Alcohol From A Country That Doesn't Exist, Part II: Eureka!

A little over a month ago I wrote about my 1.5 year search for KVINT, the main export of the breakaway territory of Transnistria.  My search had seen many dead ends, including their east coast distributor in the US.  And now I sit here drinking it.  I FINALLY FOUND IT!

Shortly after that article, as one last ditch effort, I emailed their importer in Seattle, WA.  I had emailed them before, and even called a few times only to get no answer or call-back.  This time?  I got a reply!  They gave me the phone number of their distributor in Denver.  DENVER.  My city!  I called the guy, and he told me that Stockade Wines & Liquors at Parker & Yale had several types of KVINT, in addition to a lot of other hard-to-find-in-the-US Moldovan spirits. 

I was leery at first.  I had once driven a total of 3 hours (round trip) to a liquor store that told me they carried KVINT, only to find some non-KVINT on their shelves.  But when I arrived, I found this:

Stockade Wines & Liquors, I love you.

Holy awesome, Batman!  Three types of KVINT!  Which do I buy?!  I went with SURPRISE XO, as it is one of their fancier products.  Might as well go for the best*, right? 

I'm not a brandy/cognac connoisseur, and any review I give is coming from a scotch/whiskey perspective, but here goes.  It's good!  Much sweeter than whiskey, but still quite strong.  It has a nice flavor.  I'm pleasantly surprised, and VERY excited to be drinking something that was made in Transnistria - a country that doesn't really exist! 

Photo time!

It comes in a fancy cardboard box.

Surprise indeed!

This is the bottle inside.

Moldovan Cognac, Imported

That's right.  It's made in Transnistria, and Moldova gets all the credit.  I guess that's the deal when your country isn't globally recognized.

So there you have it.  My quest has come to a successful end! :)


*No, oldest + most expensive doesn't always mean the best.  But... it's a starting place.

Alcohol From A Country That Doesn't Exist

Transnistria!
Since first hearing about Transnistria a few years ago, I have been fascinated by it.  It's a breakaway territory in Moldova, along part of the border with Ukraine.  To over simplify it, in the early '90s Transnistria decided it was no longer part of Moldova, and Moldova disagreed.  (Transnistria had previously claimed to be part of the USSR, but then the USSR fell and Transnistria was stuck with Moldova.) The cease-fire in 1992 seems to pretty much let Transnistria think of itself as independent while not actually being such.  According to wikipedia, "It is organized as a presidential republic, with its own government, parliament, military, police, postal system, and currency. Its authorities have adopted a constitution, flag, national anthem, and a coat of arms."  Locally the country is called Приднестровская Молдавская Республика (Pridnestróvskaia Moldávskaia Respública aka PMR).

Transnistria!

Desolation Travel, easily one of my favorite blogs, has two articles on Transnistria.  They also have a far better look at the country, its history, its current state, etc.  Check them out here and here.

KVINT
Since the place is a bit of an abnormality, I decided that I need to try its most famous export: KVINT.  (A noble sentiment for sure.) KVINT is a wine and brandy distillery in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.  According to their website their name is an abbreviation of "Коньяки, вина и напитки Тирасполя", the Russian phrase for "Brandies, Wines and Beverages of Tiraspol".  You can tour the factory in Tiraspol... but I'm in the United States with no current plans to travel to Transnistria.  So begins my quest for KVINT!

Where exactly does one find brandy from Transnistria in the US?  There are two phone numbers of US distributors on their website, but no one seems to answer them... ever.  I sent an email to the one on the east coast, which happened to be about an hour from my house at the time, and a few days later they did get back to me asking what I'm looking for and in what quantities.  But just prior to receiving that email, I found information on a wine store in New Jersey that listed KVINT on its website... Sounds promising!

I called the store to verify that they did indeed have a KVINT product in stock, they said yes, I hopped in my car, drove an hour-ish to the store, asked the store employee where I could find KVINT (since he previously told me they had it), and we were off to the Cognac aisle!  Mr. Liquor-Store-Employee pulled a dusty bottle from the back of the bottom shelf and handed it to me.  KVINT?  No.  No?  No.  It didn't have the name KVINT, the company logo, or any other related information on the bottle.  Failure.  I left thoroughly disappointed.

Still Searching...
So now I'm back to emailing the two contacts listed on the website, hoping for a reply.  And if that doesn't work, there are some shady websites claiming to have it available!

Anyone have any other ideas?  Or perhaps know of a place I can buy this brand?

If nothing else, the lack of organization and ease of doing business with this company is giving me a lesson in Eastern European patience.  If it's this hard to track down Transnistria's main export, I imagine other common scenarios are equally difficult to accomplish there!

North America's Highest Paved Road

The highest paved road in North America is right here in Colorado!  With a final elevation of 14,130', the Mt. Evans Scenic Byway winds its way to the top of Mt. Evans.  Starting just outside of Idaho Springs, the route is 28 miles long, and gains over 7000'.





View Mt. Evans Scenic Byway in a larger map

Lakes
Along the way you'll pass two lakes, Echo Lake and Summit Lake. 

• Echo Lake is before the toll station, so you'll find lots of people here.  There are picnic tables, grills, campgrounds, etc.  Echo Lake is at 10,600'.
• Summit Lake is after the toll station, and is right off of the byway.  There is a parking lot and restrooms.  Summit Lake is at 12,830'.

Wildlife 
According to Wikipedia, there is a lot of cool wildlife to see on Mt. Evans, including:

• Mountain Lions
• Black Bears
• Bighorn Sheep
• Mountain Goats
• Yellow-Bellied Marmots
• Pikas
• Elk
• Mule Deer
• White-Tailed Ptarmigans, and a few other birds

I only saw some big horn sheep ewes on my trip in June, so I'll need to visit again. :)




At The Top
Once you finally reach the top, you'll see some people hiking around.  It was in the upper-30s when I was there in June, and was so windy that we opted to get back in the car pretty quickly, rather than walk around.  It is typically very windy up there, and rarely goes above 40°F in the summer (I asked a ranger!).  A good rule of thumb seems to be 40° below the current temperature in Idaho Springs. 

There is a nice overlook area, complete with viewfinders and restrooms.  The view is amazing, and you can see Denver in the distance.



The University of Denver has an observatory at the top, and you can view some regional weather information on their website (here). The observatory is accessible by DU students taking certain astronomy or physics courses, but is not open to the public.

A Few Notes
Aside from bringing a coat so you can explore without being too cold, here are some tips:

• Safety:  There are no guard rails on most of the byway.  It's a winding road, with lots of big drop offs.  The road is wide enough for two cars to drive past each other, but barely.
  
• Engine Braking: On the way down you'll want to do some engine braking, so your brakes don't overheat.  There are a few places to pull over if your car needs a rest.
• Cost: The byway costs $9 per car, and is good for 3 consecutive days.
• Altitude Sickness:  Watch out for altitude sickness!  Even living at over 5000', I still felt a bit dizzy up there!
• Weather:  As I said before, it's windy and cold.  It frequently snows in the summer, and temperatures drop about 5°F for every 1000' of elevation you gain. 

Further Information

• MountEvans.com has some useful information, including road closing info
• Mt. Evans on the America's Byways site
• My photo album on Flickr

South Korea

In a few weeks I will be in South Korea!  I'll only be there for a few weeks, and my time will be largely dominated by the class I'm taking, but if you have any suggestions on things to do/visit/eat/hike/photograph... let me know!

Soooooo excited!

StreetView (sorta) in Russia and Ukraine

Google doesn't yet provide StreetView imagery in Russia or Ukraine, but Yandex does!  Yandex currently has StreetView-like "Panoramas" for 40 cities in Russia, and 31 in Ukraine.  Behold:

 Murmansk, Russia

Uzhgorod, Ukraine

What's Up With That Russian Exclave, Kaliningrad?!

Go get a map of Europe.  Find Lithuania.  Now find Poland.  See that little blob of Russia that's in between the two?  That's Kaliningrad!  Note: the city of Kaliningrad is in Kaliningrad Oblast. 

The fall of the Soviet Union has left Kaliningrad Oblast entirely separated from the rest of Russia.  In fact, it's now surrounded by members of the EU!  But I'm not a political blogger, I'm a cool-stuff-in-random-places blogger.  So here's what I find interesting about Kaliningrad:

• Amber
• "The Monster"
• City gates
• Seven bridges

Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin, and is popular in jewelery (among other uses).  Though I never really questioned where amber comes from, I stumbled across the answer while reading up on Kaliningrad: about 90% of the world's supply comes from Kaliningrad and the Baltic Sea.  Cool!  Unless you happen to be one of the many insects that gets trapped inside the amber...

"The Monster"
Where would the world be without Soviet architecture?  A happier place?  Maybe.  A more boring place?  Probably!

So waaay back in the day, Königsberg Castle was at the center of Kaliningrad (then Königsberg, Prussia/Germany).  It was lovely:

Königsberg Castle

Königsberg was bombed in World War II, and what was left became property of Russia.  The powers that be decided shortly thereafter that they didn't really want to be reminded of the area's German past, and ordered that the castle be demolished.  Bummer.  But FEAR NOT!  About 15 years later something new and ...interesting was built there (ish): The Monster.

 TA-DA!  The Monster.

It's actually called House of Soviets, and was intended to be the main administrative building for the oblast.  However, as with other would-be architectural feats commissioned by communist regimes, it didn't work out as planned.  After spending 20 years on its construction, funding was cut, and it was never finished.  So there it stood, in the middle of Kaliningrad, unfinished.  And locals started referring to it as 'The Monster'.  After 25 years of decaying, the exterior was finished for the 2005 visit of Vladimir Putin.  The interior is still unfinished.  

Do not enter!  But please admire from a distance.

As for the actual site of the former castle, it's an archaeological dig site.  They're hoping to find the rest of the Amber Room.

City Gates
I've been fascinated by Kaliningrad's gates since first reading about the city.  At first I just wanted to see where they were, but couldn't easily locate them on a map.  So I looked for a more detailed map.  Well, detailed maps seemed to be hard to find, at least with my very limited Russian capabilities.  Many hours and many maps later, I found them, and have put together a Google Map for your enjoyment!  Complete with photos, descriptions, and more!!




View Kaliningrad Gates in a larger map

If you'd like more information on the gates, Tourism Kaliningrad has some good information.  While I'm at it, here are the other maps I found during my quest.  They're all pretty interesting, and from different time periods!

A very awesome, very detailed map. Worth checking out in full-res!

Overview of Kaliningrad (top) and Riga (bottom) circa 1500s

For sale here (link includes a nice history)

Overview of the fortress 

(link includes photos, etc)

Detailed Tram Map!!

Seven Bridges
Also of note are Kaliningrad's 7 bridges (only 5 still exist today).  You see, the locals had a bit of a dilemma.  They wanted to cross each of the 7 bridges exactly once time during a walk around the city.  But they couldn't figure out how to do it.  So the called upon Euler.  Euler proceeded to do some crazy math things and decided that it couldn't be done. :(  However, his work on this problem led to the basis for graph theory, and now there is a Wikipedia article about it.  And that's all I'll say about this, because I'm no mathematician.

Links
Kaliningrad seems pretty awesome, and I definitely need to visit someday!  Until then, here are some links:

• "Kaliningrad caught in no-man's land" (2003)
• "Kaliningrad: from Russian relic to Baltic boom town" (2006)
• Planned Restoration Information (in English)
• And here are some historic maps you can buy me for my birthday! 
• Königsberg (Kaliningrad), city map, 1887
• Kaliningrad (Königsberg) city map, 1906
• Kaliningrad (Königsberg) city map, 1911

Greetings from Denver!

I live in Colorado now!  The past few weeks have been busy, and I have a number of half-written blogs that I want to finish.  Hopefully I'll have time to do that once I get all moved in and such.  Hooray Colorado!

[photo by drljohnson]

Grafton, UT... Ghost Town?

When I was planning a trip to Utah in 2008, I thought "Utah probably has a bunch of ghost towns.  I SHOULD GO TO ONE!!"  As luck would have it, there was a ghost town right near one of my destinations: Zion National Park. Grafton, Utah.  Excellent.  I printed out (old school!) some Google Maps, threw them in my duffel bag, and hopped on a plane!

Visiting Grafton!
My friends and I stayed at a B&B in Glendale, which was on the other side of Zion National Park from Grafton.  So we had an hour drive in the morning, during which I was REALLY excited for our arrival.  We drove through Zion quickly, with the intent of going back later in the day.  Got to Rockville (yes, that Rockville), turned left on Bridge St, continued along the dirt road for a while...



View Larger Map

But when we arrived in Grafton, all was not well.  Something was wrong.  Or rather, nothing was wrong.  The only two buildings we could see had been recently renovated, new windows and all.  They were in perfect condition!  Not only was Grafton missing the ghost town vibe I was hoping for, but there was a big fence keeping us far away from the buildings.  And lots of "under surveillance 24 hours" signs.  This was the closest we got to the house:

House in Grafton, UT.  

Most well-kept ghost town ever. 

Sure it's still pretty cool looking, but...  fences?  Why preserve it if not for people to visit and learn?  It's great to preserve it so it looks like it did in its heyday, but I would've enjoyed my visit a lot more if allowed to walk around near the buildings, rather than being kept at a distance. 

If I had done my research before we went, I would've learned that the Grafton Heritage Partnership Project keeps this place in tip-top shape, and that my search for desolation probably shouldn't have led me there. 

As disappointed as I was in Grafton's lack of decay, all was not lost.  Zion National Park was awesome, and I got to drive on this way cool bridge in Rockville:

Yay bridges!

If you're interested in learning about Grafton's actual history, here you go:

• Some Info, Lots of Photos: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/grafton.html
• History: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ut-grafton2.html
• Info on the Restoration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafton,_Utah#Restoration
• About the Community: http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58121/Remembering-Grafton.html

Side Note: Rockville, UT
For those who may remember, there was a rock fall in Rockville back in February 2010.  On my trip I had driven right past the site of the rock fall, which is depicted here:

UGS 2010 Rockville rock fall diagram (source)

Nearby Ghost Towns

There are a few other ghost towns relatively close to Grafton.  Pahreah/Paria and Silver Reef seem the coolest from what I've read.  

• Pahreah\Paria -  Pahreah\Paria is actually two sites, one is an old Mormon town, and one is a former movie set (which was destroyed in 2006 via arson).  
• Silver Reef- Silver Reef sounds awesome!  It seems to have a few remaining residents along side its many old and abandoned buildings.  A winning combination! 

I'll try to visit Silver Reef next time I'm in southern Utah.  Could be sooner than I think; changes are on the horizon!

State High Point - Delaware!

Delaware
Ebright Azimuth
On the way home from a biking trip in Delaware (White Clay Creek State Park!), Jimmy and I decided to take the long way home again... past DE's highest point!  The highest point marker is at the intersection of Ebright Rd & Ramblewood Dr, north of Wilmington, DE.  As it turns out, the land in the trailer park west of that intersection is actually a few feet higher.  However, that is rumored to be due to construction, and is therefore not the natural high point.  Anyway, we visited at night, so here are the best photos I could get.  Also note, it was trick-or-treat night, so there were lots of kids walking around in scary costumes!

 Ebright Azimuth - DE's High Point Marker

The park in the trailer park behind the High Point Marker.

Some of the land in the trailer park is higher than the natural highpoint.

I've noticed another curious thing about DE's highpoint.  The marker has been moved! 

Take a look at the Google StreetView:

View Larger Map
In StreetView the marker is located on the SE corner of Ebright & Ramblewood (across from the radio tower in the view).  However, the marker is now located on the west side of Ebright at the intersection with Ramblewood, and there's a nice sort of outcropping in the sidewalk so you can check it out without getting hit by cars!  Awesome!  We couldn't find the actual benchmark, but perhaps it's located near where the marker used to be?  We'll have to go back in the day time to look around for it.

Twelve-Mile Circle
On a separate trip to the White Clay Creek State Park area, we visited the end point of the Twelve-Mile Circle, which is the arc of the Delaware/Pennsylvania border.  Wikipedia has a nice illustration:

The Twelve-Mile Circle.  Not the blog.

I fell in a bunch of mud, but it was a worthwhile visit nonetheless!  And here are my photos:



I apologize for seemingly visiting Delaware only at night, and for the resulting poor photos!

Tea Time - Northern Delights Inuit Tea!

When traveling I like to try a local tea or something that is generally related to the area.  For example, in Utah I found Prickly Pear Cactus Ceylon Tea.  In Key West I found both Key Lime Black Tea and a fruit blend key lime tea.  And in Alaska... well, I got tea imported from AK's former owner, Russia. :) Anyway, tea is awesome, and when I was in Ottawa recently I came across some tea that I found intriguing...

Inuit Tea!
Keeping with my fascination of far-off lands, the Canadian Arctic completely fascinates me.  Until I can afford one of those awesome looking arctic exploration cruises, I'll have to settle for quasi-traveling via Wikipedia and Flickr.  And drinking tea!

I came across a variety of Inuit tea while looking around an awesome tea shop in Ottawa, ON.  Yay!  I opted for the variety box, which contains each of the five flavors.  What are the flavors, you ask?  They are:

• Arctic Blend (Ukiurtatuq)
• Cloudberry (Arpiqutik)
• Ground juniper (Qisiqtutauyak)
• Crowberry (Paurngaqutik)
• Labrador (Mamaittuqutik)

The website goes into great detail about the teas, noting the ingredients as well as a bit about each tea.  Other pages on the site provide information about each plant and details about the harvest.  Their dedication to keeping the tea traditional, from the use of traditional plants to hand-picked ingredients ("No mechanical equipment is employed at any phase of production.") is quite impressive!

As for how the teas actually taste, they're great!  Very earthy, and an interesting blends of flavors.

Ground Juniper Tea

Now for the sad part: the website only offers help for finding this tea in Canada. :(  You can always email them suggestions!

Other Awesome Teas
For the heck of it, here are photos of some of the other location-related teas I've found.

Prickly Pear Cactus Tea

Virgin, UT

Fruitblend Key Lime Tea

Key West, FL

Maps
You didn't expect me to blog about something like this without creating a related Google Map, did you?!

View Location-Related Tea in a larger map

State High Point - Pennsylvania!

I've never really been a highpointer, but I do like heights!  So a fascination with highpointing may have been inevitable.  Without further ado, here's the first in my series of high point adventures!

Pennsylvania's Highest Point
Casselman Wind Project
On the way home from Pittsburgh in July, Jimmy and I decided that we should stop by PA's highest point, and since Ken was in the car with us, he came too.  Not long after we got off the turnpike and started taking some of Somerset County's winding roads, we saw some wind turbines in the distance.  We agreed that if we came anywhere near them we'd try to find a way to get closer to explore.  Fortunately, we ended up driving right past a service road for the Casselman Wind Power Project!  And so we had some fun taking photos and admiring the turbines.  :)  Most of them were spinning, but it seemed that they were powered to slightly spin even if there wasn't much wind.  I suppose it uses more energy to start them up again from a dead stop than it does to keep them a little powered all the time.  Anyway, here are my photos!





Mt. Davis
Having had our fill of wind energy, we continued on towards Mt Davis.  The elevation change in our drive to the highpoint was very gradual, and we were almost surprised when we saw the "High Point" sign. We pulled over for the obligatory photos, and found a path going back into the woods to what turned out to be Baughman Rocks.We found a really nice deck with some benches, and on the other side of that, the actual rocks.  There is also a plaque that shares the creepy story of the family the rocks were named after.  And as seems to be the case in most rural areas, the high point sign seems to be a target for shooting practice.

Path to Baughman Rocks	Baughman Rocks plaque
Sitting area at Baughman Rocks	The rocks!

Jimmy + Mt Davis sign

Bang bang

We continued a bit further, turned down what looked like an access road, and found a parking lot.  There were a bunch of hiking trails that we opted not to test, as it nearly 100°F, and we were melting.  We did climb to the top of the observation tower, and admired the large relief map and the beautiful surroundings.  The plaque at the top of the tower even went so far as to explain the optical illusion of other mountains looking higher than the highpoint, when viewed from the tower.  I was particularly fond of one tree that we saw towering over the rest of the scenery.

The Mt Davis lookout tower	Relief map and description
Highest tree in PA?	My favorite tree again!

According to the DCNR brochure:

"Mt. Davis was named after John Nelson Davis, an early settler and former owner of the site.  He was a Civil War veteran, land surveyor, and naturalist.  It is said that he could readily identify all the wildlife and wild plants in the region, and was familiar with the various rock formations. 

This area is unique in that the central feature is a rock, 3,213 feet above sea level.  This rock is the highest point in Pennsylvania. ..."

Mt. Davis is beautiful, and I'd definitely like to visit again this spring and check out some of the hiking trails!

Maps and Links
All state high points can be found on a map here, and further information on state high and low points can be found listed here.  Of course I need my own map to track my visits, so here is my map of state high points.  I promise I'll keep it updated. :)

View US High Points in a larger map

For more information on Mt Davis:

• Wikipedia - Mt Davis 
• DCNR Brochure