Around the World Kickoff

Leg one of the 2007 around the world journey has been a success. Just 11 hours from SFO to Frankfurt, a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, and then another 4 hours into Cairo produced an uneventful day. Winner for the most comfortable seats of all time (for economy class) goes to the first flight aboard Luftansa. My knees were numb with pain by the end of it, but my back felt great.
I ran into a few interesting people along the way. Pop Quiz - What nationality comprises 90% of the people who decide to drink beer at 10 in the morning in Frankfurt? If you said American, then you get a gold star. You get an extra gold star if you also said that 80% of those 90% are active or former military dudes. In between all the talk of guns and crappy desert life, I did discover an excellent new term - "Barley grenade". I think that it shall replace "man soda" as my favorite term for beer.
On the completely different end of the spectrum, I shared a shuttle from the Cairo airport to the hotel with a judge for a three day chef competition going on here in Cairo. He claimed to speak 8 languages, to have lived in 15 different countries, and to be able to fly anywhere for free. He also was wearing a sweet party shirt and had one of those mustaches that's curled up on the ends like the old western movie guys had. I didn't learn any cool terms for beer from him, but maybe we just didn't talk long enough.
Cairo is smoggy and hot as heck.  That's about all to report about the firt part of the trip.

Day 1 of the Grand Voyage: Cross-country San Francisco to Boston

Marc and I manage to leave Los Altos with no fights and a well packed car - with room to spare even! Marc's French flag draped across the backseat and my senegalese one waving in the AC vent up front. We set out on the road at about 7am for about 9 hours of driving to Sisters, Oregon. I slept for probably the first two hours while Marc drove. Not a whole lot of excitement on the first half of this trip. We stopped and ate lunch in a town called Dunsmuir at the river cafe. The first of many burgers to come. Passed through Shasta which was really pretty but we didn't have time to stop and look around. Upon crossing the Oregon border Marc gets a $242 speeding ticket. Woo! off to a good start. As we get off the freeway and are arriving at our destination of Sisters we hear a thumping - we get out of the car to discover a giant screw in our tire. Awesome - fortunately we're a block away from a tire repair shop, and within spitting distance of marc's family's house. We arrive at the home of the Reed's and are greeted with tasty gin and tonic's (Marc has family that drinks!) and step outside to greet the llamas. Afterwards we head down to the nearest restaurant for some fish tacos and Twilight beer - from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend. While I don't have the refined beer palate that Dave does, I would say it rated tasty!

Drinking Beer in Rome

Though Italy is not exactly a beer drinking destination, there were definitely some good, or at least interesting, beer options in Rome. Where might you find these beers, you ask?

Well, I was able to locate one good beer store. Named somthing like, "Oasi della Birra - Palombi", it's located in the Testaccio area of Rome. (Piazza Testaccio 38/41 - Roma - Tel: 06/5746122). It's hours are roughly: 8-13:30, 17-19:30 for the store, and 19:30-1:00 for the pub. That's right, in addition to being an "enoteca" (wine bar & shop) it also becomes a pub in the evening, featuring probably the widest available beer selection in the country (about 500, though they were out of many when I was there). The pub is downstairs and is rather cozy and crowded.

I had planned on visiting a few other potential beer establishments, but they either didn't exist, or the addresses I grabbed off of the web were wrong. I however, didn't really miss them as decent Belgian beer, especially Hoegaarden, was actually quite common in the little wine shops around the city.

One place that we stumbled upon that was a pleasant surprise was L'Antica Birreria Peroni on Via di San Marcello, 19 (00187 Roma - 06 6795310). The Peroni is really fresh, they serve it in glasses up to 1 Liter in size, and they have an assortment of styles. They also serve what looks like good sausage and other light food. If you've ever had Peroni, and wished it was something different, definitely check this place out.

I didn't try as many beers as I hoped to try, but when you have great wine options and other things to satiate the taste buds it is difficult to seek out beer. So here is a list of the beers that I sampled while in Rome (for a larger list of beers that I have sampled, check out this):

• Grafite - Birra Integrale Scura - porter-like possibly a stout, though much lighter. Good roasted flavor, almost coffee-like
• La Tabachera - ambrata doppio malto - Amarcord Birra Artigianale - decent amber ale
• La Tabachera - rosso doppio malto - Amarcord Birra Artigianale - red ale that needed more hops
  
• La Biere du Demon - 12% - Actually a French beer - very alcoholic almost wine like , no hops, very thin body
• Devil's Kiss - red ale, slight hops (more than most beers here)
• Floreffe - biere de Abbaye double - good solid Belgian double, rather malty
• G. Menabrea a Figli - This amber beer was very inconsistent in the bottle. The first I had was not that good, but the second was much better.
  

One last note, I found a brewpub, but it wasn't open during the day that I was there. It was a 20 minute subway ride from the Pyramide Station down to the coast. Named Birrificio B.O.A. (Birrificio Ostiense Artigianale) it is at Pzza. Dei Ravennati, 1, 00121 OSTIA LIDO (Roma), Tel: 06.5640138. It looks like a very US-styled brewpub with several beers and lots of food. It's right next to the beach and attached to an hotel and about a 5 minute walk from the central subway station in Ostia Lido. If I'm ever back in Rome, I'll check it out when it's open.