Yngview Malmsteen Concert

This past weekend we went to see Yngwie Malmsteen in concert. Even though it was a smaller theater (Blender Theater at Grammercy), the concert was great. The sound was really good and veeeery loud. Malmsteen was joined by Tim "Ripper" Owens as vocals in this tour. He also appears on his latest album, Perpetual Flame. The acoustics were good and the we were able to fully experience the Tim's vocal power. Yngwie did a few of his usual solos, including an acoustic solo. He also played, for some unknown reason, the US anthem on guitar...

Overall a very cool concert. The new songs from the new album rock!!

Oktoberfest @ Zum Schneider

We went on the last day of Oktoberfest at a small nice german-bavarian bar in downtown manhattan. It's my very first Oktoberfest so I didn't know what to expect. I had some hopes though, and they were all met: great beer, great sausages. Lots of beer and lots of sausages and lots of german people singing, dancing and feeling good...

The bar is called Zum Schnider and it's located here:

107 Ave C @ 7th Street, New York, NY 10009
East Village, New York City
Tel. (212) 598-1098 - Fax (212) 598-0431
general email: Info@ZumSchneider.com

From Oktoberfest

Mexico Vacation

...Pending !

Fuerzabruta Show

This past weekend we went to see the show Fuerzabruta, at the Daryl Roth Theater in Union Square.

I didn't know what to expect since the tix were a surprise from Rachel. The show was amazing... Basically a bunch of people, I would guess about 100-150 people are in one round room standing in the center. The entire show happens between the people, on the walls and on top. Basically it is a complete 360 degrees experience. You will have people running, flying, even women swimming... on top of you!

Here is how the show is described:
"A non-stop collision of dynamic music, visceral emotion, and kinetic aerial imagery, FUERZABRUTA is one of the most exciting events of the fall season. Having already taken South America and Europe by storm, this all-new work from the creators of the revolutionary theatre spectacle De La Guarda defies easy categorization.

Featuring mind-blowing visual effects that must be seen to be believed - a man running full throttle through a series of moving walls, women frolicking in a watery world suspended just inches above the audience - FUERZABRUTA is a theatrical experience that floods the senses."

I highly recommend this show to anyone, you will love it for sure. Just one word of advice: you might get a little wet!

Here are the official links:
http://www.fuerzabrutanyc.com/
http://www.fuerzabruta.net/
Trailer



Have Fun!

Renaissance Faire

Oh, the looong weekend, how we love it. It's Labor Day and we have the Monday off so we have 3 days ahead of us to relax and refill our batteries. For the first day, Saturday, we decided to go and check the Renaissance Fair up in Tuxedo, NY.

The Renaissance Fair is a month and a half long fair organized by a few nice folks and takes place Upstate NY, near a town called Tuxedo Park, very close to the Tuxedo Lake and to the Harriman State Park. The fair runs all weekends starting August 2nd until September 21st and the whole idea is to recreate the look and feel of that spanned the period between the 14th and the 17th century. Obviously the timing is not very precise and so is the location. You can find here references to the old English court, to the Italian or Spanish Royals or even Far East. I guess the idea is to simply go back in time about 500 years and kind of help people understand how things were in those times.

Apparently, in those times, inn tenders had really large breasts:


I assume this might be one of the reasons that anyone (read: a man) came up with the idea to recreate that period :)

The entire space is build for the purpose of the fair and it's divided in various parts including games, shopping, food, entertainment. The fair has about 100 actors on site and many events running in the same time, so you probably need about 2 full days to see the whole thing. They also play Shakespeare plays.

To get more information check their site here:
http://www.renfair.com/NY/index.php

We got there around 11 o'clock and the place was already packed with people. They open their gates at 10 and close at 7PM. We were there until about 4PM, so we had enough time to see all that was of interest for us. Unfortunately we ran out of battery on our camera and we didn't capture the last 2 hours which included a very cool demonstration on wild prey birds.

Overall it's a very cool look and feel and a very relaxed and unusual atmosphere. Food is decent and drinks are affordable. However, try as much as possible to stay away from the gifts in the gift shops. They are waaaaay overly priced. The games are ok, for $1-$5 you can have some fun with them...

Well, that is all about our Rennaissance Fair experience... To check out all the pictures from this event, look here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/iulienel/NYRennaisanceFair

Till next time... Take care!

Billy Idol Concert

This week we went to see Billy Idol!! Yes, I know, it sounds like a ghost from the past, lost somewhere in the mist of the 80s, but guess what: the man still rocks!!! The concert ruled, he played all the best songs and we had a great time. The event took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom, a few blocks away from the Penn Station...

Anyway, if you still catch him alive, go to see a concert, it is worth it!



Rock on!

Howe Caverns

We just came back from our 2 day trip to the Howe Caverns... Just before I say anything, let me give this trip a 2 thumbs up. The whole experience was amazing. We relaxed, unwind and saw cool things.

Just as a bit of a description, the Howe Caverns are located Upstate NY, about 3 hours and a half north of NYC, near a town called Cobbleskill. The area itself lacks a lot of touristy features because pretty much the whole experience is created around the caves themselves. The read more about the caves you can check their site at http://www.howecaverns.com.

Anyway, we tried to do this trip about a month ago, but unfortunately the whole place was booked. Oh, yeah, if you want to go there, you might want to book it in advance, they don't have too many places in their Motel... Also, we invited a bunch of friends and family members but only 4 were able to come with us...

First, Rachel's nieces, Nadya and Katia:



Then, Ioana and Luke:



We drove there on Saturday, August 23rd. The drive there was smooth, just short of 4 hours. We checked into our room which was quite cool for the price: there was a jacuzzi and a nice living room. Also, the motel had a pool in the back.

Since Luke and Ioana were still on the road we went to play some mini-golf, which was quite cool... And yes, it was moi who won the game ;-) Feels good to pretend to be a child again sometimes... Then we went to eat at a dinner. You might want to avoid the only dinner in town at all costs... Bad food. Basically the entire town is feeding on fast food. There's a bunch of Mikey Ds, KFCs, Taco Bells and related... So, the dinner experience wasn't too great...

Then we went on the cave tour. The tour took about two hours and it was really great. The return tour was done in complete darkness and we all had some kind of old-fashioned lanterns to see the way. Lol, the tour guide thought me and Rachel are Nadya and Katia's parents, and she also though we were weird. I can give her weird.

After the tour ended we went to a KFC and we loaded ourselves a month worth of bad carbs, extra bad fats, salt and sugar. Luckily, we bought 24 beers to wash this all out later.

So we went back to our room and we started to play a historical game of Monopoly. I say historical because this is the very first Monopoly game that I have seen actually end. And yes... I won :-p Everybody had a lot of fun...

Next day we went to (what I think is the only) decent restaurant in town, a thai place were we finally ate some normal food. Then we said good bye to Luke and Jo, who had to go to a family dinner and we headed back towards the caves.

Close to the Howe Caverns there is another cave called Secret Cave. It's a little smaller but still fun to walk through. At the end of the trip there is an underground waterfall. Overall a cool place to see...

On the way home we stopped at a go-carts place. In an attempt to, once again, come first I kinda forced Rachel to pull left and then she accelerated and threw Katia in an infernal spin. Well, not really infernal, but I like to add some drama. Eventually we all crossed the finish line with all our parts intact...

So this concluded our 2 day trip at the caves... I highly recommend this trip to anyone who likes the outdoors and the adventures.

Have fun!

Hello!

Hello from the blog of Iulian and Rachel. In this blog we will try to keep a journal of all our trips and interesting adventures... Hopefully someone will read them and enjoy the stories as much as we enjoyed the trips themselves!