My Ten Favorite Places

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page" - St. Augustine

When I was 18, I left the safe confines of my parents' suburban Detroit home for the frozen tundra of Marquette, MI. Moving eight hours north doesn't seem like much now, but back then it was like relocating in a different country. Ever since then, moving and traveling has been my greatest passion.

Moving around so much is exciting, but also a heavy burden; saying goodbye to friends, girlfriends, and the occasional good job hurt each time. Regardless, I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything.

I lived in Marquette for four years, London for six months, Chicago for almost two years, the San Francisco Bay area for nine months, and now New York City for nine months. It's been a wild ride.

With a contemplative mood overtaking me, I decided to make a list of my ten favorite places. It wasn't easy to narrow down. I've been working on this post off and on since January. I figured I better finally finish it before I leave for Africa in two weeks (I'm hoping the trip might add a few new favorite places).

I have to list a few honorable mentions that did not make the list: Times Square (NYC), Santa Cruz (CA), Michigan Ave. (Chicago), and Russell Square (London). Without further ado, here are the places I love most:

10. Coney Island, Brooklyn (New York) - There are very few places in New York City - and in the area - where you can go and not spend a dime. At Coney Island, you can walk straight off the train, stroll down the boardwalk, and enjoy a mile-long sandy beach on the Atlantic Ocean for the cost of subway ticket.

In contrast, the Jersey Shore (a favorite of New Yorkers), actually charges people $7-8 to go on the beach. To make things worse, all the restaurants and hotels "down the Shore" are outrageously overpriced.

Right now, companies like Thor Equities have their eyes on Coney Island. They are looking at the broken-down rides, the less-than-clean beach, and abandoned lots with dollar signs. They want to take the peninsula (it is no longer an island) and turn it into an expensive theme park.

So before Coney Island goes the way of the Shore, hop on the N train, bring a cooler of beer (and plastic cups), and throw on your swim trunks for a beautiful day at the edge of the continent.

9. Wicker Park (Chicago) - If there is a hipster mecca in the Midwest, this would be it. I lived here for seven months in Chicago in a tiny apartment next to the El train. The five streets that intersect in the neighborhood's center are filled with used book shops, bars, restaurants, and tons of bohemian shops. The people there are as weird as they are interesting.

For me, Wicker Park is a bit of a tragedy. It is the unfortunate tale similar to the Haight Ashbury in San Fransisco and Camden Town in London: there is an old neighborhood where only poor people live, then a bunch of cool artsy type people move there because of the cheap rent, and the area becomes an awesome place to live and visit. Then, a bunch of rich Yuppies move in and ruin it. They drive up rent prices, attract real estate scum, and put in a bunch of shops most of the residents can't afford to go in.

I wouldn't want to live there again (I much preferred the Lake Shore area on Belmont I moved to when they closed my building), but it is still one of my favorite places to visit in Chicago.

Some of the best spots are Estelle's bar (best jute box of any bar I have ever been too), Smiths night at Danny's Tavern (I heart Morrissey), and the Mediterranean food of Sultan's.

8. Isle of Bute (Scotland) - Every American that visits Scotland or Ireland wants to see one thing: Those countries as they were 200 years ago. For those Celtic searchers, they will be disappointed to find very, modern, urban, and advanced places. But, there is one place where it comes pretty close to Old Scotland: the Isle of Bute.

A 20-minute drive and a 15-minute ferry ride from Scotland's most populated city, Glasgow, will get the adventurous traveler to the island. You'll be happy to find old world pubs and extremely think Scottish accents.

The scenery from Rothesay (the main city on Bute) is breathtaking: there are a bunch of smaller islands surrounding it, they have palm trees all over the island (apparently Bute has the perfect temperature for them to grow), tons of farmland, and woods (hard to come by in Western Europe).

A tasty reminder of British imperialism, Indian restaurants can be found all over Rothesay. It was actually the first place I ate Indian food.

A few other notable spots are a castle that was half destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, a mountain they call "the sleeping Indian" that from a distance actually looks like a Native American lying down, and Kingarth, Scotland's own Stonehenge-like rock formation.

Below, I have one of the first videos I ever took with a digital camera. The quality is crap, but there it is: The Isle of Bute.


7. Downtown Detroit (Michigan) - Like anybody my age who grew up in Suburban Detroit, going downtown has always held a sort of mystical flair. Our parents "got the hell out of there" and retreated to the 'burbs (sometimes with good reason) and we were all denied the joy of visiting a classic American city. Growing up, I think I actually knew Chicago better than I knew Detroit.

Downtown is pretty much abandoned by any normal city standard, so going down there is like being able to run free in a ghost town. You can sneak into the amazing abandoned train station, Michigan Central Station, and walk around all the beautiful art deco buildings in the New Center area and downtown with only seeing a handful of people.

Of course, you have some of the coolest stadiums in America all within a two mile radius: Joe Louis Arena (Red Wings), Comerica Park (Tigers), and Ford Field (Lions).

My favorite things to do there are eat at Lafayette Coney Island, walk around Hart Plaza (where they have the Techno Fest every year, go to the Corktown bars (Lager House, Nancy Whiskey's), hit up all three casinos in one night, ride the People Mover drunk, and head over to Windsor for some gambling and Cuban cigars.

6. Millennium Park (Chicago) - At heart, I'm just a big tourist. And there is nothing more touristy than Chicago's Millennium Park. The gigantic park (which contains Grant Park) is an excellent mix of architecture, lavish gardens, and some of the best sites of the city.

I really like these two huge pillars that have gigantic faces on them that spit water at you, the famous Cloudgate (which residents call "the bean" and my mom calls "alien hat"), and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (where I saw the Decemberists for FREE).

Above all, the best thing about it is you can stand in the middle of this place and be surrounded by dozens of huge American skyscrapers. Doesn't get much better than that.

5. Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) - This park puts Central Park, Hyde Park, and Grant Park to shame.

No where on earth would they cut out around 20% of their city to create an oasis that is free to everyone...except San Francisco. Some of the amazing things in this place are the Devry Museum (free to go to the top and see the best view of SF), the botanical garden, conservatory of flowers, Japanese tea garden (actually $4 to get in), the redwood forest, and hundreds of other little things that make this park a hard place to pass up.

Just for a contrast, Millennium Park hosts a three day festival, Lollapalooza, that costs about $300. Golden Gate Park hosts a three day festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and it's free. That's my kind of city.

Below, I have a video of my mom and I at the park:

4. Trafalgar Square (London) - Much like Millennium Park, this place held a magical tourist hold on me. The huge square is a dedication to the battle of Trafalgar where Admiral Nelson defeated Napoleon. The main sites are the statues, large fountains (that the bobbies need to kick people out of in the summer), and Nelson's column.

The square has a 151 ft column with a statue of Nelson on top at the front of the square. I must have starred in awe at this thing over a dozen times. Also, at the rear of the square is The National Gallery. I can't even begin to describe half the stuff in there. Oh, and it is free.

I lived for three months on Store Street in London and it would only take me 5-10 minutes to walk to the Square. I dragged friends there after long nights of drinking, anybody that visited me, and often went there myself to sit on the steps leading up to the Gallery.

Flags flap from every country in the world in the area surrounding the square - it seems like they all have a spot there.

The view from the top of the steps is breathtaking. Sunsets are cool everywhere, but watching the sun drop on central London is something else altogether.

3. The Valley (CA) - There is a magical land, hidden between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, where hippies and nature live in total harmony.

In the Valley, banana slugs slowly slide on dead leaves, raccoons search for delicious trash, deer prance through the gigantic redwood trees, occasional coyotes and mountain lions run past in the distance, salamanders gingerly swim in Winter Pond, and hippies frolic in the expansive Worley Flat.

If you have never been, you wouldn't understand. If you have, your mind drifts back there in crowded subway cars, suburban traffic jams, and tiny "apartments" that would be better characterized as closets.

It was the best place I ever lived and the hardest to leave.

SHABOOYA

2. The Upper Peninsula (Michigan) - One of the best things about this area of the country is no one knows about it. The only people that have some faint clue it exists are Suburban Detroiters who are just as likely to visit there as an Israeli going on vacation in the Gaza strip.

The natural beauty of the U.P. cannot be overestimated. In the words of Bob Ross, "God was having a good day when he created this." Maybe it has something to do with the fact it snows eight months out of the year, but this place seems untouched by man.

I lived in the U.P.'s biggest city, Marquette, for four years and it still seemed like I was in the middle of the woods.

In the winter, go skiing at Mount Bohemia or Marquette Mountain. They are much cheaper than any other ski hills in the world and have some fantastic hills. In the summer, check out the beautiful peninsula Presque Isle for the best views of Lake Superior, go rock jumping at the Black Rocks (like my friend, Ben Cline, and I above), tour Northern Michigan University's gorgeous campus, and enjoy the beaches of Marquette - the water is freezing, but it is worth it to swim in a lake that is so big it looks like an ocean.

There are a million other things I could mention, but this article is long enough already. It was a great place to go to college and I hope to visit there many times in the future.

1. San Francisco - There are very few places I mention above that I can say I would like to live at for the rest of my life. I had fun at all those places, and can't wait to visit someday, but I can't see myself living there. San Francisco is different. I loved it there and it is the place I want to move to someday.

Surrounded by the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, this seven-mile-by-seven-mile peninsula has some of the best views and natural beauty of any place in America.

The downtown is bustling with workers and loud cranking trolley cars on Market Street. On the last Friday of every month, these sounds are replaced by the grinding of bicycle gears and Critical Massers (CM actually started in SF) starting their long bike ride from the Ferry Building.

Walking a few blocks from downtown, you can stumble into China. I say China, and not Chinatown, because it feels like you have teleported out of California into a bustling Beijing shopping center. Block after block after block is nothing but shops with Mandarin writing on them; normal Chinatowns have a few restaurants - here there are dentists, doctor offices, and everything else you can imagine. This is truly a Chinatown.

A little bit north of Chinatown is Fisherman's Wharf, a mix between a tourist trap and a fishing village. You could probably never afford to live there, but shopping and staring out at Alcatraz there is a must. My favorite place there, I'm partial because I used to work there, is Pier 39. It is a tourist place, for sure, but it is nowhere as congested and horrible as Navy Pier in Chicago. Plus, you get to see a bunch of Sea Lions barking and lounging around. They are the real attraction, and the reason why there are so many touristy places on the pier.

Two of my favorite restaurants in the world are in the city: The Stinking Rose (a garlic-only menu) and Chutney (the Chicken Tikka Masala is unbelievable).

So much has already been written about San Francisco that I think it is beneficial for me to clear up a few misconseptions about the city:

1. It's gay - Well, I hate to say it, but I hear this one the most. First off, let me say, if you aren't going to move somewhere because there are gay people then you mine as well move into a small shack in the middle of the woods and never talk to people again (you know, like the Unabomber). Gay people are everywhere, whether you like it or not. Second, there are so many single straight women there it would make any guy's head spin. Trust me.
2. It's expensive - This place doesn't even come close to how expensive New York City or London is. The strong activist culture here won some serious victories for renters, so rent, in general, isn't that bad. I lived in a room with a turret where I could see Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park for $700 a month. I know people, at the time, who were paying way more in Chicago.

3. It's hot - As "someone" (usually attributed to Mark Twain) once wrote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." The weather there is rainy, only mildly warm, and it gets really cold at night. The occasional good day makes it all worth it. Note: sometimes it is just better to let friends and family believe San Francisco is hot and you ride a surfboard to work everyday. It's a real buzz kill to have to break the news to them.

Here is a video of my mom and I going to Alcatraz. You get to see downtown SF as we get sent to jail:

I don't know if I'll ever move back to San Francisco. I want to get a job as a print reporter - and I'll go wherever that takes me. I have a fear that if I ever go back to San Francisco that it won't be the same as last time. I was there at a period of my life when I was still a bit soft (living in New York for nine months and getting chewed out by editors and professors, and writing a ton of stories about murders and manslaughters, changes a man) and don't want to tarnish my image of the place.

Well, I guess there is no point dreaming about the future while I'm still exploring another great city and getting ready to move to Africa for two months. Until next time, have a great day!

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All pictures in this article are by me except the turret shot by Heather Nicholson, Lafayette Coney Island by Steve Molnar, and the Trafalgar Square and Black Rocks shot by people I can't remember.