Blog Archives
Drinking With Class – Rhode Island Brewery Series – @revivalbrewing
With so many awesome breweries popping up in Rhode Island, we wanted to start shining the spotlight on some of our favorites. Breweries have turned into so much more than just a place to brew beer, and Revival Brewing Co. in Cranston, RI is one of the best examples of that. Between their pint nights, tastings & easily accessible hours of operations (12-8 Monday-Saturday, 12-4 Sunday) Revival is turning into one of the best breweries in the state. It doesn’t hurt that they brew delicious beer, too. Here’s a special Drinking with Class look at Revival Brewing.
– The Average Nobodies
China Built A 1,640 Foot Glass Slide On The Side Of A Mountain & NOPE
I’ll admit the view from the top of this slide is amazing. If you’re going to go through the trouble of flying all the way to China you might as well do something badass like take in that view, but there is no way in hell I’m going down that slide. First of all, it must take you FOREVER to reach the bottom. At a certain point you’re no longer a thrill seeker. You’re just a person stuck on a slide. Second of all, I’m sure China has some fantastic engineers but I get the feeling they really don’t give a shit if somebody flies off the side of this slide. There’s almost 1.5 billion people that live there. Do you think the government cares if a few fall of a slide and into a never ending crevasse? I doubt it. Breathtaking view? Sure. Bottomless fall to your death? Might as well be a certainty.
-Ryan
H/T Travel & Leisure
This Just In: Airlines Are Still Awful
Two women travelling on an American Airlines flight have claimed members of staff were “racist” towards one of them.
Rane Baldwin, who is African American, was flying with friend Janet Novack, who is white, from Kentucky to Charlotte when the incident occurred on 2 May.
Baldwin – an AAdvantage Platinum Select/World Elite cardholder – had purchased the two tickets and decided to upgrade them both to first class. However, when they were issued their boarding passes, she was instructed to go to the back of the plane despite her frequent flyer status, while Novack, who holds no status with the airline, was directed to first class. Baldwin was told her seat had been reassigned because there weren’t enough first class seats available. – Yahoo
Just when you think you’re going to go a week without hearing an awful airlines story, American Airlines comes crashing through the front door and spits in your eye. Now, I know a bunch of white guys aren’t experts on race relations but we ARE experts on pretty much everything else. Plainly put: this is poo poo customer service.
Want to know something cool though? A study was released with a simulation of a comet that would hit the earth, and how the people would react: People were simulated that they would be peaceful and “love thy brother.”
So everyone wants to be an asshole now, but when the end of the world comes, I bet you racism ends [editor’s note: it will not end].
But today is not that day, so American Airlines needed some more press, and they got it – taking no prisoners: wealthy, black – it doesn’t matter. American Airlines wanted to set the standard for dumb decisions and they succeeded.
The answer? Don’t fly anymore. Walk. Bring a Gun. Bring a Tazer. TSA Everywhere. Is TSA the next martial law? The world may find out soon.
Stay Classy my Nobodies, and love your fuckin brother or sister, and not in an incestuous way.
~ Ryan & The Doctah
United Airlines Continues Their Gold Star Customer Service By Forcibly Removing A Paying Customer From An Oversold Flight
As someone who has worked in the travel industry for the past 5 years, I can confidently say that airlines are the absolute worst. They makes billions of dollars a year in profits and know that they’re the quickest method of transportation to get you from point A to point B, so they treat everyone like shit. Outside of Italy (where they plainly just do not give a fuck) US airlines are the worst. Don’t believe me? Check out the video above, where a paying customer is forcibly removed off a flight that the AIRLINES OVERSOLD. According to people on the plane, United announced the plane was overbooked and asked for volunteers to leave the plane. Since pretty much everyone in the history of flying go on planes because they need to be somewhere rather quickly, this guy didn’t volunteer. United’s response was to have the police drag him off the plane like an animal. While the story is bad enough, United decided to amp up it’s shittiness and be as awful as possible with this official statement:
“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.
We apologize for the overbook situation.” – WHAS11
The worst part about this is that very little (if anything) will happen to United because again, flying is really the only way to get anywhere. While I’m sure more will come out of this story, I’m reserving my right to firmly state that United handled this situation as poorly as possible.
-Ryan
Traveling With Ryan – Scotland
For those of you that don’t know, I moonlight at an escorted tour company in my native Rhode Island. One of the perks of working for the tour company is that I have the ability to travel more than most, and when I do travel, it’s usually with a tour guide who is experienced in the region or country I’m traveling to. Traveling is one of my favorite passions, and it’s a great way to experience a culture’s history, cuisine and lifestyle. I recently went to Scotland, so I’d like to share some of the pictures I took and the things I learned while I was there. If you have any questions or comments, comment on this post or reach out to me on Twitter @averagenobodies.
Photo: Top of Edinburgh Castle
Scotland has somewhat of a bloody history, and pretty much every story you hear ends with someone getting hung, beheaded or stabbed. Luckily present day Scotland has slightly less hangings, beheadings and stabbings, and it’s a beautiful place to tour. My tour started out in Edinburgh and ended in Glasgow while we toured St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Inverness and Skye in between. If you look at the map below, the tour route ends up looking like a giant arch.
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
We toured battlefields, including the Battle of Culloden where the Royal Army under King George II squashed the Jacobite rebellion for good. They’ve preserved the battlefield, although it’s now about 1/3 the size it once was. It was still a surreal experience walking around where thousands of troops lost their lives fighting for what they believed in.
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Outside of battlefields, the main sites are castles and palaces. We visited the ruins of Urquhart Castle off of Lake Loch Ness, a beautiful castle that was somewhat destroyed during the constant back and forth battles between the Scots and the English. Although it’s only partially preserved, it’s still a gorgeous site:
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
We also toured Kilchurn Castle in the Scottish highlands, another castle partially preserved after the constant warring. Note to anyone traveling to Scotland with older tourists: don’t ask them to take a picture of you in front a castle, because they will actually take a picture of you in front of the castle:
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Thankfully, I also got some good pictures:
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
In between the Highlands and Edinburgh we visited St. Andrews, and I was able to walk the Old Course, which is where the PGA holds the British Open every year. At first glance the course looks relatively easy, but once you’re actually outside near the course, the winds are in excess of 30 mph. Any golfer knows those aren’t ideal conditions to play in, but it is a beautiful place.
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
We also toured the Blair Athol Distillery in Pitlochry. It’s an interesting place with a ton of history, and I’d strongly urge you to have a scotch tasting while in Scotland. After we toured the distillery, we partook in a tasting of their Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, which you can only find in Scotland, Norway and Denmark. If I had to describe it in one phrase, it would be ‘I wanted to die’.
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
While the Scottish Highlands were beautiful, Edinburgh was the highlight of my trip. It’s a truly amazing city, and if you ever get the chance to travel to Scotland, make sure you spend a good amount of time in Edinburgh and plan the rest after that. Edinburgh is broken up into the Old Town and the New Town. If I had to recommend one, it would be the Old Town. That’s where I stayed, more specifically in the Grassmarket district, which used to be the main place for executions in the city of Edinburgh. While I didn’t see any killings during my stay, we did have a perfect view of Edinburgh Castle right outside our hotel:
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
The main thing to remember about Scotland is that the castles were for military defense while the palaces served as living quarters for the Royal families. Edinburgh Castle is right in the heart of the city and sits atop the Royal Mile (a street that starts at the Castle and ends at the Palace of Holyroodhouse). There are an insane amount of museums, pubs and restaurants, and it’s truly a surreal experience to visit a castle built in the 12th century and then drink a pint at a pub two minutes down the road. Once inside the Castle, it’s absolutely worth it to tour the Royal Palace, the Great Hall and the Scottish National War Memorial.
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
View of Edinburgh with your back to the Castle
Any Harry Potter fans will love Edinburgh, because that’s the city where J.K Rowling started and finished writing the series of books. Edinburgh inspired most of the architecture that Rowling included in Harry Potter, and she started writing the books at a local café called the Elephant House. Rowling was a struggling writer at the time, and found it cheaper to pay for a cup of coffee rather than pay her heating bill at home. When she returned to Edinburgh to finish the series, she stayed at the Balmoral Hotel, which is only a 15 minute walk from the Grassmarket district.
Another cool site in Edinburgh is Arthur’s Seat, a 3 mile hike that I somehow completed even though I have the physical endurance of an asthmatic senior citizen. While the hiking itself wasn’t very fun, the views are worth the trip:
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
Photo: Ryan in Scotland
The food in Scotland was amazing, and well beyond my expectations. Yes, I did have haggis, and while it wasn’t great, it’s something I’d definitely recommend trying while you’re in Scotland. Their main cuisine consists of fresh seafood and vegetable soups, but I also had chicken, beef and lamb dishes that were out of this world. The pubs were a lot of fun, and although we were in Edinburgh on Sunday and Monday nights, it was easy to see that it’s a lively atmosphere once the sun goes down. Food and drinks were affordable everywhere we went (including hotels) and the people could not have been nicer.
While it’s impossible to sum up an entire country in one blog post, I hope that this was helpful to any future travelers who might be looking at exploring Scotland. It’s a beautiful place, and well worth your time. Now, I’ll leave you with a video of ducks sliding down a slide while a dog looks on at a Scottish farm I visited.
-Ryan
‘Better Late Than Never’ Is Going To Be Your New Favorite TV Show
YES – William Shatner, Henry Winkler and George Foreman have signed on to star in NBC’s travelogue reality series “Better Late Than Never,” from producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
Comedian Jeff Dye and sportscaster Terry Bradshaw are also on board for the bro-mance vehicle that will send the five men on a trek through major cities in Asia. “Better Late Than Never” is adapted from the hit South Korean format “Grandpa Over Flowers,” which NBC optioned last year.
Production begins in August. Episodes will cover stops in Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Chang Mai. The show aims to offer a comedic look at how the five navigate unfamiliar cultures and settings and rely on one another for support while forgoing the usual trappings of celebrity status such as limousines and assistants. Each will also be tasked with checking off “bucket list” items.
Henry Winkler, George Foreman, William Shatner and Terry Bradshaw travel the world. You had me at H. I already have this DVR’d and it hasn’t even been filmed yet. That’s how excited I am for this show. I want to see William Shatner being mildly racist while Henry Winkler sits by sheepishly grinning. I want to George Foreman explain proper grilling methods to world class hibachi chefs. I want it all, and I want it all right now. If there’s two things I learned from this article it’s that I’m a sucker for old people plopped in modern scenarios that they don’t understand and South Korea has the best names for their shows (seriously, Grandpa Over Flowers might be the best named show in history).
Ryan Does Italy – A Recap
I’ve been in Italy for the past 10 days, and if you haven’t noticed, that’s because Funky Butt Matt has been doing one hell of a job running Average Nobodies. Now that I’m back, I have a lot of DVR’d television to watch, but first, I wanted to spread the word about everything I learned while in Italy.
I visited Rome, Assisi, Perugia, Florence, Sienna, Venice, Murano, Lake Como and Malpensa. I know, I impress myself sometimes. If I had to sum up all these places in one word, it would be wine.
1. I would be 500 pounds if I lived in Italy. I know a lot of people say that when they come back from vacation but it’s 100% true. Italians don’t eat to leave and go somewhere else, they leave where they are to go eat. It’s like a spiritual experience to them. Every day we put aside 2-3 hours for lunch, and by lunch I mean antipasto as an appetizer, followed by loads of bread followed by pasta followed by veal/fish. For LUNCH. Throw in a few jugs of wine and you have the best lunch ever created. It was wonderful, but if I stayed any longer I’d be one of those people who needs a forklift to get from their bedroom to the bathroom.
2. Italians, and Europeans in general, somehow didn’t get the “smoking is bad for you” memo. EVERYONE smokes in Italy. Babies, normal people, old people. Its insane. The only downside to this, besides constantly smelling like cigarettes, is that Italians love to smoke while they eat. Luckily for them, just about every restaurant in Italy has outside dining. What’s a bowl of pasta without half a dozen cigarettes anyway?
3. I found my new favorite song. While in Florence, I ate at a restaurant that played a live version of Country Roads by John Denver, except with a violin and an accordion. It was amazing. I don’t know who the two guys who played it are, but one day I will travel back and find them and make them play that song for me on repeat forever.
4. The YMCA is my jam. You know how the Soviets used to train spies and send them to the US and give them trigger words to cause chaos? The YMCA is my trigger word. Once I hear it I stop what I’m doing and just turn into a dancing machine.
5. The mosquito’s in Italy are ravenous animals. Apparently if you eat fruit they single you out and take advantage of you. Guess what this guy had for breakfast every morning? Large quantities of fruit.
6. Pasta Arrabbiata is the most amazing thing I’ve ever eaten. It’s translating as just pasta with a spicy sauce, but it’s so much more. I do not know what is in the sauce, but whatever the hell it is must be some sort of heaven on Earth. Also, refer back to point 1 about being 500 pounds because I would eat this for lunch and dinner every day for the rest of my life.
7. If wine addiction is a thing, I have it. I’m also addicted to the Italian lifestyle of multiple hour lunches with four course meals and endless jugs of wine. Between the food, wine, sites, views and history, Italy is a place to be treasured. Basically, Italy is heaven on Earth.
