Latvia’s Prison Hotel:
“I can’t say I’d recommend the food, the service, the accommodation or the location, but for a sobering and memorable experience, a night at Liepaja prison is hard to beat. And at just £7 a night, it’s better value than many youth hostels I’ve stayed in.”
- “Handcuffs are included in the room rate, sir” (The Observer)

Mongolia:
“Later in the trip, we encountered Alix, happily drinking beer with her friends, her arm slung in a scarf. At Moron Hospital, the doctors took one look and pulled her dislocated elbow back into working order in one sudden, excruciating snap. Then they sent her along to the dispensary for a painkiller – and she was duly issued with a bottle of vodka.”
- “In the steppes of Ghengis Khan” (SMH)

Mexico City:
“At 2 a.m. on a Saturday at Hotel Virreyes, an 1940’s hotel that is now one of the youth hostels where artists can rent rooms for $200 a month, it was like an art school dorm party but without the art school.”
- “Art on the Edge in Mexico City” (NYT)

Brussels:
“Belgium reportedly has 200 breweries making some 900 varieties of beer—each poured into logo-bearing glasses of different sizes and shapes. Supposedly, this brings out the quintessential taste of every beer; more likely, it’s all about marketing.”
- “Who says Brussels is boring?” (SF Chronicle)

Word of the Weekend:
smultronställe – n. [Swedish] a favorite place, a spot of personal magic or, literally, “a patch of wild strawberries.”
- “Gather ye wild strawberries while (and where) ye may” (SF Chronicle)