s definitive guide for riding up Haleakalā
• Jeremy vs the Volcano
• Another great ride while on Maui: West Maui Loop

Vancouver fan

I fell in love with the city of Vancouver well before I ever set foot on Canadian soil for the first time. Being constantly mentioned as one of the cities with the highest quality of living and featured in many travel magazines, I wanted to visit this place ever since I was a teenager. The portrayal of Canada being the underdog compared to its neighbor USA and Canadians being nice and friendly folks in the media (in Austria, at least) certainly sparked some of that interest.

In 2005, after interning in NYC for 6 months, I finally got to see Canada’s eigth-largest city. And one thing that I noticed right away was that, even though it was August and the hockey season well over, hockey was still dominating the headlines. Incidentally, I got there right at the time when then-Canucks winger Todd Bertuzzi was allowed to lace up his skates again after initially being suspended indefinitely by the league for his behavior during the Steve Moore incident. And the fact that, in the mid of summer, hockey made front page of both The Province and Vancouver Sun, was a clear indication as to how crazy this town really is about hockey. After touring GM Place (which would later be renamed to Rogers Arena), I was pretty much set that if I am going to support one NHL team, it will be the Canucks.

I was fortunate enough to come back to visit “Rain City” (Vancouver averages about 1200mm of rain per year) a couple of times after that and catch a few regular season games, since when would you ever get a chance to see NHL hockey up close in personal when living in Europe. When I moved to California end of 2008 however, I was able to start following the game much more closely than from overseas. I still can’t quite fathom why people would want to play hockey in places like San Jose or Phoenix (cause neither place has seen or ever will see a natural outdoor pond frozen over), but nevertheless, I still find hockey the most interesting of all major North American sports.

Stanley Cup Final 2011, Game 5

Fast forward to June 2011: Vancouver made its incredible run to reach the Stanley Cup Final and I had decided to visit my good friend Preet to watch game 5 at one of the many public viewing areas downtown. By some luck and the help of craigslist, I was able to score an actual ticket for the final, which did cost me quite some money, but in the end I felt that the chance of going to a Stanley Cup Final game might not come around again that often.

The atmosphere at the game was phenomenal, goose-bump-inducing in fact as you might be able to tell from the photos and videos I posted on Flickr. “I have been to 5 playoff home games so far, and each time the Canucks won” Michael, the guy in the seat next to me told me. Interestingly, he, a Victoria native, also got his ticket on short notice from craigslist on that very day. And Michael proved the be the lucky charm again this time with Maxim Lapierre scoring the only goal in the contest 4:35 into the third period. Needless to say, the city went crazy after the victory and my hands hurting the next day from high-fiving dozens of other Vancouver fans around the stadium and in downtown.

Despite all the optimism amongst Canucks supporters however, this turned out to be the last win for Vancouver in the final and Boston snatching the series 4-3.

Looking forward

All of this, nevertheless, is history now.

The new season has just started with Vancouver losing their first game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, EA Sports’ pick to hoist the cup in June 2012, in a shootout. Can the Canucks do what they did last year plus one more win? From what I have read, very few experts have Vancouver on their list of favorites for winning the cup. Does that mean they can’t do it? Of course not, but it will arguably be hard to top what the team accomplished last year in the regular season with winning the Western Conference, the President’s Trophy and Daniel Sedin winning the Art Ross Trophy. What can be learned from the past though is that the regular season means…close to nothing. So I guess we will have to wait until April 2012 when the playoffs start to see what the Canucks are capable of this time around. Assuming the Canucks will actually make the playoffs…but that is pretty much guaranteed, right? Right?

We had set the alarm clocks for 6:30am, with the intention to be the first ones at the complimentary breakfast and then embarking on our adventure. Considering we stayed at a rather cheap motel close to the California/Nevada state line, I was not expecting much, but a (styrofoam) bowl of cereal, a cup of orange juice and a banana would have had to suffice. And so, at 7:37am, we started into the fresh morning air and with the circumvention of Big Blue.

Tires roll

“Definitely cold!”, my friend Ethan noted and yes, compared to the night before, when we had arrived at Lake Tahoe, temperatures had dropped significantly and showed about 45 Fahrenheit by 7am. But preparation is everything, and prepared we were with windbreakers and mittens. The forecast for Saturday had not looked that promising initially, but we started with partly cloudy skies literally no wind. The 20% chance of precipitation were just too low to take serious, we decided.

About 20 minutes into the ride, we took a right turn, leaving Hwy 50 behind us and making our way towards Emerald Bay, the first of two significant climbs along the route, as I had meticulously noted on my to-scale map/sketch of the route. Halfway between the turning point and Emerald Bay, we got overtaken by a fellow cyclists, who greeted us with a brisk but collegial “Morning!” between bikers. All dressed in Lance Armstrongs LIVESTRONG gear from head to toe and quadriceps the size probably comparable to Lance’s, he passed us with seemingly no effort. However, he turned around and went back the other way shortly after and so we were on our own heading up and then down to Emerald Bay, only to have to climb back up again for the descent towards Meeks Bay. By that time, we had already gotten rid of all the other layers that we had put on and were just riding in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys.

Cruising along

Apart from a little climb at the Rubicon Park Estates, the road was now relatively flat and we were cruising along Hwy 89. Then the first beach view at Chambers Landing, an invitation we decided to postpone until after the ride and time for a little break. 2 hours and 20 minutes and 52 km (32 miles) into the ride, we arrived at the junction of Hwy 89 and 28, where we watched water flowing out of the lake at its only outlet at the Lake Tahoe Dam. Being on the road for 2 hours and 45 minutes and pretty much halfway around the lake, we took a well-deserved lunch break on a pebble beach at Carnelian Bay. While we indulged ourselves on Clif Bars, Gatorade and GU Energy Gels, we enjoyed beautiful vistas of the lake, in almost spotless sunny skies, while people were out paddle boarding or playing with their dogs on the beach. “Holy cow, we are lucky with the weather so far”, I commented on our pretty fortunate situation at this moment.

Relaxing felt good, but after resting out muscles for about an hour, we continued our journey, passing through Tahoe Vista and Kings Beach and reached the California/Nevada border on a climb at Crystal Bay. We were welcomed not only by great views of the bay itself, but by casino establishments right, left and center. Reaching the other side of the bay, we noticed really for the first time the cleanliness of the water in the lake, luring us into jumping in. But no no, we had something to finish first.

Hurtin’ in Nevada

Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, which we passed through shortly after while still on Hwy 28, presented us with lake views of unbelievable beauty, hidden, tucked away beaches with water so clear that you would think you are on some island in the Caribbean. Stopped briefly at an overlook with restrooms and a chance to fill up on water, we mentally prepared ourselves for the second big climb yet to come, up towards the junction with Hwy 50. Not really knowing what to expect, the climb proved to be steady and not too steep, but stretched over 8 km (5 miles), an elevation gain of roughly 200 meters (656 feet), with a dip in between. After 87 km (54 miles) on the bike, ascending that much in the mid-day sun, totally exposed turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. My body, starting from my lower back downwards, was hurting and my hamstrings were cursing at me for not having warmed them up properly in the cool morning.

Just about halfway up the climb I got sunscreen in my left eye, which was burning like hell, so I stopped and got passed by Ethan with a “See ya at the top!”. After some stretching, water and some energy drink, I was back on the bike and soon caught up with Ethan again to head up to Spooner Lake/Summit, where the climb finally ended. Thank god.

We didn’t know it then, but the best part was yet to come. Reaching the highest point of our tour at 2153 meters (7063 feet) meant there was nowhere to go but down. And down we went. And epic descent down Hwy 50, reaching top speeds of about 55 km/h (40 mph), even blasting through the short Cave Rock Tunnel, we were on the final stretches of our ride. However, some rolling hills were still in the way between us and the finish line, and every climb at this point was like poison for our legs. But we had to keep going, no matter what.

Climbing up one of the last ascents at Zephyr Cove meant literally turning around the corner for the home stretch towards the state border and the checkered flag. Once I saw the casinos, which I remembered from when we started, I knew that we were only minutes away. And there it was, the state line, and soon thereafter, after being out there for 6 hours and 22 minutes, we pulled in the driveway of our motel. Tired, exhausted, but happy. If only our motel room hadn’t been on the third floor with no elevator…

Trip planning

Just a few organizational aspects that are worth sharing for folks who want to do this great ride as well.

Ride logistics

We both carried two 20 oz. bike bottles with us, I had, in addition to that, my 80 oz. camelbak with me, almost filled to the top. If you are just concerned about staying hydrated, than bringing the camelbak is not really necessary, because there are plenty of options to refill the bottles along the way. I mainly wanted the some convenient way to carry clothing layers, as well as Clif bars, snacks and bike repair/maintenance stuff with me.

As can be easily figured out from the report, we did the loop clockwise, mainly because I figured that being on the side closer to the lake would account for better views and thus being able to easily stop and take pictures.

Because we had anticipated chilling temperatures in the morning, we both started out with wearing a wind breaker bike jacked, with a short sleeved jersey underneath, bike mittens and bike shorts. In addition, I was wearing a short sleeved base layer underneath. It certainly helped at the beginning, but as mentioned above, with the first climb, sun coming out and temperatures rising, we continued in shorts and jersey.

Accommodation

Coming from the San Francisco Bay Area, it was simply most convenient, i.e. closer, to stay at the southern tip of the lake, meaning in South Lake Tahoe. I picked a motel with a low price (it came out to $80 per night) and with decent reviews on TripAdvisor. Any motel will do, really.

Weather etc.

Since July and August are historically the hottest in the Tahoe Area, June or September are good alternatives with more welcoming temperatures if you are exercising outside for multiple hours. For this specific trip, which we did beginning of September, the weather turned out to be nearly perfect, with colder temperatures in the morning (44 Fahrenheit), warming up to around 72 Fahrenheit during the day and pretty much sunny up until the last hour of the ride. In the afternoon as well as the next day, thunderstorm clouds rolled in, which brought showers and cooler temperatures. So even though the temperatures get more accommodating, the weather can, unfortunately, also be a little bit more unpredictable. Before you head out to Tahoe, check the weather forecast. If you consider to take the ride as more of a stroll along the lake, with not paying attention to time too much, be sure to check how much daylight you have available and plan accordingly.

Things to do after the ride

Since we did the loop on a Saturday and were planning on heading back to the Bay Area on Sunday, there was still some time left to explore other things in the South Lake Tahoe area. If you are up for another physically demanding challenge, you can hike up Mount Tallac (from South Lake Tahoe, north on Hwy 89 three miles, left onto Fallen Leaf Lake Road. Turn right at “T” and continue to the Glen Alpine Trailhead sign and turn left). If you want to take it a little easier (like we did), you can take a ride with the Heavenly Gondola up to the top of the resort, where you can enjoy great views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Although with prices starting at $32 for the return trip, the gondola ride might seem equally steep.

Resources

• Ride data on Garmin Connect
• Photo set on Flickr
• Another ride description on roadbikerides.com
• Tour de Tahoe: Annual organized bike ride
• South Lake Tahoe: current conditions with average temperatures per month

In a nutshell, Airbnb gives people the opportunity to either rent out some sort of ‘space’ they have available (from a couch to a villa to a freakin’ castle) for a particular amount of time for a set price a night. Booking and payment is processed through the Airbnb website, where the company keeps a certain percentage of the total amount as revenue. After the stay, both the host as well as the guest are encouraged to leave a review of each others experience during the duration of the stay. Through this ‘credibility’ rating, subsequent hosts and guests can see how the experience with that particular user went for other people.

I had heard about Airbnb a couple of months ago through a NYT article and immediately thought: “Man, this is a great idea”. Not so much because of the fact that it gives me the opportunity to stay somewhere much cheaper compared to staying at a hotel, but also because of it’s social aspect. More than any other service out there, I feel that Airbnb caters towards the idea that people are inherently good and want to offer whatever space they have available to others—and, of course, to meet new people. This is, of course, not true for everyone, some probably see it as ‘just’ another way of renting some sort of property and, in the end, make money. But certainly the people that I decided to stay with for my trip to Houston, Texas are not in it for the money. They are in it for the people.

In the heart of Texas

I had never been to Texas, so I decided that I wanna go some time in spring, just to avoid the unbearable summer heat. I picked Houston as my destination, because I had heard some good things from friends who had recently visited. I booked my flights for an extended weekend at the beginning of April, and the tickets amounted to 480 dollars already.

Since I was not interested in spending too much on my trip, I decided to check out Airbnb. After entering my travel dates, Arturo and Adrianna popped up as the first item in the recommended search results. They had a spare room to offer, with a private bathroom, for 35 dollars a night, as well as a bunch of glamorous reviews from other people who had previously stayed with them. From the description, the seemed like a genuinely nice couple, doing everything to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Exactly what I was looking for.

The booking experience was very smooth and straight forward. Immediately afterwards I got contacted by my hosts, giving me some suggestions as to what there is to do in Houston, which I found really nice and helpful. Airbnb itself provides you with the option to print out a ‘summary’ of your arrangements, together with contact numbers and the address of the host you are staying with. And if something goes horribly wrong, Airbnb has a contact email and phone number you can use as a last resort.

NASA, Astros and local food

Immediately after arrival I felt very welcomed in Arturo and Adrianna’s house, with their room providing more than enough space for one person. Based on their recommendations, I went to take the Level 9 Tour at the Houston Space Center on Friday, they took me out to dinner twice (which was really great) and I even got invited to come along to a game of the Houston Astros. How nice is that? I was overwhelmed by so much kindness and hospitality.

I returned back to California Sunday night and reflecting on my stay, I could not have picked a better place for my first Airbnb experience. In all honesty, I was a little concerned at the beginning and did not really know what to expect, but it turns out that this was unjustified. It will actually be hard to top that experience on any future bookings it might do through this service.

I have done a few trips in the past where I had stayed at hotels (which, in a way are all the same) and (mostly) went to the usual touristy spots. But with Airbnb, you got the unique opportunity to see the place from a truly local perspective, which I find makes the travel experience much richer, more interesting and fulfilling. Especially if you happen to stay with such great people like Arturo and Adrianna.

“Airbnb – travel like a human”. They did not pick that tagline by chance.

Until I have figured out where I would want to live here in California, whether in San Francisco or closer to the Yahoo! office in Sunnyvale (although I am currently leaning more towards the latter), I am lucky to have a friend like Cindy who lets me crash at her place for now. Thanksgiving is coming up and I am the one who has to be thankful for that. Also, because of her, I was able to meet up with some nice people like Marianne, Craig and Daniel. I was also able to catch up with my Web Developer mates from London: Marco and Ben. And because of Cindy’s status as a web celebrity, one needs to be prepared to do a lot of partying, like Marianne’s birthday at Foreign Cinema, Ben’s housewarming party…wow, I am already partied out and could use some relax time.

But that’s not happening. I had my first day at Yahoo! last Monday and had to go through New Hire Orientation—although I am technically not a new hire. But anyways. Also got a new MacBook Pro, which is nice.

If you guys are curious, I am gonna be working on the new Universal Profile, which was redone and a beta version launched just recently.

As stated above, I really like it so far. The weather is nice (apart from today, where it is a bit cloudy), the people I have met so far were all nice and welcoming. San Francisco as a city is, by far, not as busy as London, much more spacious and with its location at the Pacific, it makes it a place you just have to like.

The only thing I pretty much hate right now is the commute from San Fran to Sunnyvale, which takes about 1 to 1.5 hours one way. Yahoo! provides a shuttle service from San Francisco and back, equipped with nice leather seats and even WiFi. All nice, but I still consider these 2 to 3 hours every day pretty much wasted. Which is why I am more leaning towards finding a place closer to the office, in Sunnyvale or Palo Alto. I will think about that during the next couple of weeks.

To sum it up: All good here in California. I like it here and, most of all, I am enjoying it.

Living in London

When I arrived, I moved into a pretty small studio flat in Camden, but relatively close to work, so easily reachable by bus, tube or even by foot. On the other hand, Camden is a pretty busy, lively and noisy area. All the places I have lived before that, I was never used to be exposed to traffic noise or music from nearby pubs. Or hearing drunk people yelling on the street at 2am in the morning, for that matter.

And London itself is a pretty condensed city. I get the impression that it was originally planned for 1–2 million people at max, but effectively 7 million live here, many of which use the tube every day. And much like the main streets, the tube seems to burst at the seams during rush hour. Fun is certainly something else.

What I probably miss the most here is nature and not being able to escape the city life easily. You can’t do that by staying in the city, cause if the weather is nice (and that doesn’t happen often) literally millions of Londoners make their way to the parks. So you could go somewhere out, which is possible, don’t get me wrong, but it just takes a while (maybe with some strikes or line closures along the way) and you won’t be the only one having that idea, especially on weekends.

I used to bike to work at other places I have lived. Even though I see co-workers doing that, it just looks pretty dangerous to me. Some people are talking about having a little “accident” with a bus or a cab from time to time and considering the fumes…I’d rather not do that. Well, I did not even have to think about it, cause I didn’t even have the space in my flat to put a bike somewhere

Which leads me to money. My opinion is: You get paid more here in London, but you also spend more than almost anywhere else. Except maybe other expensive cities like Moscow or Oslo. But the quality of life that one would expect by paying almost 1000 British Pounds per month for a flat is just not there. No way. In the end it comes down to a simple question: For the money I am spending, am I getting back what I would expect? The answer for me here in London is: No.

Don’t get me wrong, London has a lot to offer. There is always something going on, which makes it pretty lively and interesting, especially for tourists and visitors in general. At the same time, there are so many history-rich sites and buildings. You can do something different every day, every weekend and not get bored. In fact, you would not be able to keep up with all the things happening. Which is great, don’t get me wrong. I really liked to explore new parts of the city and seeing new places.

But in the end, I believe those things were less important to me. Apart from my 6 months internship in New York City in 2005, I have always lived in pretty quiet, residential areas, with lots of green spaces around, easy access to nature and mountains. My parents’ place in Vienna for example is a house with a nice garden and within minutes from the Donauinsel where you feel miles away from the city life, even though you are still pretty close to the center. Dornbirn, where I studied, has 50,000 inhabitants, is close to Lake Constance, and has forests and mountains all around. I used to do mountain biking there a lot and I could have happened easily to not meet a single person for 3 hours whilst cycling up one of the mountains. I really loved that. And I did miss that a lot here.

Working at Yahoo! in London

Work is a bit of a different story. First of all, I got the chance to work with the finest guild you might find all over Europe when it comes to Front-End Web Development. I have no doubt about that. And that alone was worth accepting the offer back in 2007 and coming to London.

On the first project that I was working on, I got the chance to work with Drew, which was really cool and I met Simon, with whom I did a private project later on. And, of course, Jimmy, who I would say became my closest friend here in London, who gave me guitar lessons and helped me to keep my head above the water when things weren’t going so great.

Like the other two, Jimmy moved on to greener pastures as well. To Chile, in his case. In general, many of the people that where working for Yahoo! when I started have left the company in the meantime, which certainly did not help either.

Leaving and moving…again

I bet it’s warm in California,
I think it’s time to hit the road

Whole Lot Of Leavin by Bon Jovi

When I decided to undertake the adventure of moving to London, I thought that I will give it some time and see how it goes. If I like it, I can stay here for quite a while. If I don’t like it, I can move on. And that is what I will do in the end.

Around May this year I made the decision that London is not the city for me. It just did not work between us. Once you have figured that out, there is not much sense in arguing with yourself about it. It is time to move on. At that time I started to make contact with some people in the Yahoo! Headquarter in Sunnyvale and finally, a couple of weeks ago, we reached an agreement. So if everything goes to plan, I will have my first day at Yahoo! in California on November 17.

If I could turn back time, would I do it again? Would I go to London? Yes, absolutely. Cause the things I have learned, the things I have experienced during my time here in London were great. Some things were just incredibly awesome, some things were painful. But that’s life I guess. I think that I was able to improve myself as a person, which, for me, is already a big achievement.

I still have a couple of weeks here in London and I am planning to get the most out of my time left here. But come end of October, I will need to pack my bags and move on. To greener pastures, as well, or so I hope. California Dreamin’.

I was planning to take my Washburn Acoustic/Electric guitar with me to Vienna so I can play and practice a bit, but I did not want to check it in with the other luggage. First and foremost because of the low temperatures inside the cargo area of the plane and second because I don’t have a hard case for it.

I flew with Austrian from London to Vienna and called their helpdesk in the morning to check whether having a musical instrument inside the cabin would be okay. Their conditions did not really make it clear, as they were only talking about instruments in general. The helpdesk guy told me that I can only take hand luggage with me that does not exceed 55cm x 40cm x 25cm and, surprise, surprise, a guitar is bigger. That man is a genius, I thought. He also advised me that I would need to book an extra seat if I would want to take it with me. This sounded a bit crazy, but I considered this to be true – cause after 9/11 everything seems to be in favor of more restrictions to increase the security of the passengers. Allegedly.

The thing is, I was also considering taking my guitar with me when I was flying EasyJet at Christmas. I am glad I finally did not, because of the very delayed flight et al. but the thing is: They (kind of) allow you to take a music instrument with you, but the guys at Luton Airport would not allow you to proceed through security, because of the “one bag only as hand luggage” rule. Awesome.

I also did some research on the web where people mostly reported that they had no problem bringing their guitar on board. Some told that they had to do a “gate check” which means that you leave your guitar at the door of the airplane (at the gate), similar to strollers etc., and Airport personnel then puts these things manually in the luggage area of the plane. Still not good, because of the temperature differences which can harm the body of the guitar.

So I finally decided again not to take the guitar with me to Vienna this time, but wanted to check with the staff at the airport if I could have.

First, I checked with the guy at the Austrian check-in counter. Answer: Yes, I can take it with me.

Second, I checked with one of the flight attendants on my flight: Answer: Yes, you can take it with you, if the guy at check in said it is ok.

Third, I checked with another ground staff at Vienna International Airport. He told me that booking an extra seat is nonsense and only applies if you have a really big instrument, like a chello or something comparable in size. A guitar can either fit in one of the overhead compartments or in special compartments that the crew has to store things like that. So yes, no problem at all, he said.

So it seems this checklist should be sensible to go through next time:

• Check with airline web site or helpdesk if they have any special hand luggage restrictions regarding instruments
• If you fly with Austrian Airlines, just take it with you
• Just to be safe, use a hard case for the guitar instead of a regular soft bag
• If you want to be really safe, do it like a pro

Further reading

• Tips For Traveling Safely With Musical Instruments (US)
• Official letter from the Transport Security Administration
• How to get a guitar on an airplane. (Or any other musical instrument, for that matter.)
• Can I carry a guitar in a plane? (Askville)
• TSA: Transporting Musical Instruments (US)

Monday: Transcending CSS (workshop), Andy Clarke

Andy, in his inimitable way, talked us through the topics he also covers in his recent book, Transcending CSS. Even though I heard him speak last year, there were, again, some eye-opening things he mentioned during the workshop. One example would be the way he approaches designing a web site. He does not actually use Photoshop that much, but rather does most of the design in the browser itself. And one thing, that he showed, which should go without saying these days, is, to start with the content. Starting with the pure markup, without thinking about the visual presentation at all. Considering his marvellous design skills, he is then able to magically make some magnificent designs “happen” before you even realize what is going on.

He also used some advanced CSS techniques (including some CSS3 stuff), which is nice, but would require to get the “this page does not have to look the same in every browser” attitude into the mindsets of every person involved in a web project, especially the stakeholders.

Overall, I enjoyed it very much and got a lot of things out of it that I could use for future projects.

Tuesday: Designing Really Usable Websites (workshop), Jared Spool

If you have ever seen Jared Spool speak, you might not want to miss another opportunity to attend a workshop on Web Usability with him. There was so much interesting stuff but one of the key things was that you should consider your content page (the page the information is located the user is looking for) the most important page (in terms of development and design time). Other things were that the 7±2 rule does not apply to web design when it comes to putting together the navigation items and that if users need to scroll, it does not really mean that the site is less usable.

In general, it was enlightening in my ways. On his User Interface Engineering site, Jared and his guys put even more useful stuff online about really usable sites.

Canucks vs. Stars

I am not exactly what you can call a lucky charm when it comes to me going to a Vancouver Canucks game. Last year they lost against the Chicago Blackhawks, this time the game ended with a 3-4 loss against the Dallas Stars. Too bad, but I did enjoy the experience. I don’t get to see an NHL game that often

Update (January 28th, 2008): Just by pure concidence, I just found an article on the BBC website that quotes a survey where Vancouver is voted as “the best place to live” out of 127 cities. I can totally see why.

The flight

I had chosen a direct flight with Air Canada from London Heathrow to Vancouver International Airport on Saturday. And it turned out, it was a good choice. The aircraft which was used was – I would say – a more or less brand new Boeing 767, with awesome luxury seats in first class, but also decent seating in economy class. Lots of legroom and even power plugs. So I managed to work on some stuff for this blog, talking to my neighbor and the 10 hours flight time went by pretty quickly.

Back in nice Vancouer

I took a cab to the Hyatt Regency, where the conference will be held as well. After finding out that, although the view from the room on the 24th floor is amazing, having a connecting door to the room next door is not so much. Especially when you can hear the neighbor watching TV. So I switched to a different room on the 7th floor. The view is less good, but it is much more quiet. I like it. The price for one day of Internet connection (wireless) is $ 14.95 (plus VAT), which is, again, a rip-off, but I hope the guys from WDN can get the WiFi right this time .

Meeting a friend

After unpacking, I met a friend of mine from my time back at uni. It was really nice catching up with her, haven’t seen her for about a year. We went to Steamworks for a beer and then to some other bar. At ten, the jet lag started to kick in and I made my way back to the hotel.

Sunday

Considering the time difference of 8 hours, I did not sleep that bad. I got up around 7am, got some breakfast and wanted to pay a visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 exhibitions are not open until Saturday. So I cancelled that, or rather moved that to Sunday. Instead, considering the sky turned blue and the sun was up, I decided to go for my run around Stanley Park.

I think I can

Although it was sunny, it only had about +3° Celsius and it was a bit windy. But it was beautiful to go running, especially in such a nice environment. After about a third of the way, and due to the fact that my right knee sometimes starts to hurt a bit while running, I said to myself: “Do you really want to do this?” Cause normally I only run for about 40 minutes, when I go running around Regents Park in London.

But I did it, felt pretty exhausted afterwards, but very “refreshed” in a way. And this is the raw data that my Polar Heart Rate monitor recorded for me during my run:

I am quite happy with the result and feeling pretty good that I did what I planned to do. My muscles are a bit sore, but that’s part of the deal.

So tomorrow the conference is staring off for me with Andy Clarke‘s workshop, Transcending CSS. Really looking forward to it. If you want to get a visual impression of what is going on here, check my photostream from my stay in Vancouver.