Yay, Southwest is coming. It doesn't sound like they'll have many flights from Boston initially, though. This removes one of their key benefits for me: the ability to switch to an earlier scheduled flight free-of-charge.
The bad news if that parking fees have gone up at Logan. It's expensive by US standards, but still I find it reasonable when compared to places like Heathrow or (ridiculously) Dublin.
However, I have to say that I 100% agree with these reviews of the Stage Deli (on Broadway). As one of the reviewers says below, there are plenty of places in NYC where you can get a $20 sandwich. And not wait about half an hour for it to be delivered.
The service at this restaurant is substandard. The waiters give rude a new meaning. If you're going to pay $20 for a sandwich, there are a hundred places in New York that will serve you them with a smile. Not only is the staff completely useless, but the management doesn't seem to care about customers' complaints at all. I guess they feel they have a built in clientele of "dumb" tourists. Go across the street. You'll get the same food with none of the unpleasantry.
I go to New York several times a year. This was the first and last time i will eat at Stage Deli. Waiters were rude, all sitting in the corner. One of the waiters, was walking out of the kitchen with a cusomers meal, and was picking the french fries right off there plate and eating them, as he got to the table to place the food down. He hid the fry behind his back. It was gross. I will never return, other than the sandwiches being big, they were not all that good.
The thing which the stories fail to mention is that parts of Dubai already looked like a ghost town. I've visited Dubai a few times over the past few years. There was a tremendous amount of building happening there, with many tall apartment buildings going up. But few people seemed to be living in the buildings, or moving in. Do you know how you could tell? At night all the buildings were dark. I stayed in a hotel amongst many tall new apartment buildings, and at night you could not tell that the tall apartment buildings were there at all.
Take a look at this photo of the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world) at night. It is lit up, since it is under construction. But where are the buildings around it? Nowhere to be seen because they have no lights on at night. If buildings are actually being used, either as office buildings or as apartments, then some lights will be on at night.
Compare the photo to this picture I took of San Francisco at night. Those are all office buildings in the photo, but at night they still have many lights on.
The old joke is that "will the last person to leave turn off the lights", but in the case of Dubai the lights were not on in the first place.
To finish, here is a great video of a city at night. If you don't like the music, turn it to mute. But what beautiful images:
A while back, I had to drive from the south suburbs of Denver to Boulder. So, I decided to take the scenic route via Golden (home of the Coors brewery) and then across the mountains to Nederland, then Boulder.
On the way I came across this building, coming out of nowhere round a bend in the mountain road. I stopped to take a look. It's the Black Hawk casino. I parked and walked around. It was like Casinos I'd seen in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but with a Caribbean/tropical theme at odds with its surroundings. It is either the tackiest thing you will ever see in your whole life, or a lot of fun, depending on your outlook.
