Friday, August 19, 2016

10 random tidbits about Eastern Europe

          I recently returned from a trip to Eastern Europe. It was a whirlwind experience visiting Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. Here are 10 random tidbits from that trip.

1) The best meal of the trip was in...Albania - There were a lot of great meals on the trip, but the meal below was the best of the bunch. What's not pictured was some delicious garlic pita bread.  

        One of the differences in restaurants in Europe and in the USA is speed of service. Restaurants in Europe take their time in preparing the food, so it would often take ninety minutes to two hours to complete a meal. The food was invariably good to great, but time was needed to really enjoy.
        Fast food wasn't always easy to find, although McDonalds seems to be thriving in many parts of Eastern Europe. Gas station food in Europe is dramatically worse than the gas station food in the U.S. I would have given anything to find a 7-11 on some days. Most of the gas station food was pre-packaged croissants with chocolate filling. I hit my threshold after two of those.

2) The roads are typically narrow and inefficient and require high alert driving - There were not very many highways from city to city for most of the trip. In fact, most of the roads required going 35-40 MPH on average and going through the middle of towns and villages. This meant that I had to stay on high alert to get my rental car from crashing into anything. I saw a lot of these signs and the subsequent real life version.


3)  Border crossing between countries ranged from lackadaisical to hard core - Some of the border crossings waved me through with just a passing glance, while others wanted to drag out the crossing with a random interview.
          The weirdest exchange I had was at the Albania-Montenegro border. After asking about my job in English and giving a complicated response, the border guard commented "You speak English very well. Have you ever been to America?" He was startled to learn that I live in America and have for many years. It was then that he saw my passport and waved me through.


        When we were leaving Bosnia, the border guard gave me a hard time, because my rental car contract didn't list Bosnia as a country I was permitted to visit. After arguing for a minute or two about it and even getting an interpreter, he realized that the only thing he could do was let us through since we had already visited Bosnia. None of the other border crossings had any issues with my contract.

4) The language barrier was sometimes a problem - There were a lot of attempted conversations in two different languages. I would say something in English and they would say something in their language. After about 45 seconds of that, I would resort to gestures and body languages. At one point at a gas station in Bulgaria, the clerk eventually took out her iphone and asked me to type my question into google translate. That worked pretty well!


5) The costs between countries varied dramatically - Hotel nights varied dramatically depending on the country I was visiting. 4 star hotels in Serbia and Romania were less than $40/night on the low end. A similar hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia was 3 times more than that. The more expensive countries tended to also have highways and the corresponding tolls to pay for it. Croatia and Slovenia were by far the two most expensive countries. The further east I went the price dropped down.
          My favorite hotel was the Azure Cave Suites next to Cappadocia, which was around $50/night. The rooms were actually caves, but the reason why it was the best was due to the outstanding food and service. Here's a picture for reference.


6) Some things are unforeseeable - One of the evenings we flew back into Istanbul, we came back to a quiet and not very crowded airport. As we got back into our hotel, the security made us go through a medal detector and x-ray machine for our backpacks. We thought this was odd, but didn't think too much more about it. Once we arrived back to our hotel and got on the internet, we realized that there had been a terrorist attack on the other Istanbul Airport at the same time we had landed at the less crowded airport across town. Although I have had other close calls in my travels, this one hit home and made me a little bit anxious and I couldn't sleep. We flew the next morning to Serbia without incident, but it was a reminder that we live in an unpredictable and dangerous world at times. Of course, there was a coup attempt a couple weeks later, so it wasn't even the worst day of the year to be in Turkey.

7) Comparisons - Based on my travels, I've become a bit of a waterfall snob. I would rank Plitvice as a top 10 worldwide waterfall, but it's a 2nd or 3rd tier location compared to Victoria Falls/Iguazu (1st tier). In the U.S., I'd rank Multnomah Falls in Oregon and vicinity and Niagara Falls higher than Plitvice. That being said, it has some unique characteristics and definitely worth a visit if you ever get to Croatia.


Another comparison I made was Belogradchik Rocks as a mini-Southern Utah National Park, but with some fortress walls surrounding a few of them.

The Montenegro coast line is similar to California's, but with cities:

Durmitor National Park in Montenegro reminded me of a national park in the rocky mountains.

This bridge in Bosnia doesn't remind me of anything. It has survives some major wars.

This was my favorite castle in Hunedoara, Romania:

This was a cool spot on an island near Dubrovnik:

To end this post, here were My 3 favorite places:

8) Cappadocia (Turkey) - My day at Cappadocia was my favorite memory of the entire trip. The sunrise hot air balloon ride should be on everyone's bucket list. The geology and rock formations are pretty unique and it was just amazing!


9) Lake Bled and the Julian Alps (Slovenia) - Lake Bled and the vicinity has some of the best scenery in the world. There's a wedding chapel on an island in the middle of the lake and a castle overlooking it. This would be a great honeymoon location. After viewing the lake, the drive through the Julian Alps is jaw dropping.
Julian Alps:

10) Pamukkale (Turkey) - I hadn't heard much about Pamukkale until a few years ago, so I didn't have much in the way of expectations. The entrance requires you to go barefoot walking up travertine where there are a lot of pools you can wade into. It was a unique and interesting place to visit.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Why the law of specificity is so important

         One of my biggest goals in high school was to run a really fast mile as a member of the track team. As a junior, I was one of the top two milers on the team and I had lofty ambitions to improve dramatically on my PR as a senior. Unfortunately, I completely whiffed on my off season strategy because I did not follow or understand the law of specificity. In my defense, I had also never heard of the law of specificity.
       To provide more backstory, I had a reasonably successful cross country season improving my 5K time almost 90 seconds from my junior year. After the season ended, it was basically winter in Minnesota and the team practices disbanded until track season. My very poor strategy I planned without consultation was to run 40 miles per week on average. Almost all my runs were both alone and at a much slower pace than what I wanted to run the mile in. Fast forward to spring and I wasn't any faster than the year before...I was actually slower. It was very frustrating to work so hard and then regress. I gave myself a gold star for effort;)
 
      What is the law of specificity? It means that you should be mimicking what you would do in a performance in your training. The more you can replicate performance conditions, the better. What did my training do for my mile time? Not much. My training method was long and low intensity running wearing different shoes on a different surface than my future races. In retrospect, I would give myself an A+ for dedication and effort and an F for training strategy.
      

        To apply the law of specificity, I should have been wearing the exact same spikes as race day, running high intensity intervals on a track surface that would have acclimated my body to race pace. The A+ strategy would have been doing speed training on a track 2-3 times per week at race pace and faster. Mixing in base runs would have been OK, but the improvement would have happened primarily through the anaerobic workouts. The mile requires at least 25% of your training to be anaerobic. In the 800 meters, it's closer to a 50/50 split of aerobic to anaerobic workouts.
        Fortunately, I didn't let the first few weeks of track running slower times dictate my whole season. At some point, my father reached out to the BYU track coach who gave him the advice that speed training was what I needed to turn the season around. Once I applied the law of specificity, I improved dramatically in a different event: the 800 meters. My last race of the year put me in the top 20 all-time 800 meter performances in school history, which still stands today.
       How does this law work in other arenas? I believe that standardized test taking requires replicating test conditions in practice. I've also learned that rather than looking up the answers before figuring them out, you should struggle with the question first. Your retention rate is much higher after you struggle and then learn the proper strategy.
 
       I would think it would work in public speaking, playing musical instruments, giving presentations, etc. You are generally more prepared if you have already replicated the conditions of the performance in advance. If you are prepared, you shall not fear is a good rule of thumb.
  

Friday, February 5, 2016

Denver Broncos story

         Most of my friends know that I am a big sports fan, especially of college football. Despite my affinity for college football, I do not follow the NFL very closely at all. For whatever reason, the NFL never had the same appeal to me as college football.
         One of the best players to ever play for my alma mater was Steve Young. Once he graduated from BYU in the early 1980s, he bounced around from a defunct football league called the USFL, then went to a terrible Tampa Bay Buccaneers team before eventually being traded to the San Francisco 49ers. In a lot of ways back then, the 49ers were a model franchise with a great team overall.
         Steve Young became Joe Montana's backup quarterback and eventually took over for him and had a hall of fame career. Since Steve Young was so successful, many people from Utah where BYU is located adopted the 49ers as their team. Consequently, the 49ers apparel was being sold all over the sporting good stores in Utah.

       Of course, Steve Young ended up retiring eventually. Correspondingly, the level of interest from the State of Utah fans waned and the apparel sales seemed to suffer as a result. I don't know if all the stores got the memo right away that Steve Young was the sole reason that people from Utah were wearing 49er apparel.
        This is where I re-enter the story. It was a couple years after Steve Young retired and I was shopping in Utah where I found a very nice 49ers Starter brand jacket that are normally very expensive for about 90% off. Despite the fact that I didn't follow the 49ers, I snagged the jacket and put it into my wardrobe. I didn't really need it for a few years while I lived in Florida.
        Fast forward a few years later to 2006 when I had moved to Denver for graduate school where it is very cold in the winter. I would wear my 49ers jacket here and there and nobody ever commented on it. It was warm and it looked it looked something like this:

         That's not me in case anyone is wondering;)
          One particular day I wore my 49ers jacket was on New Year's Eve in 2006. I was traveling that day and had just come back from the airport. There were numerous people giving me dirty looks in the terminal and especially on the parking shuttle. Finally, one of the persons staring at me spoke up and told me about an NFL game between the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers that had just ended. The 49ers were double digit underdogs with a losing record and the Broncos only needed to win to make the playoffs. The game apparently went into overtime with the 49ers ended up winning the game in a heartbreaker. The Broncos got knocked out of the playoffs. That was the source of everyone's ire! I knew nothing about any of this until just then.
       This is the game recap: http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=261231007
       I stopped wearing that jacket for the rest of the Denver winter. The irony was 6 months later, I had landed a job in the bay area and the 49ers jacket fit right in. That's life.
 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The top 12 places to travel to in Europe

         In the last two weeks, I've received a couple of requests to provide my recommendations where I'd go in Europe. Similar to my Africa list, there are way too many great places to visit to put into this blog post. Therefore, I will just write about my twelve places I either have been or I'd really like to see.

12) Lake Bled in Slovenia - This has often been a setting for the world rowing championships, but the scenery should be enough to lure you in at other times of the year. That's a church on an island in a lake, which looks fantastic!

11) The Fjords in Norway - I haven't been to Norway, but I have a reliable source that told me that a summer trip is a must. The trifecta of Iceland, Norway, and Finland makes for a solid vacation. There are a lot of camping and hiking opportunities along the fjords, but a cruise may be the way to do. It's pretty far north, so unless you bring heavy winter gear or want to visit Lapland (in Finland) you'll probably want to target the warmer and lighter months. It stays light much later in the summer.

10) Plitvice Lakes, Croatia - This is on my short list of places to visit. My brother went earlier this year and found some legit waterfalls and incredible scenery. It's not super easy to get to, but appears to be well worth the effort.

9) Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany - This is known as the Disney Castle located in a beautiful valley in southern Germany. It's very central in Europe, although not that close to anything. I've been to this place 3 times and it's interesting every single time.

8) La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - Somebody started building this place in 1882 and have it planned to be complete by 2026. It's the craziest looking building I've ever been to and a very interesting place to visit. There are a bunch of other places that are must-sees in Spain like Alhambra and Seville.

7) London, England - There are too many things to visit to list in the title. Buckingham Palace (and the changing of the guard), London Tower and Bridge, Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. As a bonus, they speak English and drive on the wrong side of the road. The downside is its an expensive city to visit.

6) Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany - I lived in Berlin for a few months back in the day, so I'm pretty familiar with the area. Berlin has a ton of history due to it being divided into sectors and having a wall dividing it for several decades. Most of the historical stuff is within walking distance downtown near Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburg Gate.

5) The Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles in Paris, France - There are a lot of things to see in Paris, but nothing more iconic than the Eiffel Tower. I'd also go to the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe, and then stop by the Palace of Versailles. One of the downsides to France is the French aren't always friendly to tourists that don't speak French. Nonetheless, it's still well worth visiting.

4) Prague, Czech Republic - There are lots of things to see in Prague. Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, Vyšehrad, and Old Town Square are a few of them. Eat some svickova. Go to Cesky Krumlov if you want some place to visit outside the city.


3) Grindelwald, Switzerland - I challenge you to find a more beautiful place on the planet. Northern Italy, Switzerland, and southern Germany are all incredible, but I give the nod to the Grindelwald in Switzerland.


2) Budapest, Hungary - Budapest is easily one of the best cities in Europe to visit. You'll find bath houses like the one below of interest (Gellert). Széchenyi is another popular one. St Stephens Basilica and the Parliament are worth a stop by.


1) The Coliseum and the Vatican in Rome, Italy/Vatican City - The list is a mile long of things to see in Italy, but the two biggest in Rome are the Coliseum and the Vatican in Vatican City. These belong at the top of anybody's list. The canals of Venice, the Tower of Pisa, Pompeii are all worth visiting in other parts of Italy.


I realize I excluded places like Austria, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, the Ukraine, Sweden, and others that legitimately belong on the top places to visit depending on your priorities. I've been to all of those except the Ukraine and recommend all of those countries too along with many others. Europe can be an endless exploration venture, but you have to start somewhere.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The top 10 places to travel to in Africa

I should provide the caveat that I haven't been to all ten spots on my list. However, I've heard about and researched the ones I haven't been to. 

10) Namibia Sand Dunes, Cheetah Conservation Fund, and the Etosha National Park - Namibia used to be a part of South Africa before gaining its independence in 1990 and was the setting for the new Mad Max Fury Road movie. As highlighted by the movie, the sand dunes are expansive and the largest in the world. There are plenty of activities that go along with the dunes such as sky diving, 4 wheeling, and sand boarding. Since Namibia is the 2nd most sparsely populated country in the world, you are likely to not see too many people. The Cheetah Conservation Fund will allow you to get up close and personal with cheetahs and watch them run! Cheetahs are endangered, so there's only a few places that you have a decent chance at seeing them. The Etosha National Park is a good place to view the endangered black rhino.

  
9) Gorilla tour in the Democratic Republic of Congo- Virunga National Park seems to be the best spot in Africa to do a gorilla tour, since 3/4 of the gorilla sub-species reside there plus the scenery is excellent and there are two active volcanoes in the park. DRC is currently safe, but that should be closely monitored based on somewhat recent history. Rwanda or Uganda provide pretty good alternatives if there is any political turmoil in the DRC.



8) Perinet Reserve in Madagascar - This is the place to go if you like seeing species of animals that exist nowhere else on the planet, since there are at least 615 new ones in Madagascar. If rare wild lemurs and chameleons are your thing, this is the place to be.

 
If lemurs and chameleons aren't your thing, then skip Madagascar and head to island of Mauritius. This is an island most Americans haven't heard of, but it might be a cheaper alternative to visiting the Seychelles.
 
7) Masai Mara/Serengeti in Kenya/Tanzania - These two parks are adjacent to each other, so I've lumped them together. These are arguably the two best day safari parks for the entire continent. You get the classic savannah plains with tons of diverse wildlife. One of the most interesting things to watch for is the wildebeest migration.
 
The native people around there are from the Masai tribe. My sister took this picture in Tanzania back in 2006 of some Masai warriors. One of their main hobbies is jumping, which happens to be one of my hobbies.
 

6) Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania - This was my favorite safari area to view wildlife. There is a natural valley that contains more than 30,000 animals. It's considered the most compact wildlife venue on the planet and often gets compared to the Garden of Eden. We caught up with this lion sitting in the middle of the road:

5) The Seychelles - While this is technically Africa, it's really the island that many Europeans escape to for honeymoons and vacations. It looks to me like a worthwhile visit based on pictures alone.

4) Cape Town and vicinity in South Africa - There is a lot to do in the Cape Town area. Table Mountain provides fantastic views of Cape Town. You can tour Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Cape Point is a relatively short drive down the coast, which is the southern most point in Africa and where the scenery is top notch. Getting a tour of the townships will completely change your world view of what poverty is. This is my sister's picture from the top of Table Mountain:

3) Hike up Mount Kilimanjaro - If doing multi-day hikes at high altitude is your thing for a huge payoff, then hiking Mount Kilimanjaro might appeal to you. The hike takes about a week and ends up at around 19K feet. You get unparalleled views at least theoretically. I am not personally too excited about this hike, but I know many people who have it on their bucket list.

2) Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe/Zambia border - This should be on your bucket list if it isn't already. Victoria Falls is easily the 2nd best waterfall in the world. This is a picture my sister took on our visit there:

Interestingly, this waterfall is famous for being able to dangle on the edge without being sucked in. This is called Devil's Pool, which shouldn't be confused with Devil Throat at Iguazu Falls.

1) Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx - The pyramids are a world wonder and very much worth the visit. Egypt has a lot of ruins to explore, so you'll need a few days. I recommend going with a big group, because Egypt isn't the safest place and scammers are everywhere. This is a picture from my visit there.

There are a lot of things to do in Africa. I could have expended my list to 25 and filled it up with all the wonderful places to visit. My first visit in 2006 changed my world view dramatically. Even though I came as a tourist, my eyes were really opened to how differently much of the world lives. Even though visiting can be high stress in places, it's worth visiting at least once.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Life Experience vs Material Things

       This article came across my facebook news feed recently. The premise of the article is that if we spend our discretionary income on one-time experiences versus buying upgraded material things it will lead to greater happiness. Even though it's a somewhat counter intuitive premise to throw your discretionary income at say a 10 day vacation versus driving a nicer car for the next 5 years, it seems like a no brainer choice for me to take the vacation and drive a worse car.
       The article pointed out that one of the detriments to having upgraded material things is that you eventually adapt to them. Adapting to nice things may seem like a net positive, but I see it as a net negative. You really only enjoy new things the first few weeks of having them and then there's a 'meh' effect. The upgraded material thing become the new status quo and you start taking it for granted. Even worse, it is much harder to appreciate lesser quality things in the future.   
         If the truth be told, it's unrealistic and probably not advisable to spend 100% of your income on buying your way into experience based activities. There has to be some sort of balance. You have to live somewhere, have some mode of transportation, and have enough decent clothes to change regularly and present yourself effectively. If you decide to buy a house and a car you like, it doesn't make you materialistic or a poor steward over your money. Having a place that serves as a sanctuary at home and on the move is highly beneficial to productivity and making progress towards your life goals.
        What does experience have to offer that material things can't? You gain memories from experience that can never be taken from you, whereas material things degrade over time. Experience makes you more interesting and gives you a different perspective than anybody else. Even if you travel to the same place as someone else, chances are you will stay at a different place, eat at different places, get different weather, and meet different people along the way. On the other hand, if you buy a nice car, there is probably someone else who has the exact same model and features. Even most houses are not unique.
 
          I will conclude this post with a line from the new Cinderella movie: She was imprisoned in her attic by her stepmom and chose to stay positive, because she knew that her time with her parents and the prince would become beautiful distant memories (paraphrased). Even Cinderella understood that material possessions degrade and devalue over time, whereas good memories can be brought back in an instant no matter how dire life's circumstances are. 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

What we do know is that we don't know

During my recent trip to Chile and Argentina traveling by myself, I thought a lot about the unpredictability of life. Ten years ago today I was in my first semester of my second year of law school in Florida studying for finals. Lots of events have happened between then and now both good and bad that have impacted where I am today. 
 
My natural tendency is to react to events in terms of short-term implications, because long-term implications are impossible to determine. One of the decisions I made in 2006 after finishing law school was to move to Denver to attend the University of Denver and its Master's in Real Estate program. The short-term implication of that decision was to forego taking the Florida bar exam and leaving the state of Florida where job opportunities had the highest probability of coming to fruition based on the alumni network of the law school. I will never know the opportunity cost of leaving. There are a myriad of possible outcomes if I had stayed. At the end of the day, I did a cost-benefit analysis and then lived with my choice.
The program I matriculated into was highly beneficial from an educational standpoint, but there were no guarantees what job opportunities would await me upon graduation. Education these days is very expensive. It was somewhat nerve wracking not knowing if my risk and investment would lead to bigger and better things.
 
After finishing 50% of my classes at the University of Denver, I applied, interviewed, and received an offer to work for a renewable energy company in the bay area. The salary was a little low, but I was confident that it was a fast growing industry that would allow for advancement. The offer and acceptance allowed me to finish another quarter of the program, which would allow me to finish my final classes from a distance. I was with that company for 17 months or so before I moved on to my current company. 
 
Most of the bigger events in my life like switching jobs, choosing an educational track, going through periods of physical injuries and then good health, moving away or deciding to stay and other events are complete unknowns about long-term impact on our futures.
I found the following story on a message board online, which I think illustrates this theme that life events aren't always the catalyst for a downward or upward trajectory that we predict them to be. 
 
Once upon a time In 14th Century China, during the rule of the Ming Dynasty, there lived an old Farmer. The farmer was a poor man. The farmer had a son, and he owned a horse. That was all. His hut was owned by the Lord of the province, and the farmer used his Horse and his son to work the land. The farmer labored for the lord of the land, and in return was provided with food and a home.

One day after a hard day’s labor, the farmer's son forgot to close the corral and the farmer’s only horse broke out and ran away.
The villagers, upon hearing of the horse running away, came to the farmer's house to view the corral. As they stood there, the villagers said,

"We are so sorry for you. This is such bad luck!”
 
The farmer replied, "Well I don’t know if it’s bad. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I just don’t know."

The villagers thought this was odd, but left the farmer to it, and returned to their tasks. About a week later, the horse returned, bringing with it a whole herd of wild horses, which the farmer and his son quickly corralled.
 
The Villagers, upon hearing of the corralling of the horses, came to see for themselves. As they stood there looking at the corral filled with horses, the Villagers said,

"We are so pleased for you. This is such good luck!”

The farmer replied, "Well I don’t know if it’s good. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I just don’t know."

The villagers thought this was odd, but again left the farmer to it, and returned to their tasks. A couple of weeks later, the farmer's son's legs were badly broken when he was thrown from one of the wild horses he was trying to break.
The villagers, upon all hearing of the incident, came to see the son. As they stood there, the villagers said,

"We are so sorry for you. This is such bad luck!”

The farmer replied, "Well I don’t know if it’s bad. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I just don’t know."

The villagers thought this was odd, but again left the farmer to it, and returned to their tasks.

At that same time in China, a war broke out between two rival Lords. In need of more soldiers, the Lord of the land rode down into the valley to conscript all the young men to go off and fight in the war, a war which none of them would survive. When the Lord came to take the farmer's son, he found the young man with 2 broken legs. Knowing there was no way the son could fight, the Lord of the land left him there.
It was at this moment that the little old farmer realized, that the greatest thing he could EVER know, was that…

HE DIDN’T KNOW…
 
I like this story a lot. It illustrates the fact that uncertainty is a part of our future going forward. We have to take the good with the bad and understand that not everything is in our control. It also illustrates the point that 3rd party onlookers actually know even less about the implications of events in our lives and their input should, therefore, not be valued very highly. Even if we don't know what comes next, we can still take calculated risks and then live with the long-term outcome. Sometimes, the outcome will be good and sometimes not as good. That's life.