Rock, Paper, Scissors … Well?

by Grant Martin on

Sitting on an upside down garbage can and drinking Bordeaux at a wine and cheese party in this past weekend, we got on the topic of Rock Paper Scissors (naturally) and I was politely informed by my Parisian comrades that I was playing incorrectly. In France, you see, they have the power gesture: The Well.

Rock and Scissors fall in the Well, you see, but Paper covers it.

But doesn’t that create an unfair advantage for The Well? Shouldn’t everyone choose The Well because you have a 2:1 advantage?

Riding the M3 on the way home my brother in law and I discussed this. He pointed out that any semi-intelligent person would choose The Well because of the advantage, but if you were really smart you would choose Paper, knowing what everyone else would choose. So in the end, it comes down to an economically stratified game, with the plebians picking The Well and the elite going with Paper. Classist warfare, boiled down to a game of hand gestures. And that, is what we decided, makes the game French.

How to do Europe for (relatively) Cheap: Some Tips

by Martha Edwards on

Ok, I’ll admit — I’m no expert on Europe but I’ve been there a few times and each time, I’ve been on a budget. And while it’s no Thailand price-wise, there are a number of things you can do to make sure you won’t end up having to sell of your belongings one by one to get home. Here are some tips:

  • Know where to go. England, France and Italy are really expensive. And while I know you’ve always dreamt of posing for a picture in front of Buckingham Palace/The Eiffel Tower/The Vatican, sometimes there are better way to spend your money. I found Greece and Spain to be fairly reasonable in comparison, and many parts of Eastern Europe, like Hungary, are a steal compared to these countries.
  • Also, know when to go. It’s no joke — the price of everything goes up in July and August. And by everything, I mean everything — not just accommodation and transportation. Food prices on menus are rarely fixed; this is so they can jack it up in high tourist season. The same goes for souvenirs, admission prices, and just about everything else.
  • Take the bus. I know, it’s not as quick as a plane, or as romantic as a train, but it’s the cheapest way to get around from place to place. If there’s an overnight bus option, take that one because although you’ll end up sleep-deprived, you’ll save a night’s accommodation.
  • Connect. I didn’t have any close relatives in England until I went there with my mom. She did some digging into the old family tree and she discovered many distant cousins scattered throughout Europe and the UK. While it seems a bit cheeky to contact them out of the blue and ask for a place to stay, the worst they can do is say no. In our case, we got to know our distant cousins quite well and now have a place to stay whenever we make our way across the pond. If you don’t have any relatives in Europe, ask around — some of your friends are bound to. Or, try couch-swapping.
  • If you’re staying for a while, rent a place with a kitchen. Eating is expensive. If you can put together your own meals, you’ll save a lot of money.
  • Do some research. There are lots of things you can do for cheap or free, even in the most expensive places in the world. The Tate Modern in London, for instance, is a great way to spend a day … and it’s free!

I could go on and on — there are many ways to save money if you do a bit of brainstorming — but I think you get the idea.

Where on Earth: Week 26 – Gozo, Malta

by Brett Atkinson on

Gozo is the smaller island that makes up the tiny Mediterranean nation of Malta. This is a stunning natural arch called the “Azure Window” on Gozo’s northern coast. The main island of Malta is fascinating but can feel crowded due to its concentrated population. Across on Gozo, it’s a totally different story, especially if you’re staying in one of the restored farmhouses.

Gozo deserves to be the new Tuscany. You heard it here first.

Off the Beaten Foodie Path in Paris

by Grant Martin on

Believe it or not, there are other places to eat in the city than in your guide book. In cultural and gastronomic hot spots such as Paris and Barcelona, you barely have to stumble out your front door and down the block before you find a half dozen places to eat — multiply that by the ten thousand blocks in any given city and you get roughly seventy zillion available restaurants, many within walking distance. How many of those can you fit in your guidebook?


Check out our list of 500+ excellent restaurants in Paris or our list of 340+ restaurants in Barcelona.

Sure, you run the risk of docking into a complete disaster, getting horrible service and Montezuma’s Revenge. But that risk is low, and the chance of you discovering something new — a restaurant and experience nothing like the other Lonely Planet mongers have encountered — is actually quite reasonable. Travel shouldn’t be legal if you’re being led around the city on a leash by your guidebook the entire time; one should open oneself up to risk, failure and the possibility of really great things to happen.

Take Comptoir De La Gastronomie, a specialty epicerie in Paris. This cozy restaurant off Rue Montmartre hosts a spectacular menu of duck and foie gras based dishes, from baked traditional cassoulet to carpaccio, all at reasonable (although European) prices. Next door in their attached boutique you can pick up enormous jars of foie gras, cheeses, wines and a variety of deli delights, all packaged up and ready to take home to mom.

So next time you find yourself leafing through your favorite Frommers or AOL destination guide searching for that “authentic meal”, take some time to consider the risk and benefit of finding some place on your own. My guess is you’ll be glad you did.

Playboy’s London Megastore Wrong on So Many Levels

by Iva Skoch on

Here at gadling, we are quick to bash the megalomanic American exports ranging from Starbucks and hamburgers to bad movies. It is not that we don’t want American companies to succeed abroad. You just don’t want to see home-grown fast-food chains when traveling to Southeast Asia.

I can’t help but cringe when I analyze some of the crap America exports. Even worse, that others think America IS that crap.

Take Playboy, for example. Their new store–largest in the world–just opened right in the heart of London, on Oxford Street. If you are like me and have no idea that there is such a thing as a Playboy store, you must wonder: do they sell those heavily airbrushed, half-plastic, no-way-they-could-survive-in-the-age-of-HDTV women? They don’t. It is worse than that.

They sell what they call luxury goods: clothes (apparently competing with Diesel), cosmetics and branded knick-knacks to anyone who thinks buying a hat with the bunny head logo on it is living dangerously. The Playboy store doesn’t even display the magazine or any sex toys. What? We complain about Starbucks taking over the world one caffeinated step at a time but at least they actually sell coffee, not pictures of coffee.